Bidschow (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Poor. In Hebrew, vowelized, with a German translation and commentary in the Hebrew alphabet. (1), 200 pages. 183 x 123 mm. His Jewish historical writing preceded the birth of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in Germany in the 1820s. Some soiling to leaves, Apparently original binding but very worn. Peter Beer (c. 1758 Novy Bydzov (Neu-Bidschow), Bohemia - 1838 Prague) was an educator, historian, and religious reformer. He was born to a middle-class family, received a traditional Jewish education, attended yeshivas in Prague and Bratislava (Pressburg), but also studied German and Latin with a priest in his hometown. After serving as a private tutor in Hungary, Beer moved to Vienna around 1781 where he was one of the first Jews to attend a teaching seminary, opened to Jews by the Edicts of Toleration of Joseph II. In 1783, Beer began teaching at the newly founded German Jewish Normalschule in Mattersburg (Mattersdorf). After two years, he returned to Novy Bydzov and worked as a teacher at the local Normalschule. In 1787, he married Rebeka Hlawatsch, with whom he had seven children (only one daughter remained Jewish). In 1811 Beer was appointed to a teaching position at the German Jewish school of Prague, where he served until his death. Besides his pedagogical work, Beer contributed to the transformation of Jewish education in the Habsburg monarchy through writing numerous textbooks. His Toldot Yisrael (History of Israel; 1796) was a pioneering work. Beer rearranged the narrative parts of the Hebrew Bible into a coherent story and provided a national Jewish narrative, conveying in his commentary the theological and pedagogical principles of the Haskalah. Beer hoped to introduce his book into the state-controlled German Jewish school system. This attempt failed, however, as Habsburg authorities championed a German textbook modeled on Christian catechisms. Nevertheless, Toldot Yisra'el was exceptionally successful, and was also translated into French (1819), Polish (1862), and Russian (five editions between 1870 and 1905). It was popular in Haskalah schools and became the blueprint for textbooks on biblical history. From the 1820s, Beer dedicated himself to the cause of religious reform. Encouraged by state authorities, he was one of the first proponents of modernization in the Habsburg Empire, disseminating the idea through memoranda and pamphlets. He was active in the Verein zur Verbesserung des Israelitischen Kultus, founded in Prague in the 1830s, which aimed to introduce reforms patterned on the relatively moderate Minhag Vina (Vienna) created by Isaak Noah Mannheimer. Beer was instrumental in establishing the Reform synagogue in Prague (1835) and in a futile attempt to attract Leopold Zunz as a preacher. Yet his writings on the subject demonstrate that for him, Minhag Vina constituted merely a transitional stage; real reform would include the use of an organ and German prayers. Beer strove to improve the status of women in Jewish religious life and wanted them to participate actively in religious ceremonies. His Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion (Prayer Book for Educated Women of the Mosaic Religion; 1815 in Hebrew letters; 1843 and 1845 in German letters) was the first German prayer book for women and considerably influenced the genre. Die mosaischen Schriften (Mosaic Scriptures; 1815), Beer's German commentary on Genesis 1-24, was the first interconfessional Bible commentary written by a Jew. His biography of Maimonides (1832) and a fragmentary German translation of The Guide of the Perplexed (1833) were severely criticized for lack of scholarship. Though he faced harsh criticism from various Jewish circles, Beer helped shape the face of Prague's Jewry during the nineteenth century. His autobiography, Lebensgeschichte (Life Story), was published in 1839.

mit altem Grenzkolorit, um 1830, 26 x 19 (H) Zeigt das nordöstl. Böhmen mit den im Titel genannten Kreisen. Im Westen Prag.