1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perles, Joseph

by Israel Abrahams

PERLES, JOSEPH (1835–1894), Jewish rabbi, was born in Hungary in 1835, and died at Munich in 1894. He was one of the first rabbis trained at the new type of seminary (Breslau). Perles’ most important essays were on folk-lore and custom. There is much that is striking and original in his history of marriage (Die jüdische Hochzeit in nachbiblischer Zeit, 1860), and of mourning customs (Die Leichenfeierlichkeiten im nachbiblischen Judenthum, 1861), his contributions to the sources of the Arabian Nights (Zur rabbinischen Sprach-und Sagenkunde, 1873), and his notes on rabbinic antiquities (Beiträge zur rabbinischen Sprach-und Altertumskunde, 1893). Perles’ essays are rich in suggestiveness, and have been the starting-point of much fruitful research. He also wrote an essay on Nachmanides, and a biography and critical appreciation of Rashba (1863). (I. A.)