Alexander Robert Iliewitz
Alexander was orphaned of his father before he was born, and had a difficult childhood. When still young he was obliged to leave home in order to pursue medical training. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in Berditcheff, where he lived for three years. He then removed to Odessa, and afterwards to Galicia, where he stayed eight years with a surgeon. After these years of apprenticeship he went on to study in a college at Lemberg, passed the examinations and received his medical diplomas.
At that time he became seriously ill and became occupied with thoughts of his soul. He began to pray to God in simple faith, asking him to reveal himself to him.
After he recovered from this illness, Alexander moved to Pesth where he met missionaries who taught him of the Messiah. He came to faith in the Messiah and was baptised in 1845. In 1847 he was sent to Jerusalem to work as assistant medical missionary, and he served in this capacity until within a year or two of his death at the age of 80 in 1895. He is mentioned in this capacity in the Jerusalem Bishopric documents (click for link to book), by William H. Hechler.
" Much might be said with reference to the important work performed by the
Hospital and its faithful Head, as also of the labours of Mr. Iliewitz, the surgeon,
who, in the absence of Dr. Chaplin, now in England, is in charge of the Hospital."
The Medical Mission of the London Jews Society has been one of the most
beneficial efforts made for the good of Jerusalem. As stated above, a Medical
Mission was began in 1824. In the Hospital several hundred in door patients
and several thousand out-door cases are annually relieved;
and it was for many years the only source of medical aid for the whole city.
Bernstein writes of him, that he was "not a theologian, or a Talmudical scholar, and was not fitted for learned disputations with highly educated Jews. But he had a simple, trustful faith, which made him never tired of proclaiming the way of salvation. A learned rabbi, widely celebrated for his profound knowledge of the Kabbalah, complained that he had dared to preach Christ to him. 'I did not send for him', said the rabbi indignantly, 'to tell me that the Messiah has come. I sent for him to prescribe for my bad feet.' Alexander was in a special way the friend and helper of the poor and unlearned."
Iliewicz died in Jerusalem on 17th June 1895 and is buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery.
August Wilhelm Eduard Theodor Henschel 1790-1856
German physician and botanist; born in Breslau Dec. 20, 1790; died there July 24, 1856; educated at the medical and surgical college at Breslau, the Ober-Collegium, Berlin, and the universities of Heidelberg and Breslau (M.D. 1813). He practised medicine in Breslau from 1813 to 1816, and in the latter year was appointed privat-docent in pathology at the university of that city. Henschel became a believer at the age of 30. His first important work on the sexuality of plants was published soon after. This work attracted considerable attention in the world of science. He was appointed assistant professor at his alma mater in 1821, and in 1832 professor of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Henschel is best known through his researches into the history of medicine, the results of which he published in the medical periodical Janus (see below).
Works:
Janus, Zeitschrift für Gesch. und Litteratur der Medicin, Breslau, 1846-49
Vertheidigung der Entzündlichen Natur des Croups (in Horn's "Archiv für Med. Erfahrung," 1813); Commentatio de Aristotele Botanico et Philosopho, Breslau, 1824;
Ueber Einige Schwierigkeiten in der Pathologie der Hundswuth, Breslau, 1829;
Zur Gesch. der Medicin in Schlesien, ib. 1837;
Das Medicinische Doctorat, Seine Nothwendigkeit und Seine Reform, ib. 1848.
Avraham and Rivka Kiel
Dr. Kiel and his wife and daughters were baptised in 1844 by Bishop Alexander of Christ Church, Jerusalem. Avraham Kiel was a medical doctor. He had come to Jerusalem on a spiritual quest, sure that he would find the meaning of life and the truth of Judaism in Palestine, the land of his fathers. But he was disappointed with what he found in Jerusalem no less than with what he had left behind. At about this time he came in contact with members of the London Society in Jerusalem, and heard the Gospel for the first time. He came to faith, together with his wife and daughters, who had to suffer much opposition from their neighbours and former friends. After some time Kiel moved to Safed to work in the medical mission there. His wife died in 1848.
Ben Oliel, Avraham 1826
Ben Oliel was a well-known family in Oran, north Africa; baptized by the Wesleyans in Gibraltar. The portrait is of Moses Ben-Oliel. Avraham was born in Tangier in 1826, came to faith at the age of 18 while attending a Yeshiva. He joined the British Society four years later and served in Europe, Asia and Africa for fifty years, particularly in Rome and Jaffa.
For a long time his face was set to go to Jerusalem, and when the British Society declined to send him, he left Jaffa and established the Jerusalem Christian Union Mission in 1890. His ripe experience, thorough scholarship, linguistic attainments, and brilliant intellect, fitted him for this difficult field; and his long association with Sephardim Jews seemed a specially providential preparation for his work among this class in the Holy City. His gifted wife was a true helpmeet, and their home became the center of various activities, including preaching services, mothers' meetingsand sewing classes. His advanced years forbade the expectation of a lengthy service in this new field. He was obliged to retire in 1897 and died in America not many years after.
He was a true man of God, an ardent lover of his nation, whose spiritual welfare he endeavoured to promote by word and pen all through a long life.
Ben Oliel, Maxwell Mochluff was ordained in 1860. After 1893 he conducted a misson to the Jews at Kilburn, by writing and lecturers. Though conversant with Jewish and Christian literature, and a prolific writer on the Jewish subject.
Ben Oliel, Moses, served for many years as Bible agent of the B. & F.B.S. at Oran
Benjamin Davidson -1871
Davidson was born in Posen, but came to faith in London. He was a close friend of Ridley Herschell, who may have been instrumental in his coming to faith. In 1843 they both belonged to a Hebrew Christian Prayer Union, which used to meet once a month for prayer.
Though known most for his work as a grammarian and lexicologist, Davidson also worked as a missionary to his people. In 1847 he was appointed Principal of the Missionary Training College of the British Society when the Society founded that institution in London in 1847. He also used to instruct those who desired to learn more of the faith. In 1866 he laboured in Vienna. In Bordeaux he stirred up an interest in the Jews among evangelical Christians, so that they founded the "Societé d'amis d'Israel." In 1871 he became Superintendent of the Home for Aged Converts and for Orphans, where he died the same year.
Works:
Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon
Syriac Reading Lessons with Analysis
Chaldee Reading Lessons
English edition of Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar
Englishman's Hebrew Concordance (editor)
Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures (published posthumously)
Benjamin Friedlander 1773-
Benjamin, the son of David Friedlaender (1750-1834), the contemporary and friend of Mendelssohn often considered a forerunner of Reform Judaism. He argued that prayers for friends and country should be substituted for the messianic hope, and that secular law should be studied rather than Talmud. He also was tireless in his efforts for Jewish political and civil rights in Prussia. At one point David had published an open letter proposing he and others undergo baptism in order to obtain political rights. His letter opened up a Pandora's box of rage and insult on both sides.
Benjamin's children however, came to a true faith, and he and his wife followed in their old age. He was 61 when he became a JBY.
This was evidently not a "conversion of convenience" as was regrettably so popular in those days. The whole family were known to be decided followers of Yeshua. One of the sons, a historian and numismatist, Julius Friedlaender (1913-1844), wrote a history of the Reformation, and a history of Numismatics and other historical works.
Sources:
Arendt, Hannah. Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess, ed. Liliane WeissbergBernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshihit, new edition 1999.
Graetz, Heinrich. History of the Jews , trans. Bella Löwy (Philadelphia: JPS, 1895), vol. 5, pp. 421-428.
Hess, Jonathan M. Germans, Jews and the Claims of Modernity (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 169-203.
Winston, Clara (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), p. 88.
Benzion Benedix 1839-
Benedix was a physician from a small town near Kiev, Russia. He lived in Rumania for many years, but came to faith in Berlin in 1863. Benzion studied medicine and graduated from the University of Würzburg in 1867. He went to England, and having entered the service of the British Society was sent out to Rumania in 1874 as a medical missionary to the Jews.
In 1876 he was transferred to Odessa, Russia and served there for ten years, becoming well known as a medical practitioner and as a missionary. He left Odessa for Constantinople in 1886, but was not known as a missionary after 1888. He eventually emigrated to the United States.
(by Herman Rosenthal and Peter Wiernik, Jewish Encyclopedia)
Works
Orah ẓedakah a collection of proverbs and parables in the style of Ecclesiastis, (Odessa, 1876);
Kol Kore el Bet Israel (translated from the English by Dr. Benzion, London, 1868);
Tiferet Yisra'el a translation into Judæo-German of Jos. H. Ingraham's "Prince of the House of David," (Odessa, 1883-86); Der Falsche Kohengodel a translation into Judæo-German of Silvio Pellico's drama, Ester d'Engedi
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. New edition by Keren Ahvah Meshichit, 1999
de Le Roi, J. F. A. Geschichte der Evangelischen Judenmission, ii. 270-272, 281, Leipsic, 1899;
The Jewish Encyclopeida (online)
Van Straalen, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus. s.v.H. R. P. Wi
Zeitlin, Bibl. Hebraica, p. 27;
Bernard Hermann 1785-1857
Hermann as born to Austrian parents in Human, a small town in southern Russian (at that time Poland) in 1785. His father was a believing Jew who raised him to love the Messiah of Israel. It seems Bernard was raised with a strong Jewish identity, as by the time he was grown he was fluent in Hebrew and able to teach the language at the University of Cambridge.
In 1825 Bernard moved to England and eventually found employment in Cambridge as a private teacher (1830). In 1837 he succeeded to the post "Præceptor Linguæ Sacræ".
He died at Cambridge, aged seventy-two, on Nov. 15, 1857, after teaching there with marked success for twenty-seven years.
Works:
The Creed and Ethics of the Jews Exhibited in Selections from the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah of Maimonides (1832)
Ha-Menahel (The Guide of the Hebrew Student), 1839.
Me Menuḥot (Still Waters), an easy, practical Hebrew grammar, in two volumes, (together with P. H. Mason - afterward fellow and president of St. John's College)
Lectures on the Book of Job, edited by his former pupil, Frank Chance (afterward a member of the Old Testament Revision Committee), appeared in one volume in 1864, but the editor's promised appendix was never published.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. New edition 1999 by Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem.
Thompson Cooper, ‘Bernard, Herman Hedwig (1785–1857)’, rev. Gerald Law, first published Sept 2004, 160 words
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2243
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/cemetery/listed.htm (Hermann's tomb has Hebrew engraving on the bottom)
Carl Caspari 1814-1892
Carl Caspari was born into a devout Jewish family in Dassau, Germany, in 1814. His father was a merchant. He received a good education as a young man, as the Jewish community in Dessau placed great store on education. The Jewish seminary there was considered so good that Christian students attended also. Services in the synagogue were held in German, something unhead of at the time. Caspari left home in 1834 to study Hebrew and Arabic at the University of Leipzig, producing an Arabic grammar book which for many years was the standard work in its field.
While at the university, he was powerfully confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ as both Lord and Messiah. His former schoolmate, Granel, was a believing Christian and managed to persuade Caspari to read the New Testament carefully. Thus began a time of spiritual struggle; Franz Delitzsch, translator of the New Testament into Hebrew, counseled him during this time, together with Granel. Caspari found the evidence irrefutable and believed in Jesus as his living saviour.
Caspari continued his studies in Berlin until the year 1847, when he was urged by Gisle Johnson, a visiting young scholar from Norway, to apply for a vacant chair as lecturer at the University of Christiania in Norway. He did so, was appointed, and spent the rest of his life as a lecturer and professor of the Old Testament.
His linguistic ability enabled him speedily to master the Norwegian language, so that he was able to begin lectures in less than a year. He was made full professor in 1857. His lectures were inspiring, thorough, earnest, and bore evidence of a living Christian faith.
In 1861, Carl Paul Caspari became the first chairman of the Committee for the Mission among the Jews, which had been established in Oslo that year. Caspari’s work as a scholar and a believing Jew served to enrich three generations of Norwegian pastors, bringing the Psalms and Prophets to light in a fresh, dynamic way. Under the auspices of the Norwegian Bible Society he assisted in making a new translation of the Old Testament, which was completed for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Society, May 26, 1891; at the time of his death in 1892 he was working on the New Testament. The Caspari Center in Jerusalem was named in his honor.
Works:
"A commentary on Obadiah" (in Delitzsh and Caspari's Exegetisches Handbuch zu den Propheten des Alten Bundes, Leipzig, 1842);
Grammatica Arabica (2 parts, Leipzig, 1844–48; 5th Germ. ed., by August Müller, Halle, 1887; Eng. ed., by W. Wright, London, 1859–62, 1874–75; by W. Robertson Smith and M. J. de Goeje, Cambridge, 1896–98)
Beiträge zur Einleitung in das Buch Jesaia und zur Geschichte der jesaianischen Zeit (vol. ii, of Delitzseh and Caspari's Biblisch-theologische und apologetisch-kritische Studien, Berlin, 1848)
Ueber den syrischephraimitischen Krieg unter Jotham und Ahas (Christiania, 1849)
Ueber Micha den Morasthiten und seine prophetische Schrift (2 parts, 1851–52)
Ungedruckte, unbeachtete und wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel (3 vols., 1866–75)
Zur Einführung in das Buch Daniel (Leipzig, 1869)
Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel (Christiania, 1879); an edition of Martin of Braga's De correctione rusticorum (1883)
Kirchenhistorische Anecdota nebst neuen Ausgaben patristischer und kirchlich-mittelalterlicher Schriften (1883)
Eine Augustin fälschlich beigelegte Homilia de sacrilegiis (1886)
Briefe, Abhandlungen und Predigten aus den zwei letzten Jahrhunderten des kirchlichen Alterthums und dem Anfang des Mittelalters (1891)
Das Buch Hiob in Hieronymus's Uebersetzung (Christiania, 1893).
Der Glaube an der Trinität Gottes in der Kirche des ersten christlichen Jahrhunderts nachgewiesen (Leipzig, 1894).
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999.
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, vol. II (public domain)
Skarsaune, Oscar. www.caspari.com/page.php?content=about/history&nav=about retrieved April 30, 2009
Jewish Encyclopedia, on-line
David Ginsburg 1831-1914
Ginsburg was a Hebrew and biblical scholar who was the foremost authority in England on the Masorah (authoritative Jewish tradition concerning the correct text of the Hebrew Bible).
He was born in Warsaw Dec. 25, 1831 and received a traditional yeshiva education. He became a believer as a young man (some report him to have been 15, others more logically as 25), moved to England and continued his study of the Hebrew scriptures with special emphasis on the megillot. According to Dunlop (Memories of Gospel Triumphs Among the Jews) Ginsburg was trained in the British Society Missionary college, together with other well known scholars such as Salkinson. He became a missionary to the Jews associated with the Liverpool branch of the London Society's Mission to the Jews but retired in 1863 because of ill health, and devoted himself entirely to literary work.
Besides translations and commentaries of the Song of Songs, 1857, and Ecclesiastes, 1861, he published essays on the Karaites, 1862; and Essenes, 1864; and a full account in English of the Cabala, 1865. He then devoted himself to Masoretic studies, publishing the text and translation of Elias Levita's "Massoret ha-Massoret" in 1867, and of Jacob b. Hayyim's "Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible" in the same year.
The learned Jacob ben Hayyim, had in 1524-1525 published the second Rabbinic Bible, containing what has ever since been known as the Masorah; but neither were the materials available nor was criticism sufficiently advanced for a complete edition. Ginsburg took up the subject almost where it was left off by those early pioneers, and collected portions of the Masorah from the countless manuscripts scattered throughout Europe and the East. Ginsburg published Facsimiles of Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (1897 and 1898), and The Text of the Hebrew Bible in Abbreviations (1903), in addition to a critical treatise on the relationship of the so-called Codex Babylonicus of A.D. 916 to the Eastern Recension of the Hebrew Text (1899, for private circulation). In the last-mentioned work he seeks to prove that the St. Petersburg Codex, for so many years accepted as the genuine text of the Babylonian school, is in reality a Palestinian text carefully altered so as to render it conformable to the Babylonian recension. He subsequently undertook the preparation of a new edition of the Hebrew Bible for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
He was elected a member of the Board of Revisers of the Old Testament in 1870, and devoted himself to the collation of all the extant remains of the Masorah, three volumes of which he published in 1880-86. Based upon these collations, he edited a new text of the Old Testament for the Trinitarian Bible Society, which was published in 1894 under the title "The Massoretico-Critical Text of the Hebrew Bible." To this he wrote an introduction, published together with a volume of facsimiles of the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, in 1897. His method of settling the Masoretic text has been somewhat severely criticized by Blau in the "Jewish Quarterly Review" (viii. 343 et seq.).
Ginsburg wrote the most elaborate account printed in English of the Moabite Stone (1871), and was instrumental in exposing forgeries of Shapira.
He died in 1914 in Middlesex, England.
Works:
Song of Songs, translation and historical and critical commentary (1857) - to read online
Tehilim (Psalms) - to read online
Cohelet translation and historical and critical commentary (Ecclesiastes) (1861)- to read online
Introduction of the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible - to read online
The Massoreth ha-Massoreth of Elias Levita : being an exposition of the Massoretic notes on the Hebrew Bible; or, The ancient critical apparatus of the Old Testament in Hebrew (1867) - to read online
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ 1909. New edition by Keren Ahvah Meshichit, Jerusalem 1999
De le Roi, Geschichte der Evangelischen Judenmission, iii. 129;
Dunlop, J. Memories of Gospel Triumphs, pp. 368–373, London, 1894;
Encyclopedia Britannica, Supplement, s.v.
Gartenhaus. Jacob. Famous Hebrew Christians. Baker Book House, 1979.
Men and Women of the Time, 1899;
For a different perspective and interesting links: http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-christian-david-ginsburg.html
Johann August Wilhelm Neander
German theologian and church historian.
He became a theologian and a great authority on church history, much loved by his pupils. His many works, several of which have been translated into English, were collected in one edition in 1862.
He was born at Göttingen as David Mendel. His father, Emmanuel Mendel, is said to have been a Jewish pedlar, but August adopted the name of Neander on his baptism as a Protestant Christian. While still a child, he moved with his mother to Hamburg. He was known for the simplicity of his personal appearance and the oddity of his manners, but even more for his hard work and intellectual accomplishment. From the grammar school (Johanneum) he passed to the gymnasium, where the study of Plato appears especially to have engrossed him. Considerable interest attaches to his early companionship with Wilhelm Neumann and certain others, among whom were the writer Karl August Varnhagen von Ense and the poet Adelbert von Chamisso.
Baptized on February 25, 1806, in the same year Neander went to Halle to study divinity. Here Friedrich Schleiermacher was then lecturing. Neander found in him the inspiration he needed, while Schleiermacher found a congenial pupil, one destined to propagate his views in a higher and more effective Christian form. Before the end of that year, the events of the War of the Fourth Coalition forced Neander to move to Göttingen. There he continued his studies, made himself an expert on Plato and Plutarch, and became especially advanced in theology under the venerable GJ Planck. The impulse communicated by Schleiermacher was confirmed by Planck, and he seems now to have realized that the original investigation of Christian history was to form the great work of his life.
Having finished his university course, he returned to Hamburg, and passed his examination for the Christian ministry. After an interval of about eighteen months, however, he decided on an academic career, which began at Heidelberg, where two vacancies had occurred in the theological faculty of the university. He went there as a teacher of theology in 1811; and in 1812 he became a professor. In the same year (1812) he published his monograph Über den Kaiser Julianus und sein Zeitalter. The fresh insight into the history of the church evinced by this work at once drew attention to its author, and even before he had terminated the first year of his academical labours at Heidelberg, he was called to Berlin, where he was appointed professor of theology. His pupils included Edmond de Pressensé.
In the year following his appointment he published a second monograph Der Heilige Bernhard und sein Zeitalter (Berlin, 1813) and then in 1818 his work on Gnosticism (Genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten gnostischen Systeme). A still more extended and elaborate monograph than either of the preceding followed in 1822, Der Heilige Johannes Chrysostomus und die Kirche besonders des Orients in dessen Zeitalter, and again, in 1824 another on Tertullian (Antignostikus). He had in the meantime begun his great work, to which these efforts were only preparatory studies. The first volume of his Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche embracing the history of the first three centuries, made it appearance in 1825. The others followed at intervals--the fifth, which appeared in 1842, bringing down the narrative to the pontificate of Boniface VIII. A posthumous volume edited by CFT Schneider in 1852, carried it on to the period of the council of Basel.
Besides this great work he published in 1832 his Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung der christlichen Kirche durch die Apostel, and in 1837 his Das Leben Jesu Christi, in seinem geschichilichen Zusammenhang und seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung, called forth by the famous Life of David Strauss. In addition to all these he published Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des Christentums (1823-1824, 2 vols., 1825, 3 vols., 1846); Das Eine und Mannichfaltige des christlichen Lebens (1840); papers on Plotinus, Thomas Aquinas, Theobald Thamer, Blaise Pascal, John Henry Newman, Blanco White and Thomas Arnold, and other occasional pieces (Kleine Gelegenheitsschriften, 1829), mainly of a practical, exegetical and historical character. He died on 14 July 1850, worn out and nearly blind with incessant study. After his death a succession of volumes, representing his various courses of lectures, appeared (1856- 1864), in addition to the Lectures on the History of Dogma (Theologische Vorlesungen), admirable in spirit and execution, which were edited by JL Jacobi in 1857.
Neander's theological position can only be explained in connection with Schleiermacher, and the manner in which he modified and carried out the principles of his master. Characteristically meditative, he rested on the great central truths of Christianity, and recognized their essential reasonableness and harmony. Alive to the claims of criticism, he strongly asserted the rights of Christian feeling. "Without it," I he emphatically says, "there can be no theology; it can only thrive in the calmness of a soul consecrated to God." This explains his favourite motto: "Pectus est cuod theologum facit."
His Church History (Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche) remains the greatest monument of his genius. In this Neander's chief aim was everywhere to understand what was individual in history. In the principal figures of ecclesiastical history he tried to depict the representative tendencies of each age, and also the types of the essential tendencies of human nature generally. His guiding principle in dealing both with the history and with the present condition of the church was "that Christianity has room for the various tendencies of human nature, and aims at permeating and glorifying them all; that according to the divine plan these various tendencies are to occur successively and simultaneously and to counterbalance each other, so that the freedom and variety of the development of the spiritual life ought not to be forced into a single dogmatic form" (Otto Pfleiderer).
Several of his books went through multiple editions and were translated into English.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
III. memorials of Eleanor Elliott BY KATHERINE A. FORREST, London 1894
ON THE DEATH OF JOHN NEANDER, an illustrious German scholar, named David Mendel, but afterwards baptized as John Neander on his conversion to Christianity, because the Gospel of St. John had been to him the word of life, and Neander means new man.
"Let us make ready to go home,"
Neander said on his death day,
When the tired soul would flee away
To rest, because the hour was come.
To rest among the blessed dead
Until the dawn of morning light,–
"Now let us go to sleep,–good-night,"
With dying voice Neander said.
And then his spirit passed away
In sleep that deepened into death,
Calm as a sleeping infant's breath,
Calm as the death of summer day.
An offspring he of Israel's line,
Of princely Israel's hallowed race,
But born again of heavenly grace,
And sealed with sacramental sign.
