R' Jacob Bachrach

R. Jacob Bacharach was born in Seini in 1824.

He settled in Bialystok and was the author of a number of books, amongst which was Sefer HaYachas Lichtav Ashuri (Warsaw).

Source: The Unbroken Chain by Neil Rosenstein (1990) Volume 1, page 21 G 14

"BACHRACH, JACOB BEN MOSES (also called Ba'al ha-Ma'amarim or Jacob ha-Bachri; 1824–1896), rabbi and grammarian. Bachrach, a descendant of Jair *Bacharach, was born in Sejny in the district of Suwalki; he studied with his grandfather Judah *Bachrach. In addition to being an accomplished talmudist he was versed in secular knowledge. For many years he was superintendent of the Hebrew department of a printing establishment in Koenigsberg. In 1858 he published in that press his Maẓref ha-Avodah, which deals with the controversy over Ḥasidism between Benjamin Wolf of Slonim, a disciple of *Elijah b. Solomon Zalman the Gaon of Vilna, and Joseph of Nemirov, a disciple of *Levi Isaac of Berdichev. Later editions of this book carry the title Vikkuḥa Rabbah ("Great Debate"). In 1858 he also published the Sefer Yuḥasin of Abraham *Zacuto with corrections and comments. Between 1861 and 1864 he published Jacob b. Asher's Turim with his own annotations. From Koenigsberg he moved to Sebastopol. There, while managing a refinery, he began to take an interest in the literature of the *Karaites and engage in polemics with them. In 1893 his book Me-ha-Ibbur u-Minyan ha-Shanim ("Concerning Intercalation and the Calendar") appeared in Warsaw. In it he attempted to prove the antiquity of the Hebrew *calendar, in opposition to the Karaite theory on one side and to the opinion of Ḥ.Z. Slonimsky on the other side. From there he moved to Bialystok, where he played an important role in founding the Ḥovevei Zion movement and was sent to Ereẓ Israel in 1882. His findings during his visit there are contained in his Sefer ha-Massa le-Ereẓ Yisrael (Warsaw, 1884), one of the earliest propaganda books of the Ḥovevei Zion. For a short time, he was also private secretary to Samuel *Mohilever. Bachrach also engaged in scientific study of the Hebrew language. Among other things, he tried to prove the antiquity of the Hebrew vowels and accents, in opposition to the opinion of Elijah *Levita who had held that these were not introduced until after the conclusion of the Talmud. These studies appeared in Sefer ha-Yaḥas li-Khetav Ashuri ve-Toledot ha-Nekuddot ve-ha-Te'amim ("History of the Assyrian Script, Vowels, and Accents," Warsaw, 1854) and Hishtaddelut im Shadal ("Engagement with Samuel David Luzzatto," Warsaw, 1897), a kind of extension to his earlier work. Despite the great acumen shown in his works, they did not meet with the general approval of the scholars of his time."

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

E. Atlas, in: Ha-Asif, 1 (1884), 246ff.; S. Wiener, Kohelet Moshe (1893–1918), nos. 3311, 4521, 4723; Lu'aḥAḥi'asaf, 5 (1898), 326; EZD, 1 (1958), 291–3; Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 241–2.

Source: Jewish Virtual Library

Noted apologist of rabbinical Judaism. Received earliest instruction from his grandfather, Judah Bachrach. Superintendent of Hebrew printing establishment in Konigsberg. Later, managed a distillery at Sebastopol. In 1882, went to Palistine in the interest of colonization. Wrote many works.

More details in The Jewish Encyclopedia, p.422. Also, JRI-PL: http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm

The Sejni/Suwalki area that Rabbi Yehuda Bachrach ( http://www.hershfeld.com/family/individual.php?pid=I1307 ) the father of Eliezer Chanoch Bachrach ( http://www.hershfeld.com/family/individual.php?pid=I2509 ) was in is now in Poland, not Lithuania. The pedigree chart at http://www.hershfeld.com/family/pedigree.php?rootid=I2527 might be a good starting point. Please note that Eliezer Chanoch had 10 children that I know of, but only Yitzchok Eizik, the root of this tree in the link above is mentioned in the genealogy. The birth of 8 of his siblings, minus your ancestor Yaakov who's birth is not in the index.

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 24 2017, 23:17:29 UTC

Note for a revision for reference:

Jacob Bachrach Hello Robert Haas

I also thought that Jacob Bachrach was the father of Wife of Isaac Szwif based on a news article i found but i couldn't find any other proof of that.
Later on i concluded that there were two Moses Schwiff living in palestine in the same time and just one of them was granchild of Jacob Bachrach and it is not the son of Isaac Szwif.
I don't remember now how i concluded that and i didn't get back to that search.
So for the moment i'll not merge the 2 profiles and i'll delete Wife of Isaac Szwif's father to prevent future mistakes.

Thank you for noticing!

Asaf