several months later he resigned from office. Two of his sons shared in his work for the annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United States.

HENRY SEELIGSON, Texas pioneer and combatant (b. Philadelphia, 1828; d. Texas, 1886), was a son of Michael Seeligson. On the side of his mother, Adelaide Gottschalk, he was a cousin of the composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. He joined his father at Galveston in 1839. As a youth, he was elected first lieutenant of the Galveston Cadets, a corps of men fifteen to eighteen years old which served in fighting off the attempted invasion of Galveston by the Mexicans. In the war of 1846 against Mexico he served under Captain McLean and subsequently in the expedition to Monterey under General Zachary Taylor, who complimented him for gallantry in battle. Next Seeligson participated in an unsuccessful Mexican revolution under General Jose Maria Carabajal. His last fight was in the Civil War, where he enlisted in the cavalry of the Southern Army and took part in several engagements under Captain Woodward.

SEERS, see PROPHETS.

SEFER HATAGIN, a Midrash dealing with the shapes of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the ornamental points or crowns (tagin) which ornament them. Since Akiba is reported as having derived laws from these points (Men. 29b), its authorship is ascribed to him and it is known also as Midrash Rabbi Akiba Bechithre Haothioth (Midrash of Akiba on the Crowns of the Letters). It was written not later than the beginning of the 9th cent., as it is mentioned at that time.

A version of it was published by Abraham Portaleone in his Shilte Hagibborim (Mantua, 1613, 177), another by Bartolocci in Bibliotheca rabbinica (vol. 4, p. 275), and both by Adolf Jellinek in his Beth Hamidrash (vol. 5, pp. 31-33). These editions contain only the portion dealing with the ornaments on the letters; the complete work was published as Sefer Taghin by J. L. Barges (Paris, 1866).

Lit.: Scholem, G., Bibliografia shel Sifruth Hakabbalah. SEFER TORAH, one of the minor tractates of the Talmud, a compendium of rules to be observed by scribes in the preparation and writing of scrolls of the Law. It contains five chapters dealing with writing material, language and translation of Scripture; the Septuagint; the manner of writing; the names of God and the interdiction against erasing them. These five chapters compose also the first part of the tractate Soferim.

Lit.: Higger, M., Seven Minor Treatises (1930). SEFIROTH (singular, sefirah), name given in Cabala to the ten creative powers, arranged in a gradation from the most spiritual to the least, through which the divine original Essence manifests itself in the world. The term sefirah is generally regarded as meaning "number," though some connect it with the Greek sphaire, "sphere." The organic relationship of the Sefiroth to one another is often expressed in the form of a tree ('ilan) or else as different parts of the primordial man (Adam Kadmon); in this the uppermost Sefirah, Kether ("crown"), shades away into the ineffable original Essence (En Sof), while the lowest, Malchuth (kingdom"), represents the spiritual elevation of the world of mankind. The ten Sefiroth, each one of which acts as the shell for the preceding, are often brought into relationship with the ten numbers of the Pythagorean decade, the ten cosmic spheres of Greek cosmology, and the ten creative words in the first chapter of Genesis.

SEGAL

Nine of the Sefiroth are arranged into three triads. The highest is that of the original spiritual powers: Hochmah (positive "wisdom"), Binah (critical "understanding") and Daath ("knowledge" as the product of the first two). The middle group is that of the spiritual and ethical powers: Hesed ("love"), either Pahad ("fear") or Din (“justice”), and either Tifereth ("glory") or Rahamim (effective "mercy"). The lowest are the original natural powers: Netzah ("victory"), Hod ("glory") and Yesod (“foundation"). Above these groups is Kether and below, Malkuth; the two together, as Kether Malkuth ("the royal crown"), give an upper and lower limit to the divine glory of revelation.

A division into right, left and middle "columns," on the other hand, indicates a differentiation into purely positive, extensive and irradiating, and negative and limiting powers of existence, together with a harmonious basis or completion of all of them. In their various relations the Sefiroth are given numerous names and are brought into relationship with the various names of God. They are also represented as being connected with one another by various "channels," by means of which the descent of the luminous divine substance is made possible.