The dew of that baptismal wave
Upon his spirit still abode,
"He died to self, he lived to God,"
– So spake they of him at his grave.
The loving heart is dead and chill,
The hand that gave can give no more;
But still the mind of richest lore–
The noble mind, endureth still.
Engraved in many a shining word,
His thoughts of wisdom yet endure,
Of holy wisdom, high and pure,
Breathing the truth of Christ his Lord.
Calm was his spirit's parting breath,
Serene his soul in days of strife
A peaceful death, a lovely life,
Blest are such souls in life and death.
From http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/kf1893/ch11.htm
Dr. Bernard Jean Bettelheim (1811 – 1870)
Bernard Jean Bettelheim was born into a noted Jewish family in Pressburg, Hungary, in 1811. He studied, from a very early age, towards the goal of becoming a rabbi. It is said that by the age of ten he could read and write in French, German, and Hebrew, though if his biographies are to be believed, he left home at 12 to become a teacher and continued his studies at five different schools.
Bettelheim earned a degree in medicine from a school in Padua, Italy in 1836. He traveled much in these years, practicing medicine in a number of Italian cities, aboard an Egyptian naval vessel, and in a Turkish town called Magnesia, where, in 1840, he began studying Christianity. He converted to Christianity, and was baptized a short time later, in Smyrna.
During his time in Turkey, he held theological debates with local rabbis and published pamphlets on the matter in French. After facing salary disputes in Constantinople and resigning his post, Bettelheim made his way to London, where he hoped to gain authorization from the Church of England to preach to the Jewish communities of the Mediterranean. During this time, he became associated with a number of other prominent missionaries to the Far East, including Dr. Peter Parker, Karl Gützlaff, and missionary to Africa, Dr. David Livingstone. Following several months of disputes with the Church of England, who refused to recognize his European degrees, insisted he study at Oxford or Cambridge, and were in any case quite suspect of someone who had so recently converted from Judaism, Bettelheim abandoned that particular quest.
Bettelheim became a naturalized British subject sometime later, married the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and, in 1844, his first child was born. Following further disputes with various Christian organizations, including the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, he accepted an appointment as medical missionary to Naha with the Loochoo Naval Mission. Leaving from Portsmouth on 9 September 1845, the Bettelheims arrived in Hong Kong in January the following year. Their second child, Bernard James Gutzlaff Bettelheim, was born at sea while rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
After several months in Hong Kong, studying Chinese and mingling with British missionary society there, Bettelheim departed for Okinawa with his family in April 1846. At that time, Japan forbade the entrance of foreigners, and external trade was strictly forbidden.
Dr. Bettelheim arrived in Okinawa on April 30, 1846, accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, their infant daughter, Victoria Rose, their infant son, Bernard James, ‘Miss Jane’, a tutor and schoolmistress, and Liu Yu-Kan, a Cantonese translator, on board the British ship Starling. After resisting their disembarkation, the local officials offered the family shelter in the Gokoku-ji temple for the night, where they ended up staying for seven years.
Bettelheim offered to teach a variety of subjects, including English, geography, and astronomy, and to offer medical services for the locals, but was refused by the local authorities. There was nonetheless some success at administering western medicine and also at preaching the gospel through this means, as a number of baptisms were recorded. A monument in Dr. Bettelheim’s memory was erected in May 1926 in Naha, Okinawa, and the Anglican Diocese of Okinawa recently dedicated ‘Bettelheim Hall’ in recognition for his pioneering medical work. During his time on the island, he also made the first translation of parts of the Bible into Chinese and Japanese, and compiled a Japanese grammar and dictionary.
On the other hand, his attitude and actions towards the Okinawan authorities has been described as ‘rude and extravagant’, and one foreign visitor to the island noted that the Bettelheim family were ‘living in a state of undisguised hostility’ with the indigenous authorities.
Dr. Bettelheim’s knowledge of the local dialect and culture enabled him to interpret for any Westerners who docked at Okinawa. Reportedly, he was often made to translate petitions from the Ryukyuan government asking that the newly arrived foreigners take Dr. Bettelheim with on their departure. He is said to have translated and delivered these petitions faithfully and unashamedly.
When Commodore Matthew Perry came to Japan in 1854, Bettelheim served as his translator and offered a valuable service as advisor, representative and commercial agent. Commodore Perry is credited with opening up Japan to the Western world.
Much to the relief of the Okinawa government, Mrs. Bettelheim and the children departed the island in February 1854, on board the USS Supplybound for Shanghai; Bernard followed them in July 1854. Dr. Bettelheim intended to return to England but eventually ended up in New York. After a few years he relocated his family to a farm in Illinois. In Chicago he completed his translation activity in Japanese. Because he knew the Japanese could read Chinese ideographs or ‘kanbun’, his passion to share the Gospel among the people of Japan drove him on, in spite of being unsuccessful in seeing his works published in Yokohama.
From August to December 1863, he served as a surgeon in the 106thRegiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After the American Civil War he relocated to Odell, Illinois and operated a drugstore, occasionally giving lectures about Okinawa and Japan. Later, the Bettelheims moved to Brookfield, Missouri. Dr. Bettelheim died February 9, 1870, at age 59 and is buried with his wife in Brookfield.
Bishop Juji Nakada of Tokyo said: “As far as I am able to learn, Dr. Bettelheim was the first Protestant missionary to Japan. He was a Hungarian Jew who found the Lord at Smyrna. He spent ten years on our islands [eight, more precisely], during which time he translated the greater part of the New Testament.”
The Reverend Timothy Nakayama, a missionary to Japan from 1991 to 2000, wrote in a recent tribute to Bettelheim:
“Dr. Bettelheim and his wife Elizabeth Barwick, as medical missionaries, provided Western medicine and shared the message of faith in God and salvation through Jesus the Christ. He had discovered that giving clean drinking water was essential to save victims from cholera. In discovering this new faith he was able to offer the water of life by which one need not thirst any longer … As Dr. Bettelheim introduced people to Western medicine, he talked to them about the Christian Faith and gave talks about medical practices, hygiene, and health, with a Christian perspective.
During the year 1996, the 150th anniversary of Bettelheim’s arrival, the Japan Bible Society conducted a campaign to highlight Bettelheim’s work as a Bible translator and pioneering missionary. The medical profession in Okinawa recognizes the Bettelheim heritage and the academic community carefully preserves primary sources (diaries, translations, Hong Kong Bishop’s visitation records), and artefacts (KJV Bible, engraving) of Bettelheim in the national university and prefectural museum.
May Bettelheim’s record be lifted up and inspire us. Let us thank God for these precious beginnings and pray that all the people of Japan may come to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Amen!”
Elijah Bendor-Samuel 1870-1956
Elijah Bendor-Samuel was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Kovno, Lithuania. After coming to faith in Messiah he married and had two sons, Theodore and Harcourt. In England, he succeeded David Baron as the director of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews (now Messianic Testimony). Among his writings is the well-known book Israel and the Blessing of the Tribes. Bendor-Samuel's sons followed him in ministry.
Theodore Bendor-Samuel was pastor of West Worthing Tabernacle, Perks Memorial Mission, now Winchester Evangelical Free Church, Putson Baptist Church, Hereford, Lansdowne Evangelical Free Church, West Norwood then in 1955 director of the Messianic Testimony in the UK. He was active in the organisation of the FIEC as a Council Member in 1935, Assistant Secretary in 1944 and Honorary Secretary. He was a founder member of the British Evangelical Council and a governor of the London Bible College. He lectured for many years at Redcliffe Bible College, and was on the council of the Hebrew Christian Alliance (now BMJA), the Campaigners, the Evangelical Alliance, the Central Asian Mission and the Spanish Gospel Mission. During the final twenty years of his life, he served as an elder of Carey Baptist Church, Reading.
Harcourt Samuel O.B.E was General Secretary of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance (now IMJA) and Pastor of Ramsgate Baptist Church ,1934-49 and of Birchington Baptist Church, 1951-78.
Sources
http://roshpinaproject.com/tag/messianic-jews/page/2/
SAVED TO SERVE, Brief Histories of the grace of God in Hebrew Christian life and witness, THE INTERNATIONAL HEBREW CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE, “Shalom”, Brockenhurst Road, Ramsgate, pp. 25-31
Ephraim Menachem Epstein 1812-1913
Epstein was born in Minsk in 1829. Not much is known of his early life, however, he emigrated to the USA in 1850 at the age of 21. A year later he was baptised in New York.
Epstein was active in the fledgling Hebrew Christian movement. and served with the A.S.M.C.J. from 1856. We find him in 1857 as the assistant editor of Lederer’s The Israelite Indeed; and one of the participants in the first Hebrew Christian conference of the US held at Mountain Lake Park, MD in 1903.
During the summers Epstein studied theology at the Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1856. His studies continued with medicine, which he studied in both New York and Kingston, Ontario from 1856-59. He received his medical degree in 1859 and the same year was ordained by the presbytery of Kingston. The Presbyterian Church in Canada sent him to minister to the 3000 strong Jewish community in Monastir, Turkey. There he found a community in great need of his medical knowledge. A fire had ravaged the town a while earlier, decimating the Jewish quarter, of which only a handful of houses survived. Epstein found the Jews empoverished, and wrote:
"Want of work is the great cause of much of the evil existing among the Jews here. Another cause is a great fire which took place here some years ago, from which terrible calamity they are not able yet to recover."
In May 1862, Eppstein resigned his post, because "he did not feel that with a good conscience he could continue to remain there in receipt of a salary" while unable to reach the Jews for Messiah. He remained there, however, serving as physician until his death in 1913.
Sources:
The Presbyterian, A Missionary and Religious Record of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland, 14:2, p. 22 (1861, Feb.)
Cohen, Mark. "Disaster and Change in an Ottoman Sephardic Community: Moses Montefiore and the Monastir Fire of 1863" . Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. LV, no. 1, spring 2004.
Cohen, Mark. "Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir"; The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture (NYC)
Minutes of the First Hebrew Conference of hte USA, held at Mountain Lake Park, MD July 28-30
Acts and Proceedings of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the church of Scotland, Session 30 (Montreal: Lovell, 1858), p. 50
Eugen Friedrich Moritz Rosenstock
Born in Berlin, Germany on July 6, 1888, to Theodor and Paula Rosenstock. His father, a scholarly man, was a banker and a member of the Berlin Stock Exchange. He was the only son among seven surviving children.
He joined the Lutheran Protestant Church at age 17 and remained a staunch believer all his life. Hs faith became central to his later work. In fact, it was fully integrated into his major lifetime works in law, philosophy, labor practices, education, the social sciences and social history, and voluntary work service.
After graduating from a secondary school (gymnasium) with very high academic standards and an emphasis on classical languages and literature, Rosenstock-Huessy pursued law studies at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg, and Berlin. In 1909 the University of Heidelberg granted him a doctorate in law. In 1912 he became a Privatdozent, a preliminary qualification to becoming a professor, at the University of Leipzig, where he taught constitutional law and the history of law until 1914.
In 1914 Rosenstock-Huessy visited Florence, Italy to conduct historical research. There he met Margrit Hüssy, a Swiss art history major. They married later that year. World War I broke out shortly thereafter.
World War I
At the onset of World War I, the German Army drafted Rosenstock-Huessy and stationed him at Western Front, including 18 months at Verdun, until the war’s end. “During this period he organized courses for the troops, replacing the limited instruction in patriotism with broader topics. In 1916, he and his friend, the Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, also on active duty, exchanged letters on Judaism and Christianity.” . That correspondence has become well known as a dialog between proponents of the two related religions. Despite his initial leanings towards Christianity, Franz Rosenzweig decided to live as an Orthodox Jew - and wrote the work Judaism Despite Christianity. which also contains much of the correspondence between the two.
Interwar period
After World War I, Rosenstock-Huessy became active in labor issues, focusing on improving education as a means to improve the societal standard of living. He returned to academia and started publishing his first noted works.
Labor education
Rosenstock-Huessy did not return to his teaching post at the University of Leipzig. Instead, he obtained a position with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company), the German car manufacturer, in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1919, he founded and became the editor until 1921 of the first factory newspaper in Germany, the Daimler Werkzeitung (Work Newspaper).
In 1921, Rosenstock founded Die Akademie der Arbeit (the Academy of Labor) in Frankfurt/Main. “This institution offered courses and seminars for blue-collar workers, but he resigned in 1923 over differences with the trade union representatives. Nevertheless, he did not give up his involvement with adult education and his efforts to give industrial workers a voice of their own in society.” He co-founded the Patmos Verlag publishing house, which published works on “new religious, philosophical, and social perspectives.”
In 1923, Rosenstock-Huessy received a second doctorate in philosophy from the University of Heidelberg. He then lectured at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the faculty of social science and social history until he was offered a job at the University of Breslau as a full professor of German legal history, a position he held from 1923 until January 30, 1933.
During this period, Rosenstock-Huessy became active in many other ways at the University of Breslau. He helped organize voluntary work service camps—Löwenberger Arbeitslager (Löwenberg Work Camp)—for students, young farmers, and young workers to address the living and labor conditions at coal mines in Waldenburg, Lower Silesia.
Soon after January 30, 1933, when the National Socialists (Nazis) assumed power in Germany, Rosenstock-Huessy resigned from the University of Breslau and departed Germany that year. By the end of 1933, he received an appointment as Lecturer in German Art and Culture at Harvard University with the help of a professor of government there.
Rosenstock-Huessy encountered strong opposition at Harvard University to the presentation of his ideas in social history and other topics, all of which were based on his Christian faith. Reportedly, Rosenstock-Huessy frequently mentioned God in class. He also often attacked pure, objective academic thinking, a teaching tradition assumed by the Harvard faculty to be a prerequisite for high scholarship. These attacks grated on the secular beliefs of other Harvard faculty members. Profound differences of opinion ensued and led, in 1935, to his accepting an appointment as professor of social philosophy at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He made his home in nearby Norwich, Vermont. He taught at Dartmouth until his retirement in 1957.
Renewed labor education
In 1940 he presented a request to US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and was granted approval to organize a youth training program for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Dorothy Thompson were champions of the proposal. He then founded Camp William James in Tunbridge, Vermont as a prototype for a national peacetime volunteer labor service. “Involving mainly students from Dartmouth, Radcliffe, and Harvard, its purpose was to train young leaders to expand the 7-year-old CCC from a program for unemployed youth into a work service program that would accept volunteers from all walks of life.”, The entrance of the United States into World War II in 1941 ended this and all other CCC programs because men were needed in the armed services and women became a greater part of the workforce. This concept anticipated the Peace Corps by more than two decades.
Sources
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1935), "The Predicament of History", Journal of Philosophy 32 (4): 93-100
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1973), Multiformity of Man, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books,
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1978), The Fruit of Lips, or, Why Four Gospels?, Pittsburgh: The Pickwick Press,
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen; translation: Mark Huessy and Freya von Moltke (1978), Planetary Service. A Way into the Third Millennium, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books,
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1981), The Origin of Speech, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books, http://www.argobooks.org/english/the_origin_of_speech.html.
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen; Translation: Mark Huessy and Freya von Moltke (1988), Practical Knowledge of the Soul, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books,
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1993), Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man (2 ed.), Providence and Oxford: Berg Publishers, Inc.,
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1981), The Origin of Speech, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books,
In English
Epstein, Catherine (1986), "Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy: Studies in His Life and Thought", in Bryant, M. Darrol; Huessy, Hans R, A Past Renewed: A Catalog of German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933, Lewiston, NY: Mellen, pp. 279
Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen (1988), Gardner, Clinton C., ed., Life Lines: Quotations from the Work of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Norwich, Vermont: Argo Books
External links
The official web site of the Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Fund and Argo Books includes a biography, accessed 20 March 2007
The Norwich Center, Norwich, Vermont, maintains an internet site devoted to an introductory biography and appreciation of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, signed by Clinton C. Gardner, President of the Norwich Center, accessed 20 March 2007
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Gesellschaft
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (German)
Fenglestein Family
The Fenglestein family were baptised in Jerusalem by Nicolayson in 1853. According to the messianic historian F.de le Roi, they may have been connected with Peter Mamre of Finkelstein who moved from Palestine to England and Amerika with his siter Lydia. Lydia held lectures on Palestine and the Jewish life there in 1886-1867 in England and New York, and subsequently worked as a teacher in the american anglican church.
Source:
de le Roi
Franz Friedrich Benary 1805-1880
Benary was a German Jewish Orientalist; born at Cassel in 1805. He died at Berlin in 1880. After studying theology and philology at the University of Bonn, he continued his theological studies at Halle (1824-27), where his attention was first turned by Gesenius to the Oriental languages. In 1827 he went to Berlin, and in addition to the theological courses there, of Hegel, Schleiermacher, Neander, and Marheineke, he attended Bopp's lectures on Sanskrit, by which he was deeply impressed.
The exact details of his coming to faith in Messiah are not clear.
While acting as privat-docent of Oriental languages at the Berlin University (1829-31), he published the old Hindu poem "Nalodaya" (1830).In 1831 he became assistant professor of theology. His lectures were principally on Biblical literature and exegesis, Semitic languages and paleography. Among his writings on these subjects, published chiefly in the "Jahrbücher für Wissenschaftliche Kritik," should be mentioned his treatise "De Hebræorum Leviratu," Berlin, 1835, which won for him the degree of D. D. from the University of Halle.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition 1999
Brockhaus, Conversations-Lexikon, 13th ed.;
Le Roi, Johan. Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission.
Friedrich Daniel Bach
Bach was born at Potsdam in 1756 and died at Breslau in 1829 (according to some sources in 1826; Bernstein claims it was in 1830).
As his father was a merchant and an elder (Landesältester) of the Brandenburg Jewry, Karl was enabled to obtain from the Potsdam painter, A. B. Krüger, his first instruction in the art of painting; later, through the influence of Colonel Guichard ("Quintus Icilius"), he succeeded in entering the Berlin Academy of Arts, and became intimately connected with Lesueur, Chodowiecki, and Frish. At Bach's instance life studies were introduced at the Academy. Bach soon distinguished himself by skilfully executed copies of old works, and upon arriving at Warsaw with Count Ossolinski in 1780, achieved considerable success. Later he accompanied Count John Potocki on his travels; copied paintings in Düsseldorf; and was made member of the local academy, Dec. 15, 1785.
Thence he went to Paris, and afterward to Italy, where he remained for four years (1786-1792), studying at the expense of his patron, Potocki, at first in Rome—where he applied himself chiefly to the productions of Raphael and Michelangelo—and subsequently in Portici, where the antiquities of Herculaneum held his attention. Elected member of the Academy of Florence on Dec. 9, 1788, he visited Venice, Vienna, and Berlin, at which latter place he exhibited his productions—copies, for the most part, of works of Italian masters. In 1792 Bach was appointed a director and professor of the Breslau Art Academy; and on June 23, 1794, he became member of the Academy of Berlin. Two years later, in conjunction with C. F. Benkendorf, he started a journal called "Torso," devoted to "ancient and modern art"; but after a short time its publication was discontinued.
Bach made use of the etching-needle; and in his paintings he chose historical subjects, portraits, animals, and many allegorical themes, all conceived in the spirit of the epoch. Though not a very important figure in the world of art, he rendered great service to the cause of art in Germany by his helpful stimulation of fellow-artists, and by encouraging and promoting instruction in drawing, handicraft, etc. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (Isidore Singer) Bach died a Christian.
This article is based on the Jewish Encyclopedia 1911 on-line.
Published Works:
"Umrisse der Besten Köpfe und Parthien nach Rafael's Gemälden im Vatican"; and
"Anweisung Schöne Formen nach Einer Einfachen Regel zu' Bilden, für Künstler, Handwerker, und Freunde des Schönen"—each of which is a treatise on art conceived in accordance with somewhat old-fashioned academic traditions.
Sources:
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, i., 1875;
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999.De Le Roi, Johannes. Brockhaus Conv. Lex. I. 99
Bryan, Michael. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, i., London, 1886.S. B. B.Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission, i. 56, Leipsic, 1899;
Meyer, Julius. Allg. Künstler-Lexikon, ii., Leipsic, 1878;
George Felix Friedrich Eberti 1812-1844
Eberti was a German jurist and author born in Berlin 1812; died at Arnsdorf (Riesengebirge)1884. He was educated at the universities of Berlin and Bonn. In 1849 he became privat-docent at the University of Breslau in natural and criminal law, and in 1854 associate professor.
Eberty's principal works are: "Die Gestirne und die Weltgeschichte: Gedanken über Raum, Zeit, und Ewigkeit," Breslau, 1846, 3d ed. 1874; translated and published in English, and retranslated into German by Voigts-Rhetz, Leipsic, 1860; "Versuch auf dem Gebiete des Naturrechts," Leipsic, 1852; "Geschichte des Preussischen Staats," 7 vols., Breslau, 1866-73; "Walter Scott, ein Lebensbild," 2 vols., Leipsic, 1860; translated into several languages, and reissued in 1870; "Lord Byron, eine Biographie," 2 vols., ib. 1862, 2d ed. 1879; "Jugenderinnerungen eines Alten Berliners," Berlin, 1878.
Sources:
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.S. M. Co.
De le Roi, Geschichte der Evangelischen Juden-Mission i. 240
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ.1909
Gottfried Bernhardy 1800-1875
Bernhardy was a well-known philologist and historian of literature; born at Landsberg in Brandenburg in; died at Halle 1875.
His father was a merchant who had been successful and prosperous, but who in Gottfried's childhood had a series of business reverses that left him in a position where he had to struggle for the bare necessities of life and with but little prospect for providing the boy with a liberal education. At this juncture when the lad was about nine years old, two well-to-do brothers of his father, living in St. Petersburg, arranged to provide the means for his schooling, and he was entered at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin, where he remained six years, being admitted to the Berlin University in 1817. Here in the pursuit of his philological studies, to which he now especially applied himself, he had the good fortune to study under F. A. Wolf—though the latter was already in the declining years of his life—as well as under Böckh and Buttmann. He received his degree as doctor of philosophy on Oct. 30, 1822, and in the same year published his first work, "Eratosthenica," a collection of the widely scattered fragments of the early Alexandrian astronomer.
In 1823 he became privat-docent in philology at his alma mater, and two years later was appointed associate professor. He received a call from Halle in 1829 to assume the position of full professorship in the university there, and that of director of the philological seminary. This call he accepted, and Halle was the sphere of his activity for the rest of his life. During the two years from 1841 to 1843 he officiated as prorector of the university, and in 1844 he was appointed chief librarian, the duties of which position he fulfilled in addition to his work of instruction—not in any perfunctory fashion, but by reorganizing the library of the university in a complete and systematic manner.
From the very beginning of Bernhardy's professorial career he prosecuted his literary labors as well. During the first year of his advent to Halle, there appeared his "Wissenschaftliche Syntax der Griechischen Sprache." In 1830 the first edition of his "Grundriss der Römischen Litteratur" was published. Of this successive revisions were issued in the years 1850, 1857, 1865, and 1872. The "Grundlinien zur Encyklopädie der Philologie" was issued in 1832. In the following year, work was begun on his version of Suidas, but the appearance of Gatsford's great edition at Oxford necessitated a change of plan, and the work was not completed until 1851. Upon its publication the king of Prussia conferred an order upon Bernhardy. The first part of the "Grundriss"—comprising the prose literature—was published in 1836, subsequent editions being issued in 1861 and 1867-72. The poetical portion, constituting the second part, was published in 1845. This went into a second edition in 1856, and was again republished in 1859 and 1867-72. Bernhardy began the editing of the "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum" in 1838; but the work was not continued beyond the first volume, as his contributors resented his extraordinary methods of revision by voluminous additions and amendments. His last literary work was the collecting and editing of the minor writings, both Latin and German, of F. A. Wolf, which were issued in two volumes in 1869.
