TEWELES, JUDAH

TEWELES, JUDAH (1808–1869), rosh yeshivah in Prague, a watchmaker by profession. He was a grandson of Lipmann Teweles, mintmaster of the kingdom of Bohemia. His father,   David, was a scholar and Judah wrote novellae at the age of 15. After learning his trade as an apprentice to a Christian watchmaker, he was accepted after much opposition as master in the Prague watchmakers' guild. He studied Talmud under nehemiah trebitsch and samuel landau . Although he held no official post, every Saturday he lectured to such Prague scholars as samson raphael hirsch , nathan adler , solomon judah rapoport , and Saul Isaac Kaempf, who accepted him as an authority. In 1863 he gave up the watchmakers' trade and accepted an appointment as rosh yeshivah. After his death, the afike jehuda society was founded in his honor. Significant of the esteem in which he was held was the remark at his funeral that the Torah itself was being buried. None of his writings was printed. (Meir Lamed)