The sixth Sefirah is generally placed at the center of the symbolic tree, while the ninth and tenth are in the closest possible connection. There are also various systems in which the Sefiroth are divided according to original male and female principles, father and son principles, the Messiah and the community of Israel, and a place is found for each and every polarity and gradation of these.

The doctrine of Sefiroth is first found, in philosophic form, in the Sefer Yetzirah, attributed to Isaac the Blind, with Azriel ben Menahem, in the Bahir and the Zohar, and in express form with Moses Cordovero and the later Cabalists.

Lit.: See under CABALA.

SEGAL, ALFRED, newspaperman, b. Cincinnati, 1883. He attended the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College, and joined the staff of the Cincinnati Post as reporter (1904). Later he became city editor. In 1918 he served as war correspondent in France. Segal wrote the "Cincinnatus" column in the Cincinnati Post, a column of liberal opinion, credited with having fathered the municipal reform movement by which city management and proportional representation were established in the government of Cincinnati.

He has been author of the column "Plain Talk" released to many Anglo-Jewish periodicals by the Seven Arts Feature Syndicate. In this weekly commentary on various phases of Jewish life, Segal has revealed himself to be a keen-eyed and constructive observer in quest of truth and fair play. He was also editorial writer for the National Jewish Monthly. Together with Boris D. Bogen, he published Born a Jew (1930). Segal was an organizer and the first president of the Cincinnati Newspaper Guild, and a trustee of the Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati (1938-40).

SEGAL, ARTUR, painter and etcher, b. Jassy, Roumania, 1875. He studied in Berlin, Munich and Paris. From 1914 to 1920 he lived in Ascona, Switzerland; then, until 1933, in Berlin. In 1933 he went to Palma de Mallorca, and in 1936 to London. Segal attracted attention through his interesting experiments with the painter's conceptions and technique.

Beginning as an impressionist, Segal later moved toward neo-impressionism (the breaking up of planes into separate lines, points and small squares), and then he came under the influence of van Gogh and Matisse. After 1915 he was especially interested in the problems of the optical equality of the components in painting and in the prismatic treatment of light in connection with Goethe's theories of color.

In contrast to this was his attempt to work out a focus (Tassenstillegen, 1927), to achieve effects by optic plastic and to approach as closely as possible to the phenomenon of light (Strassenbild, 1926; numerous still lifes, 1927). Still later he went over to a rigidly objective naturalistic luminosity of color (landscapes, still lifes, portraits, including excellent self-portraits). Segal possessed unusual pedagogical talent, and had his own school in Berlin and in London.

His canvases were purchased for the city collections of Berlin and The Hague. He wrote a great deal on his changing theories: "Die neue Malerei und der Künstler" (in Aktion, vol. 2, 1912); Grundlagen der wissenschaftlichen Kunst (1917); Lichtprobleme (1925); Optische Plastik (1926); Gesetze der Malerei (1927).

Lit.: Cicerone, vol. 7 (1915) 368; vol. 11 (1919) 95; vol. 17 (1925) 608; The Studio, vol. 100 (1936); Kunstblatt, vol. 4 (1920) 381.

SEGAL, HAYIM BEN ISAAC, 18th cent. painter. He created the magnificent interior decorations of the wooden synagogue in Mohilev, in White Russia. The synagogue was a pattern for Polish decoration of this kind, showing the East European adaptation of baroque ornamentation, wildly crowded and mounting in sharply contrasted colors to a veritable frenzy. Animals and birds of all kinds rise out of thick foliage and vines -parrots, snakes, camels, pelicans, roosters and symbolic creatures, together with the animals in Ezekiel's prophetic vision, especially lions. Landscapes are also included in the Mohilev paintings; among these is a fantastic view of Worms, with a dragon before the city. This has been considered a rendition of the Nibelungen theme, which might have traveled eastward with the language.

Lit.: Cohen-Wiener, Ernst, Die jüdische Kunst (1929) 225-26; Rimon, 1923, No. 3 (with colored reproductions); Landsberger, Franz, "Jewish Artists before the Period of Emancipation," Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 16 (1941) 394.

