Meïr Ḳadosh (Meïr Ben Jehiel Broda):

By: Gotthard Deutsch , M. Seligsohn

Moravian Talmudist; born at Ungarisch-Brod in 1593. He is known for his "Megillat R. Meïr" (Cracow, 1632), in which he narrates an adventure which happened to him when he was fifteen years old, and on account of which he acquired the epithet "Ḳadosh" (= "saint" or "martyr"). In 1608 he left his native town with eight other students in order to attend a yeshibah in Poland. On the way he was kidnaped by the waywode of Auspitz, who kept him in prison for fifteen weeks, and endeavored to torture him into accepting Christianity. Meïr remained firm, and was finally ransomed by the Jews of Cracow and placed in the yeshibah of Moses Meisels.