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ickel, solomon
BICKEL, SOLOMON (Shloyme; 1896–1969), Yiddish essayist
and literary critic. Born in eastern Galicia, Bickel was an
officer in the Austrian army during World War I. As an active
Labor Zionist, he was editor of Di Frayhayt (1920–22), the
Yiddish organ of the Po’alei Zion of Bukovina, and later editor
and co-editor of Yiddish literary periodicals in Romania. Immigrating
to the United States in 1939, he served, from 1940,
as literary critic of the New York Yiddish daily, Der Tog and in
the 1960s as head of *YIVO’s Commission on Research.
Among his ten books, which appeared between 1936 and
1967, the following are the most significant: A Shtot Mit Yidn
(“A City with Jews,” 1943, 1960), a survey of the vanished culture
of Kolomyya – written with mild irony, deep sympathy,
and tolerant understanding – which highlights acts of moral
greatness and poetic, joyous moments in the lives of ordinary
Jews; Dray Brider Zaynen Mir Geven (“We Were Three Brothers,”
1956), further recollections of Kolomyya’s Jews; Remenye
(“Romania,” 1961), which chronicled developments of Jewish
cultural life in Romania between the two world wars, intimately
experienced by the author; Shrayber fun Mayn Dor
(“Writers of My Generation,” 2 vols., 1958–65), essays on Yiddish
writers.
Bickel was one of the foremost literary critics and essayists,
writing significant works on such writers as Isaac *Bashevis
Singer, Itzik *Manger, Avrom *Sutzkever, the *Inzikhist
movement, and editing a memorial volume for fellow literary
critic Shmuel *Niger. He set each writer in his specific environment,
defining his uniqueness at the same time. A jubilee
volume, Shloyme Bikel Yoyvl-Bukh (1967) summarized and
evaluated his role in Yiddish literature, including numerous
poetic and prose tributes to him.
Bibliography: LNYL, 1 (1956), 300–2; J. Glatstein, In Tokh
Genumen (1956), 473–9; A. Glanz-Leyeles, Velt un Vort (1958), 233–40;
S.D. Singer, Dikhter un Prozaiker (1959), 303–12; D. Sadan, in: Avnei
Miftan (1962), 279–84; S. Liptzin, Maturing of Yiddish Literature
(1970), 230–2. Add. Bibliography: E. Shulman, in: YIVO Bleter,
43 (1966), 309–12.
[Sol Liptzin]
BICKELS-SPITZER, ZVI (1887–1917), Yiddish dramatist
and literary critic. Born in Lemberg (now Lvov), after finishing
school, he studied law there and in Vienna and became
a practicing attorney. He sympathized with Zionist ideas but
was also an active supporter of and participant in the young
Yiddish literary movement in Galicia. In 1910, he co-edited
the first modern Yiddish literary collection of the Galician
region, Yung-Galitsisher Almanakh and in the period 1915–17
edited Tagblat (Lemberg). He also wrote dramas, most notably
Der Goyel (“The Savior”). His selected writings were
posthumously published in Hebrew translation, edited by
Dov Sadan (1948).
Bibliography: LNYL, 1 (1956), 302; Sefer Ẓevi Bickels-Spitzer
(1948); Neugroeschel, in: Fun Noentn Over, 1 (1955), 355–62; D. Sadan,
in: Avnei Miftan, 2 (1970), 278–303.
[Melech Ravitch]
BICKERMAN, ELIAS JOSEPH (1897–1981), historian. Bickerman
was born in Kishinev, Russia, and studied at the University
of Petrograd (Leningrad). In 1918 he escaped to Germany,
studied at the University of Berlin until 1926, and taught
there from 1929 until 1932, when he emigrated to France. He
was chargé de cours in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
from 1933 to 1940 and in the Centre National de Recherche
Scientifique from 1937 on. After the German conquest of
France he again escaped, this time to the United States. There
he taught at the New School for Social Research and the Ecole
Libre in New York (1942–46), was research fellow at the Jewish
Theological Seminary (1946–50), taught at the University
of Judaism in Los Angeles (1950–52), and was professor of
ancient history at Columbia University (1952–67). After his
retirement from Columbia he taught at the Jewish Theological
Seminary.
Bickerman wrote innumerable articles in scholarly journals
in many fields of ancient history, notably law, religion
(especially Judaism), epigraphy, chronology, and the political
history of the Hellenistic world. Outstanding among his many
books are Der Gott der Makkabaeer (1937); The Maccabees
(1947; also as part 2 of his From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees,
1962), which revolutionized the historical understanding
of the Maccabean revolt; Institutions des Séleucides (1938); and
Chronology of the Ancient World (1968) – the last two being the
fundamental works on their respective subjects. He also wrote
The Ancient History of Western Civilization (1976); Studies in
Jewish and Christian History, vol. 3 (published in 1986); and
The Jews in the Greek Age (published in 1988).
Add. Bibliography: A. Momigliano, Essays on Modern and
Ancient Judaism (1994).
[Morton Smith]
BIDACHE, village in the department of the Basses-Pyrénées,
S. France. A Jewish community composed of Marrano refugees
from Spain and Portugal was established there from the
beginning of the 17th century. The duke of Gramont granted
his protection to the Jews of Bidache in statutes of 1665 and
1668. When at the beginning of the 18th century the Auch district
authority wished to conduct a general tax assessment on
the Portuguese Jews in the area, the duke of Gramont intervened
on behalf of the Jews in Bidache, including those not
of Portuguese origin, who “enjoyed the privilege of nonassessment.”
The Jewish community dispersed after the French
Revolution and was never reestablished. The former cemetery
lies on the Port Road outside Bidache and contains tombstones
often with epitaphs in both Hebrew and Portuguese.
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 114; J. Labrit, Les Gramont,
souverains de Bidache (1939), 97–99.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
BIDNEY, DAVID (1908–1987), U.S. anthropologist and philosopher.
Born in the Ukraine, Bidney was educated in Canada.
He taught philosophy at Toronto, Yeshiva, and Yale uni-
686 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3