SEGAL, LASAR, painter and etcher, b. Vilna, Lithuania, 1889. His talent was discovered in 1905 by the Russian sculptor Mark Antokolski. After studying in Berlin he went to Dresden in 1910, and was caught up in the current of expressionism. He remained in Dresden until 1922, and then, after a stay in Berlin, he

went to Brazil. Remaining there until 1929, he became naturalized. The next two years he spent in Paris, then went back to Brazil, where he was living in 1943. Segal's originality consisted of a fusion between powerful coloring, sensual oriental moods, melancholy and pessimistic fantasy and a pronounced tendency toward techtonic composition.

His first successful painting was Kaddish (1918). This was followed by Der Ewiger Wanderer (1919), purchased by the city museum of Dresden; Witwe (1920), acquired by the Folkwang Museum in Essen; Schwermut (1921); and Irrende Frau (1923). Segal made some attempts at abstract painting. While in Brazil he achieved greater harmony between form and color. Among his etching and lithograph folios were Die Sanfte (1918); Erinnerungen an Wilna; Bubu de Montparnasse; and Masze Bichl. His works are included also in the Museum of Chemnitz and the Pinakothek in São Paulo, Brazil.

Lit.: Däubler, Theodore, Lasar Segal (Jüdische Būcherei, vol. 20, 1920); George, Waldemar, Lasar Segal (1931); Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, vol. 60 (1927) 86-90.

SEGAL, MOSES HIRSCH (ZEVI), Hebraist and translator of the Talmud, b. Maishad, Lithuania, 1876. He attended several Yeshivas and was ordained rabbi in 1906. Subsequently he studied at the University of Oxford (M.A., 1906), where he became a teacher of the Bible and Semitic languages (1910-26). Segal served as rabbi of the congregations of Newcastle on Tyne, Swansea and Bristol. In 1926 he was called to The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, where in 1943 he was professor of Bible. He was a member of the Zionist Commission of Great Britain (1918-19).

Segal published Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew (1927), and contributed to the Magnes Anniversary Volume (1938). He wrote numerous works in Hebrew on the Bible, Hebrew philology, phonetics and lexicography. He was one of the contributors to The Babylonian Talmud, translated into English under the editorship of Isidor Epstein and published by the Soncino Society (1935- ).

SEGALL, BERNARDO, pianist, b. Campinas, Brazil, 1911. He was a child prodigy, often referred to as the "Brazilian Mozart." He won the National Chiafarelli Contest in his fourteenth year, and was awarded an honorary degree by the Conservatory of São Paulo. Soon after this he was sent to New York city for study with Alexander Siloti. Although he toured South America in 1928 and again in 1931, it was not until 1936 that he made his American debut. His fluent technique, magnetic personality and fine musical perception brought him critical acclaim. Thereafter he performed frequently in the United States and throughout South America. In 1939 he was a featured artist in the South American program performed by the New York Philharmonic in conjunction with the World's Fair.

SEGALL, JACOB, statistician and physician, b. Czempin, Posen, Germany, 1883. In 1909 he became successor to Arthur Ruppin as director of the bureau for statistics of the Jews in Berlin, and in 1911 research worker on the staff of the Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens. From 1914 to 1921 Segall was chairman of the committee for war statistics; he arranged the preliminaries for the founding of the Central Welfare Station for German Jews, the business director of which he was until 1926.

Segall published many studies on denominational statistics in the Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden, which he edited together with I. Kosalnik. His works include: Die Entwicklung der jüdischen Bevölkerung in München 1875-1905; Die beruflichen und sozialen Verhältnisse der Juden in Deutschland (1912); Die deutschen

Juden als Soldaten im Kriege 1914-18 (1922). Together with Frieda Weinreich, he edited Die geschlossenen und halboffenen Einrichtungen der jüdischen Wohlfahrtspflege. After the Nazis' advent to power (1933) he emigrated to Palestine, where he was living in 1943.

SEGAN, see TITLES.