Bernhardy had always manifested a deep interest in all the local educational work at Halle, and had frequently been active in supervising the examinations. In 1867 the city of Halle honored him by appointing him a member of the Curatorium of the newly erected gymnasium. Five years before he had been appointed privy councilor (Geheimer Regierungs-Rath). The fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate was enthusiastically celebrated in Oct., 1872—professors, students, and civil authorities joining in making the event notable and worthy. His former students, in honor of the occasion, collected a fund of one thousand thalers to establish a Bernhardy fund to aid students of philology.
He was married in 1829 to Henrietta Meyer of Berlin (died 1853). It is said by Le Roi—who, however, gives no data as to time or place—that Bernhardy lived during the later period of his life as a Christian, and Le Roi suggests that he possibly came to faith during his student life.
He attained the age of seventy-five years, dying in honor amid the scenes of his great activity.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ, 1909. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, new edition 1999
De le Roi, J. F.
Eckstein, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, ii.S. M.
Hans Philipp Ehrenberg
German theologian. One of the co-founders of the Confessing Church, he had to emigrate to England because of his Jewish descent and opposition to National Socialism.
1883-1914
Hans Ehrenberg was born into an emancipated Jewish family. From 1898 to 1900 he attended the Christianeum in Altona. After his graduation exam at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hamburg in 1902, he studied law and political studies (Rechtswissenschaften snd Staatswissenschaften) in Göttingen, Berlin, Heidelberg and München. In his Dissertation in 1906, on the situation of the Hüttenarbeiter in the Ruhr Valley, his attitude towards the workers was already clear. After his military service in 1907/08 he continued his studies, now in philosophy and in Heidelberg, leding to his second graduation (in Philosophy) in 1909 and habilitation in 1910. In 1910 he became a Privatdozent in philosophy in Heidelberg. In 1909 Ehrenberg was baptised as a Protestant Christian in Berlin. At this time arose a close friendship with his cousin Franz Rosenzweig. In 1913 he married the teacher Else Anna Zimmermann (1890-1970).
1914-1933
In the First World War Ehrenberg was a Offiziersstellvertreter or NCO, then (from the end of 1914) a lieutenant. He won the Iron Cross 2nd Class as well as the Badische Offiziersorden (Zähringer Löwe 2.Klasse).
Ehrenburg had seen the war as a legitimate defensive war, but after it his view changed radically, speaking of war crimes and German guilt. He joined the SPD in 1918, and was for 18 months their Stadtverordneter in Heidelberg, as well as a member of workers' and soldiers' committees. In the same year, he received an extraordinary professorship in Heidelberg. At this time arose his wish to become a Protestant minister, as he collaborated with the Christian socialists.
In 1922 Ehrenberg began his theological studies in Münster, which he completed in 1924 with his second Theological Exam. Abandoning a promising academic career, in 1925 he became the minister of the Christuskirche at Bochum in a heavily working-class area. He got involved in the "Kampfbund christlicher Arbeiter" (War-alliance of Christian Workers), though he left the SPD, feeling he could not keep up his parish work at the same time as party-political work. In 1927 made speeches on "Church and Antisemitism" in opposition to riots organised by the SA.
1933-1945: Sachsenhausen
When the Nazi party rose to power in 1933, Ehrenberg became one of the founders of the Confessing Church. Already in May 1933 he and four other Westphalian ministers had formulated the Bochumer Confession, the first of its kind, containing a denial of Nazi ideology and a confession of Christianity's Jewish origins. In July 1933 he published 72 guiding principles on Jewish-Christian questions, clearly relating his own opposition to antisemitism and calling on the Evangelischen Kirche to share it. In the face of increasing pressure from the Nazi Party and the German Christians, the church authorities sought to force him into retirement in 1937 for his work for the Westfälische Bruderrat of the Confessing Church. Ehrenberg, however, continued to work for the Confessing Church, whose ministers in Bochum publicly showed solidarity with him.
In September 1938 he was totally banned from delivering speeches and sermons. In the November pogroms of 1938 his home was trashed and a few days later he was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1939 he was able to emigrate to England thanks to intervention and pledges by the bishop of Chichester, George Bell, with his family joining him shortly afterwards. He and his family were thus saved from the horrors to come in the Holocaust.
1945-1958
After the war, Ehrenburg returned to Germany in 1947, where he worked first of all as minister for adult education in Bethel. In 1953 he returned to Heidelberg, where he died in 1958. His will is held in the Landeskirchliches Archiv Bielefeld (Bestand 3,17).
Sources:
* (German) Werner Licharz: Franz Rosenzweig und H.E.- Aspekte einer fast vergessenen Freundschaft in: W. Schmied-Kowarzik (Hg): Der Philosoph Franz Rosenzweig 1886 - 1929 Freiburg 1988
* (German) Günter Brakelmann: Hans Ehrenberg. Ein judenchristliches Schicksal in Deutschland. Teil 1: Leben, Denken und Wirken 1883-1932. Teil 2: Widerstand, Verfolgung und Emigration 1933-1939. Schriftenreihe der Hans–Ehrenberg–Gesellschaft, Bände 3 und 4. Waltrop, 1997/1999
* (German) Günter Brakelmann (Hg.): Hans Ehrenberg. Autobiographie eines deutschen Pfarrers und weitere Zeugnisse aus der NS-Zeit. Schriftenreihe der Hans–Ehrenberg–Gesellschaft, Band 5. Waltrop, 1999
* (German) Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik: Rosenzweig im Gespräch mit Ehrenberg, Cohen und Buber. Freiburg 2006
External links
Works on and by Hans Ehrenburg in the catalogue of the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Hans-Ehrenberg-Gesellschaft
Peter Noss: Hans Ehrenberg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Bd. 19, Nordhausen 2001, ISBN 3-88309-089-1, Sp. 201–219.
Hans-Ehrenberg-Schule (HES) in Bielefeld-Sennestadt
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Ehrenberg"
Isaac Da Costa 1798-1860
Da Costa was born in Amsterdam. His father, an aristocratic Sephardic Portuguese J, Daniel da Costa, was a prominent merchant; his mother, Rebecca Ricardo, was a near relative of the English political economist David Ricardo. Daniel da Costa, soon recognizing his son's love for study, destined him for the bar, and sent him to the Latin school from 1806 to 1811. Here Isaac wrote his first verses. Through his Hebrew teacher, the mathematician and Hebraist Moses Lemans, he became acquainted with the great Dutch poet Bilderdijk, who, at the request of Isaac's father, agreed to supervise the boy's further education. Bilderdijk taught him Roman law, and a familiar intercourse sprang up between them, which afterward developed into an intimate friendship.
Isaac later wrote of how Bilderdijk influenced his life:
"He was a remarkable man in all respects, and one whose political and religious convictions, and originality of mind and character, had armed all this present age, at least in his own country, against. him. Miunderstood, persecuted, banished in 1795 and harassed by all sorts of misfortunes, he had found from his youth, strength and consolation in the Gospel of Christ.
Attached in heart to the truths of the confession of the Reformed Churches, he had besides early perceived the glorious future, announced by the prophets to the ancient people of God, and how their conversion to teh Messiah, crucified by them, would be one day to the nations at large like life from the dead. From thence arose a particular attachment to Israel for their fathers' sake, and for the love of Christ, who sprung from Israel according to the flesh.
Very naturally, I felt strongly drawn towards this extraordinary man. I became his disciple, and also his intimate friend for eighteen years to the day of his death. It is to him, under the hand of God, and through His adorable grace, that I saw the light which led me to the Christian religion, and to the faith in Jesus, my Saviour, and my God. Not that Bilderdyk ever sought to make a proselyte of his young disciple. With a wisdom which I can attribute to nothing but the direction fo the Almighty, he rather endeavoured not to sway my mind by the influence which his superior intelligence gave him over me. he only endeavoured to render me more of an Israelite than is consistent with the wisdom of the present age. He spoke to me of the Old Testament; he directed my attention to the prophecies, to the promises given to the fathers, to the portions of revealed truth, preserved even in the traditions of the rabbis (Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph, etc.).
Especially he tried to make me feel that the true Christian shares in the hopes of Israel in regard to a glorious reign of Messiah upon the throne of David; and that on the other hand (it is thus that he expressed himself in a piece of poetry which he addressed to me in 1819), the sincere Jew is a Christian in hope." (in Jewish Witnesses that Jesus is the Christ. ed. Herschell, Ridley Haim.)
Da Costa married his cousin, Hannah Belmonte, who had become a believer also, and soon after he was baptized with her at Leyden. At that time he was already well known as a poet. After Bilderdijk's death Da Costa was generally recognized as his successor among Dutch poets. He was a faithful adherent of the religious views of his friend, was one of the leaders of the Orthodox Reformed party, and during the last years of his life was a teacher and a director of the seminary of the Independent Scotch Church. His character, no less than his genius, was respected by his contemporaries. He felt only reverence and love for his former coreligionists, was deeply interested in their past history, and often took their part.
Da Costa had the joy of seeing his closest friend, Abraham Capadose and all but one of his family, come to faith. His mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Esther, came to faith. Esther married the son of Pierre Chevalier, the pastor who had baptised her, but sadly, died young while expecting a child. Da Costa writes of another relative who had become a believer some time after he had, and had been about to become pastor of one of the Dutch churches when he died prematurely.
Aside from his fifty-three longer and shorter poems, Da Costa wrote largely on theological subjects. He also wrote "Israel en de Volken" (2d ed., Haarlem, 1848-49), a survey of the history of the Jews to the nineteenth century, written from the standpoint of the Church. The third volume, dealing with the history of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews, is especially noteworthy on account of the mass of new material used. The work was translated into English, under the title "Israel and the Gentiles," by Ward Kennedy (London, 1850), and into German by "A Friend of God's Word" (Miss Thumb), published by K. Mann (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1855).
Da Costa's two papers, "The Jews in Spain and Portugal" and "The Jews from Spain and Portugal in the Netherlands," which appeared in 1836 in the "Nedersche Stemmen over Godsdienst, Staat-Geschied-en Letterkunde," may be considered as preliminary to the history. Of interest also are his works on the Von Schoonenberg (Belmonte) family ("Jahrb. für Holland," 1851) and on "The Noble Families Among the Jews" ("Navorscher," 1857, pp. 210 et seq., 269 et seq.; 1858, pp. 71 et seq.; 1859, pp. 110 et seq., 174 et seq., 242 et seq.). Da Costa possessed a valuable library which contained a large number of Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew manuscripts, as well as rare prints from the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish literature. It was sold at public auction a year after his death. A catalogue of the library, compiled by M. Roest, was published at Amsterdam in 1861.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, new edition 1999.
Gartenhaus, Jacob. Famous Hebrew Christians. Baker Book House, 1979.
Herschell, Haim Ridley (ed.) Jewish Witnesses that Jesus is the Christ.
Isaac Hellmuth, Bishop and Educator 1817-1901
From his earliest years Helmuth's education was most carefully planned, and he received thorough instruction in rabbinical schools, where he reached an advanced degree of learning in biblical and Talmudical subjects. In addition to his traditional Jewish training, Isaac acquired a comprehensive secular knowledge, and in his sixteenth year he was admitted as a student at the University of Breslau. here he studied classical and Oriental literature.
At the university he was brought into close contact with Dr. S. Neuman, a Hebrew Christian and missionary with the London Society. Through Dr. Neuman, Isaac was led to inquire into the tenets and teachings of the Christian faith. His inquiries led to the early conviction that Christ was the Saviour of the world - of Jews and Gentiles alike.
In 1841, when he was 21 years old, Helmuth left for England. he was baptised in All Soul's Church, Liverpool, by the Rev. H. S. Joseph, a missionary of the London Society and a Hebrew Christian. Isaac's confession of faith cost him dearly. His father disowned him completely, though after his father's death Isaac's two brothers generously divided the family inheritance with him.
In 1846 Helmuth was ordained in the Church of England. Appointed Archdeacon of Huron in 1861, he assisted Bishop Benjamin Cronyn in the establishment of Huron College and served as its first principal, 1863-66. Succeeding Cronyn as Bishop of Huron in 1871, Hellmuth's foresight and determination led to the founding, in 1878, of this university, then known as the Western University of London. He served as its first chancellor, 1878-1884. After spending some 25 years ministering to spiritual and educational needs in eastern Canada, he returned to England in 1884.
Dr. Isaac Hellmuth, a Jew who had embraced the Christian faith in 1841, was brought from Lennoxville, where he was Divinity Professor, to London, to assist in this work, and was first made Archdeacon, and then Dean of Huron. He was a man of plausible manners and persuasive speech, and was employed by Bishop Cronyn in raising funds for the new enterprise. He visited England, and secured a sufficient sum to start Huron Theological College. He became himself the first Principal of that institution, and, being a man of great energy and good administrative ability, he soon acquired great influence in the Diocese.
The Bishop seems to have been possessed with a consuming fear of Romanism. Every charge he delivered during these years was surcharged with warnings against the insidious spread of popery. He was not only averse to, but fiercely hostile against, the whole Oxford movement; and every departure from the doctrines and usages with which the reign of Puritanism in the Church of England had made them familiar, was viewed with grave if not with trembling suspicion.
In 1871, the Bishop's health had so failed that he was obliged to ask for a coadjutor. In the election which followed, Dr. Helmuth was chosen by a considerable majority over his opponent, Archdeacon Marsh, whose able management of the Church Society had given him great influence throughout the Diocese.
The state of Bishop Cronyn's health was such that the whole care of the Diocese devolved at once upon the coadjutor. In less than a year Bishop Cronyn died, and Dr. Helmuth became Bishop of Huron by right of succession. He devoted himself with great earnestness to his work, and soon became very popular throughout the country. He found that there were still many townships unsupplied with the ministrations of the Church. Following the example of the Diocese of Ontario, he secured the incorporation of the Synod, and had the entire management of the Church finances transferred to that body.
There was great monetary stringency throughout the country from 1873 to 1878, and yet Dr. Helmuth was enabled to report an increase of 42 clergymen, 58 churches and missionary stations, 31 parsonages, and 5420 communicants, during the 12 years of his term of office. Within that period also he had ordained 76 deacons and 72 priests.
Bishop Helmuth's Episcopate was, however, specially distinguished by his great efforts in the promotion of Christian education. In addition to the important services which he rendered in connection with the establishment of Huron College, he manifested such zeal and liberality in the establishment of the Helmuth Ladies and Boys Colleges, in the City of London, as will not soon be forgotten in the Diocese of Huron.
The above is based on article published in 1892 source: http://home.graffiti.net/huronanglican/5hellmuth.htm
Bishop Helmuth resigned as Bishop in 1883, and retired to England with his ailing wife, who died a year later. His subsequent career was a quiet one with a series of parish ministries. He remarried in 1886 and lived in France before retiring in 1899. He died May 29, 1901 and is buried in the Priory churchyard in Bridlington, York, his first parish on his return to England.
Works:
The Genuineness and Authenticity of the Pentateuch
The Divine Dispensation
Commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures
Biblical Thesaurus (a literal translation and critical analysis of every word in the original language of the OT with explanatory notes and appendices.)
The Everlasting Nation
The Spirit of Prophecy
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ, 1909. New edition 1999 Keren Ahvah Meshichit,
Gartenhaus, Jacob. Famous Hebrew Christians. Baker Book House, 1979.
Stevens, George. H. Jewish Christian Leaders. Oliphants, 1969.
Isaac Solomon Ostrovsky 1902-2001
Isaac Solomon Ostrovsky was born in 1902 in the town of Tagancha in the Ukraine, to a traditional Jewish family. He survived the pogroms of his native Ukraine where at the age of 16 he saw his father murdered before his eyes. In that pogrom his eldest sister, 8 year old niece and 49 others were cruelly murdered. He joined a group of relatives making their way to Israel (Palestine of those days) and in his travels, met Leon Averbach, a leader of a small group of Jewish believers, and heard the Gospel. He bought the New Testament and read it carefully. After a period of inner spiritual struggles he came to faith in the Messiah of Israel, at the age of 16. A year later he arrived in Israel, and began working for the Mount Carmel Bible School in Haifa.
From 1919-1923 Ostrovsky worked for the “Mount Carmel Bible School” in Haifa. From 1924 to 1929 he pursued a theological education in London. On his return to Israel he was commended to full-time work by the assembly at Haifa and a small printing press, purchased by Mr. Clapham, was set up in a small room adjoining the Bethesda Hall to print gospel literature in Hebrew and English.
In the year of 1932, when brother Ostrovsky was age 30, he married Sarah, who was his wife for the next 60 years.
In the early 1930’s Shlomo and Sarah Ostrovsky moved to Tel Aviv, the rapidly growing Jewish city. Because of the strong antagonism to Jews who turned to Christianity, they found it impossible to rent a house in the centre of the city and had to live on the outskirts. They found — as other missionaries did — that it was extremely difficult for converts from Judaism; such were liable to be boycotted, dismissed from employment and ostracized by the community.
Ostrovsky started to arrange meetings for local Jewish and Arab believers. He used a building that belonged to the German Templars and called this small fellowship “Peniel Hall”. The meetings were held in Hebrew and Russian. Often new immigrants from Russia attended the meetings, as well as British civil servants and soldiers.
The building next to the assembly hall was a clinic with a Christian doctor and nurses, who served Jew and Arab, believers and unbelievers. On the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, all properties belonging to the German Templars were auctioned off to the highest bidders. Ostrovsky was obliged to find a new home for the fellowship.
The Ostrovskys were obliged to leave Jaffa in 1948 because of wholesale massacres and evacuation, and at that time Solomon reported that a radical change had taken place in the work in Israel. Most of the members of the two assemblies in Jaffa had left the country. Eventually Professor Marcinkowski and Solomon Ostrovsky obtained permission from the Israeli military authorities to visit Jaffa and found only two elderly Arab ladies left.
In Tel Aviv about a dozen young Hebrew Christians also left the country. The clinic, which had been started in 1937, was broken into and ransacked. Alterations had to be made in the spacious premises where the meetings were held so that Dr. Yuke (in fellowship in the assembly but working under the auspices of an American mission) could continue his medical work.
Some time later Solomon Ostrovsky was given a press by the Finnish Mission in Jerusalem and under very able management the press developed into one of the best equipped presses in Jerusalem. He was also able to commence radio broadcasts from Monte Carlo which continued for about two years. By request some of the messages have been published and are still in circulation in Israel.
His was the kind of strength necessary to survive the hardships, the wars, and the opposition he faced all his life, but his was also the heart of a shepherd, gently guiding all who would follow, to the Shepherd of Israel, whom he served with single-hearted devotion.
Ostrovsky died in 2001 in Canada, aged 98.
Works:
Израиль сегодня и завтра
Эта небольшая брошюра в краткой, но доступной форме повествует читателю о том, почему Израилю предстоит стать «уделом Бога», — тем средством, с помощью которого Святой Бог пожелал открыть Себя миру, чтобы, в конце концов, ввести человечество в Тысячелетнее царство.
Кто истинный еврей?
В брошюре разъясняется, что истинный еврей — это тот, кто по своему духовному положению является «сыном обетования», или «сыном Божьего избрания», кто лично откликнулся на Божий зов спасения через Голгофскую жертву Господа Иисуса Христа. Еврей, верующий в Мессию Иисуса, есть истинный еврей.
Человек из Назарета
Кто Он, Иешуа (Иисус) из Назарета? Хороший человек, великий учитель, пророк или же Некто, Кто больше всего этого? Зачем пришёл Он в этот мир? И что думаю о Нем я? Оттолкну ли Его или сделаю Его Царем своей жизни?
Moses on the Witness Stand.
By Solomon Ostrovsky. Toronto, Canada: Published by the author, 1991;
Sources
http://www.emmausnazareth.net/Assemblis.htm
http://www.baj.co.il/eng/ehistory
Isaak Hirsch (Paul Hershon) 1818-1888
Isaak was born in Buczacz (Galicia) where he received an excellent Hebrew and Talmudical education. As a young adult in Jerusalem he came under the influence of Nicolayson, and came to faith in his Messiah. He then studied in the Jerusalem Missionary College from 1842-46. Afterwards he was appointed principal of the House of Industry, and then from 1848-55 he laboured as missionary in England where he was known by the name "Paul".
On Isaak's return to the land of Israel he was appointed as head of the model farm at Jaffa. This model farm was a property purchased by a 2nd generation Jewish believer, Albert Augustus Isaacs, who had been born in Jamaica on a coffee plantation his father owned. This Isaacs was a well known preacher and teacher and earnestly desired the good of Jewish believers like himself, who needed means by which to support themselves in then-Palestine. His solution was to found a colony which would become self-supporting and provide both shelter, community and means of support for Jewish believers and enquirers.
Isaak Hershon managed the farm until 1869 but was obliged to resign due to ill health. He returned to England and devoted himself to literary work, for which he was particularly gifted. Some of his writings include “Extracts from the Talmud,” 1860; “the Pentateuch according to the Talmud,” Hebrew, 1874; “A Talmudical Miscellany,” 1880; “treasures of the Talmud,” 1882.
He died in London, 1888.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ
De le Roi, J. F. A. Die evangelisehe Christenheit und die Juden unter dem Gesichtspunkte der Mission geschichtlich betrachtet. Dritter Band, Berlin, H. Reuther's Verlagsbuchhandlung. (H. Reuther & 0. Reichard.) 1892.
Jacob Halbmillion
Jacob was born at Jerusalem, and came to faith there thanks to the witness of LJS workers. He served afterwards as housefather of the Wanderers’ Home in London under Dr. Stern, and then became one of the first missionaries of the Mildmay Mission, zealously labouring in London and then in North Africa.He died in Morocco in 1888.
Source
A. Bernstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ
Jacob J. Boerling 1802-Jacob was born in Russia. As a young child he experienced God's mercy in a wonderful way - his life was spared from drowning no less than five times in his childhood! As a young adult he devoted himself to the study of Kabbala and Talmud, but was disillusioned by the inconsistencies he perceived in those he had admired as godly men. Jacob's first contact with Christians seems to have been in 1821, when he received a tract from missionaries, Saltet and Betzner, who visited his home town. When his mother discovered it she tore it to pieces. Later, the Jewish missionary Johann Moritz visited his town. The fact that a fellow Jew believed in Jesus made a great impression on Boerling and inspired him to begin to study the scriptures. He came to faith, and was baptised in 1823 by Saltet, the man who had first given him a tract.
In 1825 Boerling accompanied Joseph Wolff to the Persian border and shared in his ministry there. In 1828 he returned to Persia with the mission of rescuing German citizens who had been sold into slavery there. His mission was, thankfully, successful.
Boerling studied in the mission house at Basel and in 1834 was appointed to minister there with the Berlin Society. He worked there until 1840, when he was called to pastor a church in Bellowesch, in Tschernigoff.
