BERR, JACOB

BERR, JACOB (c. 1760–1855), French physician and publicist, nephew of berr isaac berr de turique . Besides gaining a reputation as a surgeon, Berr was a fervent advocate of equal rights for French Jews. In 1789 he published a refutation of an anonymous pamphlet which contested the right of Alsatian Jews to enlist in the National Guard. Later, in a letter addressed to the bishop of Nancy (1790), he criticized his uncle's project to preserve a special status for French Jews. According to E. Carmoly, Historie des médecins juifs (1844), Berr was the first French Jew to marry a Christian without forsaking Judaism.