Tyler, Moses Coit, 1835-1900, American writer on intellectual history, b. Griswold, Conn. He moved to Michigan as a boy. Graduated from Yale (1857) and from Andover Theological Seminary, he entered the Congregational ministry, but remained in it only two years. He was professor of English (1867-81) at the Univ. of Michigan and of American history (1881-1900) at Cornell Univ. and was an organizer of the American Historical Association. The two books upon which his fame chiefly rests are A History of American Literature, 1607-1765 (1878) and The Literary History of the American Revolution (1897). His life of Patrick Henry for the "American Statesmen" series and his Three Men of Letters (1895) also added to his reputation as a sympathetic and accurate biographer. His wide knowledge of both history and literature enabled him to write authoritatively on both.

Testament of Moses, an early Jewish apocalypse discovered in 1861 and extant only in an incomplete 6th cent. A.D. Latin manuscript. The original work was probably written in Hebrew in the early 1st cent. A.D. It contains reflections on Jewish history and experiences in Palestine during the 1st and 2d cent. B.C., with allusions to the revolt of the Maccabees, the Romans entering (63 B.C.) Jerusalem, and the rise of Herod the Great. The work, which reflects upon the apocalyptic motifs of the coming of God's Kingdom, contains a narrative of the priest Taxo and his sons, who are martyred as the eschatological age is about to break.

Moses, Robert, 1888-1981, U.S. public official, b. New Haven, Conn. He was appointed (1919) by Alfred E. Smith to the committee to study and revamp New York state government machinery, became (1924) chairman of the state council of parks, and served (1927-28) as New York secretary of state until a disagreement with Gov. Franklin Roosevelt forced him from that position. In 1933 he declined the Fusion nomination for mayor of New York City, and in 1934 he was, as Republican candidate for governor, defeated by Herbert H. Lehman. As New York City park commissioner (1934-60) and head of the Triborough Bridge and New York City Tunnel Authority (1946-68), as well as in other municipal offices, Moses was responsible for reorganizing the department of parks and for planning new and improved highways, parks, bridges, and beaches. While he has been widely praised for many of his accomplishments, he has also been criticized for tearing down established neighborhoods and replacing them with soulless towers and expressways in a quest for urban improvement. His books include Working for People (1956).

Moses, Grandma (Anna Mary Robertson Moses), 1860-1961, American painter, b. Washington co., N.Y., self-taught. She lived the arduous life of a farm wife, first in the Shenandoah Valley and later at Eagle Bridge, near Hoosick Falls, N.Y. In her late 70s, too frail to do hard work, she began to paint. Her pictures—called American primitives—are simple, gay scenes of farm life that struck the popular fancy and became widely known through prints and Christmas cards. She painted such subjects as The Old Oaken Bucket, Sugaring-Off, and Out for the Christmas Trees. Thanksgiving Turkey is in the Metropolitan Museum. At the age of 100 she illustrated " 'Twas the Night before Christmas" by Clement Moore (1962).

Moses Lake, city (1990 pop. 11,235), Grant co., central Wash., on Moses Lake; settled 1897, inc. 1938. A distribution and shipping point for the Columbia basin project, it produces are sugar, potatoes, milk, paper, rocket propellant, silicon, chemicals, and frozen foods.

Moses, Hebrew lawgiver, probably b. Egypt. The prototype of the prophets, he led his people in the 13th cent. B.C. out of bondage in Egypt to the edge of Canaan. The narrative in the Bible is the chief source of information on his life. His historical existence has been questioned, although there is nothing improbable about the general outline of the narrative after allowances for distortion over time are made. According to the biblical account, Moses was divinely protected as an infant, and as a young man he received a special calling at the burning bush. He lived in constant touch with God, who guided him in leading all Israel out of Egypt and across the desert. Through him God promulgated the Law, including the Ten Commandments, the criminal code, and the whole liturgical law. In his old age, when the Hebrews were at the Jordan River ready to cross, God gave Moses a view of the Promised Land from Mt. Pisgah; but he did not enter it, for he died and was buried in Moab. All this is recounted in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The authorship of these and Genesis (collectively called the Pentateuch) has been ascribed to Moses since earliest times; hence they are called the Books of Moses. The Law he promulgated is called the Mosaic law, the Torah. Few critics would argue that Moses actually authored the Pentateuch. Moses, one of the great names of Hebrew history, is referred to repeatedly in the Jewish, Christian, amd Muslim scriptures. In the Qur'an, Moses is a precursor of Muhammad, confirming God's revelation to Abraham. Among the Pseudepigrapha is a Testament of Moses.