SEGEL, BENJAMIN, Jewish journalist and writer, b. Lopuschna, Galicia, 1866; d. Bad Pistyan, Czechoslovakia, 1931. He was an expert in problems of East European Jewry, Palestine, Jewish nationalism and Bolshevism in its beginning.

Segel studied the natural sciences, philosophy and history of art in Lemberg and Berlin. He was especially interested in ethnology. This led to his collection of Jewish proverbs, legends and folk songs. Writing was his world. He wrote hundreds of essays and pamphlets and several books under his name and a number of pen names. After the first World War he became known to the German Jewish reading public as a contributor to Ost und West, Im Deutschen Reich, C.-V. Zeitung and Der Morgen, and as an author (Philo Verlag).

Segel attracted particular attention by his studies on Bolshevism, which appeared under the pseudonym of Dimitri Bulaschow in 1921 as Bolschewismus und Judentum (5th ed., 1924). Another work, Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion kritisch beleuchtet, scientifically explored this forgery in all its details. Segel proved that the document, which serves anti-Semitism as its main weapon, is a forgery. During the well known trials which took place in Switzerland and South Africa and in American publications Segel's work was of great assistance.

Among his other works, the following are noteworthy: Der Wald, drama (1914); Der Weltkrieg und das Schicksal des jüdischen Volkes (1915); Die polnische Judenfrage (1916); Rumänien und seine Juden (1918); Weltkrieg, Weltrevolution und Weltverschwörung (1925).

Segel lived in Berlin and Vienna, and died in 1931 after a long illness in Pistyan, where he had sought relief.

Lit.: C.-V. Zeitung, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, March 20, 1931.

SEGHERS, ANNA, writer, b. Mayence, Germany, 1900. Her original name was Netty Reiling, and she adopted the name of Anna Seghers as her pen name. She was the daughter of a well-to-do dealer in antiques, and was educated at the University of Cologne, where she studied the history of art. She received the Ph.D. degree from the university, her thesis (written in 1924, and unpublished) dealing with the subject of Jews and Judaism in the works of Rembrandt. For her first book, Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara (1928), a novel about an uprising among a group of fishermen (published in English as The Revolt of the Fishermen, 1929), she was awarded the Kleist Prize. Subsequently she wrote in Germany Auf dem Wege zur amerikanischen Botschaft (1930), a volume of short stories, and the novel, Die Gefährten (1932).

Forced to leave her native country after Hitler's advent to power (1933), she went to Paris and there wrote several revolutionary novels, including Der Kopflohn (1933), depicting life in a German village in the summer of 1932, under the rising Nazi terror, and Der Weg durch den Februar (1935), dealing with the Socialist uprising in Vienna of 1934. When the Nazis occupied Paris (1940) she fled to unoccupied France and with the help of the exiled writers committee of the League of American Writers she and her family were rescued and brought to Mexico, where she was living in 1943, working for the Heinrich Heine Club for Free German Culture, one of whose founders she was, and contributing to the magazine Das freie Deutschland.

In 1942 she won fame with her novel, The Seventh Cross, the story of seven men who escaped from a German concentration camp; it was chosen by the

SEGRE

Book-of-the-Month-Club in New York city. Her radio play, Der Prozess der Jeanne d'Arc in Rouen 1431, was published by Internationale Literatur (Moscow, 1937).

Lit.: Book of the Month Club News, Sept., 1942; Current Biography, vol. 3, No. 12 (Dec., 1942).

SEGOL, see CANTILLATION; VOWELS, HEBrew. SEGRE, ARTURO, historian, b. Turin, Italy, 1874; d. Turin, 1928. He was professor of history at the Lyceum d'Azeglio, and assistant professor of the history of business institutions, commerce and commercial geography at the University of Turin. His works deal mostly with the history of commerce, the history of Piedmont, and the royal house of Savoy.

