Joseph Schwarz (geographer)

The Schwarz family descended from one of the founders of the Jewish community Floss, namely from Eisik Feifas from Neustadt an der Waldnaab.

[6][7] Since his earliest youth, Schwarz had the desire to research the history, geography, geology, flora and fauna of the Holy Land himself on the spot and to work out a correspondence between names, places and terms mentioned in the Bible, Talmud and Midrash with the existing conditions in the 19th century.

At that time, there was only one significant Jewish work on this topic, namely kaftor wa-ferach ("Knauf and Flower") by Estori ha-Parchi (1282–1357), who had been traveling Palestine for seven years.

In Hungary, Schwarz had to wait a whole year because cholera had broken out and the quarantine regulations (Contumaz cordon) prevented him from continuing his journey.

[9] In 1837, Schwarz was one of the co-founders and then the administrators of Kolel Holland und Deutschland (Kollel Hod), initiated by Lazarus Bergmann, who had made Aliyah in 1834.

[clarification needed] As a result, his first work in Jerusalem was to observe from the Mount of Olives the exact times of sunrise and sunset for each day of the year.

This work was published in Jerusalem in 1843 under the title Tvu'ot Hashemesh (άבואות השמש The Cycles of the Sun).

The book was translated into English by Isaac Leeser and published in 1850 under the title A descriptive geography and brief historical sketch of Palestine, by Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, for sixteen years a resident in the holy land.

[15][16] The book contains geographical studies that show the names of localities, mountains, countries, rivers, etc., found in the Bible, Talmud and Midrash, not only in Palestine, but also in its surroundings, for example, in Lebanon, which was inhabited in the 19th century.

At the end of the book there is a detailed register of all occurring place names and other terms in German and Hebrew, a picture of Jerusalem and a map of Palestine.