Montefiore, Sir Moses Haim, 1784-1885, British-Jewish philanthropist, b. Italy. He married a Rothschild and became affiliated with the family's banking business. He accumulated a fortune on the London stock exchange and retired (1826) from business to devote himself to philanthropy and to the securing of political and civil emancipation for Jews in England. He was knighted (1837) while serving as sheriff of London. In 1846, he was made a baronet. As president (1835-74) of the Board of Deputies of British Jews he worked to alleviate discriminatory practices against Jews in Europe and the Middle East. He founded a hospital and girls' school in Jerusalem in 1855 and was influential in stimulating the rise of Jewish nationalism, the forerunner of modern political Zionism. The Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore appeared in 1890.

Mendelssohn, Moses, 1729-86, German-Jewish philosopher; grandfather of Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn. He was a leader in the movement for cultural assimilation. In 1743 he went to Berlin, where he studied and worked, becoming (1750) a partner in a silk merchant's firm. In 1754 he met Lessing, and a life-long friendship began, out of which grew Lessing's play Nathan the Wise (1779). Mendelssohn's philosophy anticipated the aesthetics of Kant and Friedrich Schiller. His writings include Philosophische Gespräche (1755), Philosophische Schriften (1761), Phädon (1767), and Jerusalem; oder, Über religiöse Macht und Judentum (1783). He also translated the Psalms and the Pentateuch into German.

Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim, 1707-47, Hebrew playwright, poet, and mystic, a leader of the renaissance of Hebrew literature, b. Padua. At 15 he formed a group to study kabbalistic mysteries (see kabbalah) and at 17 he wrote Samson and Delilah, a drama in verse. He studied the mystic book Zohar closely and claimed divine revelation for his own works of mysticism, most of which did not survive rabbinic denunciation. He wrote of love with biblical lyricism in the Migdal 'Oz (1727). His finest work is the allegorical Glory to the Righteous (1743).

Isserles, Moses ben Israel, c.1525-1572, Polish rabbi, annotator, and philosopher, b. Kraków, known as Remah. He is best known for his glosses on the code of Jewish law of Joseph ben Ephraim Caro. Isserles became chief rabbi in Kraków, where he established a yeshiva. In 1553 he built the Remah Synagogue, which is still in use. Isserles was controversial, but wielded wide influence. He quoted Aristotle, with whom he was familiar through the works of Maimonides and others. In his halakic works (see halakah) he stressed the importance of local custom. Since Karo, a Palestinian Jew, followed Sephardic traditions, Isserles's comments and additions, which followed Ashkenazic practice, helped Karo's code to become authoritative for Ashkenazic Jews.

Hess, Moses, 1812-75, German socialist. He was responsible for converting Engels to Communism, and he early introduced Marx to social and economic problems. Hess played a prominent role in transforming Hegelian theory by conceiving of man as the initiator of history rather than as a mere observer. He was reluctant to base all human destiny on economic causes and class struggle, and he came to see the struggle of races, or nationalities, as the prime factor of past history. In Rom und Jerusalem (1862, tr. 1958) he declared that the freeing and uniting of humanity was the mission of the Jewish people and urged the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Grove, Robert Moses (Lefty Grove), 1900-1975, American baseball player, b. Lonaconing, Md. A left-handed pitcher, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics (1925-33) and Boston Red Sox (1934-41). In 1931 his season record of 31 victories against four defeats (including 16 consecutive wins that equaled an American League record) earned him the league's Most Valuable Player award. In his 17 years he won 300 and lost 141 games for a lifetime winning percentage of .680; he led the league in earned run average nine times and in strikeouts seven times. Grove was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.

Grandma Moses: see Moses, Grandma.

Gaster, Moses, 1856-1939, Romanian Jewish scholar and writer, b. Bucharest. Expelled (1885) from Romania for championing the Jewish cause, he went to England and was lecturer at Oxford (1886-91), principal of Judith Montefiore College (1890-96), and chief rabbi of the Sephardic communities in England (1887-1919). He was active in the Zionist movement. Among his works on theological, historical, and literary subjects are History of Rumanian Popular Literature (1883) and a new edition of the Sephardic prayer book (5 vol., 1901-6). He was also a noted folklorist; a selection of his essays appeared in Studies and Texts in Folklore, Magic, Medieval Romance (3 vol., 1925-28), which covered many other subjects with which he was concerned. His son Theodore Herzl Gaster, 1906-, b. London, went to the United States and taught at Columbia Univ., among other educational institutions. His works concerning Judaism, comparative religion, and folklore include Passover: Its History and Traditions (1949), Purim and Hanukkah in Custom and Tradition (1950), Thespis: Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East (1950), Holy and Profane: Evolution of Jewish Folkways (1955), and Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament (1969).

