quency of this designation. The first is the natural one: the rock, by reason of its use as a place of refuge, its firmness and its impregnability, is a symbol of the protection of God that would naturally occur to the inhabitants of Palestine. The other is based on the history of religion: it suggests that the name Rock for God harks back to the time when the deity was supposed to dwell in the rocks, and points out that in the religion of Israel many objects of stone, such as altars, the Tables of the Law, and knives, were vested with a special sanctity. It is hardly likely that Tzur was actually a divine name, although the Septuagint always translates the word, when referring to God, as theos (“God”).

Lit.: Hastings, James, Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 4, pp. 289-90.

ROCK OF AGES, see Maoz Tzur.

ROCK ISLAND, a city of Illinois with a Jewish population estimated to be from about 1,200 to 1,500 in 1943, in a total population of 42,775 (census of 1940). The city received its charter in 1849, and the first Jews probably came in about that period. Berthold Loewenthal was in the city council from 1853 to 1855. As early as 1875 the charitable Deborah Society was formed by the women of the community. The first congregation to be organized was B'nai Jacob, which built a synagogue in 1910; then came Beth Israel, which built a synagogue in 1900. Solomon Levitan was rabbi of both congregations in 1943. Early settlers included Meyer Brody, Herschel Gellerman, M. I. Morris, L. Cohen, Simon Lewis and Isaac Meyer. The Conservative congregation of Tri-City Jewish Center was organized much later, in 1936. Its first rabbi was Albert S. Goldstein. He was succeeded by E. Louis Neimand, and in 1941 by Irving B. Faden, who was the incumbent in 1943. The Tri-City Jewish Center served as the community center not only of Rock Island, but also of Moline, Ill., and Davenport, Iowa, which, adjacent to each other, constitute a commercial and social unit.

The Tri-City Jewish Center housed the central office of the United Jewish Charities of Rock Island and Moline. Other organizations supported in common in 1943 included a lodge of the B'nai B'rith, the A. Z. A., the Histadruth, and the various Zionist groups: Zionist Organization of America, Senior and Junior Hadassah, Poale Zion, Mizrachi, and Pioneer Women's Organization.

Rock Island Jews were mainly engaged in small business. Some few were employed in industry, and in 1943, in the defense work of the Rock Island arsenal. About fifty in the three cities were in the various professions. Walter A. Rosenfield was mayor of Rock Island from 1923 to 1927.

ROCK, LILLIAN, lawyer and communal leader, b. New York city, 1896. She was admitted to the bar in 1925 and established herself in practice in New York city the same year. Among her communal activities were the establishment in her own office of a free legal aid clinic. She was founder of the League for Women for President and Other Public Office (1934), and was its national chairman; she held executive offices in other feminist organizations. Miss Rock was national secretary in 1933 to 1934 and national vice-president in 1934 to 1935 of the National Association of Women Lawyers, and served as president of the New York Council of the Association. She was active in Jewish communal affairs.

ROCKER, LOUIS P., stock broker, b. Austria, 1894. He was brought to New York city as an infant, and was educated at Townsend Harris Hall, Rhoades

RÖDELHEIM

Prep School and the Pace and Pace Institute. His career on Wall Street began when he obtained a place as errand boy at De Planque and Stern in 1912. He subsequently took charge of the personal affairs of Edwin H. Stern and became manager of the firm of E. H. Stern and Co., which was established in 1915. In 1926 he purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming a partner in the firm. From 1928 on he was partner in Adler, Coleman and Co.

Rocker was active in the Zionist Movement, serving at various times as member of the administrative committee of the Jewish National Fund of America and the Palestine Foundation Fund, chairman of the finance committee of the United Palestine Appeal, member of the executive committee and administrative council of the Zionist Organization of America, and chairman of the finance committee of that organization. In 1940 he became treasurer of the Z.O.A. He served as national president of Young Judaea (1934-40), and was a director of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism and of the Jewish Educational Association, honorary president of the Inwood Hebrew Congregation, and a director of the Eastern Life Insurance Co.

