JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

well as the economic crisis in Palestine, thwarted this ambitious
program. While many members of Blau-Weiss settled
in Palestine, some of them prior to the Prunn conference, no
specific Blau-Weiss settlement or enterprise materialized. The
movement dissolved in Germany in 1929, retaining only the
Praktikantenschaft, i.e., small hakhsharah groups. After the
disintegration of the Blau-Weiss most of its remaining members
joined the *Kadimah group.
Blau-Weiss also existed in Austria, where it flourished
for a time. The Czechoslovak branch of the movement, which
from 1919 called itself by the Hebrew equivalent, Tekhelet-
Lavan, continued as a pioneering organization into the 1930s.
The main impact of “the Blau-Weiss experience” was felt in
Germany in the early 1920s among Jewish boys and girls of assimilated
and semi-assimilated families. Alienated from their
affluent parents and excluded from the “Aryanized” youth
movements, these young people found their way back to the
Jewish people and to Zionism.
Bibliography: H. Maier-Cronemeyer, in: Germania Judaica
(Cologne), 8 (1969), 18–40, 59–64, 67–71; H. Tramer, in: BLBI, 5
(1962), 23–43; W. Laqueur, in: YLBI, 6 (1961), 193–205; W. Preuss,
Ha-Ma’agal Nisgar (1968); M. Calvary, Das neue Judentum (1936),
75–87; F. Pollack (ed.), 50 Jahre Blau Weiss (1962); Bergmann, in: G.
Hanokh (ed.), Darkhei ha-No’ar (1937), 155–62. Add. Bibliography:
J. Hackeschmidt, Von Kurt Blumenfeld zu Norbert Elias (1997),
179–262; G.R. Sharfman, in: Forging Modern Jewish Identities (2003),
198–228.
BLAYER, PIETRO (1902–1978), Italian industrialist and
Jewish communal leader. Born in Fiume, Blayer graduated
in economics at the University of Trieste, and embarked on
a banking career. In 1938, however, after the fascist racial
laws, he entered his family’s printing plant, and toward
the end of World War II escaped through the German lines
and settled in Rome. Following nationalization of his family
properties by the Yugoslavian government, which had
annexed his native Istria region, he started a new advanced
graphic-printing plant in Rome. In 1961 he was elected to the
council of the Unione delle Comunità Israelitiche Italiane,
where he directed the Finances and Properties Department
for several years, displaying outstanding qualities as administrator.
In 1972 he was elected vice president of the U.C.I.I.
and in 1976, following the death of S. *Piperno-Beer, was appointed
president.
[Sergio Della Pergola (2nd ed.)]
BLAZKO, MARTIN (1920– ), Argentine sculptor. Born
in Germany, Blazko emigrated to Poland in 1933 and studied
under Jankel Adler. Six years later, he settled in the Argentine
where he helped to found the Madi group. Blazko’s
sculptures, intellectually ordered though lacking sensuality,
do not require effects of light for vivid presentation. The light
values emanate from the planes and the hollows. Blazko consistently
based his work on the relationship between plastic
form and structure. He received many awards both national
and international.
bleek, friedrich
BLECH, LEO (1871–1958), German opera conductor and
composer. Born in Aachen, Blech studied with the composer
Humperdinck. He was conductor at the Aachen Stadttheater
from 1893 to 1898. In 1906 he was appointed choirmaster of
the Berlin Royal Opera (State Opera from 1918) and from 1913
to 1923 was its general musical director. In 1924 he became
first conductor of the Berlin Folk Opera. Blech returned to
the Berlin State Opera in 1926 and remained its conductor
until 1937, when the Nazis forced him to resign. He left Germany
for Latvia and in 1941 fled to Sweden, where he became
conductor of the Stockholm Royal Opera. He returned to
Germany in 1949 and once again conducted the Berlin State
Opera. Blech composed a number of one-act and three-act
operas, the latter including Aschenbroedel (“Cinderella”, 1905)
and Rappelkopf (1917).
Bibliography: MGG; Grove, Dict; Baker, Biog Dict; Riemann-Gurlitt.
BLECHER, MARCEL (1909–1938), Romanian author.
Blecher was born in Botoşani, but spent most of his life in
the town of Roman. He was something of a phenomenon in
Romanian literature. Afflicted with tuberculosis of the bone
he was bedridden for the last ten years of his short life. His
illness led to a heightened sensitivity and an obsession with
death which contributed to the artistry of his writing. Blecher’s
work appeared in various periodicals before he published
his first collection of poems, Corp transparent, in 1934. His
first novel, Intîmplǎri in irealitatea imediatǎ (“Incidents in
the Immediate Unreality,” 1935), was one of the first attempts
at surrealism in Romanian literature. Despite his remoteness
from reality Blecher drew some remarkable portraits of a middle-class
Jewish family in a provincial town and some lively
scenes of Jewish customs. In his autobiographical novel Inimi
cicatrizate (“Scarred Souls,” 1937) Blecher described life in the
sanatorium at Berck-sur-Mer in France where he spent a long
time encased in a plaster cast. In his book he examined with
deep psychological insight not only his own spiritual experiences
but those of his fellow patients. A Yiddish version of
“Scarred Souls” appeared in Romania and two editions of the
original were published in Israel. At the suggestion of André
Gide, Blecher began translating the novel into French, but died
before he could complete the task. Among his unpublished
works, he left the manuscript of a novel on a Jewish theme
entitled Vizuina luminoasǎ (“The Bright Vision”).
Bibliography: G. Cṭlinescu, Istoria Literaturii Romîne dela
origini pînǎ ínprezent (1941), 880, 928; C. Baltazar, Scriitor şi Om
(1946), 29–34; Crohmǎlniceanu, in: Preuves, no. 202 (Dec. 1967),
36–38; Litani, in: Al ha-Mishmar (Sept. 20, 1964); Panǎ, in: Revista
Cultului Mozaic (March 1, 1968).
[Dora Litani-Littman]
°BLEEK, FRIEDRICH (1793–1859), German Bible critic;
professor of theology at Bonn from 1829 to 1859. Bleek maintained
that the basic document of the Pentateuch is the Elohist
(the E document) which has been supplemented by sections
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 747