Boerling's wife was the daughter of Johann Goldberg, a well known Jewish believer. Another of Goldberg's daughters married Hausmeister who wrote biographies on both Boerling and Goldberg.
Haustein, A. Leben und Wirken des Pastors J. J. Boerling. Basel, 1852.
Jochanan FortiBorn in Gorima, and settled at Prague under the king Maximilian II.
He wrote a Hebrew grammar entiteld "Dikduk Leshon Kodesh" published in Prague in the years 1564-1566; and "De Mystica Literarum Significatione," in which he expatiates on the different ways of writing the Holy Name; the latter work was published by Kircher in his "Oedipus Aegyptiacus," ii.
Also known by his Christian name "Hortensius", and surname 'Hazak', which is a direct translation of the Italian "Forti".
Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii., No. 821
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl, col. 983.
Johann Gottlieb Marcussohn
Marcussohn arrived in Jerusalem with his father from Constantinople. According to de le Roi, Marcussohn was a widower at the time. His father, Hermann, was a believer and married the daughter of another Jewish believer, Asher Leib Ducat, who served in Christ Church in Jerusalem. John, or Johann, became a believer in Jerusalem and was baptised in 1846 by John Nicolayson.
Johann (Stephanus) Rittangel
A German controversial writer; born at Forscheim, near Bamberg; died at Königsberg 1652.
It is stated that he was born a Jew, became converted to Roman Catholicism, then became a Calvinist, and lastly joined the Lutheran Church. He became professor of Oriental languages at Königsberg, and issued a number of translations of Hebrew works: one of the "Sefer Yeẓirah," 1642; one of the Passover Haggadah, 1644, published also in his "Libra Veritatis" (Franeker, 1698); and one of the earliest translations of Jewish prayers, under the title "Hochfeyerliche Sollennitaeten, Gebethe und Collecten Anstatt der Opfer, Nebst Andern Ceremonien so von der Jüdischen Kirchen am Ersten Neuen-Jahrs-Tag Gebetet und Abgehandelt Werden Müssen," Königsberg, 1652. His posthumous work "Bilibra Veritatis" was written to substantiate the claim that the Targums prove the doctrine of the Trinity. This is also the subject of his "Veritas Religionis Christianæ" (Franeker, 1699).
Sources:
Rose, Biographical Dictionary, 1850, s.v.;
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 2146-2148.T. J.
Jewish Encylopedia On-line; Crawford Howell Toy, Joseph Jacobs
John Koloria
John Koloria was born in Jerusalem, and first heard the Gospel from believers in Yeshua in Jerusalem. After coming to faith he left the small Jewish community in Jerusalem for Switzerland, where he studied in a Bible school. He was then sent out to Uruguay as pastor and teacher in a German Colony there. About 1887, he assisted Mr Eppstein in London, and then went to the US where he became engaged in ministerial work, contributing valuable articles to the Jewish Missionary periodical at New York, “The People, the Land and the Book”
Rose, Biographical Dictionary, 1850, s.v.;
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 2146-2148.T. J.
Jewish Encylopedia On-line; Crawford Howell Toy, Joseph Jacobs
John Koloria
John Koloria was born in Jerusalem, and first heard the Gospel from believers in Yeshua in Jerusalem. After coming to faith he left the small Jewish community in Jerusalem for Switzerland, where he studied in a Bible school. He was then sent out to Uruguay as pastor and teacher in a German Colony there. About 1887, he assisted Mr Eppstein in London, and then went to the US where he became engaged in ministerial work, contributing valuable articles to the Jewish Missionary periodical at New York, “The People, the Land and the Book”
Source:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ
Judah Jonah ben Isaac 1588-1668
Born in Safed.
After traveling on the Continent and being assistant Rabbi in Hamburg, he embraced Christianity in Poland in 1625. Then he went to Italy and was appointed Professor at the University of Pisa, and later as one of the librarians at the Vatican. He wrote “A Sermon in Hebrew and Latin on the Messiah and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles
Limud Hameshehim (Doctrines of Christianity), a Hebrew translation of the Italian Catechism of Robert Bellarmin
Berith Hahadasha, a Hebrew translation of the NT with a preface by Clement IX
(According to G. M. Lowen in “Nathanael”, 1903, No. 5, the Hebrew title of this translations is “Arbaa Abne Hagilyonim Mehattorah Hahadasha, Asher Neetku Milson romi lilshon ibri al yad Johanan hatobel Jonah. Weeherim otham Terumah la Kadosh Hakohen Hagadol Limenthi Tisshu”.
"ארבעה אבני הגיליונים מהתורה החדשה, אשר נעתקו מלדון רומי ללשון עברי על יד יוחנן התובל יונה. ואחרים אותם תרומה לקדוש הכוהן הגדול קלימנטי תשעי"
A Hebrew Chaldaic Lexicon
A Treatise on the name of Jesus “Hillufin sheben shelosha Targumim”, a collection of the difference in the Targums.
Source:
Bernstein: Jewish Witnesses for Christ
Judah Leib Lyons
Judah was born in Galicia where his father was a well known doctor. When he was eight years old his father took him to live in Jerusalem, where he established his own business. In order to purchase goods he traveled extensively, often taking his son with him in order to teach him business and prepare him to take over from him one day. However, he failed to return from one long trip, on which Judah had not accompanied him. After two years had gone by with no word from him, Judah decided to set out by himself to locate his whereabouts. He traveled the same way his father had gone two years earlier, visiting Egypt and Turkey in his father's footsteps. But in Turkey all trace of his father disappeared, so Judah tried again in Galicia, Russia, and then by ship to the Black Sea, Germany and France.
In 1835 Judah met Ferdinand Ewald in Tunis and opposed him greatly, spurred to deepest anger by Ewald's attempt to tell him of Messiah. However, for some reason he did accept a Bible and a few tracts from Ewald. In Tunis, he learned from the chief rabbi that his father had spoken of traveling to Fez. On following him there, Judah discovered that his father had made a very succesful business deal there by dealing in gold and silver. The Sultan had given him a guard to protect him on his business trips but the guard himself had murdered him and taken off with his goods.
Judah applied to the Sultan for justice, and was promised that the murderer would be brought to justice. However, the murderer was allowed to go free and justice was not served.
Judah traveled to Mogador, where he married, and attempted to continue his father's business. He was not greeted by success and returned to Jerusalem with his wife and two small sons. There he met Ewald again, and this time was more open to hearing about his Messiah. He came to faith and was baptised in 1844 together with his two sons, .
Judah's wife did not follow him in his newfound faith, and was persuaded by the community to leave him. However, this separation did not last long and she returned to him. Judah began a new career in writing, for which he was well suited with his knowledge of several languages. However, the family was not left in peace. The community knew that his wife did not agree with his new faith, and persuaded her again to leave him. Judah traveled after her, and found her on a ship bound for Beirut. In face of threatenings from the leaders of the Jewish community, he applied to the local Pasha for justice and the restoration of his family to him. His family was returned, and his wife rejoined him for a time. Again, this reunion did not last long and in 1848 the couple was divorced. Judah himself died in 1852.
Source:
Jewish Intelligence, December 1852
Karl Albert Agathon Benary 1807-1860
German philologist; born at Cassel 1807; died 1860; brother of Franz Ferdinand Benary. He received his education at the gymnasia of Göttingen and Erfurt, studied classical philology (1824-27) at the universities of Göttingen and Halle, and obtained his degree of Ph.D. with the thesis "De Æschyli Prometheo Soluto." While teacher at a Berlin gymnasium, he continued, together with his brother, his philological studies at the university under Bopp.
From 1833 until his death Benary was professor at the so-called Cölnische Realgymnasium at Berlin, and at the same time lectured in the university. He was one of the first linguists who applied the methods of comparative grammar to Latin and Greek. Most of Benary's essays were published in the Berlin "Jahrbücher für Wissenschaftliche Kritik," and in Kuhn's "Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung.".
Both Karl and his older brother became believers in Jesus.
Jewish Intelligence, December 1852
Karl Albert Agathon Benary 1807-1860
German philologist; born at Cassel 1807; died 1860; brother of Franz Ferdinand Benary. He received his education at the gymnasia of Göttingen and Erfurt, studied classical philology (1824-27) at the universities of Göttingen and Halle, and obtained his degree of Ph.D. with the thesis "De Æschyli Prometheo Soluto." While teacher at a Berlin gymnasium, he continued, together with his brother, his philological studies at the university under Bopp.
From 1833 until his death Benary was professor at the so-called Cölnische Realgymnasium at Berlin, and at the same time lectured in the university. He was one of the first linguists who applied the methods of comparative grammar to Latin and Greek. Most of Benary's essays were published in the Berlin "Jahrbücher für Wissenschaftliche Kritik," and in Kuhn's "Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung.".
Both Karl and his older brother became believers in Jesus.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999.
Jewish Encyclopedia http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. ii.;
Le Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission, 1899, p. 210;
Schulnachrichten des Cölnischen Realgymnasiums, Berlin, 1861.S.
Karl Eduard Gueterbock 1830-*
German jurist; born at Königsberg, East Prussia, April 18, 1830. He studied history, later law, at the universities of Königsberg, Bonn, Munich, and Berlin, graduating in 1851. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and became a judge in the town of Königsberg, East Prussia. In the year 1861 he was appointed privat-docent in Prussian law. Two years later he was elected assistant professor, and in 1868 he was elected professor. In the year 1868 he he resigned his position as judge.
Gueterbock was known to have become a Christian.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999.
Jewish Encyclopedia http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. ii.;
Le Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission, 1899, p. 210;
Schulnachrichten des Cölnischen Realgymnasiums, Berlin, 1861.S.
Karl Eduard Gueterbock 1830-*
German jurist; born at Königsberg, East Prussia, April 18, 1830. He studied history, later law, at the universities of Königsberg, Bonn, Munich, and Berlin, graduating in 1851. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and became a judge in the town of Königsberg, East Prussia. In the year 1861 he was appointed privat-docent in Prussian law. Two years later he was elected assistant professor, and in 1868 he was elected professor. In the year 1868 he he resigned his position as judge.
Gueterbock was known to have become a Christian.
Works
Die Englischen Aktiengesellschaftgesetze von 1856 und 1857, Berlin, 1858;
Ueber Einige in der Praxis Hervorgetretene Mängel des Preussischen Konkursverfahrens, ib. 1860; Henricus de Bracton und Sein Verhältniss zum Römischen Recht," ib. 1862 (English transl. by Coxe, Philadelphia, 1866);
De Jure Maritimo quod in Prussia Sæculo XVI et Ortum Est et in Usu Fuit, Königsberg, 1866;
Die Entstchungsgeschichte der Carolina,Würzburg, 1876.
Die Englischen Aktiengesellschaftgesetze von 1856 und 1857, Berlin, 1858;
Ueber Einige in der Praxis Hervorgetretene Mängel des Preussischen Konkursverfahrens, ib. 1860; Henricus de Bracton und Sein Verhältniss zum Römischen Recht," ib. 1862 (English transl. by Coxe, Philadelphia, 1866);
De Jure Maritimo quod in Prussia Sæculo XVI et Ortum Est et in Usu Fuit, Königsberg, 1866;
Die Entstchungsgeschichte der Carolina,Würzburg, 1876.
Sources
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, p. 232.S. F. T. H.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906 (Public domain)
Karl Friedrich Bamberger 1798-1870
Bamberger was born at Reichmansdorf, near Bamberg, in 1798; and died in Berlin in 1870. Entering first upon a business life, he later studied at Heidelberg (coming under the influence of Creuzer and Hegel), Munich (where he became a Lutheran), and Göttingen. It is presumably at this time that, as was customary, he took a new name: Neumann, (new man), to express his new birth.
Neumann became professor in the gymnasium at Speyer in 1822, but in 1825 was removed for certain religious utterances, after which he lived in private in Munich until 1827. Neumann then studied Armenian at the Convent of San Lazaro in Venice; visited Paris and London for the purpose of studying Oriental languages, chiefly Chinese; and in 1830 went to China, where he collected 10,000 Chinese books, purchasing over 2,400 volumes for the Royal Library at Berlin. On his return he presented his own collection to the Bavarian government, which in 1832 appointed him conservator of the collection and professor of Chinese in the Munich University.
Though he had won distinction as an Orientalist he was nevertheless removed in 1852 for expressing too progressive opinions and for being active in the revolution of 1847-1848 (he had been elected a member of the Bavarian provisional parliament). In 1863 he took up his residence in Berlin.
based on: The Jewish Encyclopedia on-line 1911
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, p. 232.S. F. T. H.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906 (Public domain)
Karl Friedrich Bamberger 1798-1870
Bamberger was born at Reichmansdorf, near Bamberg, in 1798; and died in Berlin in 1870. Entering first upon a business life, he later studied at Heidelberg (coming under the influence of Creuzer and Hegel), Munich (where he became a Lutheran), and Göttingen. It is presumably at this time that, as was customary, he took a new name: Neumann, (new man), to express his new birth.
Neumann became professor in the gymnasium at Speyer in 1822, but in 1825 was removed for certain religious utterances, after which he lived in private in Munich until 1827. Neumann then studied Armenian at the Convent of San Lazaro in Venice; visited Paris and London for the purpose of studying Oriental languages, chiefly Chinese; and in 1830 went to China, where he collected 10,000 Chinese books, purchasing over 2,400 volumes for the Royal Library at Berlin. On his return he presented his own collection to the Bavarian government, which in 1832 appointed him conservator of the collection and professor of Chinese in the Munich University.
Though he had won distinction as an Orientalist he was nevertheless removed in 1852 for expressing too progressive opinions and for being active in the revolution of 1847-1848 (he had been elected a member of the Bavarian provisional parliament). In 1863 he took up his residence in Berlin.
based on: The Jewish Encyclopedia on-line 1911
Sources
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographia
Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon
Larousse, Dictionary
Encyclopedia Brittanica
The Universal Cyclopedia
Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung 1870, Supplement, nos. 111 and 112
Ludwig Cohn 1834-1871
Cohn was born in Breslau in 1834. He belonged to a prominent family of merchants. As a young child he suffered an illness that left him physically deformed and weak, and was therefore taught at home by his mother until he was of an age to attend the Gymnasium.
He entered Breslau University in 1851, and Berlin University in 1853. About this time he was stricken with a serious illness. During his slow recovery at Breslau he attended lectures by Mommsen and Junckmann, and he took his degree at the university of that city in 1856. In 1857 he became a privat-docent at Göttingen University, where he taught till his death on Jan. 13, 1871.
His principal works are characterized by wide reading, keenness of criticism, and fairness of spirit, and include several well known works on German history. His principal work (1864-5) is "Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Deutschen Staaten und der Niederlande" .
His principal works are characterized by wide reading, keenness of criticism, and fairness of spirit, and include several well known works on German history. His principal work (1864-5) is "Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Deutschen Staaten und der Niederlande" .
Sources
Allg. Deutsche Biographie, 1896, iv. 394;
Le Roi, Gesch. der Evangel. Jud.-Mission, i. 213.S. N. D.
Jewish Encyclopedia, on-line
Ludwig Friedlander 1824-*
Friedlander studied at the universites of Königsberg and Leipsic from 1841 to 1845. As a JBY he became Professor of classical Philology and Archaeology.
He retired in 1892 to Strasburg, where he was honorary professor at the university. his chief work, "Darstellungen aus der Sittengesch. Rom's in der Zeit von August bis zum Ausgang der Antonine" (3 vols., 1862-71; 6th ed., 1889-90) is considered one of the most noteworthy philological productions of the nineteenth century (translated into French by Ch. Vogel, Paris, 1865-74, and into Italian and Hungarian). The work is a detailed and vivid portrait of the social life, customs, art, and manners of the first two centuries of the Roman Empire and remains one of the most complete surveys of Roman life and society.
Allg. Deutsche Biographie, 1896, iv. 394;
Le Roi, Gesch. der Evangel. Jud.-Mission, i. 213.S. N. D.
Jewish Encyclopedia, on-line
Ludwig Friedlander 1824-*
Friedlander studied at the universites of Königsberg and Leipsic from 1841 to 1845. As a JBY he became Professor of classical Philology and Archaeology.
He retired in 1892 to Strasburg, where he was honorary professor at the university. his chief work, "Darstellungen aus der Sittengesch. Rom's in der Zeit von August bis zum Ausgang der Antonine" (3 vols., 1862-71; 6th ed., 1889-90) is considered one of the most noteworthy philological productions of the nineteenth century (translated into French by Ch. Vogel, Paris, 1865-74, and into Italian and Hungarian). The work is a detailed and vivid portrait of the social life, customs, art, and manners of the first two centuries of the Roman Empire and remains one of the most complete surveys of Roman life and society.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshihit, new edition 1999.
De le Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Juden-Mission, p. 215.S.
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
"Ludwig Heinrich Friedländer." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 05 Nov. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220142/Ludwig-Heinrich-Friedlander>.
Michael Bernays 1834-1897
Bernays was a German historian of literature. He attended the Johanneum in his native city, where, principally under the guidance of Adolph Kraft, he devoted himself to the study of the classics. In a performance of "Antigone," arranged at the gymnasium by Töpfer, Bernays appeared as Kreon, and is said already at this time to have excited admiration by the originality of conception revealed in his rendering of the lines.
A few months later he entered the University of Bonn, where at first he devoted himself to the study of law, but soon abandoned it for that of classical philology. After completing his course at Bonn he went to Heidelberg, where he became a pupil of Gervinus and Holtzmann. Shortly after his arrival there Bernays, although then scarcely twenty-one years of age, lectured on Shakespeare before a literary student society which he had founded, and whose members had bestowed upon him the title of "master." In 1855 he received his doctorate and prepared to qualify himself for a professorship, while at the same time prosecuting his manifold literary labors.
Literary Labors
In 1859 Bernays published a festival play for the one hundredth anniversary of Schiller's birthday, and in 1864 he composed verses on the tricentennial celebration of the birth of Shakespeare. Shortly afterward he wrote an explanatory text to Beethoven's music to "Egmont," which was not only frequently spoken, but produced so lasting an impression that, thirty years later, the directors of the Carlsruhe Theater ordered from Bernays a similar prologue for Mozart's "Requiem."
Despite these occasional literary productions, however, Bernays steadily pursued his studies; and he even refused an offer from Treitschke to participate in the editorship of the "Preussische Jahrbücher," fearing that the duties of such a position might divert him from his main purpose. In the same year, 1866, he published his first celebrated work, "Zur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen-Textes," in which he once for all established the necessity of applying the methods of classical philology in the criticism of the modern masters.
Shortly after the Franco-Prussian war, which so powerfully stimulated interest in the national poetry, Bernays received a call to the University of Leipzig, and was so popular as a lecturer there that shortly after his arrival the largest hall of the university was inadequate to accommodate the audience. It was the enthusiasm thus aroused that now induced the artloving king of Bavaria, Ludwig II., to found a special chair of German literature—the first to be established—at Munich, and to summon Bernays thither as extraordinary professor, who thus, at the age of thirty-nine, already beheld the fulfilment of his dearest wishes. After an activity of eighteen months Bernays received a regular professorship, and this position he held until his resignation in 1889, when he removed to Carlsruhe.
Professor of German Literature
In striking contrast with many university professors, Bernays rarely confined himself to the written copy before him; he was gifted with a remarkable memory and is said to have been able to recite lengthy poems and dramas from beginning to end without faltering or betraying any evidence of fatigue. He also possessed an unusually extensive knowledge of the literature of ancient and of modern times, which he referred to in his lectures. As a lecturer he was extremely popular!
As Author
In his published works Bernays aimed to transfer the methods of classical philology to the domain of modern literary history and criticism, and endeavored to elevate these studies to an equality with the other academic sciences. Among his most popular writings, besides those mentioned, are: "Briefe Goethe's an F. A. Wolf," Berlin, 1868; "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare," Leipsic, 1872; "Der Junge Goethe"—a collection of the poems and letters of Goethe during the years 1764-76—3 vols., Leipsic, 1875; "Goethe und Gottsched"—two biographies—Leipsic, 1880; an introduction to a revised edition of Schlegel and Tieck's translation of Shakespeare, Berlin, 1871-72; an introduction to a centenary edition of Voss's translation of Homer, Stuttgart, 1881.
Apart from his literary activity, Bernays was frequently called upon to officiate on public occasions; as, for example, in 1883, when he was requested by the city of Munich to preside at the public dinner given in celebration of the emperor's birthday; andin 1892 at Carlsruhe, when he delivered the dedicatory address at the unveiling of the Scheffel monument (see Bettelheim, "Biographische Blätter," 1895).
In contradistinction to his brother Jacob, who strictly observed the ordinances of Judaism, Michael Bernays became a believer in Christ as a young man.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshihit, new edition 1999.
De le Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Juden-Mission, p. 215.S.
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
"Ludwig Heinrich Friedländer." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 05 Nov. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220142/Ludwig-Heinrich-Friedlander>.
Michael Bernays 1834-1897
Bernays was a German historian of literature. He attended the Johanneum in his native city, where, principally under the guidance of Adolph Kraft, he devoted himself to the study of the classics. In a performance of "Antigone," arranged at the gymnasium by Töpfer, Bernays appeared as Kreon, and is said already at this time to have excited admiration by the originality of conception revealed in his rendering of the lines.
A few months later he entered the University of Bonn, where at first he devoted himself to the study of law, but soon abandoned it for that of classical philology. After completing his course at Bonn he went to Heidelberg, where he became a pupil of Gervinus and Holtzmann. Shortly after his arrival there Bernays, although then scarcely twenty-one years of age, lectured on Shakespeare before a literary student society which he had founded, and whose members had bestowed upon him the title of "master." In 1855 he received his doctorate and prepared to qualify himself for a professorship, while at the same time prosecuting his manifold literary labors.
Literary Labors
In 1859 Bernays published a festival play for the one hundredth anniversary of Schiller's birthday, and in 1864 he composed verses on the tricentennial celebration of the birth of Shakespeare. Shortly afterward he wrote an explanatory text to Beethoven's music to "Egmont," which was not only frequently spoken, but produced so lasting an impression that, thirty years later, the directors of the Carlsruhe Theater ordered from Bernays a similar prologue for Mozart's "Requiem."
Despite these occasional literary productions, however, Bernays steadily pursued his studies; and he even refused an offer from Treitschke to participate in the editorship of the "Preussische Jahrbücher," fearing that the duties of such a position might divert him from his main purpose. In the same year, 1866, he published his first celebrated work, "Zur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen-Textes," in which he once for all established the necessity of applying the methods of classical philology in the criticism of the modern masters.
Shortly after the Franco-Prussian war, which so powerfully stimulated interest in the national poetry, Bernays received a call to the University of Leipzig, and was so popular as a lecturer there that shortly after his arrival the largest hall of the university was inadequate to accommodate the audience. It was the enthusiasm thus aroused that now induced the artloving king of Bavaria, Ludwig II., to found a special chair of German literature—the first to be established—at Munich, and to summon Bernays thither as extraordinary professor, who thus, at the age of thirty-nine, already beheld the fulfilment of his dearest wishes. After an activity of eighteen months Bernays received a regular professorship, and this position he held until his resignation in 1889, when he removed to Carlsruhe.