RODA RODA, ALEXANDER FRIEDRICH (real name, Ladislaus Rosenfeld), writer, humorist and satirist, b. Puszta Zdenci, Slovenia, 1872. He was the son of the landowner Leopold Rosenfeld and his nonJewish wife. Roda Roda started an Austrian army officer's career at first, joining the artillery in Graz. At the age of thirty he was first lieutenant in the reserve. In 1903 he was deprived of his rank because of lèse-majesté.

In the meantime he had become correspondent of several Austrian papers. He traveled throughout Europe, especially in the Balkans, France and Spain. He became a contributor to the famous satirical periodicals Simplicissimus (Munich) and Jugend (Berlin). During the first World War he worked as war correspondent, and after the War as correspondent in Soviet Russia, among other countries. He arrived in the United States in 1939, settling in New York city.

Roda Roda-the man with the red vest and the monocle became famous through his collections of masterfully pointed anecdotes and through the play Der Feldherrnhügel (1910), which he wrote in collaboration with Carl Roessler, and which was suppressed in Austria-Hungary at the time. He wrote a large number of other comedies in collaboration with either Gustav Meyrink or his sister Marie Roda Roda (Marie Liebermann). In 1924 he published an autobiography entitled Roda Roda's Roman.

His other publications include: Der Schnaps, der Rauchtabak und die verfluchte Liebe (1908; the 40,000th copy was issued in 1925); Schummler, Bummler, Rossetummler (1909); Bienen, Drohnen und Baronen (1908); So jung und schon (1918); Weisheit des Morgenlandes (1910); Ein Frühling in Amerika (1924); Roda Roda erzählt (1925); Gift und Galle (1927); Donner und Doria (1928); Der Schlangenbiss (1931). In collaboration with Theodor Ehrt, he edited the collection Welthumor (6 vols., 1910-11).

RÖDELHEIM, originally a separate community near Frankfort, Germany, but in the 20th cent. incorporated into the city of Frankfort. In 1925 it had more than one hundred Jews among its 12,000 inhabitants. The existence of a Jewish community in Rödelheim dates back to the middle of the 13th cent. The town was famous for its Hebrew printing house. In the middle of the 18th cent. Karl Reich, with the aid of the typesetter Moses ben Jacob Levi, printed a number of Hebrew books there. About the beginning of the 19th cent. the famous Orientalische und Occi

dentalische Buchdrückerei was established there by Wolf Heidenheim and Baruch Baschwitz.

Here Heidenheim at first printed his own works, including a Mahzor with German translation and commentaries (1800) and the grammar Mebo Halashon (1806). He printed also an edition of the Pentateuch (1818-21), a Passover Haggadah (1822), and many liturgical works. The products of his press were neatly and tastefully done, and were highly esteemed.

Under the Nazi regime, from 1933 on, the Rödelheim Jewish community shared the fate of the Jews of Frankfort, which was reported to have been made judenrein in 1942.

Lit.: Steinschneider and Cassel, "Jüdische Typographie," in Ersch and Gruber, Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, section 2, vol. 28, p. 81; Carmoly, in Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte und Altertum in Frankfurt am Main, vol. 2, p. 346 et seq.; Lewin, Louis, in Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, vol. 44, pp. 127-38; vol. 45, pp. 422-32, 549-58.

RODENBERG, JULIUS (originally Levy), writer, b. Rodenberg, Hesse, Germany, 1831; d. Berlin, 1914. He was editor of the Deutsche Rundschau, which acquired a certain classic importance as a literary organ and through which Rodenberg championed the cause of young authors of naturalism. He was noted also as a lyricist (Lieder, 1853 and 1881) and as a librettist. He wrote a great number of excellent travel accounts, especially about England and France, and reminiscences of life in Berlin, including:

Erinnerungen aus der Jugendzeit (1899); Aus der Kindheit (1907); and Aus meinen Tagebüchern (1919). In his novels and tales of old Berlin Rodenberg is comparable to Fontaine and Raabe. The most important of these novels were Herrn Schellbogens Abenteuer (1890); Klostermanns Grundstück (1891); and the widely read Grandidiers (1879).

