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Posen, resigned when Posen was reincorporated in Poland.
Baerwald was vice president of the assembly of representatives
of the Jewish community of Bromberg.
Bibliography: Handbuch der Verfassunggebenden deutschen
Nationalversammlung (1919).
[Ernest Hamburger]
BAERWALD, PAUL (1871–1961), banker and philanthropist.
Baerwald, born in Frankfurt, was the scion of a family
of German bankers. He began his career with a banking firm
in Frankfurt. In 1896 he immigrated to the U.S. and in 1907
became a partner in Lazard Frères of New York City. In subsequent
years Baerwald held directorships in a number of
corporations. Baerwald’s Jewish communal work began in
1917 when he was asked to become associate treasurer of the
*American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) by his
close friend, Felix M. *Warburg. He became treasurer (1920)
and later chairman (1932). Baerwald’s chairmanship of the
JDC coincided with the Nazi period. During that time the
JDC aided most of the European Jews who found haven in
overseas countries. In 1938 Baerwald joined President Roosevelt’s
Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, which tried
to find means to aid Nazi victims. He supervised the rescue
work of the JDC during World War II and, risking its credit,
sent money to Europe which had to be borrowed from New
York banks. A high percentage of the President’s War Refugee
Board funds (1944–45) came from the JDC under Baerwald’s
direction. This financial policy was carried on in the postwar
years when the JDC aided more than 500,000 refugees to reach
Israel. In 1957 the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
the *Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Israel
Ministry of Social Welfare founded the Paul Baerwald School
of Social Work at the Hebrew University.
[Yehuda Bauer]
°BAETHGEN, FRIEDRICH WILHELM ADOLPH (1849–
1905), German Bible critic and Semitic scholar, son of a Lutheran
pastor in Lachem. After Baethgen completed his studies
at Goettingen and Kiel, he was appointed lecturer in biblical
studies at Kiel in 1878, and six years later became assistant professor
of theology there. During this period he did pioneering
work in the fields of biblical Hebrew poetry, Syriac grammar,
and Peshitta on Psalms (Die Psalmen, 18972, 19043). In 1888,
the year in which his Beitraege zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte
first appeared, he went to Halle as assistant professor
of theology. In the following year he became professor of theology
at Greifswald, where he was also an influential member
of the Pomeranian consistory. From 1895 until his death he
was professor of theology in Berlin.
BAEYER, ADOLF VON (1835–1917), German organic chemist
and Nobel Prize winner. Baeyer was born in Berlin. His
mother was the daughter of J.E. *Hitzig, literature historian
and authority on criminal law and his father, Johann Jacob
baghdad
Baeyer, a non-Jewish scientist. Adolf Baeyer made his first
chemical discovery – a double carbonate of copper and sodium
– when he was 12. He went to Heidelberg, where he came
under the influence of his lifelong friend, August Kekulé, the
German chemist, with whom he went to Ghent in 1858. In
1860 he returned to Berlin and was appointed professor of
organic chemistry at the Gewerbeinstitut (later the Charlottenburg
Technische Hochschule). There he worked on the
study of uric acid, and began 20 years of research on indigo.
This was the basis of synthetic indigo, which eventually completely
displaced the natural product, and was the foundation
of the German dyestuffs industry. His work on alizarin
also led to alizarin dyes, driving the natural pigment off the
market. His field then extended into physiological chemistry.
In 1872 Baeyer became professor at Strasbourg and in 1875 in
Munich, where he continued to teach and experiment until
he was 80. His work covered many fields, including acetylenic
compounds, strain within chemical molecules, the structure
of benzene, the constitution of terpenes, oxygen compounds
with quadrivalent oxygen, carbonium compounds, and the relationship
between color and chemical constitution. His many
papers in chemical journals helped to lay the foundations for
the new science of organic chemistry. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1905 for “the advancement of organic chemistry
and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes
and hydroaromatic compounds.” His numerous other awards
included the Davy Medal of the British Royal Society in 1881
and a German patent of nobility in 1885.
Bibliography: K. Schmorl, Adolf von Baeyer, 1835–1917 (Ger.
1952), incl. bibl.; T. Levitan, The Laureates (1960), 27–29; Henrich, in:
American Chemical Society, Journal of Chemical Education, 7 (1930),
1231–48; Perkin, in: Chemical Society (London), Journal of the Chemical
Society, 123 (1923), 1520–46; G. Bugge, Buch der grossen Chemiker,
2 (1930), 321–35, index.
[Samuel Aaron Miller]
BAGHDAD, capital city of *Iraq. Baghdad was the capital of
the *Abbasid dynasty from its foundation in 762. From then a
Jewish community existed there which eventually became the
largest Jewish community of Iraq, and the seat of the exilarch.
During the gaonic period the Jews lived in a special quarter,
Dār al-Yahūd (Jewish Quarter). The bridge in the western section
of the town, which led to the Karkh quarter, was named
Qanṭarat al-Yahūd (Bridge of the Jews). A tomb situated in
this quarter was until recently the site of prayer gatherings.
The local Jews believed it to be the tomb of Joshua son of Jehozadak,
the high priest. By the end of the ninth century the
famous yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita were established in
Baghdad. The Karaites also played an important part in the
life of the city.
Early and Early Modern History
During the tenth century there were two distinguished Jewish
families in Baghdad, *Netira and Aaron. They were both
influential in the royal court and they showed concern for the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 55