JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ishop, joey
BISHOP, JOEY (Joseph Gottlieb; 1918– ), U.S. actor and
comedian. Born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in South
Philadelphia, Bishop earned fame as an actor, comedian, talk
show host, and member of the “Rat Pack.” After dropping
out of high school and serving a stint in the U.S. Army during
WWII, Bishop began doing stand-up comedy at clubs in
New York, Cleveland, Miami, and Philadelphia. He adopted
the surname “Bishop” while working with Morris Spector and
Sammy Reisman in the comedy troupe “The Bishop Trio,”
whose members borrowed the name from their chauffeur.
During the 1950s, Bishop’s relationship with Frank Sinatra led
to his inclusion in the “Rat Pack,” in which he played the role
of the straight-man in their stage performances, and wrote
much of the group’s comic material. Sinatra considered Bishop
such an integral part of the “Rat Pack” and its enormous success
that he called Bishop “the hub of the big wheel.” Bishop
co-starred alongside his fellow “Rat Pack” members in Ocean’s
Eleven (1960). He went on to host two versions of The Joey
Bishop Show during the 1960s. Bishop also owns the distinction
of having co-hosted The Tonight Show (starring Johnny
Carson) more times than anyone else, 177. His other notable
screen credits include The Deep Six (1958), The Naked and the
Dead (1958), Texas Across the River (1966), Valley of the Dolls
(1967), and The Delta Force (1986).
[Walter Driver (2nd ed.)]
BISLICHES (Bisseliches), MORDECAI (Marcus) LEIB
(1786–1851), bibliophile and rabbinic scholar. Bisliches left his
native Brody, Galicia, to lead an unsettled life. In 1816 he went
to Paris where he successfully engaged in business. There, in
association with his brother Ephraim, he prepared for publication
Isaac *Abrabanel’s Yeshu’ot Meshiḥo from a manuscript
in the Bibliothèque Nationale (1828). Bisliches returned home,
but soon left again, this time for Holland and England, always
searching for rare books and manuscripts. On a third journey
he went to Italy where he made many discoveries, and
on his return prepared the following works for publication:
Shem Tov b. Joseph *Falaquera’s Sefer ha-Nefesh (1835) and
Moreh ha-Moreh (1837, 19612); Samuel ibn *Tibbon’s Yikkavu
ha-Mayim (1837), with a largely autobiographical introduction;
*Naḥmanides’ novellae to tractate Shabbat under the
title Oẓar Neḥmad (1837); Abba Mari b. Moses (of Lunel)’s
Minḥat Kena’ot and Sefer ha-Yare’aḥ (1838), with a letter concerning
Maimonides’ Guide; and Abraham *Ibn Ezra’s Sefat
Yeter (1838), with an introduction by M. Letteris. In 1846 Bisliches,
in partnership with S.G. Stern, sold 111 manuscripts in
102 volumes to the archduchess Marie Louise of Parma for
8,500 lire; they were added to the *De’Rossi Collection in the
Palatine Library. These manuscripts were basically the collection
of the 18th-century bibliophile and bookdealer Moses Benjamin
*Foà (b. 1729), who was book purveyor to the dukes of
Modena. Bisliches also published Ha-Palit (1850), a catalog of
80 of his rare Hebrew manuscripts prepared by L. Zunz with
annotations by Senior Sachs.
Bibliography: Loevinson, in: RMI, 7 (1933), 477ff.; Y. Colombo,
ibid., 34 (1968), 492.
°BISMARCK, OTTO VON (1815–1898), Prussian statesman
and from 1871 first chancellor of the German Empire. His attitude
to Jews and Judaism was ambivalent. In 1847, when he
was simply a conservative Eastelbian deputy in the Prussian
“Vereinigte Landtag,” he strongly opposed opening senior
governmental positions to Jews. Later he was attacked by antisemites
for “being duped by Jewish financiers” (their main
target being G. von *Bleichroeder), and for passing the laws
of 1869 and 1871 which abolished restrictions based on religious
differences, first in the “Norddeutsche Bund,” later in
the newly founded Deutsche Reich. This legislation, however,
was mainly directed by political expediency, while Bismarck’s
relations with Bleichroeder were financially beneficial to both
men. The Jewish Liberal parliamentarians E. *Lasker and L.
*Bamberger supported Bismarck in the early years, but when
he turned to the Conservatives after 1878 they became his bitter
adversaries.
Although Bismarck regarded the rabidly antisemitic
court preacher Adolph *Stoecker with disdain, he appreciated
Stoecker’s services in opposing socialism. In 1878, during
the Congress of *Berlin, Bismarck generally supported a
policy favorable to the Jews, which resulted in the incorporation
of written guarantees in the peace treaties assuring their
equality in the Balkan states, in particular in *Romania. A petition
(bearing 250,000 signatures) demanding the dismissal
of Jews from all government positions (1881) was ignored by
Bismarck, who was suspicious of all popular manifestations.
However, only apostates were allowed to reach the upper echelons,
while the careers of the few Jews employed by the state
were severely restricted. In 1885–86, Bismarck supported the
expulsion from Prussia of thousands of Russian and Austrian
citizens, including around 9,000 Jews. Bismarck, who was
contemptuous of all things Polish, despised the East European
Jews and adopted the prejudices against Ostjuden current even
among the Jewish community in Germany. He was also suspicious
of the connection between Jewish *Reform in religion
and political radicalism, and had a higher opinion of Jewish
*Orthodoxy. In the early years of his political career, Bismarck
had the support of the vast majority of German Jewry, but he
gradually lost it later, as Jews in Germany increasingly turned
toward radical liberalism. Concerning his own religious attitudes,
Bismarck cultivated strong pietist attitudes, so that he
had a vast knowledge of Old Testament.
Bibliography: O. Joehlinger, Bismarck und die Juden…
(1921); H. Neubach, Die Ausweisungen von Polen und Juden aus Preussen,
1885–86… (1967), index; E. Hamburger, in: YLBI, 9 (1964), 216,
220–2; N.M. Gelber, ibid., 5 (1960), 221–48; D.S. Landes, ibid., 5 (1960),
201–20; Add. Bibliography: F. Stern, Gold and Iron (1978); O.
Pflanze, Bismarck, 2 (1990), 70–85 and 318–320; Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte,
3 (1995), 961–964; A. Hopp, Otto von Bismarck
aus der Sicht des juedischen Buergertums (1999).
[Henry Wasserman / Marcus Pyka (2nd ed.)]
726 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3