Lit.: Leixner, Otto, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur; Spiro, Heinrich, Julius Rodenberg (1921); Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 25 (1917) 63.

RÖDER, MARTIN, conductor and teacher, b. Berlin, 1851; d. Boston, 1895. His musical apprenticeship took place in Italy, where he served as chorusmaster at the Teatro del Verme (Milan) from 1873 to 1880, and where, in 1875, he organized and directed an admirable choral group, Società del Quar

tetto Corale. He returned to Berlin in 1880 and for several years taught at the Scharwenka Conservatory. He then went to Dublin to become professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 1892 he went to the United States, and from that time until his death served as director of the vocal department of the New England Conservatory in Boston. Röder wrote two critical volumes about music, and a diary, and contributed authoritative articles on singing to outstanding music journals.

RODGERS, RICHARD, composer, b. New York city, 1902. He studied at Columbia University and at the Institute of Musical Art. With the collaboration of the lyricist, Lorenz Hart, he wrote numerous musical comedies, beginning with the Garrick Gaieties (which first brought him fame), which were outstandingly successful. Principal among his successes were A Connecticut Yankee; Babes In Arms; I'd Rather Be Right; and I Married An Angel. His songs, many of them nationwide hits, are outstanding for unusual melodic construction as well as rhythmic and harmonic ingenuity.

RODGES, see COLONIES, AGRICULTURAL.

RODKINSON (originally FRUMKIN), MICHAEL LEVI, writer and translator, b. Dubrovna, Mogilev, Russia, 1845; d. New York city, 1904. He was the brother of Rabbi Israel Frumkin, editor of Habatzeleth (Jerusalem). Rodkinson was a stock speculator in St. Petersburg, was sought by the police and escaped to Königsberg, Germany. There he edited the Hebrew weekly Hakol (1876-80), and succeeded in having the best contemporary Hebrew writers contribute to it. He also edited a Yiddish weekly, Kol Leam. In 1888 he migrated to the United States, where he endeavored to resuscitate the Hakol (New York, 1889-90; Chicago, 1893) and founded the short-lived periodical Techunath Ruah Hayisraeli. He was the first to attempt rendition of the Talmud into English, but only the translation of the tractates Moed, Shekalim and Rosh Hashanah was completed; it appeared in four volumes (Hebrew and English, 1895-97).

A prolific writer, Rodkinson published also Sippure Tzaddikim (Hasidic legends; 1873); Toledoth Baal Shem Tob (the story of the Baal Shem Tob, Israel Besht; 1873); Matzath Mitzvah (against the blood accusation); Tefillah Lemosheh (on the phylacteries; 1883); Abne Milluim (on religious reform; 1884); Leboker Mishpat (polemical articles; 1884); Iggeroth Pethuhoth (open letters to rabbis; 1885); and Barkai (a collection of scholarly articles; 1886). His English writings include History of Amulets, Charms and Talismans (1893); The Pentateuch: Its Language and its Characters. A Treatise Upon the Early Translations into Greek and Aramaic (1894); and History of the Talmud from the Time of the Formation . . . up to the Present Time (vols. 1 and 2, 1903).

Lit.: Zitron, S. L., Die Geshichte fun der Yiddisher Presse; Reisen, Z., Lexikon fun der Yiddisher Literatur, Presse un Filologie, vol. 4 (1930), cols. 70-77; American Hebrew, Jan. 15, 1904; Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 33 (1934) 137-38; Deinard, Ephraim, Tzelem Behechal, last chapter.

