WALLICH

WALLICH, German family that produced many scholars, rabbis, and physicians. The family origin can be traced to the 13th century. The name of Walch is first mentioned in 1349. It applies to a physician who appears in the register of Jews exiled from Worms and Speyer. ABRAHAM WALCH was the authority responsible for the observance of customs within the Worms community and signed, as chairman, the "Worms Judenordnung" in 1584. JOSEPH BEN MEIR WALLICH, also known as Pheibusch, obtained his doctorate at Padua around 1600 and was appointed by the emperor "Jew Doctor" of Worms. His medical activity is also mentioned in mainz about 1605. Soon thereafter, he had to defend himself before the Senate against a charge of poisoning, brought by his non-Jewish colleagues. ISAAC (d. 1632) left a catalog of folksongs of his day, written in Hebrew letters. MOSES WALLICH (d. 1739) is the author of the so-called "Ku-Bukh" published in Frankfurt in 1687, which is a collection of fables in the Yiddish dialect. From Worms the family spread to Metz, Frankfurt, Bonn, Coblenz, Mainz, Copenhagen, and many other places. In 1747, SOLOMON EMMANUEL WALLICH, who studied in Heidelberg, was appointed "Jew Doctor" in Mainz by the elector Frederick Charles. He, too, had to overcome opposition of non-Jewish as well as Jewish non-qualified colleagues. ABRAHAM WALLICH, who resided in Frankfurt, compiled a popular medical booklet named "Harmonica Wallichia Medicia," which was published only posthumously (1700) by his son, JUDAH LOEB, also a physician, under the title: Sefer Dimyon ha-Refu'ot, Terufot le-Khol Minnei Ḥola'im, u-Mashveh Refu'ot ha-Guf bi-Refu'ot ha-Nefesh. Because of the Wallichs' reputation, one of them was even called to the sickbed of Louis XV of France. The name is also mentioned in the records of other German cities, e.g., in an antisemitic leaflet with woodcuts representing the desecration of the host in passau (1470). NATHANIEL WALLICH (1787–1854), born in Copenhagen and well known as a physician and botanist, as well as director of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, specialized in the flora of India, Hindustan, and Burma. Other descendants were the Jerusalem pioneer and director of the Sha'arei Ẓedek hospital, Moshe (Moritz) wallach , and the chemist and Nobel Prize winner, otto wallach . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Wolf, Zur Geschichte der Juden in Worms (1862); F. Rosenberg, in: ZGJD, 2 (1888), 232–96. (B. Mordechai Ansbacher)