Baruch, Jacob

President ("Baumeister") of the Jewish congregation of Frankfort-on-the-Main at the beginning of the nineteenth century; father of Ludwig Börne. Jacob's father was financial agent of the elector of Cologne. Baruch is described by his contemporaries as a "man of sense, a courtier, sometimes orthodox, sometimes modern." Because of the confidence of his coreligionists and also because he had patrons at that court, he was elected to be the representative of the Frankfort community at the Congress of Vienna (Oct., 1814), and the bearer of a memorial concerning the rights of the Jews of Frankfort. A gift of 8,000 gulden, offered to Baruch by the community, in recognition of his services, was refused by him.

Bibliography:

  * Gutzkow, Börne's Leben, pp. 27 et seq., Hamburg, 1840;
  * Grätz, Gesch. der. Juden, xi. 296 et seq.;
  * Schnapper-Arndt, in Zeit. für die Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, iv. 214;
  * G. Brandes, Die Litteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts in Ihren Hauptströmungen, 1891, vi. 51, 52;
  * Schuman, Mimakor Israel, 1894, ii. 10 et seq.



S. A. F.