RODOLF, SAMUEL, merchant and communal worker, b. Germany, about 1812; d. Cape Town, South Africa, 1882. He left Germany at the age of fifteen, and finally settled in the United States. About 1840 he arrived in Cape Town, and there set up as a merchant, becoming a naturalized British subject. He was one of the original group of seventeen Jews who, constituting the first recorded congregation in South Africa, met in 1841 to hold high holy day services in the home of Benjamin Norden, and then organized

into the Tikvath Israel Society. From then on until his death Rodolf was one of the leading factors in the communal life of Cape Town, and later of Algoa Bay.

He acted as reader of the Society while it was without a minister, and also served as marriage officer. When the Bouquet Street Synagogue was established in 1849, he became "gabbay" of the congregation. Throughout the first precarious years of the congregation's existence he remained one of its most active members. In 1864, on his return from a visit abroad, he settled at Algoa Bay, where he helped establish a synagogue. Subsequently he became once more resident in Cape Town, and in 1881 was again elected president of the congregation, serving until his death.

Lit.: Herrman, Louis, A History of the Jews in South Africa (1935).

RODRIGUES, BENJAMIN OLINDE, economist, b. Bordeaux, France, 1795; d. Paris, 1851. At the age of eighteen he became tutor at the Collège Napoléon of Bordeaux, but he was not admitted to the École Normale Supérieure because of his Jewish origin. He went to Paris, and in 1825 made the acquaintance of Count Saint-Simon, famous prophet of socialism, who was delivered by Rodrigues from misery and from an urge to commit suicide. On his death-bed Saint-Simon named Rodrigues his spiritual heir and

successor.

In 1825, after Saint-Simon's funeral, Rodrigues founded Le Producteur to propagate his master's ideas, but in 1826 the journal ceased publication because of lack of funds. In 1829 Rodrigues yielded leadership of the Saint-Simonian sect to Bazard and Enfantin, but remained chief of the cult, and initiated new adepts. At this time Heinrich Heine came to Paris and was influenced by the doctrine of Saint-Simon, but in spite of his enthusiasm Heine could not refrain from scoffing at Rodrigues and Enfantin, who tried to establish a new "church" and to imitate the manners of the apostles of the founder of the Christian church. In 1832 the French government proceeded against the sect, and Rodrigues was fined fifty francs.

After the dispersion of the Saint-Simonists Rodrigues endeavored to finance the industrial enterprises of Enfantin, but he did not follow him to Egypt, and from 1840 on renounced extravagance. After the revolution of 1848 Rodrigues believed that the opportunity to revive Saint-Simon's ideas had come. But he was soon disappointed. As the ideas of Saint-Simon deeply influenced the intellectual evolution of France, Rodrigues played an important part in the cultural life of his country. He represented a strange mixture of financial adroitness and idealistic enthusiasm, but was always sincere and benevolent. He endeavored to reconcile capitalists and workers, and anticipated important industrial innovations. HUGO BIEBER.

Lit.: Weill, Georges, L'école Saint-Simonienne (1896); Charlety, Sebastien, Histoire du Saint-Simonisme (1931); D'Allemagne, Henry-René, Les Saint-Simoniens (1930); Revue philomatique de Bordeaux (1925) 152-66.

RODRIGUES, JACOB HIPPOLYTE, financier, philosopher of religion and musician, b. Bordeaux, France, 1812; d. Paris, 1898. Having made a fortune as agent de change, Rodrigues devoted much of his time to music and to theological studies. He was a brother-in-law of Jacques Fromental Halévy, and wrote the text and music of the opera David Rizzio, which was published in 1873.

But he was mainly interested in religious questions. Proceeding from the hypothesis that many religious documents of Judaism were destroyed or lost in the troubled times after the destruction of the First Temple (586 B.C.E.), Rodrigues endeavored to discover traces of the lost texts both in the existing religious literature

RODRIGUEZ

of Judaism and in the documents of early Christianity and Islam. On the other hand, he stressed the dependence of Christianity and Islam upon Judaism.

