Josef Samuel Bloch

Josef Samuel Bloch (born at Dukla, Galicia, November 201850, d.1923) was an Austrian rabbi and deputy.

His parents, who were poor, destined him for the rabbinical career, and he devoted himself to the exclusive study of the "Talmud". He frequented the "yeshibot", especially that of Rabbi Josef Saul Nathanson at Lemberg, who, in his responsa, mentions Bloch, when he was only fifteen years old, as one of his most intelligent pupils. After having finished his studies at the colleges (gymnasia) of Magdeburg and Liegnitz, he went to the University of Munich. Thence he went to the University of Zurich, where he obtained his degree of doctor of philosophy.

He was appointed rabbi in Rendsburg, Holstein,, afterward in Kobylin, Posen, and Brüx, Bohemia; and finally he ended his rabbinical career in Floridsdorf, near Vienna.

Anti-Semitism had at that time (about 1880) grown in Austria. During the Tisza-Eszlár trial, August Rohling, of the Catholic theological faculty of Prague University, made a written offer to substantiate under oath the blood ritual of the Jews. Bloch then came to the front with a series of articles in which he openly accused Rohling of having offered to commit wilful perjury; denouncing him, moreover, as a person utterly ignorant in Talmudic learning. After several successful attempts to delay the proceedings, Rohling preferred to withdraw, thus tacitly acknowledging defeat.

In 1883, Bloch founded a periodical, "Oesterreichische Wochenschrift", with the aim of defending the political rights of the Jews, to refute unjust attacks, and to inspire its readers with courage and faith. Bloch also attended several meetings held by workingmen, and lectured with some success on the Talmudic principles of labor and on the laboring classes in the Old Testament.

After the death in Cracow in 1884, of the chief rabbi Simon Schreiber, who had been deputy for Kolomea in parliament, Bloch was elected as his successor; in 1885 he was re-elected, and after a hard struggle with Dr. Byk, in 1891 he was elected for the third time. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies he withdrew from his rabbinical post in order to devote himself entirely to his public functions and journalism.

In 1893, instigated by Josef Deckert, a pastor in Vienna, a baptized Jew named Paulus Meyer declared in the "Vaterland" of May 11 that a number of Russian rabbis from Lentschna had performed a ritual murder in his presence. In the name of the children of these rabbis, Bloch at once instituted criminal proceedings against Deckert, Meyer, and the publisher of the paper, and on trial, September 15, a conspiracy was unmasked and the three defendants were sentenced to heavy punishment.

Works

When in 1896 Christian socialism had gained a strong footing in parliament, and the government had commenced to recognize the Socialist party, Bloch was sacrificed and everything imaginable was done to prevent his r-eelection. Through the combined efforts of the government, the Christian-Socialist party, and the Polish club (party of Polish deputies), all of whom supported the election of the Jewish burgomaster of Kolomea, Bloch failed of re-election.

He then devoted himself to journalism. Bloch published the following works:

*"Ursprung und Entstehung des Buches Kohelet," Bamberg, 1872
*"Studien zur Geschichte der Sammlung der Alt-Testamentlichen Litteratur," Leipsic, 1875
*"Die Juden in Spanien," Leipsic, 1876
*"Hellenistische Bestandtheile im Biblischen Kanon," 2d ed., Vienna, 1880
*"Quellen und Parallelen zu Lessing's Nathan," 2d ed., Vienna, 1881
*"Jean Bodin, ein Vorläufer Lessing's," Vienna, 1882
*"Drei Streitschriften Gegen Prof. Rohling," Vienna, 1882-83
*"Die Arbeiter bei Griechen, Römern, und Palestinensern," Vienna, 1882
*"Elementarschule, oder Erziehungswesen bei den Alten Völkern," Vienna, 1883
*"Armenpflege und Heimatsrecht, eine Social-Talmud. Studie," Vienna, 1884
*"Einblicke in die Geschichte der Entstehung der Talmudischen Literatur," Vienna, 1884
*"Aus der Vergangenheit für die Gegenwart," Vienna, 1886
*"Acten und Gutachten im Processe Rohling-Bloch," Vienna, 1892
*"Open Letter to My Esteemed Colleagues of the Italian Parliament," London, 1895 (published also in Italian and German)
*"Talmud und Judenthum in der Oesterreichischen Volksvertrebung," Vienna, 1900 (parliamentary speeches).

References

*Bloch (1973), "My Reminiscences", English translation of 1923 work
*Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien

External links

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1155&letter=B Source]
*de icon [http://www.christenundjuden.org/de/?item=117]