Veith, Johann Emanuel
VEITH, JOHANN EMANUEL
VEITH, JOHANN EMANUEL (1787–1876), writer, apostate Roman Catholic priest in Vienna. A native of *Chodova Plana (Kuttenplan), Bohemia, Veith received a medical degree in Vienna (1812), was baptized (1816), and became professor at the Veterinary School and its director (1819). At the time he came under the influence of the Catholic romantic philosopher Clemens Maria Hofbauer (1751–1820). Veith was ordained to the priesthood in 1821 and later played an important role in the Catholic revival. He became a popular preacher at St. Stephen's Cathedral (1832–45), and his sermons were often published. During the 1848 March revolution he founded the Wiener Katholikenverein, which edited a paper called Aufwaerts. Ein Volksblatt fuer Glauben, Freiheit und Gesittung. At the time of the *Damascus affair (1840), he publicly took an oath on the crucifix that there was no truth whatsoever in the *blood libel. This oath was much referred to in the apologetic literature of the 19th century. In the antisemitic propaganda of the 1880s, the truth of the incident was impugned; therefore, Ludwig August *Frankl secured a sworn deposition as to its veracity from Veith's baptized brother (1882); it appeared in Die Neuzeit (24 (1884), 441). Another brother, Joseph, was for many years secretary of the Vienna Jewish community and a contributor to Kokhevei Yiẓḥak.
bibliography:
H.L. Strack, Das Blut (1911), 173–6; Goerlich, in: Judaica, 9 (Ger., 1953), 47–52; M. Grunwald, Vienna (1936), index; H. Tietze, Die Juden Wiens (1935), index; L. Loew, Aron Chorin: eine biografische Skizze (1863), 136–7; E. Baumgarten (ed.), Die Blutbeschuldigung gegen die Juden (1883), 28–29; C. von Wurzbach, BiographischesLexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 50 (1884), 81–95. add. bibliography: K. Honek, Johann Emanuel Veith (1787–1876)… (1984); Ch. Stanek and Ch. Mache, in: Sudetendeutsche Familienforschung, 9:4 (2004), 125–31.
[Meir Lamed]