JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

state, akin to the first Austrian republic, expels all Jews for
economic and antisemitic reasons; as a result it breaks down
completely and decides to call its Jewish population back. The
novel, as well as the film version by Hans Karl Breslauer (1924),
aroused controversy in Vienna and Berlin. In 1924 Bettauer
founded the periodical Er und Sie: Wochenschrift fuer Erotik
und Lebenskultur (later Bettauers Wochenschrift), advocating
sex education, abortion, and homosexuality, but also calling
attention to unemployment and poverty. His views made him
the focus of attacks from right-wing newspapers. In March
1925 he was murdered in his office by the National-Socialist
Otto Rothstock.
Bibliography: M.G. Hall, Der Fall Bettauer (1978); F. Krobb,
“Vienna Goes to Pot without Jews: Hugo Bettauer’s Novel Die Stadt
ohne Juden,” in: The Jewish Quarterly 42 (1994), 17–20. Add. Bibliography:
Die Stadt ohne Juden, ed. G. Geser and A. Loacker
(2000).
[Mirjam Triendl (2nd ed.)]
BETTELHEIM, family originating from Pozsony (*Bratislava,
Pressburg), formerly in Hungary. According to tradition, one
of its forebears frustrated a plot by the count of Bethlen to abduct
his wife, and for this feat was called “Bethlen-Jude,” which
later became Bettelheim. The first noted member of the family,
LOEB BETTELHEIM, served as dayyan in Pozsony in 1709.
LIPOT LEOPOLD (MEYER LEB) BETTELHEIM (1777–1838)
was physician to the count in Galgoc (now Hlohovec) and a
noted Hebraist. MOSES BETTELHEIM (beginning of the 19th
century) was head of the Jewish community in Pozsony. His
son, FüLöP (RAPHAEL), represented the Orthodox Jews in
Pozsony at the assembly of Jewish delegates held in Pest in
1868. Samuel *Bettelheim was a journalist and editor. Prominent
members of the family outside Hungary include Albert
(Aaron) Siegfried *Bettelheim, rabbi, publicist, and physician.
KARL BETTELHEIM (1840–1895), also a physician, became
head of a Vienna clinic and the editor of Medizinisch-Chirurgische
Rundschau (1870–78).
Bibliography: EẓD, 1 (1958), 272–4; S. Federbush, Ḥokhmat
Yisrael be-Ma’arav Eiropah, 2 (1963), 371–2.
[Jeno Zsoldos]
BETTELHEIM, ALBERT (Aaron) SIEGFRIED (1830–
1890), U.S. rabbi. Bettelheim was born in Galgoc, Hungary.
He served as correspondent on Jewish affairs for several periodicals,
director of a network of Jewish schools, editor of a
political weekly Elöre (“Forward”), and rabbi of a small congregation.
Bettelheim’s progressive political views brought him
into trouble with the government, and he emigrated to America
in 1867. He served as rabbi in Philadelphia, and on the faculty
of the short-lived Maimonides College. He also acquired
a medical degree. In 1875 Bettelheim accepted a pulpit in San
Francisco. There he organized a society for Hebrew study for
Christian clergymen, and was active in civic affairs, especially
prison reform. He coedited a weekly, the Jewish Times and
Observer, which represented the traditionalists’ views. In 1887
bettelheim, bruno
he returned East to a pulpit in Baltimore. A foundation to aid
needy scholars in Vienna was established in his memory by
his daughter Rebekah, wife of Alexander *Kohut. Bettelheim
left no complete scholarly work but he wrote many articles on
art, medicine, and other subjects and some of his notes and
suggestions were incorporated into Kohut’s Arukh. His son,
FéLIX ALBERT BETTELHEIM (1861–1890), a physician, also
moved to the United States and initiated the establishment
of the first hospital in Panama, serving as head physician between
1883 and 1889.
Bibliography: M. Davis, Emergence of Conservative Judaism
(1963), 329–31.
[Jack Reimer]
BETTELHEIM, BRUNO (1903–1990), U.S. psychologist and
educator, best known for his pioneering techniques in the
treatment of emotionally disturbed children and his analysis of
the psychological aspects of racial prejudice. Born in Vienna,
Bettelheim studied at the university there. In 1938 he was sent
to the Dachau concentration camp and then to Buchenwald.
In 1939 he was released and permitted to leave for the United
States. In 1943 he published a highly influential essay on the
psychology of concentration camp prisoners.
Bettelheim worked with the Progressive Education Association
and, for a short period, with Rockford College in
Illinois. He was subsequently appointed principal of the University
of Chicago’s Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a
residential institution devoted to the education and treatment
of children with severe emotional disorders. In that capacity,
he placed special emphasis on the treatment of autism. From
1944 to 1973 he was professor of educational psychology at the
University of Chicago.
In a number of essays and reviews and in a volume entitled
The Informed Heart (1960), Bettelheim, basing himself on
limited documentation, appears as a stern judge of the Jewish
masses who did not revolt against the Nazi terror.
Bettelheim wrote prolifically on the diagnosis and therapy
of emotionally disturbed children. He wrote Dynamics of
Prejudice (1950) in collaboration with Morris Janowitz, which
was regarded as a vital work in its field. His other major publications
included Love Is Not Enough (1950); Truants from Life
(1955); The Empty Fortress (1967); The Children of the Dream
(1969), an analysis of the rearing of kibbutz children; and The
Uses of Enchantment (1976), which looks at fairy tales from a
Freudian perspective.
Suffering from depression most of his life, Bettelheim
committed suicide in 1990 at the age of 86.
During his lifetime Bettelheim was well respected for
his work. However, after his death his credibility began to be
questioned. Not formally trained in analysis, Bettelheim and
his theories, as well as his biographical data, were challenged
in journalist Richard Pollak’s controversial book The Creation
of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim (1998).
Bibliography: J. Robinson, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970);
M.J. Blumenthal, in: Conservative Judaism (Spring 1970), 16–19; D.
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