In 1867 Rodrigues addressed an open letter to Dupuy, French minister of public education, showing the agreement of the Sermon on the Mount with passages from the Old Testament and Talmud. He developed his view in his Origine du sermon de la montagne (1868). In 1869 he published Histoire des Judeo-Chrétiens, and in 1873 Histoire des premiers chrétiens, always applying critical methods which he learned from Renan and Havet. In 1893 he published Papiers de famille, relating the history of the Rodrigues family which, according to its tradition, emigrated from Palestine at the time of Bar Kochba (130-35 C.E.).

RODRIGUES PEREIRA, SALOMON, chief rabbi of The Hague, Holland, b. The Hague, 1887. He was the son of A. Rodrigues Pereira, chief rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community at The Hague, who was also rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community at Amsterdam. Salomon Rodrigues Pereira was educated at the Portuguese Jewish Seminary Ets Hayim, Amsterdam, and at Amsterdam University, where he studied the classic languages. He obtained his doctor's degree in 1917. He was a teacher in the Gymnasium of Winschoten. After his father's death he was nominated chief rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community at The Hague (1924); at the same time he became teacher at the Latin school of Hilversum, near Amsterdam.

When the Germans invaded The Netherlands (1940) Rodrigues Pereira was still chief rabbi, although by the general Nazi decree he lost his position in the Hilversum school. In 1942 he emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

RODRIGUEZ, noted Marrano family, many members of which were persecuted, imprisoned for life, executed or exiled by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition for loyalty to Judaism. Antona Rodriguez and his wife were burned at the stake in Saragossa in 1486 for slaughtering poultry according to the Jewish ritual, and in the same year Maria Rodriguez was the victim of an auto-da-fé for attending Jewish ceremonies. In 1487 Juan Rodriguez, a merchant, and Maria Rodriguez were burned for heresy. In 1664 Violante Rodriguez was arrested, and after a trial lasting three years was sentenced to two years' prison. Catalina Rodriguez (La Paquina) died in prison in 1680 and was burned in effigy. Francisco Rodriguez da Almeida, his son Pedro and his daughter Maria were burned in the auto-da-fé of Cordova in 1655. In 1721 a ninety-year-old woman, Maria Maria Roddriguez, and her daughter were burned at the stake in Granada. In 1722 the Rodriguez family of Cuenca was condemned to life imprisonment.

Lit.: Kayserling, M., Sephardim (1859) 202-10; Lea, H. C., History of the Spanish Inquisition, vol. 1 (1906) 592-611; Roth, Cecil, History of the Marranos (1932) 135, 245-388.

RODRIGUEZ (or RODRIGO; first name unknown), noted Jewish physician who lived in Portugal about 1500. He was personal physician of Don Juan II (1481-95), who was a friend of the Jews. Rodriguez, together with another physician, Master Joseph, and the bishop of Canta, Don Diego Ortez, was among the nautical authorities who examined Christopher Columbus' claim for the support of his plans to discover India. Rodriguez was called the "poetically gifted one," and his poetical work is included in a manuscript, Canzoniero, of the end of the 15th cent.

Lit.: Kayserling, M., Geschichte der Juden in Portugal (1867) 87; idem, Christopher Columbus and the Participa

ROHLING

tion of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries (2nd ed., 1928).

RODRIGUEZ, AMATUS (HABIB) LUSITANUS, see AMATUS LUSITANUS.

RODZINSKI, ARTUR, conductor, b. Spalato, Dalmatia, 1894. He studied law at the University of Vienna, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Law. At the same time he studied music with Franz Schalk, Sauer, and Schreker. During the first World War he served in the Polish army, being wounded in action.

Shortly after the War he received his first musical assignment, to conduct choral music and opera in Lemberg. From here he went to the Warsaw Opera, where he distinguished himself for his energetic performances. While conducting a performance of Die Meistersinger in Warsaw he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who brought him to the United States as his assistant with the Philadelphia Orchestra. For a period Rodzinski served as guest of many of the leading American orchestras.