SEGRE, CARLO, littérateur and editor, b. Florence, Italy, 1867. He became managing editor of the magazine Fanfulla della Domenica which achieved distinction under his able direction (1891-1919). Segre was collaborator of the principal Italian political and literary review La Nuova Antologia and was associate professor of Italian literature at the University of Rome. His major absorption centered about literary relations between Italy and England, notably the epic and poetical creations of Petrarch.

SEGRE, DINO (Pitigrilli), author and journalist, b. Turin, Italy, 1893. He was on the editorial staff of the Epoca in Rome (1918-20) and correspondent in Constantinople of the Gazzetta del Popolo. Back in Italy, he founded (in Turin) the magazines Le Grandi Firme; Il Dramma; Il Cerchio Blu, which attained wide popularity. Segre became popular, under his pseudonym of "Pitigrilli," as author of novels and short stories, which were translated into many languages. Their success was due mainly to the boldness of conception and the outspoken eroticism which formed the background of his writings. Among his best-known novels were La cintura di castità (1920); L'Esperimento di Pott (1930), and I vegetariani dell'amore (1932).

SEGRE, GINO, legal authority, b. Bozzolo, Italy, 1864. He graduated from the University of Pavia in 1866 and began to teach Roman law four years later at the University of Camerino. In 1902 Segre was called to the chair of Roman law at the University of Pavia, where he was rector of the law faculty for a decade. Thereafter he went to the University of Turin, where he remained for over a quarter century; in 1936 he was made professor emeritus. Segre was member of the Royal Commission for the reform of the Italian civil code.

In 1930, to celebrate forty-five years of scientific activity, Italian universities presented him with two volumes of selected studies on Roman law and a collection of his own most notable works. He was one of the principal contributors to the Bollettino dell'Istituto di Diritto Romano and to Rivista Italiana di Scienze Giuridiche, and he published many monographs on the historical development of Roman law and institutions.

SEGRE, ROBERTO, army general and military expert, b. Turin, 1872; d. 1936. His career began as an artillery officer (1890), but he was soon transferred to the chief of staff. He took part in the Libyan campaign (1911-12) where he received three promotions for military valor. At the beginning of the first World War Segre was chief of staff of a division on the Carso, and (from November, 1915, until May, 1917) was in charge of operations of the Third Italian Army

SEIXAS

Corps. Subsequently he became chief of staff of an army corps on the Pasubio, commanded the Italian troops in the Asiago mountains, and (from March to November, 1918) was in charge of the artillery operations of the Italian Sixth Army Corps.

General Segre was highly praised by Italian and Allied military leaders as one of the most brilliant and skilled artillery experts. He was among the first to study the preventive use of artillery, as a defensive action, before the enemy launched his offensive. He employed his tactics and artillery methods to great advantage in the battles of Gorizia (August, 1916), Valbella (January, 1918), and in the battles of Piave (June, 1918).

After the armistice he was appointed chief of the Italian Military Mission to Vienna, about which he wrote an illuminating monograph. He was author also of various other studies and books on military subjects (Bonaparte in Syria, Vienna and Belgrade; The Manoeuvres in Alsace and Lorraine in 1914). He compiled a German-Italian military vocabulary.

SEIDEL, TOSCHA, violinist, b. Odessa, Russia, 1900. He studied violin with Max Fiedelmann, then at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and finally with Leopold Auer. His debut, in Oslo in 1915, was a sensation. For the next few years he toured Europe as child prodigy with extraordinary success. His American debut, in 1918, was equally successful. For the next fifteen years he toured the world frequently, and was recognized as one of the leading violin virtuosos of the period. For an extended period he abandoned the concert field for the radio, appearing frequently over the air in unusual recitals, including an important series devoted to the development of the violin concerto.

For a while he was advisory director of music of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Later he abandoned radio to devote himself to motion picture music, working for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios from 1938 to 1940, and for the Paramount Studios from 1940 to 1942. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Navy as first musician.

His brother, WLADIMIR SEIDEL, was a well known mathematician, a member of the faculty of the University of Rochester (New York).