Farmer, Moses Gerrish, 1820-93, American inventor, b. Boscawen, N.H. He helped build and maintain some of the pioneer telegraph lines of Massachusetts and experimented in multiple telegraphy. He exhibited (1847) an electric train that carried children, invented a process for electroplating aluminum, and installed (1851) in Boston the first electric fire-alarm service in any city. His later years were spent chiefly in developing the incandescent electric light. Twenty years before Edison's success he produced (1858-59) electric lamps, and in 1868, with a dynamo of his own invention, he illuminated a house in Cambridge, Mass., but was never able to perfect a marketable light.

Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba, c.1460-1497, Jewish philosopher and Talmudist, b. Crete, known also as Elijah Cretensis. He emigrated to Italy as a young man. He studied the Jewish, Islamic, Greek, and Latin classics, composing numerous translations and lecturing on philosophy in Padua, where he was the head of the yeshiva. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was among his Christian pupils, protecting him from his Christian enemies. After Pico's death (1494) he was forced to return to Crete, where he remained until his own death. In the controversy surrounding the question of religion versus philosophy, Delmedigo held that the two were not incompatible, and that any conflict should be resolved in favor of a philosophic interpretation of the religious text. His chief importance in the history of philosophy derives from his making the works of Averroës available in Latin to the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance.

Cleaveland, Moses, 1754-1806, American pioneer, b. Canterbury, Conn. After serving (1777-81) in the American Revolution, he practiced law in his native town and entered (1787) the state legislature. When the Connecticut Land Company purchased (1795) land in the Western Reserve region of Ohio, Cleaveland was chosen as one of the directors and surveyors of the company. In 1796 he led a party of men to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where he determined to develop the main settlement. The surveyors named the site Cleaveland, which name it bore until c.1830, when it became Cleveland.

Brown, Moses, 1738-1836, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I. He was associated with his brothers John, Joseph, and Nicholas in the family's mercantile activities before establishing (1790), with Samuel Slater, the first water-powered cotton mill in the United States. Brown, who became a Quaker in the early 1770s, was also a pioneering abolitionist. Largely because of his influence, Rhode Island College (later renamed Brown Univ. in honor of his nephew Nicholas) was moved in 1770 from Warren to Providence. Brown contributed generously to the college. Moses Brown School in Providence, a leading preparatory institution for boys, was established (1819) by Quakers on land donated by him.

Beach, Moses Yale, 1800-1868, American journalist, b. Wallingford, Conn. As a young man he invented a rag-cutting machine and a gunpowder engine. In 1838 he bought the New York Sun from his brother-in-law, Benjamin Day, for whom he had been working as production manager. The Sun's chief competitor in the penny-paper field was the New York Herald, edited by James Gordon Bennett. The two rival papers used ingenious means to get news fast—the Sun even kept carrier pigeons in a special house atop its building. Costs, especially during the Mexican War, mounted so much that at a conference in Beach's office the editors of a number of New York newspapers established the New York Associated Press to cooperate in securing the news. Beach is credited with the first European edition of an American paper, the weekly American Sun (1848), and with starting the newspaper syndicated article. In 1848 he turned the New York Sun over to his sons, Moses Sperry Beach and Alfred E. Beach.

Austin, Moses, 1761-1821, American pioneer, b. Durham, Conn. After developing lead mines in SW Virginia, he went to inspect (1796-97) prospects in Missouri, then Spanish territory. In 1798 he founded Potosi, Mo. and became a miner and trader there. Hard times caused him to go to Texas in 1820 and get the Spanish governor's permission to settle 300 families in Texas. The grant was confirmed in 1821, but Moses Austin died without realizing his settlement plans. His son, Stephen F. Austin, took up the plans.

(born Dec. 18, 1888, New Haven, Conn., U.S.—died July 29, 1981, West Islip, N.Y.) U.S. public official. He began his long career in public service in New York City's bureau of municipal research. In 1919 Gov. Alfred E. Smith appointed him chief of staff of the New York state reconstruction commission and, in 1924, head of both the New York and Long Island state park commissions. For 40 years in these and related positions, Moses supervised the vast expansion of the park system and the construction of numerous roads, bridges, tunnels, and housing projects in and around the city, reshaping it on a grand scale in often controversial ways.

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(born Dec. 18, 1888, New Haven, Conn., U.S.—died July 29, 1981, West Islip, N.Y.) U.S. public official. He began his long career in public service in New York City's bureau of municipal research. In 1919 Gov. Alfred E. Smith appointed him chief of staff of the New York state reconstruction commission and, in 1924, head of both the New York and Long Island state park commissions. For 40 years in these and related positions, Moses supervised the vast expansion of the park system and the construction of numerous roads, bridges, tunnels, and housing projects in and around the city, reshaping it on a grand scale in often controversial ways.