Professor of German Literature
In striking contrast with many university professors, Bernays rarely confined himself to the written copy before him; he was gifted with a remarkable memory and is said to have been able to recite lengthy poems and dramas from beginning to end without faltering or betraying any evidence of fatigue. He also possessed an unusually extensive knowledge of the literature of ancient and of modern times, which he referred to in his lectures. As a lecturer he was extremely popular!
As Author
In his published works Bernays aimed to transfer the methods of classical philology to the domain of modern literary history and criticism, and endeavored to elevate these studies to an equality with the other academic sciences. Among his most popular writings, besides those mentioned, are: "Briefe Goethe's an F. A. Wolf," Berlin, 1868; "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare," Leipsic, 1872; "Der Junge Goethe"—a collection of the poems and letters of Goethe during the years 1764-76—3 vols., Leipsic, 1875; "Goethe und Gottsched"—two biographies—Leipsic, 1880; an introduction to a revised edition of Schlegel and Tieck's translation of Shakespeare, Berlin, 1871-72; an introduction to a centenary edition of Voss's translation of Homer, Stuttgart, 1881.
Apart from his literary activity, Bernays was frequently called upon to officiate on public occasions; as, for example, in 1883, when he was requested by the city of Munich to preside at the public dinner given in celebration of the emperor's birthday; andin 1892 at Carlsruhe, when he delivered the dedicatory address at the unveiling of the Scheffel monument (see Bettelheim, "Biographische Blätter," 1895).
In contradistinction to his brother Jacob, who strictly observed the ordinances of Judaism, Michael Bernays became a believer in Christ as a young man.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
Bettelheim, Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog, 1897
Münchener Allgemeine Zeitung, Feb. 26, 1897
Brockhaus, Conversations-Lexikon, s.v.S. J. So.
Moritz Bloch (Mór Ballagi) 1815-1891
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
Bettelheim, Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog, 1897
Münchener Allgemeine Zeitung, Feb. 26, 1897
Brockhaus, Conversations-Lexikon, s.v.S. J. So.
Moritz Bloch (Mór Ballagi) 1815-1891
Moritz Bloch (after 1838, Mór Ballagi) was born in 1815 in Inócz, Zemplén County, Hungary. His father was poor, a tenant-farmer, but sought the best education for his son. He taught him his first steps in the Bible and in the Talmud. Bloch continued his Talmudic studies at Nagyvárad and Pápa. He continued studying the Greek and Roman classics, and then, from 1837-38 studied mathematics and geometry in Budapest. Following this he sto studied oriental languages and culture ("orientalia") in Paris.
Bloch lived in Hungary during an era of growing Hungarian nationalism - Hungarians began to reclaim their own culture and language as distinct from German culture, a process that was called “Magyarization”. Bloch became deeply involved in this, dedicating his efforts towards the magyarization of the Jewish community, which had traditionally been more German than Hungarian. In 1841 he sent a petition to the Hungarian Parliament asking for the emancipation of the Jews.
His articles to the Pest daily newspaper were well received, and he was soon recognized as a champion of Hungarian national causes. While he was studying in France, leaders in the Jewish community in Pest began to agitate in the Hungarian parliament for the emancipation of the Jews. Bloch was asked to come back to Hungary, and to forward the cause in Jewish circles. At this time he wrote his famous pamphlet “A Zsidókról” (On the Jews) and returned to Hungary in order to devote himself to religious literature and the magyarizing of the Jewish community. In 1840 he published his translation of the first five books of the Bible into Hungarian, with explanations and other notes. He also translated the book of Joshua into Hungarian. Later in 1840 he was appointed corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Science in recognition of his patriotic and scientific endeavors.
In addition to his literary work, Bloch was active in the Jewish community, and advocated the establishment of a yeshiva. However, this did not succeed and he again left Hungary, this time to Thuerbingen. It was there that he met Ewald and other believers, and heard the Gospel. He came to faith, and was baptized in 1843.
As a Jewish Christian, Bloch wrote extensively on his new faith. In 1851 he became professor of theology in Budapest. The energy he had shown in advocating the magyarization of Hungarian Jews was now directed towards the cause of evangelicalism. He founded many institutions and was considered one of the evangelical’s leading spokesmen and supporters.
Bloch’s greatest contributions, however, were to the Hungarian language. His grammars, lexicons and readers were influential in achieving the magyarizing of Hungary and are still valued today, over a hundred years later.
Works:
Die fünf Bücher Mosis (ung. Übers.), 1840/41;
Josuah (ung. Übers. u. Ausl.), 1842;
Vollst. Wb. der ung. u. dt. Sprache, 1851;
Die Protestantenfrage in Ungarn u. die Politik Östr.s, 1860;
Lehrb. der hebr. Sprache, 1856 (18722);
Die Bibel, 1864 (ung.);
Bibl. Stud., 2 Bde., 1865-68 (ung.);
Prot. gg. Ultramontanismus, 1867;
Die Entstehung der nt. Schrr., 1872 (ung.).
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
McCagg, William O. A History of Habsburg Jews, 1670-1918 p. 133
Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon.S. E
Pallas Lexikon
Rubin, Aaron D. The Paradigm Root in Hebrew* in Journal of Semitic Studies 2008 53(1):29-41
Penn. State University
Jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/53/1/29.pdf
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/judaica/
Jewish Encyclopedia on-line, Isidore Singer
Moritz Breidenbach 1796-1857
Moritz studied at the University of Heidelberg, graduating in 1817 with a degree in law. After a supplementary course at Göttingen he began the practise of law at Darmstadt in 1820. In 1831 he became counselor of the treasury in the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1836 counselor of the cabinet, in which capacity he officiated as commissioner of the Hessian government in the Landtag.
He became a member of the council of state in 1848, but was compelled to resign this office upon the outbreak of the Revolution. He was recalled, however, in 1849 as chief counselor of education, which position he held until his death.
Breidenbach displayed exceptional ability in every capacity, whether as a jurist, official, or popular representative. But he was frequently opposed by those who admired his learning, because of his pronounced monarchical views. He was the principal author of the penal code of Hesse, and actively participated in framing the "Allgemeine Deutsche Wechselund Handelsrecht." His principal literary work is his commentary on the Hessian legal code.
He was the son of Wolf Breidenbach, a German court agent and champion of Jewish emancipation who had made his way up from being a poor yet talented Yeshiva student and chess player, to wealthy banker and jeweler. Wolf Breidenbach used his wealth and influence to benefit the Jewish communities, and was successful in effecting the abolition of the noxious Jewish Headtax in Ratisbon and Darmstadt in 1805. (This was a tax every Jew had to pay on entering towns other than his home town.)
Of the three children of Wolf Breidenbach, Moritz and his brother Isaac (Julius) became Christians. Isaac became an ambassador in Stuttgart. Their sister, Sarah, married the banker Abraham Gans. Sarah's son, Eduard Gans, made a profession of faith as an adult but it is not know if this was motivated by social convenience or due to a true conviction.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
McCagg, William O. A History of Habsburg Jews, 1670-1918 p. 133
Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon.S. E
Pallas Lexikon
Rubin, Aaron D. The Paradigm Root in Hebrew* in Journal of Semitic Studies 2008 53(1):29-41
Penn. State University
Jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/53/1/29.pdf
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/judaica/
Jewish Encyclopedia on-line, Isidore Singer
Moritz Breidenbach 1796-1857
Moritz studied at the University of Heidelberg, graduating in 1817 with a degree in law. After a supplementary course at Göttingen he began the practise of law at Darmstadt in 1820. In 1831 he became counselor of the treasury in the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1836 counselor of the cabinet, in which capacity he officiated as commissioner of the Hessian government in the Landtag.
He became a member of the council of state in 1848, but was compelled to resign this office upon the outbreak of the Revolution. He was recalled, however, in 1849 as chief counselor of education, which position he held until his death.
Breidenbach displayed exceptional ability in every capacity, whether as a jurist, official, or popular representative. But he was frequently opposed by those who admired his learning, because of his pronounced monarchical views. He was the principal author of the penal code of Hesse, and actively participated in framing the "Allgemeine Deutsche Wechselund Handelsrecht." His principal literary work is his commentary on the Hessian legal code.
He was the son of Wolf Breidenbach, a German court agent and champion of Jewish emancipation who had made his way up from being a poor yet talented Yeshiva student and chess player, to wealthy banker and jeweler. Wolf Breidenbach used his wealth and influence to benefit the Jewish communities, and was successful in effecting the abolition of the noxious Jewish Headtax in Ratisbon and Darmstadt in 1805. (This was a tax every Jew had to pay on entering towns other than his home town.)
Of the three children of Wolf Breidenbach, Moritz and his brother Isaac (Julius) became Christians. Isaac became an ambassador in Stuttgart. Their sister, Sarah, married the banker Abraham Gans. Sarah's son, Eduard Gans, made a profession of faith as an adult but it is not know if this was motivated by social convenience or due to a true conviction.
Sources
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie;
Le Roi, Evangelische Judenmission, p. 229.S.J. So
Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906
Morris J. Franklin 1831-1884
Franklin was born in Prussia 1831 and was baptized by Rev. John Forsythe in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1847. He graduated from Union College in 1855 and studied in the Union Theological Seminary in the years 1855-57 going on to gain a medical license (MD) in 1858. He served as a surgeon in the U. S. Army from 1862-64 and physician and druggist in New York from 1865-84.
He died while on a trip to Jerusalem in 1884.
Moshe Ben-Meir
Was born in Jerusalem in 1905 to Orthodox Jewish parents and came to faith as a young man. His autobiography is told in From Jerusalem to Jerusalem (here) .
Ben Meir worked as a postman in Haifa and was active in a local congregation of believers there. He was founder and editor of Tal (dew), the third Messianic Jewish journal in Hebrew in
He established with Hyman Jacobs and Dr. Arne Jonsen, a Norwegian missionary, the first independent Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem between 1925-1929 referring to the congregants in Hebrew as “Yehudim Meschichiim” or Messianic Jews. This term would not be the definition of choice for Jewish believers in Yeshua until 1975 in America, then was officially adopted in May 1997 at an international conference in Mexico. As they were accused of “Judaizing tendencies,” the first congregation only laster 4 years. Then in cooperation with the International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA) of London, they formed the Hebrew Christian Fellowship of Palestine, but still used the term “Messianic Jews” in Hebrew texts. Their professed aim was to achieve an interdenominational fellowship that would “unite the Messianic Jews in Palestine and Syria; establish and support urban branches; witness corporately to both synagogue and church concerning the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hope in Jesus; to introduce Jewish thought to Gentile Christians and the Gospel to Jews; …” in 1933, the Fellowship changed its name to The Hebrew Christian Alliance of Palestine and the Near East. He also created a Messianic Sabbath liturgy and a Messianic Jewish Haggadah, combining Jewish tradition and biblical texts in order to find some common ground with normative Judaism.
Ben-Meir taught along with Kofsmann, Haimoff, Poljak and Ostrovsky that full Jewish hegemony in Jerusalem meant the end of the “Time of the Gentiles.” They raised the post-1948 Jewish remnant in Israel into developing a strong patriotic Zionism as part of their eschatological theology. They also stressed that Israeli believers should serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as loyal citizens of the State, and if competent, even as officers.
Sources:
“A Messianic Jewish Church in Eretz Israel?” in Mishkhan, Issue No. 29, 1998 (by Gershon Nerel
"HaLapid" in Zot HaBrit, Journal no. 2, by Gershon Nerel
Ben-Meir, From Jerusalem to Jerusalem: Autobiographical Sketches by Moshe Ben-Meir; Netivyah.org http://www.netivyah.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=54&Itemid=39
Sternchuss, P. H.
After a course of preparation in the LJS Missionary Training College, was sent together with A. J. Behrens, to open a mission at Safed in 1843 where they held a daily service and tried to have intercourse with the religious Jews, but were boycotted by them.
In 1844 they were both ordained in Jerusalem, and Sternchuss accompanied Stern to Baghdad, whence he itinerated to Mesopotamia, visiting Hillah and Ezekiel’s tomb twice, he also visited Persia. The trying climate, the galling reproaches and persecutions, and the hardships which those early missionaries in the East endured, soon told upon Sternchuss, so that he had to resign on account of ill-health in 1850, but continued still for a short time to labour for the Society in the West of England.
Source:
A. Bernstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ.
Paul Eduard Gottheil 1818-1893
Gottheil was born at Fraustadt in 1818 and died at Stuttgart in 1893. After coming to faith he studied theology in Basel, and then in 1848 he entered the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews, with which he was connected until the end of his life.
He studied theology at Basel and was for many years minister of the English church at Cannstadt, near Stuttgart, and then minister of the Diakonissenhaus in Stuttgart. As a missionary he was very successful. Some of those whom he instructed and baptized at Nuremberg, Cannstadt, and Stuttgart have become ministers of the gospel or missionaries among the Jews.
He published "Blätter für die Evangelische Mission Unter Israel," 1850-58; "Der Messias, Israels Hoffnung und Aller Völker Verlangen," 1863 (translated into English); "Mischan Lechem, Lebensbrot für Gottes Volk aus Gottes Wort" (Hebrew and German), 1871; (Yiddish and German), 1873; "Die Arbeit an den Einzelnen," in "Nathanael," 1891, No. 6.
He was a brother of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil (1827-1903) of Temple Immanuel in New York. Interestingly enough, the paths of the two brothers seem to have run parallel in many ways. Of Rabbi Gottheil it is written: Gottheil was the most prominent American rabbi at the first World Zionist Congress (1897), and he became one of the founders of the Federation of American Zionists, later the Zionist Organization of America. He was one of the earliest rabbis in this country to reach out to the Christian community. (Gorgias Press.)
Sources
De le Roi, Johann. Geschichte der Evangelischen Juden-Mission. ii. 266;
article Gottheil, in Der Freund Israels, Basel, 1893;
Dunlop, John. Gospel Triumphs Among the Jews in the Victorian Era.S. B. P.
Paul Isaac Hershon 1818-1888
Hershon was born in Galicia, the town of Buczacz, in 1818. He received an excellent education in Hebrew and Talmud. On a visit to Jerusalem he met Nicolayson, and came to faith. he then studied in the Jerusalem Missionary College (1842-1846). Afterwards he was appointed principal of the House of Industry, and from 1848-55 he laboured as a missionary in England. He was appointed as head of the model farm at Jaffa, but fell ill in 1869 and was obliged to resign and return to the better climate of England. He devoted himself to literary work until his death in London in 1888.
Works:
A Talmudic Miscellany, by F.W. Farrar (Foreword by), Paul Isaac Hershon (Forewrod by).
Treasures of the Talmud.: Being a Series. By Paul Isaac Hershon (Translator)
Tzeenah Ureenah, Go Ye and See: A Rabbinical Commentary on Genesis (1885)
by Yaakov Ben Yizchak Ashkenazi, Paul Isaac Hershon (Translator)
The Pentateuch according to the Talmud: Genesis: with a Talmudical commentary.
by Paul Isaac Hershon, Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, M. Wokenberg.1883.
Rabbinical commentary on Genesis. Yaakov ben Yizchak Ashkenazi, Paul Isaac Hershon. 1885.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. (Keren Ahvah Meshichit, new edition 1999).
Hyamson, Albert Montefiore. A Dictionary of Universal Biography of All Ages and of All Peoples
Philip Johann Bleibtreu
Philip was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in the middle of the seventeenth centuryand died there in 1702. He published a German work entitled "Meïr Naor" (The Enlightened Meïr, from his Jewish name, Meïr), Frankfort, 1787, giving an account of how he had come to faith, notices on the Jewish festivals, and on some Jewish prayers.
Sources
Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. No. 1834;
Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 120.K. I.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
Samuel Schor (Second generation JBY in Jerusalem)
He was born in Jerusalem on 17 August 1859, and was baptized in Christ Church, Jerusalem, on 11 September 1859. He was the second son of Nathan Israel Schor and Rachel, who was Nathan's second wife. Both his parents were refugees of sorts in the Jerusalem Community.
Nathan was a tailor from Austria, probably from Galicia. He was baptised in Cairon on 23 March 1850 by Christian Lazarus Lauria and Johann Rudolph Theophilus Lieder in the chapel of the CMS (Church Missionary Society). His first wife died in September 1851 and he was left with four young children. He left Cairo and went to the LJS station in Jerusalem to find work and an arrangement for his children.
Nathan's second wife, Rachel was Samuel's mother and had been baptised in the LJS station on 2 April 1847. She had been abandoned at the age of 17 by her husband, when he reneged on the faith (according to missionary F.C. Ewald). After her baptism she married Judah Lyons on 28 July 1847, and after Judah's death she married Israel Nathan Schor on 27 March 1853.
Samuel Schor was educated in the Boys' School of the LJS in Jerusalem, first as a day student and later, in the end of 1871 as a boarder.
(taken from Mishkan 37/2002, Yoelit Migron, Samuel Schor, the Man and His Time)
Resources:
Migron, Yoelit. Samuel Schor, the Man and His Time, in Mishkan 37/2002, pp 5-20
Schor, S. Palestine and the Bible: Illustrating the Manners and Customs of the People in Bible Lands (London, 1931), 21-22
Schor, S. "Gleaning Mission from the Field", JI (April 1890), 60-61
Schor, S. "Palestine Light on Scripture Difficulties, I. The Hole in the Door", JMI (April. 1911), 58-59
Nine Oriental Songs, Arranged and collected by the Rev. Samuel Schor, London 1929.
Schor, S. "What I saw at the Zionist Congress in Basle", JMI (Nov. 1890), 174-5
Schor, S. The Everlasting Nation and thier Coming King, pl 127 (London and Edinburgh [1933], 41-42
Wilkinson S. H. and Schor, S. The Future of Jerusalem. Its Successive Phase with Regard to Present Events, London 1917.
Schor, S. Palestine for the Jews; or the Awaking of the Jewish Nation, 2nd edition, London 1907.
Palestine in London. Official Guide, June 11 to July 2, 1907, 2nd edition, pp. 145, 1907
The Apocalypse, A Simple Exposition, London, the Barbican Mission to the Jews, [n.d.]
Samuel Shor, Intyrest Facts about Jerusalem, London Society, [n.d.]
S. Schor, Dreyfus and Zionism
Narrative of the Proceedings of the Great Council of Jews to Examine the Scriptures Concerning Christ, October 1650 (from "Catalogue of Works Published by the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews", Ninety-fourth Annual Report (1902), no pagination).
Samuel Wiseman 1835-1920
A Disciple of Yeshua in the New Era Jerusalem
By Gershon Nerel
Samuel Wiseman was born in Tiberias into a Jewish ultra orthodox family on September 25, 1835. We have no information on how he came to believe in Yeshua, but we know that he was baptized in Christ Church in Jerusalem by the bishop Samuel Gobat on January 21, 1857. At that time he as employed as an Arabic teacher by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. In addition, he was a member of the medical staff of the Hospital of the English Mission in the city, where he worked mainly as a chemist (then the word dispenser was used). Thus he was able to testify of his faith in Yeshua to thousands who attended the hospital.
Wiseman served for a long period of time as the official translator (dragoman) of the mission in Jerusalem. In addition to English, he was in command of both speaking and writing in several other languages. Wiseman was also known as a specialist in Ottoman law and very skillfully administered the communications with the Turkish authorities. As a man of great tact, Wiseman found common ground with people of different cultures. He faithfully and humbly fulfilled his roles as both chemist and dragoman for over 40 years.
Wiseman was fluent in Hebrew and familiar with the Talmud. Therefore, he counseled residents of Jerusalem who came to receive his advice and support, among whom were Jews, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi of the old Yishuv. He helped them all and avoided prominence. During his long lifetime he was a teacher, a friend and a guide to three generations of Jews in Jerusalem who believed in Yeshua. Due to his integrity and good relationships with all parts of society – Jews, Christians and Muslims – he won the appreciation and trust of all who knew him. Samuel Wiseman died quietly in his sleep on June 19, 1920 at the age of 85, and the following day was buried in the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.
taken from: Zot HaBrit, Summer 2003, English Issue no. 5
copyright to Gershon Nerel 2003
Siegfried Hirsch 1816-1860
Hirsch studied history at the universities of Berlin and Königsberg from 1833 through 1836. In 1834 he published a prize essay, "Das Leben und die Thaten König Heinrichs I."; and in 1837, conjointly with Waitz, "Die Echtheit der Chronik von Korvei." His first important work was "De Vita et Scriptis Sigiberti," Berlin, 1841.
In 1842 he became privat-docent at the University of Berlin, and within two years had risen to the rank of assistant professor. Hirsch became a frequent contributor to the "Kreuzzeitung", a Christian magazine. His principal work, the "Geschichte Heinrich II.," (the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II) was unfinished at his death in Paris in 1860. It was published by Usinger, Pabst, and Bresslau in the "Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reiches"(Annals of the German Empire under Henry II) - Berlin and Leipsic, 1862-75, 3 vols.
Sources
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1897;
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, Index.S.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906.
Rosenthal, Simeon (Wildan Charles)
A learned Jew originally from Wallachia on the Danube. He first met Nicolayson in Izimir when he first became interested in the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel. He moved to Jerusalem with his family and was baptized there by Nicolayson with his wife, 14-year old daughter and four year old son in 1839, taking on the name "Wildan Charles". This family were the firstfruits of the LJS mission in the Holy City. Rosenthal served for a while as foreman of the building project in Jerusalem. However, in 1849 he was sued in court for having misused funds sent for the purchase of building materials and for the wages of workers hired by the London Society, a charge he denied and which was not proven. This was just the first incident of several when the London Society accused one of its workers of improprieties, and may at least partially be due to insufficient communication and a lack of understanding of Middle Eastern ways as opposed to British. Simeon found work after this as interpreter for the British Consul, and rose in the good graces of James Finn, then consul at Jerusalem. In 1857 Finn sought to appoint Rosenthal in his place as his representative in times the consul was absent from his post in the city.
Simeon and his wife Anna Emilia went on to have four more sons and a daughter in Jerusalem. The youngest son was named after the rabbi-Bishop Michael Alexander. His eldest daughter, Maria Dorothea, who was baptised with him in Jerusalem at age 14, became the wife of Melville Peter Bergheim, businessman and banker. Together they raised a further two generations of Jewish believers born and raised in Jerusalem and did a great deal for the welfare of their fellow Jews in then-Palestine.
Simeon died in 1822.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ
Perry, A. Clouds and Wind Without Rain. Israel, 2001
L.J.S. Remarks of the Committee upon Mr. Young's Letter relative to Mr. Simeone Rosenthal's Case. Dep. Cmj, c.110McCaul, S. Jerusalem: Its Bishop, its Missionaries, and its Converts, being a Series of Letters Addressed to the Editor of the "Daily News" in the Year 1858 Daily News (2.4.1858) p. 9
Theodor Hirsch 1806-1881
Born in Altschottland, near Danzig, Hirsch became a believer through the influence of Schleiermacher, a professor of history. His studies at Berlin university included theology, together with history and geography .
He became professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium; and in 1833 proceeded to Danzig, where he taught history for thirty-two years. At Danzig, his home town, he focused on the local history of the city, and in 1850 was made responsible for re-arrangement and supervision of the municipal archives. In 1865 he served as professor of History in Greifsfeld. He is recorded to have been a very quiet and humble man despite his erudition and status.
His principal work is "Danzig's Handels- und Gewerbegeschichte Unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens," Leipsic, 1858. He also edited, with Strehlke and Töppen, the "Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum," 5 vols., ib. 1861-74.