SEIDLIN, JOSEPH, educator, b. Pavlograd, Russia, 1892. He arrived in the United States in 1906, studied at the University of Missouri and at Cornell University, and received the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1931. Seidlin taught mathematics at Alfred University, N. Y., where he was appointed director of the graduate division in 1939. His works include Elementary College Mathematics (1926) and A Critical Study of the Teaching of Elementary College Mathematics (1931). He was an associate editor of the National Mathematics Magazine.

SEIR, a mountainous region south of Palestine, extending from the lower part of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. According to the Bible, it was occupied by the sons of Seir the Morite (Gen. 36:20); the name seems to be eponymous, as Ramses III of Egypt (about 1200) says that he gained a victory over a Bedouin tribe known as Saira, or Seirim. This early group was apparently displaced by the Edomites after 1200; the Bible sources apparently do not distinguish between the Horites and Edomites in this area. The highest point of Seir is Mount Hor, the traditional site of the death and burial of Aaron (Num. 20:27-28).

Lit.: Robinson, Edward, Biblical Researches, vol. 2 (1841-43).

SEIRIM, see DEMONS.

SEIXAS, DAVID G., teacher of the deaf and dumb, b. Philadelphia, 1788; d. South Bend, Ind., about 1880. He served as a soldier during the war with Great Britain in 1812-14. In 1819 he was struck by the plight of the deaf children of Philadelphia. Though possessed of small means, he undertook to teach a group of them in his own home, making use of the lip-reading methods then in vogue. He was so successful that he enlisted the aid of Jacob and Joseph Gratz, as a result of which an asylum was established for deaf children in 1820. Seixas served as principal from May, 1820, to October, 1821. In January, 1821, he gave an exhibition of his pupils' progress before the Pennsyl vania legislature, which was so impressed that it voted $8,000 for the institution, which then became the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. He was one of the first in the country to make daguerreotypes.

Lit.: Morais, H. S., The Jews of Philadelphia (1894) 296-98.

SEIXAS, GERSHOM MENDEZ, patriot Jewish minister of the American Revolution, b. New York city, 1745; d. New York city, 1816. He was the son of Isaac Mendez and Rachel (Levy) Seixas. He became minister of Congregation Shearith Israel (Spanish and Portuguese Congregation) in 1766, and continued as such for about half a century.

Although most of the Christian ministers of New York sided with the king at the outbreak of the Revolution, Gershom Mendez Seixas at once espoused the patriot cause. At the approach of the British in August. 1776, he preached an English sermon, alluding to the fact that this might be the last service at the old Mill Street synagogue; and it was largely due to his influence that the congregation closed its synagogue rather than continue under the British.

Many of his congregation removed to Philadelphia, while Seixas and others went to Stratford, Connecticut. He took with him to that place the sacred scrolls and other ceremonial objects, and there he remained until about 1780,

SELDES, GEORGE

Bronze medal of Gershom Mendez Seixas, struck off by Columbia University in his

memory

when he went to Philadelphia in response to a call from a number of refugee patriots who were about to establish a permanent congregation there. This was the origin of Congregation Mickvé Israel of Philadelphia. At its dedication several prominent non-Jewish patriots attended, and during the ceremonies Seixas invoked the blessing of Almighty God on Congress and on General Washington.

When Pennsylvania adopted a religious test for office, Seixas and several members of his congregation addressed the Council of Censors in 1783, calling attention to the injustice of such a test, particularly in view of the services of Jews to the patriot cause. Westcott, the historian, states that this protest was influential in securing the subsequent modification of the test clause in the Constitution.

After the evacuation of New York by the British, Seixas returned there in 1784, and resumed his rabbinate. He was noted for his public spirit, and was one of the first ministers of any denomination to preach a regular Thanksgiving sermon. At Washington's inauguration as first president, he was one of the thirteen clergymen participating in the ceremony. Later he became one of the incorporators of Columbia College, and was one of its trustees continuously from 1787 to 1815. One of his addresses, still extant, was delivered in historic St. Paul's church, New York, in 1800. During the War of 1812, he warmly supported the administration.

He founded in 1802 the Hebra Hased Ve Amet for the relief of the sick and burial of the dead. This society, which is still in existence, placed a bronze tablet to his memory in the synagogue, on its centennial anniversary.

