CARMOLY, ELIAKIM

CARMOLY, ELIAKIM (1802–1875), rabbi, writer, and editor. Carmoly, who was born in Sulz, Alsace, studied under distinguished rabbis in Colmar. After spending some years examining Hebrew manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, he took up a rabbinical post in Brussels in 1832. He resigned after seven years because of criticism of his reformist tendencies and moved to Frankfurt. There he devoted himself to the collection and study of ancient manuscripts and books, about which he published articles in Hebrew, French, and German journals. However, he was suspected by the Hebrew scholars of his time of carelessness and even forgery. His Hebrew books include: Toledot Gedolei Yisrael ("Biographies of Famous Jews," 1828); Sippur Eldad ha-Dani ("Story of Eldad ha-Dani," 1828); Mevasseret Ẓiyyon (1885²), concerning the ten lost tribes; Elleh ha-Massa'ot (1841), about travels in Palestine; and Ha-Orevim u-Venei Yonah (1861), a genealogy of the Rapoport family. He also wrote a coronation poem, in Hebrew and French, in praise of Louis-Philippe of France (1830). Carmoly was, in addition, one of the pioneers in the study of the history of Jewish medicine and Jewish physicians, and wrote Histoire des Medecins juifs (1844). He edited Revue Orientale (1841–46), contributing most of the articles himself.

bibliography:

S. Cohen, in: Bitzaron, 15 (1947), 229–32; Shunami, Bibl, index; M. Catane, in: Aresheth, 2 (1960), 190–8.

[Getzel Kressel]