In 1865 Hirsch became assistant professor of history at the University of Greifswald and director of the Royal University Library. In 1880 he published the sixth volume of the "Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des Grossen Kurfürsten."
Sources
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1897;
Allg. Deutsche Biographie, xiii. 506;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, part i., p. 207.S.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
Theodore Creizenach 1818-1877
Creizenach was an accomplished poet and historian of literature; son of Michael Creizenach; born 1818 in Mayence; died 1877, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. He studied classical antiquities in Giessen, Göttingen, and Heidelberg, and then lived for several years at Paris as tutor in the house of Aaron Anselm Rothschild. Upon his return from Paris in 1842 Creizenach became teacher in the Jewish Philanthropin at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and was one of the principal founders of the Frankfort Jewish Reform Verein; in 1854 he expressed faith in the Messiah of Israel. It is doubtful he continued teaching in the Jewish school, and indeed, by 1859 he was teaching in the Frankfort municipal high school. He was appointed professor of history and literature at the Frankfort gymnasium in 1863.
In the literary world Creizenach attracted attention by such poetical productions as "Dichtungen," Frankfort, 1839; and "Gedichte," Frankfort, 1848; 2d ed., 1851.
Being familiar with the personality and life of Goethe in his relations to Frankfort, he edited and published Goethe's correspondence with Madame von Willemer, under the title "Der Briefwechsel Zwischen Goethe und Marianne von Willemer," 2d ed., Stuttgart, 1878. In conjunction with O. Jäger he took charge of the new edition of Schlosser's "Weltgeschichte," 1870 et seq.; and in conjunction with Otto Müller edited a weekly publication, "Das Frankfurter Museum."
Sources:
Adolph Kohut, Berühmte Israelitische Männer und Frauen, xi. 383, Leipsic, 1901;
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.S. B. B.
I. M. Jost, Michael Creizenach, in Isidor Busch, Kalender und Jahrbuch für Israeliten auf das Jahr 5604, Vienna, 1843
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
John Christian Gottlieb Adolph Jacobi 1800-1874
Jacobi was born in the vicinity of Posen, Prussia in 1800 and came to faith in his early twenties. He was baptized in 1822. He joined the London Society, but emigrated to the USA in the 1820s, where he became the publisher of a German newspaper in St. Louis. In the years 1826-26 he served as missionary of the A. S. M. C. J. and again from 1850 to 1855. In the interim he was employed in the postal service 1826-49.
In 1856 Jacobi was ordained deacon at the Episcopal Church in Hartford, Conn. and continued to serve as missionary to the Jews in New York, from 1856-62. He worked as chaplain in U. S. army from 1862-64 and then, in 1865 returned to his calling in New York., where he served until his death on February 9, 1874.
Sources:
MINUTES OF THE FIRST Hebrew-Christian Conference of the United States held at Mountain Lake Park, Md. July 28-30, 1903.
Eber, Irene. The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible: S.I.J. Schereschewsky 1831-1906. Koeln: Brill, 1999. p. 41
Carl Jacobi 1804-1851
Jacobi was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Potsdam, and at birth was given the assimilated name Jacques Simon. His father, Simon Jacobi, was a banker. Carl was the second child of four in the family, the eldest being Moritz Jacobi who eventually became a famous physicist.
Jacobi's early education was given by an uncle on his mother's side, and then, just before his twelfth birthday, Jacobi entered the Gymnasium in Potsdam. He had been well taught by his uncle and he had remarkable talents so in 1817, while still in his first year of schooling, he was put into the final year class. This meant that by the end of the academic year 1816-17 he was still only 12 years old yet he had reached the necessary standard to enter university. The University of Berlin, however, did not accept students below the age of 16, so Jacobi had to remain in the same class at the Gymnasium in Potsdam until the spring of 1821. He pursued an independent course of studies, wasting no time!
He studied mathematics, philosophy, philosphy and philology at the University of Berlin. By the year 1824 he had become a believer. In that year he was made privat-docent in mathematics in Berlin. In 1825 he acted in the same capacity at Königsberg, where he was appointed assistant professor in 1827 and professor in 1829, where he distinguished himself. In these years he made his epoch-making discoveries in the field of elliptic functions. In 1843 he traveled to Italy for health reasons, but on his return to Germany served as professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin.
Most of Jacobi's papers were published in Crelle's Journal, "Fuer die Reine und Angewardte Mathematik" and in the "Monatsberichte" (Monthly Reports_ of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which he became a member in 1836.
Works:
Canon Arithmeticus, Berlin 1839.
Fundamenta Novae Theoriae Functiones Ellipticorum, Koenigsberg, 1829.
Gesammelte Werke, 8 vols. 1881-19. The Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909.
Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, p. 204;
Gerhardt, Gesch. der Mathematik in Deutschland, pp. 247-257.S.
Lejeune-Dirichlet, in Abhandlungen of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1852);
1. C J Scriba, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Available on the Web]
Books:
3. K Biermann, Jacobi, in H Wussing and W Arnold, Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker (Berlin, 1983).
4. E Knobloch, B Mai (trs.) and H Pieper (ed.), Korrespondenz Adrien-Marie Legendre-Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (Stuttgart, 1998).
5. H Pieper (ed.), Briefwechsel zwischen Alexander von Humboldt und C G Jacob Jacobi (Berlin, 1987).
Heinrich Otto Jacoby 1815-1864
German philologist; born at Tütz, West Prussia, 1815 and educated in a Jewish school in Berlin.
Jacoby studied at Berlin University, and received the honorary degree of Ph.D. from the University of Königsberg in 1854 for his profound knowledge of the Greek language. He was engaged as teacher at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin, from 1854 till 1858, and then became teacher at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium at Posen, where in 1860 he received the title of professor.
Jacobi is the compiler of the most valuable "Index Græcitatis" to Meineke's edition of "Græcorum Comicorum Fragmenta," Berlin, 1847. Of his other works may be mentioned "In Comicos Græcos Adnotationum Corollarium," ib. 1866.
He received the degree of D. Ph. from the University of Koenigsberg without even passing an examination. He died in Berlin 1864.
Sources:
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, i. 218;
Allg. Deutsche Biographie.S. F. T. H.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. new edition 1999 by Keren Ahvah Meschichit.
Julius Koebner 1806-1884
Born in Denmark, and "by profession an optician like Spinoza, God vouchsafed to him greater spiritual sight than to the philosopher". (A. Bernstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ.)
Julius joined the Lutheran church at first, but afterwards joined the Baptists, building the Christian Chapel in Copenhagen and elsewhere in Denmark. His latter life was spent in Germany, and he died in Berlin in 1884.
On his hundredth birthday in 1906, one hundred of his choices sermons were published in the German press under the title "Lebens Wasser" (Water of Life).
Works:
Das Lied von Gott, an epic poem from the creation to the redemption of the world.
Die Waldenser, a dramatic poem with notes
Die Neue Erde
Source:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. O.J.C.I., Palestine House, Bodney Road, London, 1909
Leopold Kronecker 1823-1891
Leopold Kronecker was born in Liegnitz to a well-to-do Jewish family, and received the best possible education. He studied mathematics at Berlin University. However, instead of mathematics he applied himself to commerce, managing the estate of his late uncle and working successfully until he had made enough money to be able to devote himself fully to mathematics. In 1848 he married the daughter of his uncle, Fanny Prausnitzer.
He taught at Berlin from 1861, and, in 1883, was appointed professor. Kronecker was a highly cultured man who used his wealth to patronize the arts. He also had a deep interest in philosophy and Christian theology, although he did not become a believer until 1890, just a year before his death - saved, as it were, by the skin of his teeth.
Kronecker was considered the greatest German algebraist of all time. His mathematical work was almost entirely in the fields of number theory and higher algebra, although he also made some contributions to the theory of elliptic functions. He was also one of the first to understand thoroughly and use Evariste Galois's work in the theory of equations. The Kronecker delta function is named for him.
Works:
J J O'Connor and E F Robertson Biography, retrieved 26/10/09 (recommended reading)
Brittanica Encyclopedia on-line
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon;
Frobenius, Gedächtnissrede auf Leopold Kronecker, Berlin, 1893;
H. Weber, in the Zweiter Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker.S.
Source
Jewish Encyclopedia online
Dr. Leitner
Aaron Stern knew him personally and writes:
Dr. Leitner was born in 1800 in a town of Hungary. His father, who was a rich man, destined him for the rabbinical chair, but as he preferred the medical profession, he proceeded to Pesth, and there, after eight years study, he received his diploma, and was engaged as a military physician by the Austrian Government. Subsequent events led him to make a voyage to Constantinople, when, quite by accident, in the house of a Jewish friend, he became possessed of the Gospel he had so long coveted, yet dreaded to purchase.
Brought in 1844 as a humble, penitent, and sincere believer to the foot of the mercy-seat, his heart immediately expanded with love and deep compassion toward his Jewish brethren; and, in 1853, after many hindrances and obstacles, he resigned a lucrative position at Broussa, and entered the service of the Society as medical missionary, in which capacity he continued until his removal by death on the 7th of April in the present year (1861). Thoroughly versed in the Bible, and imbued with the Spirit of his Divine Master, he only yearned to make others sharers in those blessings and privileges he so fully knew how to appreciate himself. Often did I hear the suppliant entreaties which he addressed to the crowds who sought his professional skill, that they would not only care for the body, but also seek help and safety in redeeming lover for the immortal soul.
Source:
Gidney, W. T. History of the London Society...1908. chapter XXXVIII
Meyer Lerman 1837-
Meyer was born in Russian Poland, 1837 and was baptized in London in 1858. He served as a missionary to the Jews in New York as of August, 1867, and joined the Church Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1878.
Lerman is best known for having founded the Hebrew-Christian Brotherhood and Prayer Union, October 10, 1884
Mark Levy
Personal testimony
An address delivered at the Hebrew-Christian Conference, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, USA July 28, 1903, by MARK LEVY, of London, England
So far as memory serves, my childish mind regarded the One of whom they sang as a good man, whose special object was the care and protection of little children, and instinctively my heart went out to Him in love. But at an early age, on being sent to school in one of our provincial English towns, and having to undergo as a Jew the ordeal of taunt and scorn, principally at the hands of strange boys, whom I was taught to regard as followers of Jesus, my love for Him quickly turned to dislike, which deepened into positive hatred of His name when the terrible persecutions of the Jews, at the hands of professing Christendom, was subsequently brought to my knowledge.
In early manhood, having failed to find spiritual consolation in the synagogue, I commenced reading the New Testament, and quickly realizing the glorious beauty of the character of Jesus, I came to the mental conclusion that He was the Messiah.
At that time there were living in Great Britain scores of clergymen of Hebrew birth. But, personally, I did not know there was a single minister of the Gospel of our own race living to whom I could go in my spiritual distress; for these sons of Judah had practically become Gentilized, and withdrawn their light from the congregations of Israel. The well-known names, in Christian circles, of Edersheim, Saphir, and other celebrated Jewish converts, I had never heard, although born in London, as were my parents.
In my despair I called upon one of the missionaries of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, but was discouraged in my investigations. Thus all the national sources of aid were hidden from, or denied to, a despairing brother in Israel, because the Jews who had found Christ were lost to their race among the Gentiles and did not “become as Jews to the Jews, to gain the Jews.”
After several years of sorrowful wandering in England, Australia and America, my convertion was accomplished, in God’s good time, through the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, and I was baptized into Christ in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and confirmed within a few months by the late Rt. Rev. Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota.
Source:
Hebrew-Christian Conference, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, U. S. A.. July 28, 1903 (click for link to the full minutes on the LCJE site)
Marcusson, John W. -1913
Born in Scalat, in Galicia, Austria, son of Herman Ben Sion, a learned Jewish scholar. The family moved to Odessa, Russia where they met Rev. W.G. Schauffler who became their lifelong friend. Schauffler was a Jewish Christian and it is no doubt due to his own testimony that John's father, Herman, began to search and study the scriptures. Herman became a believer in Jesus, but his wife and family did not follow him in faith and were estranged from him. he moved to Constantinople, where eventually he was baptised and changed his name to Marcusson.
The family, in the meantime, moved to live in Odessa, close to the mother's family. John studied at his grandfather's school and learned to speak Russian, German and French by the time he had reached the age of 14. His ambition was to become a merchant. Tragically, his mother died when he was still young. At the age of 18 he joined his father in Constantinople. The godly lives of his father and of Dr. Schauffler impressed him deeply and he began to read the New Testament for himself, and to search the scriptures seriously as his father had done so many years ago. In time he came to faith in Jesus, recognising that the one he had called The Crucified One, was indeed the promised Messiah of the Jewish nation.
Herman Ben Sion/Marcusson remarried and moved to Jerusalem in 1845 where John attended an Episcopal College. He was baptized by Dr. Nicolayson and studied Arabic in preparation for ministry. However, he returned to Constantinople and resolved to go to America where he could complete his training as missionary to the Jews at the Willington Preparatory School of East Hampton, Mass.
He was then appointed to the new ABCFM Salonica mission and labored there for three years. Returning to America, he became associated with the Chicago Hebrew Mission, becoming its Superintendent and pastor in 1895. He was affectionately known as “Father Marcusson”. John Marcusson served the mission for 25 years before his untimely death.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition 1999.
Marcusson, Jacob W. "Father Marcusson", or, Rev. Jacob W. Marcusson. Chicago Hebrew Mission, 1913.
Minutes of the First Hebrew Christian conference, Mt. Lake Park, Md. July 28-30, 1903
David Samuel Margoliouth 1858-1940
(October 17, 1858 in London, England, – March 22, 1940) was an orientalist. He was professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford (1889–1937) and was briefly active as a minister of the Church of England. He spent considerable time traveling in the Middle East. At Baghdad and in the surrounding area, he came to be regarded as more knowledgeable on Islamic matters than most Arab scholars.
Margoiouth's father was a JBY, who worked in Bethnal Green as a missionary to the Jews. He was also close to his uncle, Moses Margoliouth. David was educated at Winchester, where he was a scholar, and at New College, Oxford where he graduated with a double first in Greats and won an unprecedented number of prizes in Classics and Oriental languages.
Many of his works on the history of Islam became the standard treatises in English, including Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (1905), The Early Development of Mohammedanism (1914), and The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam (1924)[2].
He was described as brilliant editor and translator of Arabic works[2], as seen in The Letters of Abu'l-'Ala of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man (1898), Yaqut's Dictionary of Learned Men, 6 vol. (1907–27), and the chronicle of Miskawayh, prepared in collaboration with H. F. Amedroz under the title The Eclipse of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, 7 vol. (1920–21). Some of David Samuel Margoliouth's studies are included in The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Bookedited by Ibn Warraq.
He was a member of the council of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1905 onwards, its director in 1927, was awarded its triennial gold medal in 1928, and was its president 1934-37[1].
Works:
Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. 1905.
Umayyads and 'Abbasids. 1907.
The Early Development of Mohammedanism. 1914.
Yaqut's dictionary of learned men. 7 vols. 1908-1927.
The Kitab al-Ansab of al-Sam'ani. 1911.
Mohammedanism. 1912.
The Table-talk of a Mesopotamian judge. 2 vols. 1921-1922.
The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate. 1922.
The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam. Schweich Lecture for 1921. 1924.
Lectures on Arabic historians, delivered before the University of Calcutta, February 1929. Byzantine series, 38. New York City: Burt Franklin, 1930.
References
^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica (14th edition) - article Margoliouth, David Samuel
^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica (15th edition) - article Margoliouth, David Samuel
^ Werner Eugen Mosse and Julius Carlebach, Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom
^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
External links:
Britannica online article
onlne (pdf) versions of five of his works
David Samuel Margoliouth. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 18, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364763/David-Samuel-Margoliouth
George Margoliouth 1853-1924
George Margoliouth was a learned Biblical and Oriental scholar and writer for the British Museum where he was in charge of the Hebrew, Syrial and Ethiopic M.S.S. from 1891 till his retirement in 1914 he did much useful work. This included a descriptive list of the Hebrew and Samaritan M.S.S. in the Museum, published in 1893. To this he added a catalogue of these M.S.S. which appeared in 3 vols at intervals between 1899 and 1915. In 1899 he also published a descriptive list of Syrial and …….. M.S.S. acquired by the Museum since 1873. His other writings were "The SuperlinearPunctuation" 1893 and editions of the Liturgy of the Nile, Palistinian, Syriac and English 1896, of recently discovered portions of the Palistinian Syriac Version of Holy Scripture1896, of Ibn al Hiti's Arabic Chronicles of Karaite Doctors with an English translation 1897, of the original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus XXX1 1899, also "Hebrew Babylonian Affinities" 1899.
Margoliouth was born of Jewish parents in Russian Poland on 4 Dec. 1853 and was educated at Dusseldorf and at the University of Bonn. He was a nephew of the Rev. Moses Margoliouth (1820 - 1881), a Hebrew Scholar, Vicar of Little Linford. Having prepared at Cuddesdon, he was ordained in 1881 to the curacy of St Thomas's, Leeds, and afterwards, while a curate at Cambridge entered at Queens College. He had been naturalised as a British Subject in 1887. Though illness prevented him from obtaining honours in the Semitic Language Tripos, he was bracketed equal for the Lynowhitt Hebrew scholarship in 1891, During his service at the British Museum, he founded the Text and Translation Society for the publication of Oriental works and served as secretary for 3 years. He was also, for 3 years, a member of the Aristotelian Society. On many occasions he examined in Hebrew and Aramaic for the University of London and was a member of the University Board "Studies in Theology". He contributed articles to the periodical "Quarterly Review" and other reviews and maintained an interest in general literature. He married in 1886, Marian, daughter of John Fearon of Cockermouth. He died Spring 1924 at ..B. They had at least 9 children: -
Herschel Maurice Margoliouth
He served from 1914 to 1919 in the Northamptonshire Regiment and reached the rank of Captain. After the war he was became tutor in English Literature in two Oxford colleges, and lecturer in English Literature at Kings College, London.; and in 1921 he was appointed Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, Southampton. From 1925 to 1947 he was Secretary to Faculties at Oxford. He became in 1935 a senior research fellow, and later emeritus fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. From 1947 to 1951 he edited the Oxford Magazine .
Margoliouth was a learned and able student of English Literature, and his edition of Marvell's poems and letters (1927) won high praise from the experts. His other published works are Wells of English (1926-29), William Blake (1951), Wordsworth and Coleridge (1953, William Blake's Vala (1956), and Traherne's Centuries, Poems and Thanksgivings (1958).
But during many years he had little time for research. The Secretary of Faculties is one of the most important of the permanent officers of the university, and Margoliouth threw himself into the work of the post with the greatest vigour and success. He had a very clear head; He was a rapid and accurate draughtsman; he was uniformly helpful to the professors, readers, and others, who came to him for advice; and he remained cheerful and unperturbed when difficult matters had to be settled. Both the University and his college will long miss a greatly valued and respected colleague.
(The Times, March 23rd, 1959)
Herschel had no children but assisted some of his nephews and nieces.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. new edition, Keren Ahvah Meschichit, 1999
Moses Margoliouth 1820-1881
Dr. Moses Margoliouth was born at Suwalki in 1820, and died in London, 1881. He was no relation to Ezekiel Margoliouth, though from the same town. He arrived in Liverpool in 1837 and met the Jewish missionaries Lazarus and H. S. Joseph. Following discussion with them, he came to faith in 1838.
Moses studied in Trinity College in Dubin, and became a well respected minister in the Church of England.
In 1847 he started a Hebrew Christian monthly magazine entitled "The Star of Jacob". In the 1870s he was editor of The Hebrew Christian Witness. He was also one of the revisers of the English version of the Old Testament.
Works:
The Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism Investigated (can be ordered from Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem) The object of the present volume is to bring before the Christian public some information as to the present state of religion among the Jews, both with respect to the ceremonial and the moral law; and as it may excite some surprise that there should be room or occasion for such a publication; as it seems strange, that the religious practices, and even the moral principles of a people like the Jews should be still a subject for enquiry…
The Jews in Great Britain : a series of Six Lectures on the Antiquities of the Jews in England. (J. Nisbet, 1846) Read Online
The fundamental principles of modern Judaism investigated (B. Wertheim, 1843) Read Online
Vestiges of the historic Anglo-Hebrews in East Anglia (Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1870)
Read Online
The Penitential hymn of Judah and Israel after the spirit (Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856) Read Online
The Curates Of Riversdale: recollections in the life of a Clergyman, 1860. (Kessinger Publishing, LLC, June 25, 2007) HardcoverThe poetry of the Hebrew Pentateuch (S. Bagster, 1871) Read OnlineA pilgrimage to the land of my fathers.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. London; new edition by Keren Ahvah Meshichit, 1999.
Katz, David S.,, ‘Margoliouth, Moses (1815–1881)’, first published Sept 2004, 1040 words, with portrait illustration.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18055
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Louis Meyer 1862-1913
A Christian Prince in Israel
(Excerpts from the memorial speech by Mrs. T. C. Rounds; fromwww.lcje.net - the online Jewish Missions History Project.)
“Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel”—2 Sam 3:38.
Louis Meyer was born in the small town of Crivitz in the Dukedom of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in Northern Germany, on August 30, 1862. His parents, who were well-to-do Hebrews, determined to give him a good secular education, and at an early age he was sent to the Gymnasium in Parchim, Mecklenburg (an institution between an American College and a university), from which he was graduated in 1882.
He was reared as a German Jew, but was well acquainted with Christianity and its doctrines, having read the New Testament in Greek in school. As a student he became a Rationalist, and was sometimes even ashamed of his Jewish birth.
His uncle, the celebrated, missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England in London, Rev. Theodore Meyer, visited frequently at the home of his brother, Mr. Meyer's father, but, having promised not to discuss religion during these visits, was faithful to his promise and never spoke of Christ to his nephew. He prayed, however, according to his later testimony, especially for this nephew, who visited him frequently in London.
Louis Meyer's own inclination drew him to the study of history and literature, but the fact that a Jew had, at that time, no hope of gaining any official position in Germany, caused him to begin the study of medicine in the universities of Berlin, 1882-1883; Marburg, 1883-1884; Wurzburg, 1884-1885; and Halle, 1885-1887. He became especially interested in surgery and served as “volunteer” in the Royal Surgical Hospital at Halle. There he contracted blood poisoning at a post mortem section in 1887, and the physicians thought only a long sojourn upon the ocean could restore the weakened nervous system. Thus he laid aside the practice of surgery for a time and went upon the sea for almost four years. He served first as steward, then as chief purser upon the Delcomyn, Dunedin, Bedford and other steamers, thus seeing almost every part of the world. His health having been fully restored, he came to the United States, and soon went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to again take up the practice of surgery, which he laid aside almost five years before. God ordered otherwise.
In Cincinnati, Mr. Meyer selected the Covenanter Church for his study of the English language, because the Psalms were sung and the worship was very simple. The sermons which led him to Christ, step by step, were a course of lectures by Rev. J. C. Smith, on “Christ in the Book of Leviticus.”The unbelieving Jew was converted and joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. He was baptized in 1892, by Rev. J. C. Smith, of the Clinton Street Reformed Presbyterian Church, whose oldest daughter became the wife of the young Hebrew Christian in 1898 .
