Oppeniheim(Er), David Ben-abraham

Oppeniheim(er), David ben-Abraham a noted German rabbi, was born at Worms in 1664 ar 1667. At the age of twenty-two he was called to Brisk, to become the head of the Jewish community. there. Four years later, in 1690, he received a call to the Jewish school at Nicolsburg, where he had received his own literary training, and in 1704 he was called as chief rabbi to Prague, where he died, Sept. 12, 1736. Oppenheimer is the author of a number of Talmudical works, and published an edition of the Pentateuch, with, the commentaries of Samuel ben-Mei'r (רש8 בם), Abr. ibn-Esra (רא8 בע), etc., and the Targums; in five vols. (Berlin, 1705), to which he wrote a lengthy preface; and which edition, entitled וַתִרגּוּמַים חוּמִשׁ עַם רש8 בם ורא8 בע, has been noticed in the Peristylium librorum novorum, etc., 14:99 sq. While his writings will claim the attention of the student in Talmudic lore, Oppenheimer's fame mainly depends on his large collection of Hebrew works, which now constitutes the famous Oppenheimeriana in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in England. It was this collection that gave Wolf thematerial for his famous Bibliotheca Hebraea (Hamburg, 1715-33, 4 vols. 4to), since he had 7000 volumes, inclusive of 1000 MSS., at his disposal, and it was estimated at $30,000, but in 1829 was bought for $9000 by a Hamburg merchant of opulence, who caused a catalogue of this collection to be published by Isr. Breszelau: Katalog der beruhmten Bibliothek, etc. (Hamburg, 1783). Another catalogue had previously been published (Hanover, 1764), and a third was brought out by Eis. Metz (קהַלִּת דָּוַד, Katalog der David Oppenheimzerschen Bibliothek, etc.) at Hamburg in 1826. — This catalogue gives a list of 1147 folios, 1708 quartos, 919 octavos, and 326 duodecimos, in all 4100 articles. A fourth one, edited by Jac. Goldenthal, furnishes an index to all books as given in Metz's catalogue (Leipsic, 1843). See Lebrecht, Die Oppenheimerische Bibliothek in Oxbrld, in the Magazinfur Literaturdes Auslandes, 1843, No. 135 sq.; L. L. B. d. Or. 1844, c. 247-250, 271-278, 472, 473; Zunz, Zur Geschichte u. Literatur, p. 235 sq.; Hartmann, in the periodical Jedidja, vol. vi (Berlin, 1820-21); Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:50 sq.; Introduction to the same work, p. 45 sq.; De Rossi, Dizionario storico degli autori Ebrei, s.v. (Germ. transl. by Hamberger); Wolf, Bibl. Hebrea, 1:290 sq.; 3:178 sq.; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 10:346 sq., 360; Jost, Gesch. d. Jud. u. s. Sekten, 3:281; Cassel, Leitfdden firjiid. Geschichte u. Literatur (Berlin, 1872), p. 105; Dessauer, Gesch. d. Israeliten (Breslau, 1870), p. 450;

Zunz, Literaturgeschichte dei synagogalen Poesie, p. 445; Lieben, Grabschrift u. Biographie des D. Oppenh., in ס8 גַּלעִד (Prague, 1856). (B. P.)