Jacob Bodek

Jacob Bodek (Hebrew: יעקב בודק; 24 June 1819 – 18 July 1855) was a Galician Maskilic writer.

Biography

Jacob Bodek was born in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), where he spent most of his life.

Bodek was a leading member of Ha-Ro'im ('The Spectators'), a group of conservative Maskilim opposed to the "scientific" strand of the Haskalah. Together with his brother-in-law, A. M. Mohr [he], he published a journal entitled Ha-ro'eh ve-mevaker sifre meḥavre zemanenu ('Spectator and Critic of Contemporary Works'; Lemberg, 1837), which contained polemical articles criticizing the work of Solomon Judah Rapoport, Samuel David Luzzatto, and Isaac Samuel Reggio. Due to the efforts of Joshua Heschel Schorr [he; de] and others, the work was banned in the Austrian Empire. The second volume was thus published in Hungary under a separate title.

Later, he published with Mohr a periodical entitled Yerushalayim ('Jerusalem'), which appeared at irregular intervals between 1844 and 1855. The journal was less confrontational than Ha-ro'eh, and generally more sympathetic to Rapoport. Bodek also republished with notes the chronicles of Abraham Trebitsch, Korot ha-ʻitim which cover the period from 1741 to 1801, and Korot nosafot, a continuation until the year 1850 (Lemberg, 1851). His biography of his friend, Zvi Hirsch Chajes, appeared in Ha-Maggid (1857).

Bodek died in Lemberg in the 1855 cholera pandemic.

Publications

• Ha-ro'eh ve-mevaker sifre meḥavre zemanenu [Spectator and Critic of Contemporary Works]. Lemberg. 1837. Edited with A. M. Mohr.
• Emek Shoshanim [Valley of Roses]. Ofen. 1839. Edited with A. M. Mohr.
• Trebitsch, Abraham (1851). Korot ha-ʻitim: sipure kol ha-milḥamot mi-shenat 5501 ʻad 5561. Lemberg: s.n. Edited by Bodek, with supplementary material under the title Korot nosafot ('Additional Details').
• "Toldot ha-Rav Tsvi Chayes". Ha-Maggid. 1 (8–11). 1857.