At the urgent request of his Christian friends, Mr. Meyer gave up his medical career and became a missionary to the Jews in Cincinnati. Though he met with much encouragement, he was conscious of the need of better training for the preaching of the Gospel and went to the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Allegheny, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1897. A call from the Lake Reno congregation, near Glenwood, Minn., before his graduation, was accepted, and Louis Meyer was ordained and installed in January, 1898. He was the first Hebrew Christian minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. In May, 1900, he accepted the call to the larger congregation at Hopkinton, Ia., to which he ministered until February 20, 1906. During his pastorate a fine large church of brick and stone was erected and opened, practically free of debt. Four young men of that congregation consecrated themselves to the service of the Lord in the Gospel ministry. In 1901 the Presbyterian Synod of Iowa made Mr. Meyer a trustee of Lenox College of Hopkinton, in which capacity he served until 1906. He taught also the History of Missions, which formed a part of the curriculum in Lenox College, from 1902 till 1905, inclusive.
During the years in Hopkinton Mr. Meyer continued in larger measure to study Jewish Missions, a subject which he had commenced to investigate in 1896, when the Presbytery assigned that subject to him for his historical essay for licensure. He searched the libraries of Harvard, Yale, Boston and New York, making American Jews and American Jewish Missions his special study. Jews and Christians soon began to come to him for information, and the Missionary Review of the World, The Jewish Era and other German and English magazines published many of his articles. In 1901 he was invited to be one of the speakers at the Messianic Conference in Park Street Church, Boston. In 1902 he was one of the speakers at the Jewish section of the Student Volunteer Convention of Toronto, Canada. In 1903 he was the organizing secretary of the International Hebrew Christian Conference at Mountain Lake Park, Indiana. In 1902 he furnished the tables of the Jewish Missions for the Atlas of Missions by H. P. Beach, which he revised in 1904 for the New Encyclopedia of Missions, and again in 1910 for the “World Atlas of Christian Missions.” In 1905 he wrote the article on Judaism for the text-book of the Student Volunteers' “Religions of the Missionfield.”
In February, 1906, Mr. Meyer accepted the offer of the Chicago Hebrew Mission to become their Field Secretary.
Mr. Meyer was also editor of the Missionary department of The Jewish Era, the quarterly magazine of The Chicago Hebrew Mission, and was a regular contributor to the Christian Nation. In 1900 he began to be a frequent contributor to the Missionary Review of the World, and in 1909 became one of the associate editors. In this capacity he rendered very valuable service as translator for the General Missionary Intelligence department, as editor of the Jewish Missionary News and as compiler of missionary statistics. Dr. Meyer was also a frequent contributor to the Glory of Israel, Pittsburgh, and Zion's Freund, Hamburg, Germany.
For four years Mr. Meyer traveled as field secretary of the Chicago Hebrew Mission, visiting all parts of the country, from Maine to California, not as a collector of funds, but as a lecturer, to create an interest in Jewish work in general. His labors resulted in stimulating much personal work in the organization of local missions, and in strengthening the heart and hands of those engaged in missions already established....
Dr. Meyer, a man of marvelous linguistic power, possessed an unusually clear head, a very retentive memory, a logical mind. His brain was a storehouse of facts and figures on the Jewish problems of the day and on general missionary intelligence, which he could quote at a moment's notice. He was a statistician of acknowledged authority in the United States and abroad, and was exceedingly accurate and careful in collecting his material. Dr. Meyer's wife used to rally him in their early married life for spending so much time over statistical tables, but he replied: “These are my capital.” One gentleman used to refer to him as “a walking thesaurus.” Especially was he noted for the methodical arrangements of his papers. He never was at a loss to find a letter or paper of any kind, so accurately were they filed and indexed. It was a rare thing to find a converted Hebrew of whom he could not tell all about his birth, his conversion, his baptism, his occupation and his ministry.
Dr. Meyer was also a devout and intelligent student of the Word and a man of prayer, as all his sermons and lectures clearly evidenced. His writings showed a very clear and forceful style, so that no one had ever to guess at his meaning.
In 1912, Meyer was stricken down by hemorrhages of the lungs. ...
A few days before death he said something in Latin. When asked what he meant, he smiled and replied: “Tell Mrs. —— `The battle is over, the victory is won'.”
Though for three weeks he had been blind, with great self-control he concealed the fact from his wife, who was constantly by his bedside, lest it should distress her.
As he neared the heavenly shore his face lit up as with a beautific vision. His blinded eyes, now open, evidently caught the face of his Saviour, for he whispered “Christ”—then later, “Pa.” (This was his father-in-law, who had led him to Christ.)
Leopold Josef Neustetel 1798-1825
Leopold Josef Neustetel was born on 8 August, 1798, in Offenbach-am-Main (or Hanover, according to another source) and died in Nice on 24 January, 1825. His treatise was published only a few months before his premature death. In 1818, he had obtained a doctorate in canon and civil law in Heidelberg and was then registered as a supreme court attorney (Obergerichtsprokurator) in Hanau. His thesis (which, as was still the practice in those days, Neustetel wrote and defended in Latin) was entitled: Bona-fide transactions, entered upon where the other party had fraudulent intentions, are not null and void".
It should be noted here that the Heidelberg Law Faculty adopted a markedly liberal approach: Jewish doctoral candidates were matriculated and awarded degrees just like their Christian counterparts in those years. This was the case with Neustetel and his friends Sigmund Zimmern and Eduard Gans. All three brilliant men became believers in the Messiah of Israel, and given the liberal approach of the Heidelberg university it would be hard to claim that this was due to pecuniary motives
On 29 August, 1821, after an engagement lasting three years, Leopold was married, according to the law of Moses, to his friend's sister Regine Zimmern (1800-70). They had two daughters, Mathilde (b.1822) and Emma (b.1823).
Regine, who had been exposed to Christianity in high school, and whose elder brother had become a Christian, influenced her husband to consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. While still young he fell deathly ill, and during his illness was visied by an evangelical pastor. He came to faith on his deathbed, and desired to show his faith in baptism. He died before he could do so, but in respect to his wishes, his wife accorded him a Christian burial. She herself came to faith two years later.
Sources:
[Anonymous], Reflexionen über den Büchernachdruck: besonders zur Gewinnung eines neuen Gesichtspunktes in Betreff seiner Widerrechtlichkeit (Heidelberg: Neue Akademische Buchhandlung, 1823)
Braun, J., "Sigmund Zimmern (1796-1830) - ein deutsch-jüdisches Gelehrtenschicksal daragestellt anhand von Auszügen aus Akten und Briefen", Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte 106 (1991): 210-236
Gieseke, L., Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht. Die Entwicklung des Urheberrechts in Deutschland bis 1845 (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995)
Kawohl, F. (2008) ‘Commentary on Leopold Josef Neustetel, The Reprinting of Books (Heidelberg, 1824), in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Neustetel, L. J., Bonae fidei negotia dolo inita non esse nulla / auctore Leopoldo Josepho Neustetel (Heidelberg 1818)
Neustetel, L. J. and S. Zimmern, Römisch-rechtliche Untersuchungen für Wissenschaft und Ausübung (Heidelberg: Carl Groos 1821)
Vogel, M., "Deutsche Urheber- und Verlagsrechtsgeschichte zwischen 1450 und 1850", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 29 (1978): 1-180
Wadle, E., "Nachdruck als Injurie", in his Geistiges Eigentum. Bausteine zur Rechtsgeschichte (Weinheim: VCH, 1996), 129-144
http://www.flechsig.biz/08PPLakt.html
Friedrich Adolf Philippi 1809-1882
Friedrich was the son of a wealthy Jewish banker, who belonged to the well-known Mendelssohn circle. His father had the children educated in a Christian school, something not unheard of in that era.
While at primary school Friedrich received his first impressions of the christian faith. Later, at the Gymnasium, or high-school, he began to be interested in classic studies thanks to the influence of his cousin, Jakobi. It was in this time period that Jakobi, who became a well-known mathematician, became an earnest believer of Yeshua. Friedrich was very interested and began to talk much with his cousin on the Bible. Jakobi gave him a New Testament to read. Others also noticed his interest. A school friend gave him a copy of a book written by a well known minister, Strauss by name, and Friedrich sought him out personally. Strauss felt at the time that the young man's thoughts of "becoming a christian" like his cousin, were still immature and unripe, and did not take on his instruction in the faith.
On graduation from the high school in 1827 Friedrich decided to study philology in the university. Again he visited Strauss, and this time the preacher agreed to teach him of the faith. However, even after a time of study, Friedrich did not reach an inner peace or full understanding of the faith in Messiah. Two years later we find him in Leipzig, where he visited Professor Lindner and continued his spiritual search. Now, at last, he came to a full understanding and asked to be baptised. His decision could not be kept a secret, and raised a furor in his parental home. But after a time of anger, his parents made peace with him. Many of his relatives followed his example, including his cousin Jeannette Pincson, who later became his wife.
Having completed studies of philosophy and theology at Berlin and Leipsic (Ph.D. 1831), Friedrich began to teach, with success, at a private school in Dresden and at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium at Berlin (1833). In 1837 he received his diploma as Lutheran minister, and in 1838 was admitted as privat-docent to the theological faculty of the University of Berlin. In 1841 he was elected professor of theology at the University of Dorpat; he received the degree of D.D. "honoris causa" from the University of Erlangen in 1843.
Of Philippi's works may be mentioned: "Die Lehre vom Thätigen Gehorsam Christi," Berlin, 1841; "Kirchliche Glaubenslehre," Güterslohe, 1854-1879 (3d ed. 1883-85), a standard work from the Orthodox Lutheran point of view; "Vorlesungen über Symbolik," ib. 1883.
Philipp's eldest son became a pastor in Mecklenburg and produced the church paper; the second son became a Professor of oriental languages in Rostock, and the third a lawyer.
Philippi died on 29 August, 1882.
Sources:
L. Schulze, Friedrich Adolf Philippi, Nördlingen, 1883;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, 2d ed., i. 204-6, Leipsic, 1899.S. F. T. H.
Read more: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=268&letter=P&search=philippi#ixzz0V8uVNB5z
Joseph Wolff 1795-1862
The Jewish David Livingstone
Sigmund Zimmern 1796-1830
Zimmern, eldest son of a family of eleven, was born on 4 March 1796 at Heidelberg to a wealthy banking family. After highschool he studied law at the Heidelberg University, attaining a Doctor of Law in February 1817. His training was continued with a year in Berlin and then in Göttingen. He returned to the Heidelberg University as lecturer in the Faculty of Law, and in May 1821 received the title of Grand Duke of Baden's counsel.
In September of that year he joined the Lutheran church in Karlsruhe. The exact circumstances of his coming to faith are unknown, though it is known that two friends of his, Eduard Gans and Leopold Neustetler, also came to faith, as well as his sister Regine. (See Regine's biography in this section). He married Karoline Walther from Hanau, and had a daughter and son.
In the autumn of 1826 Sigmund moved to Jena after rejecting a call from the Breslau University. In the autumn of1827 he returned home sick from a trip; in the spring of 1829 he was compelled to discontinue his lectures at the university. To regain his health, he intended to travel to southern France, but only got as far as Heidelberg. He died there on 9 June 1830 at the age of 34.
Works:
Geschichte des römischen Privatrechts bis Justinian“ (Bd. 1 in 2 Abthlgn. Heidelberg 1826, Bd. 3 ebd. 1829)
Source:
Jews in Public Service Under the German Monarchy. The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 1964 9(1):206-238; doi:10.1093/leobaeck/9.1.206
G. J. Zuckertort
Zuckertort came to faith through the preaching of Wendt, a missionary with the London Jews Society. In 1836 he was appointed assistant missionary in Lublin. There he preached to his own relatives and had the joy of seeing one, a physician, come to faith. The doctor's wife came to faith four years later, and their four children also confessed faith.
Zuckertort was the father of Johannes Zuckertort (1842-1888) a writer, physician, linguist and famous chess player who founded the UK based Chess-Monthly, one of the era's most influential chess magazines. Johannes died of a stroke following two yeas of failed health, at the age of 45. A short biography of Johannes reveals that his father married the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). Because the Christian mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was frowned on by the authorities the Zukertort family emigrated to Prussia.
Sources:
Adams, Jimmy. Johannes Zukertort: Artist of the chessboard. Caissa editions. 1989.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshichit, Jerusalem. new edition 1999.
Joseph Segall
Joseph Segall and his friends first came into contact with the Gospel when they began to read Christian literature left behind by a colporteur from Budapest in 1874. They studied it secretly, taking turns. Bernstein writes:
After being solemnly impressed by the truth, they wrote a letter to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, asking for admission to some institution in which they might learn more of the Gospel. Mr. Kleinhenn replied that he had no such home, and could not encourage anyone to come to him except on his own means and on his own responsibility. However, one day Segall and his friend Suffrin appeared at Mr. Kleinhenn's house, and he had to take them in. They were then instructed by Mr. Kleinhenn and Mr. Bernstein for some considerable time, and then baptised. The history of the two runs to some extent together. The relations of each tried their utmost to win them back to Judaism, but they had grace given to them not to yield. "
In the same year the two continued to a school in Basel for training, after which they applied to the London Jews' Society , studied at its missionary college and began to work as missionaries. Segall worked first of all in the UK, and then was sent to take carge of the mission at Damascus, where he also acted as chaplain to the English ex-patriates there.
Haim Simeon
Haim, or Judah, was one of the first to come to faith through the testimony of Joseph Frey, founder of the London Jews' Society, in London. He came from Poland. His father, Abraham Simeon, was a rabbi, who made sure to train each of his sons in a trade - after which they would be allowed to study whatever they wished. Haim learned watchmaking, and then went to Edinburgh to study law. It was there that he came to faith and took the name "Erasmus" after a Dutch reformer. Though he had hoped his family would listen to him, and he would be able to win them to the faith, it was not to be. However, he did talk with many of his former neighbours and found that there were many who believed in Messiah but were fearful of taking a stand because it would mean loss of family and livelihood. The realisation that a Christian Jew is cast out of both Jewish society, for being Christian; and Christian society, for being a Jew, affected him deeply. His life hereforth was dedicated to improving the situation of believing Jews and making a decent livelihood possible for them. His first thought was to establish a colony in the United States where Jewish believers, immigrants from Europe, could live with dignity. His new wife, a Scotswoman named Barbara, supported him wholeheartedly and together they left the UK for the shores of the United States.
The trip to the USA was not very comfortable - the couple had hired a Dutch ship which did not have decent accommodation for passengers. By the time the two arrived in New York they had a harrowing voyage behind them, and were half starved! But once in New York, their friends received them kindly, and they were encouraged to pursue their vision of forming a settlement. The ASMCJ was already in existence and as their vision coincided, they joined forces. Erasmus was asked to make a tour to churches, pleading the case, and raising funds with which to purchase land and found a settlement. When he had raised enough to begin the project, differences of approach came to light, and rather disappointed Erasmus left the Society and left them with the funds he had raised.
At that time he became interested in the native Americans of North America, thinking perhaps they were descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel! He and Barbara lived among them for some time, teaching them, and preaching the Gospel to them.
Once back in London, Erasmus formed a society called the "Friends of the Hebrew Nation" under the patronage of the Bishop of London. His hope was to establish a church of Jewish believers, like the first church in Jerusalem! The society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers, and started the "Operative Jewish Converts' Institution". Inmates were to live there for three years, learning a trade (in this case, bookbinding) and studying the Bible, growing in faith and in learning until they could stand on their feet independently. One of those who lived there for a time was the future founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, Ridley Haim Herschell. Herschell was sent, eventually, to Ireland to establish a similar home there.
A friend of the family writes that Erasmus and Barbara lived very simply in their last years, content that all their income should go to the support of the younger believers.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. New edition 1999, Keren Ahvah Meshichit
Farrer, John Mrs. (Eliza) Recollections of Seventy Years [chapter XXVI A Converted Jew.] Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866. rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1980.
Henderson, Geoffrey. All Love: A Biography of Ridley Herschell, pp 35-6. HTS Media, 2007.
Berk, George L. Defending the faith: Nineteenth century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus. State University of New York Press, Albany. 1989
http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/jewishconverts.html (London Jews Society).
Simon, Barbara. Memoir of Erasmus H. Simon. 1837.
Martin Eduard Simson 1810-1899
Simson was raised in an intellectual Jewish home in Koenigsberg, oriented towards education and advancement. For this purpose, though evidently not without deep personal conviction, his parents had their children converted to the evangelical faith, some years before they themselves followed suit. Of his brothers, one became a professor of Oriental languages in Koenisberg, and the other two studied law.
Martin Eduard studied law and became professor of Roman law in 1833. In 1836 he was made judge, and by 1848 had risen to the title of advisor (Rath) in the higher court. In this year he represented Koenigsberg in the National Congress at Frankfurt. He became the president of the Congress, and headed the deputation of the Frankfort parliament to announce to King Frederick William IV his election as German Emperor by the representatives of the people. The king, either apprehensive of a rupture with Austria, or fearing detriment to the prerogatives of the Prussian crown should he accept this dignity at the hands of a democracy, refused the offer. Simson, bitterly disappointed at the outcome of his mission, resigned his seat in the Frankfort parliament, but in the summer of the same year was elected deputy for Konigsberg in the popular chamber of the Prussian Landtag. Here he soon made his mark as one of the best orators in that assembly. A member of the short-lived Erfurt parliament of 1850, he was again summoned to the presidential chair. who offered the crown of the German Empire to King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Subsequently he held other offices of state. In 1879 he was appointed first president of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig.
In 1888 Simson received the decoration of the Black Eagle of Prussia and was ennobled. He retired from public life in 1892 and dedicated himself to academic studies and law.
The Jewish Encyclopedia notes:
His political career coincides with the era of German struggles towards unity. As a politician he was one of the leaders of modern Liberalism, and though always loyal when appeals were made to patriotism, such as government demands for the army, he remained obdurate on constitutional questions; and he resolutely opposed the reactionary policy of the Prussian Conservatives. On his retirement from the presidency of the Reichsgericht, he left Leipzig and made his home in Berlin, where he died on the 2nd of May 1899.
Works:
Geschichte des Koenigsberger Ober Tribunals.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshichit, new edition 1999.
Mast, Peter. Simson, Eduard von. in Ostdeutsche Biographie
Meinhardt, Guenther. Eduard von Simon. Der Parlamentspraesident Preussens und der Reichseinigung, Bonn 1981.
Petersdorff, Herman von. Eduard von Simon; in: Allegemine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 54 (1908), S. 348-364 (mit Literature)
Simson, Bernhard von. Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben. Leipzig, 1900
Jewish Virtual Library
Jewish Encyclopedia
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie;
Le Roi, Evangelische Judenmission, p. 229.S.J. So
Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906
Morris J. Franklin 1831-1884
Franklin was born in Prussia 1831 and was baptized by Rev. John Forsythe in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1847. He graduated from Union College in 1855 and studied in the Union Theological Seminary in the years 1855-57 going on to gain a medical license (MD) in 1858. He served as a surgeon in the U. S. Army from 1862-64 and physician and druggist in New York from 1865-84.
He died while on a trip to Jerusalem in 1884.
Moshe Ben-Meir
Was born in Jerusalem in 1905 to Orthodox Jewish parents and came to faith as a young man. His autobiography is told in From Jerusalem to Jerusalem (here) .
Ben Meir worked as a postman in Haifa and was active in a local congregation of believers there. He was founder and editor of Tal (dew), the third Messianic Jewish journal in Hebrew in
He established with Hyman Jacobs and Dr. Arne Jonsen, a Norwegian missionary, the first independent Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem between 1925-1929 referring to the congregants in Hebrew as “Yehudim Meschichiim” or Messianic Jews. This term would not be the definition of choice for Jewish believers in Yeshua until 1975 in America, then was officially adopted in May 1997 at an international conference in Mexico. As they were accused of “Judaizing tendencies,” the first congregation only laster 4 years. Then in cooperation with the International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA) of London, they formed the Hebrew Christian Fellowship of Palestine, but still used the term “Messianic Jews” in Hebrew texts. Their professed aim was to achieve an interdenominational fellowship that would “unite the Messianic Jews in Palestine and Syria; establish and support urban branches; witness corporately to both synagogue and church concerning the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hope in Jesus; to introduce Jewish thought to Gentile Christians and the Gospel to Jews; …” in 1933, the Fellowship changed its name to The Hebrew Christian Alliance of Palestine and the Near East. He also created a Messianic Sabbath liturgy and a Messianic Jewish Haggadah, combining Jewish tradition and biblical texts in order to find some common ground with normative Judaism.
Ben-Meir taught along with Kofsmann, Haimoff, Poljak and Ostrovsky that full Jewish hegemony in Jerusalem meant the end of the “Time of the Gentiles.” They raised the post-1948 Jewish remnant in Israel into developing a strong patriotic Zionism as part of their eschatological theology. They also stressed that Israeli believers should serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as loyal citizens of the State, and if competent, even as officers.
Sources:
“A Messianic Jewish Church in Eretz Israel?” in Mishkhan, Issue No. 29, 1998 (by Gershon Nerel
"HaLapid" in Zot HaBrit, Journal no. 2, by Gershon Nerel
Ben-Meir, From Jerusalem to Jerusalem: Autobiographical Sketches by Moshe Ben-Meir; Netivyah.org http://www.netivyah.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=54&Itemid=39
Sternchuss, P. H.
After a course of preparation in the LJS Missionary Training College, was sent together with A. J. Behrens, to open a mission at Safed in 1843 where they held a daily service and tried to have intercourse with the religious Jews, but were boycotted by them.
In 1844 they were both ordained in Jerusalem, and Sternchuss accompanied Stern to Baghdad, whence he itinerated to Mesopotamia, visiting Hillah and Ezekiel’s tomb twice, he also visited Persia. The trying climate, the galling reproaches and persecutions, and the hardships which those early missionaries in the East endured, soon told upon Sternchuss, so that he had to resign on account of ill-health in 1850, but continued still for a short time to labour for the Society in the West of England.
Source:
A. Bernstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ.
Paul Eduard Gottheil 1818-1893
Gottheil was born at Fraustadt in 1818 and died at Stuttgart in 1893. After coming to faith he studied theology in Basel, and then in 1848 he entered the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews, with which he was connected until the end of his life.
He studied theology at Basel and was for many years minister of the English church at Cannstadt, near Stuttgart, and then minister of the Diakonissenhaus in Stuttgart. As a missionary he was very successful. Some of those whom he instructed and baptized at Nuremberg, Cannstadt, and Stuttgart have become ministers of the gospel or missionaries among the Jews.
He published "Blätter für die Evangelische Mission Unter Israel," 1850-58; "Der Messias, Israels Hoffnung und Aller Völker Verlangen," 1863 (translated into English); "Mischan Lechem, Lebensbrot für Gottes Volk aus Gottes Wort" (Hebrew and German), 1871; (Yiddish and German), 1873; "Die Arbeit an den Einzelnen," in "Nathanael," 1891, No. 6.
He was a brother of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil (1827-1903) of Temple Immanuel in New York. Interestingly enough, the paths of the two brothers seem to have run parallel in many ways. Of Rabbi Gottheil it is written: Gottheil was the most prominent American rabbi at the first World Zionist Congress (1897), and he became one of the founders of the Federation of American Zionists, later the Zionist Organization of America. He was one of the earliest rabbis in this country to reach out to the Christian community. (Gorgias Press.)