In 1929 he was appointed permanent conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and from 1933 on was principal conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. In Cleveland he reorganized the orchestra so that it became one of the great symphonic ensembles of the country. He also revitalized the repertoire, performing numerous new works, and introducing concert performances of such operas as Tristan und Isolde, Der Rosenkavalier, Parsifal and Elektra. In 1935 he gave the American première of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth. In 1937, at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini, he went to New York city to organize and whip into shape the N.B.C. Orchestra. Two years after this he directed a Polish program in conjunction with the New York World Fair. In 1942 Rodzinski declared himself to be not of the Jewish faith.

In December, 1942, he was appointed musical director of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra for 1943-44.

Besides his numerous conducting assignments in the United States, he directed with extraordinary success in Paris and Salzburg. He was one of the most brilliant conductors of his time, with a mastery of the orchestra, profound interpretative gifts and a compelling personality.

Lit.: Ewen, David, Living Musicians (1940). ROGERS, BERNARD, composer, b. New York city, 1893. His music study took place at the Institute of Musical Art, and subsequently with Ernest Bloch in Cleveland. For many years he was a critic on Musical America. In 1921 he won a Pulitzer Scholarship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1927 to 1929. His opera, Marriage of Aude, was awarded the David Bispham medal in 1931. Many of his orchestral compositions-including Prelude to Hamlet, Five Fairy Tales, and Adonais-were extensively performed by many leading American symphony orchestras.

He composed works for chamber orchestra and for chorus, and a string quartet. Rogers has a splendid sense for form, and consummate technical mastery. From 1929 on he taught composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.

ROGOFF, HARRY (HILLEL), writer and editor, b. Berezina, Russia, 1882. He was brought to the United States in 1890 and was educated at Isaac Elchanan Yeshiva and at the College of the City of New York, where he received the B.S. degree in 1906. That same year he joined the staff of the Forward. Except for a short period (1908), when he was editor of the Yiddishe Arbeiter Velt in Chicago, and a second short period (1921) when he joined the left wing of the Jewish labor movement after the split of that year,

Rogoff's association with the Forward was unbroken. He was made managing editor in 1919, deputizing editorially for the editor, Abraham Cahan. His writing for the newspaper included also the fields of English and Yiddish literature. As one of the few Yiddish writers in America who had been in the United States since childhood, he was equipped to serve as interpreter of the American background to the Yiddish-reading immigrant masses.

Rogoff's longer works, in Yiddish, largely represent his function as mentor in Americanization processes: How the United States Is Governed (1914); History of the United States, in five volumes (1926-30); and Nine Yiddish Writers, in English (1931). His Life of Meyer London was also published in English (1930). His long association with the Jewish working-class movement made him one of its most popular leaders.

Lit.: Reisen, Z., Lexikon fun der Yiddisher Literatur, Presse un Filologie, vol. 4 (1929) cols. 53-55; Forward, Dec. 20, 1942, section 2, p. 5.

ROGOFF, JULIUS MOSES, endocrinologist, b. Riga, Latvia, 1884. He was brought to the United States in infancy. After being in medical practice in Cleveland for a number of years he was appointed to an associate professorship at Western Reserve University (1915-35). The next five years he taught physiology at the University of Chicago, and in 1939 was given the chair of endocrinology at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine, a position he still held in 1943.

Rogoff discovered the hormone of the adrenal gland that is essential to life. He undertook to disprove the concept prevailing among psychologists that emotional reactions are dependent on the adrenal gland. One of his outstanding contributions was the development of new therapy in Addison's disease. Pursuing his original researches in experimental medicine, physiology and endocrinology, he submitted more than 150 articles to the medical and scientific press, and chapters on his special subjects in authoritative medical compilations. He organized the Rogoff Foundation for the promotion and support of medical research.