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orig. Anna Mary Robertson

(born Sept. 7, 1860, Greenwich, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 13, 1961, Hoosick Falls, N.Y.) U.S. painter. She began to produce embroidery pictures after her husband died in 1927. When arthritis impaired her embroidering, she turned to painting. She had her first exhibition in a drugstore in 1938 at age 78. She went on to produce more than 1,000 nostalgic, naively executed scenes of turn-of-the-century rural life (e.g., Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey, Over the River to Grandma's House). By 1939 her pictures were being exhibited internationally, and from 1946 they were regularly reproduced on holiday greeting cards.

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orig. Moses ben Menachem

(born Sept. 26, 1729, Dessau, Anhalt—died Jan. 4, 1786, Berlin, Prussia) German Jewish philosopher and scholar. The son of an impoverished scribe, he began his career as a tutor but eventually won fame for his philosophical writings, which would become influential among the 19th-century U.S. Transcendentalists. He combined Judaism with the rationalism of the Enlightenment, becoming one of the principal figures in the Haskala, which helped bring Jews into the mainstream of European culture. His works include Phädon (1767), a defense of the immortality of the soul, and Jerusalem (1783), on the relationship of religion and the state. His friend Gotthold Lessing based the protagonist of his celebrated drama Nathan the Wise on Mendelssohn. He was the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn.

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orig. Moses ben Maimon

(born March 30, 1135, Córdoba—died Dec. 13, 1204, Egypt) Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician. He was obliged to practice his faith secretly after a revolutionary and fanatical Islamic sect, the Almohads, captured Córdoba. To gain religious freedom, he settled in Egypt (1165), where he won fame for his medical skill and became court physician to the sultan Saladin. Maimonides's first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was an Arabic commentary on the Mishna. His other writings included a monumental code of Jewish law called the Mishne Torah (in Hebrew) and a classic work of religious philosophy, The Guide of the Perplexed (in Arabic), which was influenced by the teachings of Aristotle and called for a more rational approach to Judaism. It also sought to reconcile science, philosophy, and religion. He is considered the greatest intellectual figure of medieval Judaism.

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(flourished 14th–13th century BC) Prophet of Judaism. According to the Book of Exodus, he was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents, who set him afloat on the Nile in a reed basket to save him from an edict calling for the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Found by the pharaoh's daughter, he was reared in the Egyptian court. After killing a brutal Egyptian taskmaster, he fled to Midian, where Yahweh (God) revealed himself in a burning bush and called Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. With the help of his brother Aaron, Moses pleaded with the pharaoh for the Israelites' release. The pharaoh let them go after Yahweh had visited a series of plagues on Egypt, but then sent his army after them. Yahweh parted the waters of the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to pass, then drowned the pursuing Egyptians. Yahweh made a covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai and delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses, who continued to lead his people through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness until they reached the edge of Canaan. He died before he could enter the Promised Land. Authorship of the first five books of the Bible (see Torah) is traditionally ascribed to him.

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orig. Moses ben Menachem

(born Sept. 26, 1729, Dessau, Anhalt—died Jan. 4, 1786, Berlin, Prussia) German Jewish philosopher and scholar. The son of an impoverished scribe, he began his career as a tutor but eventually won fame for his philosophical writings, which would become influential among the 19th-century U.S. Transcendentalists. He combined Judaism with the rationalism of the Enlightenment, becoming one of the principal figures in the Haskala, which helped bring Jews into the mainstream of European culture. His works include Phädon (1767), a defense of the immortality of the soul, and Jerusalem (1783), on the relationship of religion and the state. His friend Gotthold Lessing based the protagonist of his celebrated drama Nathan the Wise on Mendelssohn. He was the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn.

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orig. Moses ben Maimon

(born March 30, 1135, Córdoba—died Dec. 13, 1204, Egypt) Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician. He was obliged to practice his faith secretly after a revolutionary and fanatical Islamic sect, the Almohads, captured Córdoba. To gain religious freedom, he settled in Egypt (1165), where he won fame for his medical skill and became court physician to the sultan Saladin. Maimonides's first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was an Arabic commentary on the Mishna. His other writings included a monumental code of Jewish law called the Mishne Torah (in Hebrew) and a classic work of religious philosophy, The Guide of the Perplexed (in Arabic), which was influenced by the teachings of Aristotle and called for a more rational approach to Judaism. It also sought to reconcile science, philosophy, and religion. He is considered the greatest intellectual figure of medieval Judaism.

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