JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

iletzki, israel Ḥayyim
served as principal of the Temple Beth-El and Emanuel religious
school and wrote several textbooks for Jewish children.
Among her published works are Jewish Post-Biblical History
Through Great Personalities (1918); Bible Story in Bible Words
(6 vols., 1924–30); Out of the House of Bondage (1925); Imaginative
Writing: A Course in College Composition (1927); and
Hidden Books: Selections from the Apocrypha for the General
Reader (1956).
The Dean Adele Bildersee Scholarship provides full or
partial tuition to an outstanding student for graduate study
at Brooklyn College.
BILETZKI, ISRAEL ḤAYYIM (1914–1992), Yiddish poet
and Hebrew essayist. Born in Kobrin, Biletzki immigrated
to Palestine in 1934, and published extensively in Yiddish before
and after the founding of the State of Israel. From his first
book of Yiddish verse Umru (“Anxiety,” 1937) to his 15th lyric
volume Shures Tsvantsik (1982), he displayed impeccable artistry
in simple rhymed quatrains as well as in sophisticated
free rhythms. While he published books in Yiddish about Itzik
*Manger (1976) and Uri Zevi *Greenberg, most of his studies
about individual Yiddish writers (e.g., H. *Leivick, *Bashevis
Singer (English translation 1995), A. *Sutzkever) and various
periods of the Yiddish literature were written in Hebrew.
Bibliography: LNYL, 1 (1956), 292; M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon
(1958), 85–86; Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 229. Add. Bibliography:
I. Yanasovitch, in: Di Goldene Keyt, 83 (1974), 185–91; B.
Kagan, Leksikon (1986), 83.
[Sol Liptzin]
BILGORAJ, small town in Lublin province, Poland. A Jewish
community had been established there by the second half of
the 17th century. Many of the Jews perished during the massacres
of 1648–49. In 1765 Jewish poll-tax payers in Bilgoraj and
the vicinity numbered 661. The Russian prohibition on Jewish
settlement of the western border area (see *Russia) halted the
growth of the community until the restriction was rescinded
in 1862. The Jewish population numbered 1,637 in 1841; 3,486
in 1897; 3,715 in 1921, and 4,596 in 1931. In interbellum Poland
many Jews were employed in the horsehair-weaving industry.
The brothers I.J. *Singer and I. Bashevis *Singer, Yiddish
writers, were born in Bilgoraj. A Hebrew printing press was
established there in 1909 and continued to publish numerous
Hebrew and Yiddish books until the Holocaust.
Holocaust Period
It is estimated that over 5,000 Jews lived in Bilgoraj before
the outbreak of World War II, constituting more than half the
town’s population. On Sept. 11, 1939, almost the whole Jewish
quarter was set on fire in a heavy bombardment by the German
air force. A few days later German troops entered the
town and immediately organized anti-Jewish pogroms. On
September 29 the German army withdrew, but the occupying
Soviet army had to cede the town to the Germans a week
later. About 20% of the town’s Jewish population left for the
Soviet Union together with the retreating Soviet troops. On
June 25, 1940, a ghetto was established. In the course of 1941
and 1942 a number of deportations took place; on Nov. 2, 1942
almost all the remaining Jewish population was deported to
*Belzec death camp. On Jan. 15, 1943, the last 27 survivors
who had remained in hiding were shot. A group of young
men organized a small partisan unit which operated in the
surrounding forests. The Jewish community was not reestablished
after the war.
[Stefan Krakowski]
Bibliography: T. Brustin-Bernstein, in: Bleter far Geshikhte,
3 no. 1–2 (1950), 65–76, table 3; Khurbn Bilgoraj (1957).
BILHAH (Heb. הָהְלִ ּב), servant girl presented to *Rachel by her
father (Gen. 29:29). Bilhah was given by Rachel to her husband
Jacob as a concubine (see *Nuzi). Bilhah bore two children
by him, *Dan and *Naphtali (30:1–8). Reuben cohabited with
her while his father was still alive, apparently by way of asserting
his right of primogeniture (35:22). This offense is given as
the reason for the loss of birthright by Reuben (Gen. 49:3–4;
I Chron. 5:1). The meaning of the name is uncertain. It may
be derived from the Arabic root balaha which means “to be
confused” or “lacking in understanding” (cf. Heb. bhl), perhaps
having some symbolic connotation relative to the status
of the tribes descended from this concubine (see also: *Matriarchs,
*Patriarchs, The Twelve *Tribes).
[Encyclopaedia Hebraica]
In the Aggadah
The aggadah indicates Bilhah’s righteousness by the statement
that, after the death of Rachel and Leah, the Shekhinah (which
had been continuously present in their households) passed to
Bilhah (Zohar 1:175b). After the death of Rachel, Jacob moved
Bilhah’s bed into his chamber. Bilhah is identified as the “messenger”
(Gen. 50:16) sent by the brothers to Joseph, to inform
him of his father’s will (Tanḥ. B. 3:18).
Bibliography: C.H. Gordon, in: RB, 44 (1935), 35–36; Noth,
Personennamen, 10; S. Yeivin, Meḥkarim be-Toledot Yisrael ve-Arẓo
(1960), 149–50.
BILL-BELOTSERKOVSKI, VLADIMIR NAUMOVICH
(1885–1966), Soviet Russian playwright. Born to a poor, Yiddish-speaking
family in Ukraine, Bill-Belotserkovski received
little traditional Jewish education. At the age of 16, he ran away
to sea and spent the years from 1911 to 1916 in the United States
(hence the nickname “Bill,” which he eventually adopted as
part of his name). After his return to Russia in 1917, Bill-Belotserkovski
fought in the Civil War and was one of the founders
of the Communist propaganda theater as well as the author
of some of the best-known plays in its repertory. These plays,
called agitki, were primitive one-act dramas designed to rally
audiences to the Communist cause; their artistic value was
slight. Bill-Belotserkovski’s best play, Shtorm (“The Storm,”
1925), dealt with the Civil War. Its effectiveness was enhanced
by its documentary, matter-of-fact style and coarse humor. In
later years the playwright tried to tackle social and moral top-
698 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3