Seixas was twice married, his first wife being Elkalah Cohen, whom he married in 1775, and his second being Hannah Manuel, whom he married in 1786. He left a large family, and several of his descendants have been prominent in New York annals. One of his sons, David G. Seixas, founded the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in 1820, and another son, Joshua Seixas, was at one time professor of Hebrew at Andover.

Gershom Mendez Seixas is buried in the Chatham Square Cemetery on New Bowery, New York. His portrait appears on a bronze medal struck by Columbia College after his death, and a painting of him was hung at Columbia University on its 175th anniversary. LEON HUHNER.

Lit.: Huhner, in Jewish Comment (1902); Daly, Settlement of the Jews in North America (1893) 56; Morais, Jews of Philadelphia (1894) 11-13, 16-18; Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 4, pp. 204-9; No. 6, pp. 129-33; No. 35, pp. 189-205, 309-10. SEJM, JEWS IN, see PUBLIC OFFICE.

SEKLES, BERNHARD, composer and teacher, b.

Frankfort, Germany, 1872; d. Frankfort, 1934. After holding several minor posts as conductor of theatre orchestras, he became a member of the faculty of Hoch Conservatory in Frankfort in the department of theory (1896). He held this teaching post with great honor for many years, and in 1923 was appointed the director of the Conservatory. In 1933, because of the rise of the Nazi regime, he was compelled to withdraw from his directorial position and enter upon retirement.

Sekles composed works for the theatre, ballet, orchestra, and chamber music ensembles, some of which enjoyed considerable vogue in Germany. His Serenade, for eleven instruments, was performed by one hundred different European orchestras in 1909, and his opera, Scheherazade, was presented on fifty different stages. One of his orchestral compositions, Gesichte, was featured in the United States by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.

SELAH, a term of uncertain origin and meaning which occurs about seventy times in Psalms and three times in Habakkuk. As it usually occurs when there is a pause in a verse or a change in thought, it is believed to represent some sort of musical interval or flourish at the end of a section of a psalm. The Septuagint accordingly renders it in this sense as diapsalma; but Aquila, the Targum and Jerome interpret it to mean "forever." The root may be salal, "to lift up," that is, the word Selah would be a direction to the orchestra to increase its volume of sound.

Lit.: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1907) 699-700.

SELDES, GEORGE, newspaperman, editor and author, b. Alliance, N. J., 1890. He received his preliminary education in the public schools of that state. His real education began on February 9, 1909, when he went to work as a cub reporter for the Pittsburgh Leader, at that time under the editorship of Alexander P. Moore, who later became the United States Ambassador to Spain.

The eighteen-year-old Seldes entered the career of journalism full of enthusiasm for truth and confidence in the freedom of the press. As his education progressed he retained his enthusiasm for truth. This realistic enlightenment in journalism, economics and politics as practised in a large American city was temporarily interrupted in 1912 when he got together all his savings and spent a year at Harvard, where he was able to study truth in its more abstract and comfortable forms under Professors Copeland, Baker, Taussig and George Herbert Palmer. In the following year, however, he returned to what newspaper men sometimes refer to as "the second oldest profession in the world," and by the time the first World War broke out in Europe he was night editor of the Pittsburgh Post.

In 1916 he transferred his keen nose for news to a wider field and, more important, he took along an even keener brain and an incorruptible heart. After serving as managing editor of a New York publication known as Pulitzer's Review, he set sail for Europe where, for the next twelve years, his education progressed in direct proportion as his search for truth brought him into close contact with the great names and events in world history. When the United States entered that struggle he was appointed by General John J. Pershing to the press section of the United States Army, where he worked throughout the War.

On Armistice Day, as related in one of his autobiographical chapters, he and three other correspondents "took an oath on the battlefield that we would tell the truth the rest of our lives, that we would begin telling the truth in time of preparation of war, that we would do what was humanly possible to prevent the recurrence of another such vast and useless horror."

Then, just to make it easier, he went to work for the Chicago Tribune. From 1919 to 1928 he was head of