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     Dov Ber Birkenthal of Bolechów

Judith Kalik, Adam Teller

Dov Ber Birkenthal of Bolechów

Dov Ber Birkenthal of Bolechów (1723–1805)

Judith Kalik, Adam Teller

Dov Ber Birkenthal of Bolechów was a prosperous wine merchant and author of two Hebrew compositions: Zikhronot [Memoirs] and the polemic treatise Divre Binah [Words of Understanding]. The surname Birkenthal was added to his name in 1788 in compliance with the Habsburg law that obliged Galician Jews to acquire family names. Born in the town of Bolekhiv to a wealthy wine merchant, he received a traditional Jewish education. He also acquired thorough knowledge of Polish and German, knew some Latin and French, and took an interest in the new European philosophy of Enlightenment. As was common in his circles, Dov Ber married young and went into trade. He began with local products, particularly textiles, herring, wool, and spices. He then went into partnership with his father to import wine from Hungary, where he traveled extensively. As Dov Ber became more successful, his mercantile network spread to include non-Jewish wine merchants from across Europe. His knowledge of Polish led the rabbi of Lviv, Ḥayim ha-Kohen Rapoport (1699-1771), to ask him to be his interpreter during the public debate he was compelled to hold with the Frankists in 1759. Dov Ber’s language skills and his social connections also enabled him to act on behalf of the Jewish community of Bolekhiv before the authorities.

Dov Ber and his descendants held high administrative positions in the Jewish community of the town, while his brother Arye Leib was one of the heads of the regional council (va'ad galil) of Rus’.

Dov Ber’s memoirs are a rich source of information about Jewish life in eighteenth-century Galicia. From his writings we learn that the Jewish wine merchants employed an Armenian from Kamieniec to taste their non-kosher wines. His references to the cooperation between Jewish wine merchants and Catholic priests and monks is of particular interest. When a Galician Jewish wine merchant, Ḥayim of Dukla, was arrested in Hungary for paying with forged coins, he was released thanks to testimony from Bernardine friars that he had received the coins from them. Dov Ber himself stored his Hungarian wine in the cellars of the Carmelite friars at Lviv. He also described his personal friendship with the Dean of Lviv, priest Wieniawski. These memoirs also include Dov Ber’s positive impressions of the new Austrian regime following the first partition of Poland (1772).

Dov Ber’s second composition, Divre Binah, is a religious polemic against the messianic movements of his age, such as Sabbatianism and Frankism, and early Hasidism, as well as his refutation of Christian claims against Judaism. The volume contains valuable information about the appearance and spread of these movements in future Galicia. Dov Ber also discussed the functioning and eventual dissolution of the Council of Four Lands.

Dov Ber’s memoirs were partly published by Mark Vishnitzer in 1922, together with partial English and Yiddish translations. Divre Binah remained unpublished until 2023, when Gershon David Hundert published it together with the first full edition of Zikhronot.