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aiersdorf, samson solomon
first document in which they are mentioned dates from 1473.
In 1632 they numbered 12 families. The synagogue, established
before 1530, was rebuilt in 1651. After persecutions in 1680, the
margrave issued an order in 1695 granting the Jews freedom
of trade. In 1699 a “Jewish pharmacy” was opened in Baiersdorf.
The community increased to 40 families (300 persons)
in 1713 and 83 families in 1771. Baiersdorf was the seat of a
district rabbinate in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Bavarian
restrictions limiting Jewish households (Matrikel-Gesetz) led
many of the younger sons to emigrate to England and America
(for instance, the *Seligman family), and by about 1900
only 12 Jewish families remained. The rabbinate was dissolved
in 1894. The synagogue built in 1711 was destroyed under the
Nazi regime in November 1938; only three Jews remained in
Baiersdorf at the time.
Bibliography: ZGJD, 2 (1888), 95–96; A. Eckstein, Ge schichte
der Juden im Markgrafentum Bayreuth (1907); Baiersdorf, Entwicklungsgeschichte
einer fraenkischen Kleinstadt (1953), 98–105, 143, 179.
Add. Bibliography: Aus der juedischen Geschichte Baiersdorfs
(1992).
[Ze’ev Wilhem Falk]
BAIERSDORF, SAMSON SOLOMON (d. 1712), son of
Judah Selke, court agent of the margrave of Brandenburg-
Bayreuth. Baiersdorf entered the margrave’s service in 1670.
He influenced him to issue a decree in 1695 granting the
Jews in the margravate freedom of trade. In 1698 he bought
real estate from the margrave. Although later involved in
a court intrigue, Baiersdorf managed to retain his position.
He donated the money for the synagogue of *Bayreuth,
consecrated in 1711. Baiersdorf’s daughter married Moses,
the son of *Glueckel of Hameln, who became rabbi of *Baiersdorf
in 1700. His sons, Veit and Solomon, known by the
family name of Samson, and his son-in-law and brother also
became court agents; the latter was permitted to retain an
armed guard.
Bibliography: H. Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und der moderne
Staat, 3 (1955), 222–3; 4 (1963), 33; S. Stern, The Court Jew (1950),
100, 198, 251; Glueckel von Hameln, Memoirs (1932), 204–8, 220f.,
232–5.
BAIGNEUX-LES-JUIFS, village northwest of *Dijon. Jews
settled in the commune at its establishment in the middle of
the 13th century, giving the locality its name. They were expelled
with the other Jews in the duchy of Burgundy in 1306.
The inventory made of their debts and property indicates that
the community was fairly numerous and prosperous. Green
and red wax, parchment, ink, and paint were taken from a
Jew referred to as Rebi or Rabi – most probably the scribe of
the community. The medieval synagogue was located on the
present Rue Vergier-au-Duc.
Bibliography: J. Garnier and E. Champeux, Chartes de
Communes… Bourgogne (1898), 161f.; Gauthier, in: Mémoires de la
société d’émulation du Jura, 3 (1914), 78, 225–32.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
°BAIL, CHARLES-JOSEPH (1777–1827), French soldier,
publicist, and civil servant. Bail was in charge of the administration
of the Bonapartist kingdom of *Westphalia, and thus
had close contacts with the heads of the Jewish *Consistoire
there. After the fall of Napoleon, he continued to defend the
basic principles of the revolution. In this spirit he published a
pamphlet on “The Jews in the 19th Century or Considerations
of their Civil and Political Status in Europe” (Les Juifs au XIXe
siècle… Paris, 1816). He here defended the basic principles of
equality, ascribing the separatist characteristics of the Jews to
their depressed civil and political status. The same year, following
criticism from the Catholic Romantic side, Bail published
a second edition in which he imputed some of the separatist
characteristics of the Jews to their religion and form of society,
although in the main still defending his original thesis. Bail
took part in a competition held by the Académie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres on the history of the Jews in Europe in
the Middle Ages. Although unsuccessful, Bail subsequently
published his work “The Situation of the Jews in France, Spain
and Italy” (Etat des Juifs en France… Paris, 1823).
Bibliography: S. de Sacy, Lettre à MXXX, relativement à
l’ouvrage intitulé: Des Juifs au 19e siècle (Paris, 1817); A.T. d’Esquiron
de St. Agnan, Considérations sur l’existence civile et politique des Israélites
– suivies de quelques idées sur l’ouvrage de M. Bail… et trois
lettres de M. de Cologna, grand rabbin du consistoire Israélite de Paris
(n.d.); Dictionnaire de Bibliographie Française, 4 (1948), S.V.; Nouvelle
Biographie Universelle, 4 (1853), S.V.
[Baruch Mevorah]
BAILYN, BERNARD (1922– ), U.S. historian. Born in Hartford,
Connecticut, Bailyn received a B.A. from Williams College
in 1945 and his M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1953) degrees from
Harvard. Bailyn then joined the faculty of Harvard in 1953 and
became professor of history in 1961. He was editor-in-chief
of the John Harvard Library of American Cultural History
from 1962 until 1970. He also served as coeditor of the journal
Perspectives in American History (1967–77, 1984–86) and
director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American
History (1983–94).
Bailyn became Winthrop Professor of History in 1966, a
position he held until 1981, when he became the first Adams
University Professor. He was also named James Duncan Phillips
Professor of Early American History, emeritus, at Harvard.
He served as a senior fellow in the Society of Fellows
and as director of the International Seminar on the History of
the Atlantic World. In 1993 he received the Thomas Jefferson
Medal and in 1994 the Henry Allen Moe Prize of the American
Philosophical Society. In 1998 he was appointed the Jefferson
Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities and
he delivered the first Millennium Lecture at the White House.
In 2000 he was awarded the Bruce Catton Prize of the Society
of American Historians for lifetime achievement in the writing
of history, and in 2001 he received the Centennial Medal
of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He also
received two Pulitzer Prizes in history (1968 and 1987).
68 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3