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lau, ludwig lajos
with a Hebrew translation of the Arabic original, and an additional
volume (1986).
Blau was founding president (1983–99) of the Association
for Medieval Judeo-Arabic, which holds an international
biannual conference.
Blau also contributed to the field of education. Thousands
of high school and college students learned Hebrew grammar
from his series Dikduk Ivri Shittati, Yesodot ha-Taḥbir, and
Yesodot Torat ha-Lashon (2 vols.).
Blau was awarded the Ben-Zvi Prize in 1980; the Wilhelm
Bacher Medal (Hungary) in 1999; the Mark Lidzbarski
Medal in 2000; the Rothschild Prize in 1992; and the Israel
Prize in 1985.
A list of Blau’s publications up to 1991 is to be found
in Hebrew and Arabic Studies in Honour of Joshua Blau,
Presented by Friends and Students on the Occasion of his Seventieth
Birthday (ed. H. Ben-Shammai; 1993), pp. 1–34. Subsequently
he published over 60 articles and three books:
Iyyunim be-Valshanut Ivrit (1996), Topics in Hebrew and Semitic
Linguistics (1998), and A Handbook of Early Middle Arabic
(2003).
Blau’s father, Pinchas (Paul), was one of the founders of
the Hungarian Zionist daily newspaper *Uj Kelet at the end
of World War I.
Bibliography: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem – General
Information (2000), 66; J. Blau, Mi-Transilvani’ah li-Yerushalayim
(2000); Perasei Rotshild li-Shenat 1992, 5; Perasei Yisrael ha-
Tashmah (1985), 8–9.
[Aharon Maman (2nd ed.)]
BLAU, LUDWIG LAJOS (1861–1936), scholar. Blau studied
at yeshivot, the Jewish Theological Seminary of Budapest,
and the University of Budapest. As a student he was invited to
teach at the Seminary where in 1889 he became a full professor.
In 1914 Blau became director of the Seminary. For 40 years he
was the editor of the Hungarian Jewish scholarly journal, Magyar
Zsidó Szemle. In 1911 he founded the Hebrew review Ha-
Ẓofeh le-Ḥokhmat Yisrael be-Ereẓ Hagar, which he edited until
1931. Blau was a prolific Jewish scholar who contributed to
almost every aspect of Jewish learning. He was a regular contributor
to most of the Jewish and non-Jewish scholarly periodicals
dedicated to theology and philology. His bibliography
includes 887 items and in the Zsidó Szemle he reviewed 1,383
books. He was among the first to evaluate the talmudic information
on the Bible and the masorah (Masoretische Untersuchungen,
1891; Zur Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift, 1894). He
also investigated the information contained in traditional literature
on ancient Hebrew booklore (Studien zum althebraeischen
Buchwesen, 1902). His works subsequently gained added
importance in light of interest in old Hebrew scrolls. Blau enriched
general folklore by his book Das altjuedische Zauberwesen
(1898). Equally his Juedische Ehescheidung und der juedische
Scheidebrief (2 vols., 1911–12) broke new ground; with
the discovery of divorce documents among the Bar Kokhba
finds, this work takes on new relevance. Blau was among the
first to make use of Greek papyri for the evaluation of talmudic
law (Papyri und Talmud in gegenseitiger Beleuchtung,
1913; “Prosbul im Lichte der griechischen Papyri und der Rechtsgeschichte,”
in Festschrift der Landesrabbinerschule, 1927).
He also published the letters of Leone *Modena (Leo Modenas
Briefe und Schriftstuecke, 2 vols., 1905–06).
Bibliography: S. Hevesi, in: Ve-Zot li-Yhudah (1926), 1–9; D.
Friedman, in: Jubileumi emlékkönyv Blau Lajos… 65. születésnapja…
alkalmából (1926), 14–90 (bibliography); D.S. Loewinger, Zikhron
Yehudah (1938), 5–45; J. Bakonyi and D. Friedman, ibid., 18–34.
[Alexander Scheiber]
BLAU, MOSHE (1885–1946), *Agudat Israel leader; brother of
Amram *Blau. Blau, who was born in Jerusalem, directed the
Agudat Israel office there from 1924 until his death. He served
as a member of the movement’s world executive and edited
its weekly Kol Yisrael (“Voice of Israel”). From 1933 to 1945 he
headed the independent, ultra-Orthodox Edah Ḥaredit (Orthodox
community). Despite the community’s segregation
policy, he cooperated with yishuv leaders in representing Jewish
interests in dealings with the Mandate government. Blau
represented Agudat Israel before various British and international
commissions which dealt with the Palestine problem.
In 1946, while on a rescue mission to Jewish survivors of the
war, Blau fell ill and died in Messina. He was taken to Jerusalem
for burial. He wrote Ammuda di-Nehora (“Column of
Light,” 1932), a biography of Rabbi Y.Ḥ. *Sonnenfeld, and Al
Ḥomotayikh Yerushalayim (“Upon thy Walls, O Jerusalem,”
1946), autobiographical notes and memoirs.
Bibliography: A. Blau, Shomer ha-Ḥomot (1957); Tidhar,
1 (1947), 175–6.
[Zvi Kaplan]
BLAU, PETER MICHAEL (1918–2002), sociologist. Born in
Vienna, Blau immigrated to the United States. He received his
doctorate in sociology from Columbia University in 1952 and
held professorial appointments at the University of Chicago.
He was a professor of sociology at Columbia University. During
the academic year 1966–67, he was Pitt Professor of American
History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge.
His main interests were the development of group social structure,
formal organizations, and occupations. Considered one
of the founders of contemporary American sociology, Blau
studied macrostructural characteristics of society. His theories
sought to explain how such social phenomena as upward
mobility, occupational opportunity, heterogeneity, and population
structures influence human behavior.
In addition to numerous contributions to professional
journals and books, Blau published a large number of his own
books, which include The Dynamics of Bureaucracy: A Study
of Interpersonal Relations in Two Government Agencies (1955),
Bureaucracy in Modern Society (1956), Formal Organizations:
A Comparative Approach (1962), Exchange and Power in Social
Life (1964), The American Occupational Structure (1967),The
Structure of Organizations (1971), The Organization of Aca-
744 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3