Eliakim Carmoly
Eliakim Carmoly was a French scholar. He was born at Soultz-Haut-Rhin, then in the French department of Haut-Rhin. His real name was Goschel David Behr ; the name Carmoly, borne by his family in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was adopted by him when quite young. He studied Hebrew and Talmud at Colmar; and, because both French and German were spoken in his native town, he became proficient in those languages. At some point during his youth he also studied under Rabbi Aaron Worms.
Carmoly later went to Paris, and there assiduously studied the old Hebrew manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale, where he was employed. Several articles published by him on various subjects in scientific papers made him known; and on the establishment of a Jewish consistory in Belgium, he was appointed rabbi at Brussels. In this position Carmoly rendered many services to the newly founded congregation, chiefly in providing schools for the poor. Seven years later, having provoked great opposition by his new scheme of reforms, Carmoly resigned the rabbinate and retired to Frankfort, where he devoted himself wholly to Jewish literature and to the collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts, in which he was passionately interested.
His grandfather was Isaachar Bär ben Judah Carmoly, rabbi of Sulz.
Works
Carmoly was the author of the following works:Toledot Gedole Yisrael, a biographical dictionary of eminent Jews, ancient and modern, Metz, 1828 Wessely et Ses Écrits, Nancy, 1829Sibbub Rab Petachyah, the travels of Petachiah of Ratisbon, translated into French and accompanied by the Hebrew text, Paris, 1831Eldad ha-Dani: Relation d'Eldad le Danite, Voyageur du IXe; Siècle, Traduit en Français, Suivie du Texte et de Notes, Brussels, 1834Mémoire sur un Médaillon en l'Honneur de Louis-le-Débonnaire, ibid. 1839Maimonides und Seine Zeitgenossen, translated from the Hebrew into German, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1840Les Mille et Un Contes, Récits Chaldéens, Brussels, 1842'Aqtan de-Mar Ya'aqob, a kind of Midrash in six chapters on the Khazars, published for the first time from two manuscripts, ibid. 1842Eldad et Medad, ou le Joueur Converti, translated from Leo di Modena's work, with a biographical notice on the author, ibid. 1844Le Jardin Enchanté, Contes, ibid. 1845Sefer ha-Kuzarim: Des Khozars au Xe; Siècle, Suivi d'une Lettre du Ministre d'Abd el-Rachman III. au Roi de Khozarie et la Réponse du Prince, ibid. 1845Histoire des Médecins Juifs, Anciens et Modernes, ibid. 1844Halikot Eretz Yisrael: Itinéraires de la Terre Sainte des XIIIe-XVIIe Siècles, translated from the Hebrew, ibid. 1847], genealogy and biography of the Yachya family, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1850Ha-'Orebim u-Bene Yonah, genealogy of the Rapoport family, Rödelheim, 1861Imre Shefer, on Hebrew versification, by Abshalom Mizrachi, with an introduction and an appendix containing literary essays and poems by the editor, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1868La France Israélite; Mémoire pour Servir à l'Histoire de Notre Littérature, Paris, 1858Mebasseret Tzion, a collection of letters from Jerusalem on the Lost Ten Tribes, Brussels, 1841Besides these works, Carmoly contributed to many periodicals, and edited the Revue Orientale'', in which most of the articles were furnished by himself. The most important of these contributions, which constitute works by themselves, were:
- "Vocabulaire de la Géographie Rabbinique de France"
- "Essai sur l'Histoire des Juifs en Belgique"
- "Mille Ans des Annales Israélites d'Italie"
- "De l'Etat des Israélites en Pologne"*
- "Des Juifs du Maroc, d'Alger, de Tunis, et de Tripoli, Depuis Leur Etablissement dans Ces Contrées Jusqu'à Nos Jours"