BACHARACH

BACHARACH (Bachrach ; also spelled Bacherach, Bachrich ), name of several families originally from *Bacharach on the Rhine. gottschalk of bacharach is mentioned in Frankfurt in 1391 and ephraim gumbrecht bacharach in 1457. menahem (Man) bacharach was rabbi in Worms from 1506 to 1520. Two dayyanim named Bacharach are mentioned in 15^th-century Mainz. There were two branches of the family living in Frankfurt in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. israel and tobias ben joseph solomon were martyred in *Ruzhany on Sept. 19, 1659, following a *blood libel. Tobias' descendants lived at Tiktin and include the talmudist *Judah b. Joshua Ezekiel Bachrach and Jacob b. Moses *Bachrach, author of a history of the Hebrew script. The first Bacharach known in Vienna is judah loeb ben aaron (d. 1657). His grandson jacob found refuge in Třebíč, Moravia, in 1670 and became a leader of the community there. His descendants are found in Konice and Třešt (both in Moravia). Two Bacharachs are mentioned in a list of Nikolsburg (Mikulov) Jews of 1765. The best-known line, founded in Bohemia, is represented first by abraham samuel ben isaac bacharach (1575–1615), who was rabbi in Worms. His wife Eva (Ḥavvah; 1580–1651) had a wide knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinical literature rarely found among women in her day. She died in Sofia on her way to Ereẓ Israel. Their son was Moses Samson *Bacharach and their grandson was Jair Ḥayyim *Bacharach. Common in Bohemia was the abbreviation Bacher. Others of the family in Hungary include the Hebrew poet Simon *Bacher and his son the scholar Wilhelm *Bacher.

bibliography:

I.T. Eisenstadt and S. Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim (1897–98), 32–41, 213–4 (first pagination); Flesch, in: Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei, 2 (1931), 229–35.