While resident in Cleveland, Rogoff participated in Jewish activities. From 1931 to 1934 he was president of the League for Labor Palestine. He was onetime president of the city's hebrew schools and institute.

RÓHEIM, GÉZA, ethnologist, b. Budapest, 1891. He studied geography at the University of Budapest and ethnology at the Universities of Leipzig, Berlin and Liverpool. For some time he served in the ethnographic division of the Hungarian national museum, publishing books in Hungarian, mostly on subjects connected with Magyar popular beliefs. In 1919 he published Spiegelzauber and in 1921 Das Selbst and Primitive Man and Environment, winning the international prize for the best work of the year in the field of applied psychoanalysis.

Róheim then turned to the study of Australian totemism, and published Australian Totemism (1925); Mondmythologie und Mondreligion (1927); and Social Anthropology (1926). In 1928 he went to Central Australia and New Guinea, where he studied the native population. The results of his research were published in Animism, Magic and the Divine King (1930) and The Riddle of the Sphinx (1934), and in the articles "Psychoanalysis of Primitive Cultural Types" (in International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1932) and "Primitive High Gods" (in Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1934).

ROHLING, AUGUST, anti-Semitic author, b. Neukirchen, Hanover, Germany, 1839; d. Salzburg, Austria, 1931. He was professor of theology in Münster

and at the German University of Prague. His antiSemitic book Der Talmudjude (1871) was circulated in tens of thousands of copies. In it he attempted to prove "scientifically" that, at the command of their religion, Jews are ordered to harm physically or morally, either openly or in secret, persons of different faiths.

The halo of "science" was soon removed from Rohling. Joseph Samuel Bloch, then rabbi in Florisdorf, near Vienna, publicly charged that Rohling was not able to translate a single page of the Talmud and that he had made fraudulent statements. Thereupon Rohling announced that he intended to swear before the court in Lemberg that ritual murder was prescribed by the Jewish religion. Bloch continuously attacked Rohling in the daily press for falsehood and perjury. A trial took place at which the prominent orientalists Theodor Nöldecke, August Wünsche and Franz Delitzsch rendered their expert opinion and accused Rohling of ignorance and deceit. Just before the last session of the trial, which lasted for over two years, Rohling withdrew his charges and was then branded as an ignoramus and perjurer. Thereupon the ministry of education asked Rohling to resign his professorship. Despite the outcome of the Rohling trial, his works are still used by anti-Semites as "scientific" material against the Jews.

Lit.: Delitzsch, Franz, Rohlings Talmudjude (1881); idem, Was Doctor August Rohling beschworen hat und beschwören will (1883); idem, Schachmatt den Blutlügnern Rohling und Justus (1883); Blochs Österreichische Wochenschrift; Bloch, Joseph Samuel, Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben (1922); idem, Israel and the Nations (1927).

ROHONC (in German, Rechnitz), town in Vas county, Hungary. An important Jewish community, considered the Jewish center of Transdanubia, flourished there from the 17th to the second half of the 19th centuries.

A Torah curtain dating from 1649 was used in the prayer house of the community. Later the landlord and protector of the Jews, Count Batthyany, built a synagogue which he rented to the Jews until (1707) they bought it for 500 gulden. When this became too small, they bought a plot and building for a new synagogue next to the Catholic church for 600 gulden in 1727. For being protected and tolerated the Jews of Rohonc paid annually for protection fees, various consumption taxes and miscellaneous fees totalling 3,011 gulden; besides, it was stipulated that they had to offer gratuities on New Year's Day to the landlord, his stewards and employes, the two clergymen of the town, the market bailiffs, the sheriff and the masters of the guild. From 1743 to 1846 they had to pay heavy taxes (toleration tax) also to the king.

