JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Bleich, J. David
from an unconnected Yahwist strand. He argued for the unity
of Daniel, and he wrote on the composition of Isaiah, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and the Sibylline Oracles. His most important
work was in the area of New Testament exegesis, where he
was primarily interested in the defense of Christian tradition
against the criticism of the Tuebingen school.
Two of his important works are Einleitung in das Alte
Testament (1860, 18784), and Einleitung in das Neue Testament
(18662).
Bibliography: Kamphausen, in: ADB, 2 (1875), 701–2.
[Zev Garber]
BLEICH, J. DAVID (1941– ), U.S. rabbi and professor; one of
the world’s leading authorities on Jewish medical ethics. Born
in Brooklyn, he studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath (1948–53)
and was ordained by Mesivta Torah Vodaath (1957). He earned
his B.A. at Brooklyn College in Jewish studies (1960); his
M.A. from Columbia in philosophy, and a Ph.D. from New
York University (1974), writing on Providence in Late Medieval
Jewish Philosophy.
Bleich was simultaneously the rosh yeshivah (professor
of Talmud) and rosh kolel at the Kollel le-Hora’ah (Postgraduate
Institute for Jurisprudence and Family Law) of the Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary; professor of law at
the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; and Tenzer Professor
of Jewish Law and Ethics, Yeshiva University, while serving
as rabbi at the Yorkville Synagogue, New York City. Previously
he had taught at the University of Pennsylvania (1991–
93), Hunter College, Rutgers University, and Bar-llan University.
His writing centers on problems of halakhah and on
Jewish medical ethics. His books include Contemporary Halakhic
Problems (5 vols., 1977–83, 1989, 1995, 2005), Be-Netivot
ha-Halakhah (3 vols., 1996, 1998, 2000), Bioethical Dilemmas
(2 vols., 1998), Judaism and Healing (1980, 2002), Time
of Death in Jewish Law (1991), Providence in the Philosophy of
Gersonides (1973), and Bircas Ha-Chammah (1980). He is the
editor of With Perfect Faith: Readings in the Foundations of
Jewish Belief (1983) and, with Fred Rosner, of Jewish Bioethics
(1979, augmented in 1999); and has written extensively on
topics of Jewish law and ethics. His teaching, like his writing,
is clear, methodical, and resourceful, and some of his students
(e.g., Michael Broyde, Michael Berger) are already, like Bleich
himself, among the most learned and analytic students of
Jewish law in the next generation of Orthodox scholars. Bleich
has also served on numerous boards and committees in
all his areas of interest.
[Jeanette Friedman (2nd ed.)]
BLEICHROEDER, German banking family. SAMUEL
BLEICH ROEDER (1779–1855), German banker, the son of a
sexton, opened in his native Berlin a money-changing and
lottery store in 1803 which developed into the banking firm
of S. Bleichroeder. In 1837 the Rothschild banking house of
Frankfurt appointed him their representative in Berlin. The
firm became a member of the Rothschild and the Preussen
consortiums.
His son GERSON VON BLEICHROEDER (1822–1893), was
born in Berlin. He entered the firm at 17, and became its head
upon his father’s death. Under his direction the bank developed
into one of the leading financial houses in Germany,
mainly engaged in issuing, underwriting, and financing railroad
loans. During the 1860s Bleichroeder became financial
adviser and private banker to Bismarck who relied on his advice
and assistance to overcome his difficulties with the Prussian
parliament concerning the financial preparations for
the 1866 war. Bleichroeder also advised Bismarck regarding
the indemnities payable by France after the 1870–71 war. In
1872 Bleichroeder was raised to the nobility. During the Congress
of Berlin (1878), he cooperated closely with Sir Moses
Montefiore and Adolph Crémieux and successfully invoked
Bismarck’s assistance for the protection and emancipation of
the Romanian Jews. But his close connections to Bismarck
and Emperor Wilhelm I could not save him from becoming
one of the main targets of antisemitic (and anticapitalist)
agitation from the mid-1870s until his death; the government
did not take any serious measures to oppose the assaults.
After Bleichroeder’s death, his cousin, JULIUS LEOPOLD
SCHWABACH (d. 1898) and then his son PAUL VON SCHWA-
BACH (d. 1938) continued to run the firm as senior managing
directors for Bleichroeder’s three sons, HANS, GEORG
(d. 1902), and JAMES (d. 1937), who all abandoned the Jewish
faith. In 1931 the bank entered into a “community of interest”
with the Jewish banking firm of Arnhold Brothers and
in 1937 a successor firm was formed in New York under the
name of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, in anticipation of the
“Aryanization” of the Berlin house, which took place in 1938.
The New York house does not include any bearers of the Bleichroeder
name.
Bibliography: D.S. Landes, in: YLBI, 5 (1960), 201–21. Add.
Bibliography: F. Stern, Gold und Eisen (1978); O. Pflanze, Bismarck,
2 (1990), 70–85, 318–20; Reitmeyer, in: A. Gotzmann et al.
(eds.), Juden, Buerger, Deutsche. (2001), 147–70.
[Joachim O. Ronall / Marcus Pyka (2nd ed.)]
BLEJER, DAVID (1913–1997), Argentine lawyer and politician.
Blejer, the son of Jewish colonists in the province of Entre
Ríos, was born in Buenos Aires.
He graduated as a lawyer from the University of La Plata
and settled in Villaguay in the province of Entre Ríos. He became
active in politics and before reaching the age of 30 was
elected as councilor of the city.
He was a legal adviser to the Argentine Agrarian Institute
and lectured on agrarian economics. He joined the
Unión Cívica Radical Party in 1930. In 1956, when the party
divided over internal conflicts, Blejer aligned himself with the
Unión Cívica Radical Intransigente, which was led by Arturo
Frondizi who was elected president of Argentina (1958–62). In
1958 Blejer was appointed undersecretary of the Ministry of
the Interior and in 1959 minister of labor and social security.
748 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3