Abraham, Bernard
Abraham
ibn
TIIK
Daud
JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Kanoy, Aliraliam entered the ficole Pol_vt<'cbnique Tlieuce lie at the age of nineteen. Nuv. 1. in4y. went to the Sehool of Applied Seienees at Jletz. from which he was ijradiiated in lfS47, after wliieh he served for seveiiil years at Slrasburg as a lieuHe was promoted to the rank of captain tenant. in iy.")4. and .served in the t'riniea on the stall of Gencnd I.ebienf. After the fall of Seliastopol he received the cross of clicvalii'r of the Legion of Honor, as Captain Bernard MoTse. Having returned to Fniuce he was detailed in !?<•")() for service at theordnanct- foundry Two at Stnisburg. years later he married, and wasotiliged to assume the name of Abraham, under which he was registered in all the civil documents. In IKoil he took part in the
campaign
in
Italy
against Austria. For gome time after the Cfinvention of VilleAbraham franche, remained in Milan, but subse(|Uently reFrance. turned to On the restoration of peace he was assigned to the departBemard AbrHlmm. ment of artillery at Strasl)urg. He went to Paris, was promoted major, anil took part in the Franco-Prussian war of IWTO. He was detailed to the army of the Hhine at Met/, and there, after the battle of Gravelotte. was decorated with the cross of an oflicer of the Legion of Honor. After the war Abraliam was appointed secretary of the connuittee on coast defenses, and became a memljer of the military commission on railways. He advanced in rank rapidly, reaching the grade of lieutenant-colonel in 1874 and that of colonel in 1877. As the latter he commanded the Seventeenth Infantry, for several years, at La Ff-re. He was finally niad<' brigadier-general June 2. 1883, and remained in active service till Jan. 'i, 1886. In 1895 Abraham succeeded Dr. Widal in the Central Consistory of the Israelites of France, and reJ. W. tained the seat for several months.
ABRAHAM BIBAGO BEN SHEM-TOB. Bii'.Aoo r.KN Siir.M Tor., .r.KMM. ABRAHAM OF BOHEMIA: Pn feet of the
Sei-
Jews
of Great and Little Poland at the beginning of In 1512 King Sigismund the si.xtoenth century. I. of Poland issued a decree notifying his subjects in Great Poland and Little Poland that he hail appointed Abraham, a Jew of Bohemia, jirefect over them, and that one of Abraham's duties was to collect all taxes due from them and to deliver the same into the king's treasury ("Acta Tomiciana." iii. No. 252; "MetrikaKoronnaya," 1518-211. book No. iW, p. 118).
Abraham was recommended
to
Sigismund by
the latter's brother, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, and by Emperor JIaximilian of Germany. Both attested his honesty and blameless life. The law courts of Poland had no jurisdiction over Abraham, he being responsible only to the king's own court. Abraham was one of the many Jews who enugrated from I'oliemia to Pi>land, He was also from time to time counselor for some of the Jewish communities of Poland, as is apparent from the king's order to the Jews of Cracow to pay Abraham 200
100
promised liim as a rewanl for a defense "against certain accusations." The Polish Jews were not pleased with their new Hohenuan prelect,
florins,
who had become
.so iiowerful. The king ordereil all the Jews of Poland, and especially the rabbis, to respect the liberties and privileges granted loAbndiam, and not tocneroaeh upon them by excomuuuiieation or in any other way. For thesi' privileges .Vbraham |iaid an annual personal tax of 20 ducats (about $iiOO or §400, nominal).
linii.KxiRArnv: Bersliadskl, [z iKlnril Yrvrri/er v LUviir I I'nlKhin iu Yemi-iliiDia /liWi""(. An. vll. :iO-;i".. SI. I'i-i<tstiiirv. 1ST!!: Iilein. Mutirial}! lAiia Miirii Ycvrcutv i'i'"Wij/c In Vns. s<MiI.. IMtl.
I'll.
lll-l:;i;.
H. H.
ABRAHAM IBN BOLAT See BoI..T, AmiAIlAM ABRAHAM BRODA BEN SAT7L. See Sai BnonA. .r.KuM. ABRAHAM BRXJNSCHWIG. See Bkunsniwic;. Al'.K UAM. ABRAHAM CABRIT. SeeCAimiT.AitiiAiiAM. ABRAHAM DE CASLAR BEN DAVID. See ('a^i.i;i. Aiihauam iikn Dwio ABRAHAM (VITA) DE COLOGNA An ii;n
ni:.
i,.
.Mantua,
and
political leader; born at died at Triest, 1882. While hold-
Italian rabbi, orator,
1755;
ing the post of rabbi of his native city he
was elected a member of the Parliament of the Napoleonic kingdom of Italv. and in 18()() a dejiu'ty to the as.sendily of notable:; in Paris. L'pon the formation of the Sanhedrin in 1807 he was ajipointed vice-chairman, and in 1808 a memberof the French Central Consistory; also later of the AbKitiaiu d'j C'ulugna. Consistory of Turin. Abraham exhibited all the characteristics of men of transition periods: a strong desire for reform, and an indetinili^ cmception of the aims and means necessary to realize that desire. He left a volume of sermons and apologetic essjij's. liiBi.ioURAPnv
Kiilin. .Irc'iirc* Ixrii/litrtt, lS4n, p. 32.
M. B.
ABRAHAM
ANDER)
OF COLOGNE (BEN ALEX-
German rabbi; tlourished about 1240. He was considered the most eminent pupil of Eleazar of Worms. Solomon ben Adret relates ("Teshubot." No. .548) that he saw Abraham when he caini' to
i.
the king of Castile, probably Ferdinand II. (the Saint). On this occasion Abraham assumed the name of Nathan to conceal his identity. Adret also claims to have heard from an old man that Abraham of Cologne preai-hed on Num. vii. 1. in the house of Adret's father before a great many eminent rabbis, and disjilayed much erudition. Abraham was the author of a small book entitled "Keter Shem-Tob" (The Crown of a Good Name), the concluding chapter of which containing an exjilanation id' the Setirot, or Ten Mystical Siihcres is a.serilied in some mantiscripts to Menahem Ashkenazi, another pupil of Eleazar of Worms. Certainly either Abraham of Cologne or Menahem was the lir.st rei!resenlativ(t of German mysticism to show a familiarity with the doctrine of the Sefirot.
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ISnu.iOGRAPnY
jHllini-li.
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Ansii-nlil Kdlihnlixtixrlirr ^^Ul'Hh>
No. 4; Steinwtinvidfr. I'at. r(. r llrhr. Ilmiilsrliriftt ii. Iluyal Library at Munich, Ni«. ll:i", Sll"; idem, }hhr. Uild. vl.