The community was still important at the middle of the 19th cent. when the Enlightenment and economic opportunities wrought great changes in the Jews' life. Rohonc engaged the famous Mayer Zipser, author of The Sermon on the Mount (London, 1852), as their rabbi; he ministered to the community from 1854 to his death in 1869. At the same time the community established a public school which it maintained until 1923. However, when emancipation came, the Jews of Rohonc moved to the more important economic and cultural centers, and the community lost its importance. Many Jews called Rechnitz or Rechnitzer are of Rohonc origin.

The Jewish population of Rohonc was: thirty-six families in 1687; over 200 families (including those living around Rohonc) about the middle of the 18th cent.; 209 families in Rohonc alone in 1848; fifty-six families (170 persons) in 1927.

In 1921 Rohone was incorporated into Austria, and in 1938 was annexed by Germany. The Jewish community

ROJAS

was then dissolved; its valuable ceremonial objects and documents dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries were probably lost irretrievably.

ROITMAN, DAVID, cantor, b. Dorozhinke, province of Podolia, Russia, 1884. In 1943 he was living in New York city. As a young boy he sang in the choirs of Cantors Yankel Soroker, Leib Shapiro, Moshe Huberman and Zeidel Rovner.

His first position was in Yelisavetgrad, Russia (1904). After occupying other positions of short duration, he was engaged as chief cantor in Vilna (1909), and after staying there for three years went to St. Petersburg. The Russian Revolution, however, destroyed his congregation, and after six years in St. Petersburg Roitman went to Odessa, which was still comparatively free of the "new revolutionary spirit." But after three years, finding it difficult to live under the Soviet regime, he left for Bessarabia, and finally, in 1921, came to the United States.

Roitman was among the foremost cantors of the 20th cent. His compositions, many of them recorded by means of the phonograph, are in the best style of East European Hazanuth, and are permeated with the sad fate of his people. In his later compositions a more dramatic and prophetic idiom replaces the earlier plaintive chant. His "Ashamnu" is known wherever Jewish music is heard, but his only published composition (up to 1943) was "Rachel Mevakkah Al Baneha" (Rachel Weeping for her Children), written in his early style. His voice was a flexible lyric tenor, mellow in quality. In 1943 he was with Congregation Shaare Zedek, in New York city.

MAX WOHLberg. Lit.: Die Chazanim Velt (Warsaw), Jan. 1935; Hazanuth (1924) 190.

ROIZMAN, MATVEI DAVYDOVICH, author and poet, b. Russia, 1896. His first ventures into print (from 1921 on) were as a poet of the imagist school. His lyrics "Khevronskoe Vino" (Hebron Wine) and "Palma" (The Palm) are typical for this period of imagism. The motifs and portrayals of these and similar poems are from the Bible, the Talmud and the history of the Jewish people. At the same time he occasionally gave realistic pictures of contemporary life -the life of Jewish tailors, shoemakers and other small Jewish people. Later he turned to prose. In 1928 he wrote what is considered his most important novel, Minus Shest (Minus Six), which portrays members of the Jewish middle classes adapting themselves to the new Soviet life.

Roizman's deep knowledge of the everyday life of the Jewish middle classes made it possible for him to depict in dialogue and in asides the typical reactions, hopes and despairs, the very being of Jewish family and business life. Eti Gospoda (These Gentlemen; 1932) was directed against anti-Semitism. Critics charged it with lack of balance and objectivity; it was felt that the coarse type of anti-Semitism reflected by this novel was exaggerated and Jewish characters overly idealized.

From the 1930's on Roizman devoted himself to newspaper work, writing feature articles for newspapers and magazines.

ROJAS, FERNANDO DE, lawyer and writer, b. Puebla de Montalbán, Spain; d. Talavera de la Reina, Spain, 1541. He was a converted Jew, who seems to have served as alcalde mayor of Talavera, and it is established that he was author of at least the larger portion of La Celestina, a celebrated novel-drama in prose dialogue which ranks in Spanish literature as second only to Cervantes' Don Quixote. In Jewish references, Rojas has been generally overlooked, although the fact that he was a Jew by birth came to light as