Sources
De le Roi, Johann. Geschichte der Evangelischen Juden-Mission. ii. 266;
article Gottheil, in Der Freund Israels, Basel, 1893;
Dunlop, John. Gospel Triumphs Among the Jews in the Victorian Era.S. B. P.
Paul Isaac Hershon 1818-1888
Hershon was born in Galicia, the town of Buczacz, in 1818. He received an excellent education in Hebrew and Talmud. On a visit to Jerusalem he met Nicolayson, and came to faith. he then studied in the Jerusalem Missionary College (1842-1846). Afterwards he was appointed principal of the House of Industry, and from 1848-55 he laboured as a missionary in England. He was appointed as head of the model farm at Jaffa, but fell ill in 1869 and was obliged to resign and return to the better climate of England. He devoted himself to literary work until his death in London in 1888.
Works:
A Talmudic Miscellany, by F.W. Farrar (Foreword by), Paul Isaac Hershon (Forewrod by).
Treasures of the Talmud.: Being a Series. By Paul Isaac Hershon (Translator)
Tzeenah Ureenah, Go Ye and See: A Rabbinical Commentary on Genesis (1885)
by Yaakov Ben Yizchak Ashkenazi, Paul Isaac Hershon (Translator)
The Pentateuch according to the Talmud: Genesis: with a Talmudical commentary.
by Paul Isaac Hershon, Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, M. Wokenberg.1883.
Rabbinical commentary on Genesis. Yaakov ben Yizchak Ashkenazi, Paul Isaac Hershon. 1885.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. (Keren Ahvah Meshichit, new edition 1999).
Hyamson, Albert Montefiore. A Dictionary of Universal Biography of All Ages and of All Peoples
Philip Johann Bleibtreu
Philip was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in the middle of the seventeenth centuryand died there in 1702. He published a German work entitled "Meïr Naor" (The Enlightened Meïr, from his Jewish name, Meïr), Frankfort, 1787, giving an account of how he had come to faith, notices on the Jewish festivals, and on some Jewish prayers.
Sources
Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. No. 1834;
Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 120.K. I.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
Samuel Schor (Second generation JBY in Jerusalem)
He was born in Jerusalem on 17 August 1859, and was baptized in Christ Church, Jerusalem, on 11 September 1859. He was the second son of Nathan Israel Schor and Rachel, who was Nathan's second wife. Both his parents were refugees of sorts in the Jerusalem Community.
Nathan was a tailor from Austria, probably from Galicia. He was baptised in Cairon on 23 March 1850 by Christian Lazarus Lauria and Johann Rudolph Theophilus Lieder in the chapel of the CMS (Church Missionary Society). His first wife died in September 1851 and he was left with four young children. He left Cairo and went to the LJS station in Jerusalem to find work and an arrangement for his children.
Nathan's second wife, Rachel was Samuel's mother and had been baptised in the LJS station on 2 April 1847. She had been abandoned at the age of 17 by her husband, when he reneged on the faith (according to missionary F.C. Ewald). After her baptism she married Judah Lyons on 28 July 1847, and after Judah's death she married Israel Nathan Schor on 27 March 1853.
Samuel Schor was educated in the Boys' School of the LJS in Jerusalem, first as a day student and later, in the end of 1871 as a boarder.
(taken from Mishkan 37/2002, Yoelit Migron, Samuel Schor, the Man and His Time)
Resources:
Migron, Yoelit. Samuel Schor, the Man and His Time, in Mishkan 37/2002, pp 5-20
Schor, S. Palestine and the Bible: Illustrating the Manners and Customs of the People in Bible Lands (London, 1931), 21-22
Schor, S. "Gleaning Mission from the Field", JI (April 1890), 60-61
Schor, S. "Palestine Light on Scripture Difficulties, I. The Hole in the Door", JMI (April. 1911), 58-59
Nine Oriental Songs, Arranged and collected by the Rev. Samuel Schor, London 1929.
Schor, S. "What I saw at the Zionist Congress in Basle", JMI (Nov. 1890), 174-5
Schor, S. The Everlasting Nation and thier Coming King, pl 127 (London and Edinburgh [1933], 41-42
Wilkinson S. H. and Schor, S. The Future of Jerusalem. Its Successive Phase with Regard to Present Events, London 1917.
Schor, S. Palestine for the Jews; or the Awaking of the Jewish Nation, 2nd edition, London 1907.
Palestine in London. Official Guide, June 11 to July 2, 1907, 2nd edition, pp. 145, 1907
The Apocalypse, A Simple Exposition, London, the Barbican Mission to the Jews, [n.d.]
Samuel Shor, Intyrest Facts about Jerusalem, London Society, [n.d.]
S. Schor, Dreyfus and Zionism
Narrative of the Proceedings of the Great Council of Jews to Examine the Scriptures Concerning Christ, October 1650 (from "Catalogue of Works Published by the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews", Ninety-fourth Annual Report (1902), no pagination).
Samuel Wiseman 1835-1920
A Disciple of Yeshua in the New Era Jerusalem
By Gershon Nerel
Samuel Wiseman was born in Tiberias into a Jewish ultra orthodox family on September 25, 1835. We have no information on how he came to believe in Yeshua, but we know that he was baptized in Christ Church in Jerusalem by the bishop Samuel Gobat on January 21, 1857. At that time he as employed as an Arabic teacher by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. In addition, he was a member of the medical staff of the Hospital of the English Mission in the city, where he worked mainly as a chemist (then the word dispenser was used). Thus he was able to testify of his faith in Yeshua to thousands who attended the hospital.
Wiseman served for a long period of time as the official translator (dragoman) of the mission in Jerusalem. In addition to English, he was in command of both speaking and writing in several other languages. Wiseman was also known as a specialist in Ottoman law and very skillfully administered the communications with the Turkish authorities. As a man of great tact, Wiseman found common ground with people of different cultures. He faithfully and humbly fulfilled his roles as both chemist and dragoman for over 40 years.
Wiseman was fluent in Hebrew and familiar with the Talmud. Therefore, he counseled residents of Jerusalem who came to receive his advice and support, among whom were Jews, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi of the old Yishuv. He helped them all and avoided prominence. During his long lifetime he was a teacher, a friend and a guide to three generations of Jews in Jerusalem who believed in Yeshua. Due to his integrity and good relationships with all parts of society – Jews, Christians and Muslims – he won the appreciation and trust of all who knew him. Samuel Wiseman died quietly in his sleep on June 19, 1920 at the age of 85, and the following day was buried in the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.
taken from: Zot HaBrit, Summer 2003, English Issue no. 5
copyright to Gershon Nerel 2003
Siegfried Hirsch 1816-1860
Hirsch studied history at the universities of Berlin and Königsberg from 1833 through 1836. In 1834 he published a prize essay, "Das Leben und die Thaten König Heinrichs I."; and in 1837, conjointly with Waitz, "Die Echtheit der Chronik von Korvei." His first important work was "De Vita et Scriptis Sigiberti," Berlin, 1841.
In 1842 he became privat-docent at the University of Berlin, and within two years had risen to the rank of assistant professor. Hirsch became a frequent contributor to the "Kreuzzeitung", a Christian magazine. His principal work, the "Geschichte Heinrich II.," (the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II) was unfinished at his death in Paris in 1860. It was published by Usinger, Pabst, and Bresslau in the "Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reiches"(Annals of the German Empire under Henry II) - Berlin and Leipsic, 1862-75, 3 vols.
Sources
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1897;
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, Index.S.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906.
Rosenthal, Simeon (Wildan Charles)
A learned Jew originally from Wallachia on the Danube. He first met Nicolayson in Izimir when he first became interested in the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel. He moved to Jerusalem with his family and was baptized there by Nicolayson with his wife, 14-year old daughter and four year old son in 1839, taking on the name "Wildan Charles". This family were the firstfruits of the LJS mission in the Holy City. Rosenthal served for a while as foreman of the building project in Jerusalem. However, in 1849 he was sued in court for having misused funds sent for the purchase of building materials and for the wages of workers hired by the London Society, a charge he denied and which was not proven. This was just the first incident of several when the London Society accused one of its workers of improprieties, and may at least partially be due to insufficient communication and a lack of understanding of Middle Eastern ways as opposed to British. Simeon found work after this as interpreter for the British Consul, and rose in the good graces of James Finn, then consul at Jerusalem. In 1857 Finn sought to appoint Rosenthal in his place as his representative in times the consul was absent from his post in the city.
Simeon and his wife Anna Emilia went on to have four more sons and a daughter in Jerusalem. The youngest son was named after the rabbi-Bishop Michael Alexander. His eldest daughter, Maria Dorothea, who was baptised with him in Jerusalem at age 14, became the wife of Melville Peter Bergheim, businessman and banker. Together they raised a further two generations of Jewish believers born and raised in Jerusalem and did a great deal for the welfare of their fellow Jews in then-Palestine.
Simeon died in 1822.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ
Perry, A. Clouds and Wind Without Rain. Israel, 2001
L.J.S. Remarks of the Committee upon Mr. Young's Letter relative to Mr. Simeone Rosenthal's Case. Dep. Cmj, c.110McCaul, S. Jerusalem: Its Bishop, its Missionaries, and its Converts, being a Series of Letters Addressed to the Editor of the "Daily News" in the Year 1858 Daily News (2.4.1858) p. 9
Theodor Hirsch 1806-1881
Born in Altschottland, near Danzig, Hirsch became a believer through the influence of Schleiermacher, a professor of history. His studies at Berlin university included theology, together with history and geography .
He became professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium; and in 1833 proceeded to Danzig, where he taught history for thirty-two years. At Danzig, his home town, he focused on the local history of the city, and in 1850 was made responsible for re-arrangement and supervision of the municipal archives. In 1865 he served as professor of History in Greifsfeld. He is recorded to have been a very quiet and humble man despite his erudition and status.
His principal work is "Danzig's Handels- und Gewerbegeschichte Unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens," Leipsic, 1858. He also edited, with Strehlke and Töppen, the "Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum," 5 vols., ib. 1861-74.
In 1865 Hirsch became assistant professor of history at the University of Greifswald and director of the Royal University Library. In 1880 he published the sixth volume of the "Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des Grossen Kurfürsten."
Sources
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1897;
Allg. Deutsche Biographie, xiii. 506;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, part i., p. 207.S.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition, 1999
Theodore Creizenach 1818-1877
Creizenach was an accomplished poet and historian of literature; son of Michael Creizenach; born 1818 in Mayence; died 1877, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. He studied classical antiquities in Giessen, Göttingen, and Heidelberg, and then lived for several years at Paris as tutor in the house of Aaron Anselm Rothschild. Upon his return from Paris in 1842 Creizenach became teacher in the Jewish Philanthropin at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and was one of the principal founders of the Frankfort Jewish Reform Verein; in 1854 he expressed faith in the Messiah of Israel. It is doubtful he continued teaching in the Jewish school, and indeed, by 1859 he was teaching in the Frankfort municipal high school. He was appointed professor of history and literature at the Frankfort gymnasium in 1863.
In the literary world Creizenach attracted attention by such poetical productions as "Dichtungen," Frankfort, 1839; and "Gedichte," Frankfort, 1848; 2d ed., 1851.
Being familiar with the personality and life of Goethe in his relations to Frankfort, he edited and published Goethe's correspondence with Madame von Willemer, under the title "Der Briefwechsel Zwischen Goethe und Marianne von Willemer," 2d ed., Stuttgart, 1878. In conjunction with O. Jäger he took charge of the new edition of Schlosser's "Weltgeschichte," 1870 et seq.; and in conjunction with Otto Müller edited a weekly publication, "Das Frankfurter Museum."
Sources:
Adolph Kohut, Berühmte Israelitische Männer und Frauen, xi. 383, Leipsic, 1901;
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.S. B. B.
I. M. Jost, Michael Creizenach, in Isidor Busch, Kalender und Jahrbuch für Israeliten auf das Jahr 5604, Vienna, 1843
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
John Christian Gottlieb Adolph Jacobi 1800-1874
Jacobi was born in the vicinity of Posen, Prussia in 1800 and came to faith in his early twenties. He was baptized in 1822. He joined the London Society, but emigrated to the USA in the 1820s, where he became the publisher of a German newspaper in St. Louis. In the years 1826-26 he served as missionary of the A. S. M. C. J. and again from 1850 to 1855. In the interim he was employed in the postal service 1826-49.
In 1856 Jacobi was ordained deacon at the Episcopal Church in Hartford, Conn. and continued to serve as missionary to the Jews in New York, from 1856-62. He worked as chaplain in U. S. army from 1862-64 and then, in 1865 returned to his calling in New York., where he served until his death on February 9, 1874.
Sources:
MINUTES OF THE FIRST Hebrew-Christian Conference of the United States held at Mountain Lake Park, Md. July 28-30, 1903.
Eber, Irene. The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible: S.I.J. Schereschewsky 1831-1906. Koeln: Brill, 1999. p. 41
Carl Jacobi 1804-1851
Jacobi was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Potsdam, and at birth was given the assimilated name Jacques Simon. His father, Simon Jacobi, was a banker. Carl was the second child of four in the family, the eldest being Moritz Jacobi who eventually became a famous physicist.
Jacobi's early education was given by an uncle on his mother's side, and then, just before his twelfth birthday, Jacobi entered the Gymnasium in Potsdam. He had been well taught by his uncle and he had remarkable talents so in 1817, while still in his first year of schooling, he was put into the final year class. This meant that by the end of the academic year 1816-17 he was still only 12 years old yet he had reached the necessary standard to enter university. The University of Berlin, however, did not accept students below the age of 16, so Jacobi had to remain in the same class at the Gymnasium in Potsdam until the spring of 1821. He pursued an independent course of studies, wasting no time!
He studied mathematics, philosophy, philosphy and philology at the University of Berlin. By the year 1824 he had become a believer. In that year he was made privat-docent in mathematics in Berlin. In 1825 he acted in the same capacity at Königsberg, where he was appointed assistant professor in 1827 and professor in 1829, where he distinguished himself. In these years he made his epoch-making discoveries in the field of elliptic functions. In 1843 he traveled to Italy for health reasons, but on his return to Germany served as professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin.
Most of Jacobi's papers were published in Crelle's Journal, "Fuer die Reine und Angewardte Mathematik" and in the "Monatsberichte" (Monthly Reports_ of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, of which he became a member in 1836.
Works:
Canon Arithmeticus, Berlin 1839.
Fundamenta Novae Theoriae Functiones Ellipticorum, Koenigsberg, 1829.
Gesammelte Werke, 8 vols. 1881-19. The Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909.
Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, p. 204;
Gerhardt, Gesch. der Mathematik in Deutschland, pp. 247-257.S.
Lejeune-Dirichlet, in Abhandlungen of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1852);
1. C J Scriba, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Available on the Web]
Books:
3. K Biermann, Jacobi, in H Wussing and W Arnold, Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker (Berlin, 1983).
4. E Knobloch, B Mai (trs.) and H Pieper (ed.), Korrespondenz Adrien-Marie Legendre-Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (Stuttgart, 1998).
5. H Pieper (ed.), Briefwechsel zwischen Alexander von Humboldt und C G Jacob Jacobi (Berlin, 1987).
Heinrich Otto Jacoby 1815-1864
German philologist; born at Tütz, West Prussia, 1815 and educated in a Jewish school in Berlin.
Jacoby studied at Berlin University, and received the honorary degree of Ph.D. from the University of Königsberg in 1854 for his profound knowledge of the Greek language. He was engaged as teacher at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin, from 1854 till 1858, and then became teacher at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium at Posen, where in 1860 he received the title of professor.
Jacobi is the compiler of the most valuable "Index Græcitatis" to Meineke's edition of "Græcorum Comicorum Fragmenta," Berlin, 1847. Of his other works may be mentioned "In Comicos Græcos Adnotationum Corollarium," ib. 1866.
He received the degree of D. Ph. from the University of Koenigsberg without even passing an examination. He died in Berlin 1864.
Sources:
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, i. 218;
Allg. Deutsche Biographie.S. F. T. H.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. new edition 1999 by Keren Ahvah Meschichit.
Julius Koebner 1806-1884
Born in Denmark, and "by profession an optician like Spinoza, God vouchsafed to him greater spiritual sight than to the philosopher". (A. Bernstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ.)
Julius joined the Lutheran church at first, but afterwards joined the Baptists, building the Christian Chapel in Copenhagen and elsewhere in Denmark. His latter life was spent in Germany, and he died in Berlin in 1884.
On his hundredth birthday in 1906, one hundred of his choices sermons were published in the German press under the title "Lebens Wasser" (Water of Life).
Works:
Das Lied von Gott, an epic poem from the creation to the redemption of the world.
Die Waldenser, a dramatic poem with notes
Die Neue Erde
Source:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. O.J.C.I., Palestine House, Bodney Road, London, 1909
Leopold Kronecker 1823-1891
Leopold Kronecker was born in Liegnitz to a well-to-do Jewish family, and received the best possible education. He studied mathematics at Berlin University. However, instead of mathematics he applied himself to commerce, managing the estate of his late uncle and working successfully until he had made enough money to be able to devote himself fully to mathematics. In 1848 he married the daughter of his uncle, Fanny Prausnitzer.
He taught at Berlin from 1861, and, in 1883, was appointed professor. Kronecker was a highly cultured man who used his wealth to patronize the arts. He also had a deep interest in philosophy and Christian theology, although he did not become a believer until 1890, just a year before his death - saved, as it were, by the skin of his teeth.
Kronecker was considered the greatest German algebraist of all time. His mathematical work was almost entirely in the fields of number theory and higher algebra, although he also made some contributions to the theory of elliptic functions. He was also one of the first to understand thoroughly and use Evariste Galois's work in the theory of equations. The Kronecker delta function is named for him.
Works:
J J O'Connor and E F Robertson Biography, retrieved 26/10/09 (recommended reading)
Brittanica Encyclopedia on-line
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon;
Frobenius, Gedächtnissrede auf Leopold Kronecker, Berlin, 1893;
H. Weber, in the Zweiter Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker.S.
Source
Jewish Encyclopedia online
Dr. Leitner
Aaron Stern knew him personally and writes:
Dr. Leitner was born in 1800 in a town of Hungary. His father, who was a rich man, destined him for the rabbinical chair, but as he preferred the medical profession, he proceeded to Pesth, and there, after eight years study, he received his diploma, and was engaged as a military physician by the Austrian Government. Subsequent events led him to make a voyage to Constantinople, when, quite by accident, in the house of a Jewish friend, he became possessed of the Gospel he had so long coveted, yet dreaded to purchase.
Brought in 1844 as a humble, penitent, and sincere believer to the foot of the mercy-seat, his heart immediately expanded with love and deep compassion toward his Jewish brethren; and, in 1853, after many hindrances and obstacles, he resigned a lucrative position at Broussa, and entered the service of the Society as medical missionary, in which capacity he continued until his removal by death on the 7th of April in the present year (1861). Thoroughly versed in the Bible, and imbued with the Spirit of his Divine Master, he only yearned to make others sharers in those blessings and privileges he so fully knew how to appreciate himself. Often did I hear the suppliant entreaties which he addressed to the crowds who sought his professional skill, that they would not only care for the body, but also seek help and safety in redeeming lover for the immortal soul.
Source:
Gidney, W. T. History of the London Society...1908. chapter XXXVIII
Meyer Lerman 1837-
Meyer was born in Russian Poland, 1837 and was baptized in London in 1858. He served as a missionary to the Jews in New York as of August, 1867, and joined the Church Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1878.
Lerman is best known for having founded the Hebrew-Christian Brotherhood and Prayer Union, October 10, 1884
Mark Levy
Personal testimony
An address delivered at the Hebrew-Christian Conference, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, USA July 28, 1903, by MARK LEVY, of London, England
So far as memory serves, my childish mind regarded the One of whom they sang as a good man, whose special object was the care and protection of little children, and instinctively my heart went out to Him in love. But at an early age, on being sent to school in one of our provincial English towns, and having to undergo as a Jew the ordeal of taunt and scorn, principally at the hands of strange boys, whom I was taught to regard as followers of Jesus, my love for Him quickly turned to dislike, which deepened into positive hatred of His name when the terrible persecutions of the Jews, at the hands of professing Christendom, was subsequently brought to my knowledge.
In early manhood, having failed to find spiritual consolation in the synagogue, I commenced reading the New Testament, and quickly realizing the glorious beauty of the character of Jesus, I came to the mental conclusion that He was the Messiah.
At that time there were living in Great Britain scores of clergymen of Hebrew birth. But, personally, I did not know there was a single minister of the Gospel of our own race living to whom I could go in my spiritual distress; for these sons of Judah had practically become Gentilized, and withdrawn their light from the congregations of Israel. The well-known names, in Christian circles, of Edersheim, Saphir, and other celebrated Jewish converts, I had never heard, although born in London, as were my parents.
In my despair I called upon one of the missionaries of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, but was discouraged in my investigations. Thus all the national sources of aid were hidden from, or denied to, a despairing brother in Israel, because the Jews who had found Christ were lost to their race among the Gentiles and did not “become as Jews to the Jews, to gain the Jews.”
After several years of sorrowful wandering in England, Australia and America, my convertion was accomplished, in God’s good time, through the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, and I was baptized into Christ in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and confirmed within a few months by the late Rt. Rev. Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota.
Source:
Hebrew-Christian Conference, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, U. S. A.. July 28, 1903 (click for link to the full minutes on the LCJE site)
Marcusson, John W. -1913
Born in Scalat, in Galicia, Austria, son of Herman Ben Sion, a learned Jewish scholar. The family moved to Odessa, Russia where they met Rev. W.G. Schauffler who became their lifelong friend. Schauffler was a Jewish Christian and it is no doubt due to his own testimony that John's father, Herman, began to search and study the scriptures. Herman became a believer in Jesus, but his wife and family did not follow him in faith and were estranged from him. he moved to Constantinople, where eventually he was baptised and changed his name to Marcusson.
The family, in the meantime, moved to live in Odessa, close to the mother's family. John studied at his grandfather's school and learned to speak Russian, German and French by the time he had reached the age of 14. His ambition was to become a merchant. Tragically, his mother died when he was still young. At the age of 18 he joined his father in Constantinople. The godly lives of his father and of Dr. Schauffler impressed him deeply and he began to read the New Testament for himself, and to search the scriptures seriously as his father had done so many years ago. In time he came to faith in Jesus, recognising that the one he had called The Crucified One, was indeed the promised Messiah of the Jewish nation.
Herman Ben Sion/Marcusson remarried and moved to Jerusalem in 1845 where John attended an Episcopal College. He was baptized by Dr. Nicolayson and studied Arabic in preparation for ministry. However, he returned to Constantinople and resolved to go to America where he could complete his training as missionary to the Jews at the Willington Preparatory School of East Hampton, Mass.
He was then appointed to the new ABCFM Salonica mission and labored there for three years. Returning to America, he became associated with the Chicago Hebrew Mission, becoming its Superintendent and pastor in 1895. He was affectionately known as “Father Marcusson”. John Marcusson served the mission for 25 years before his untimely death.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem. New edition 1999.
Marcusson, Jacob W. "Father Marcusson", or, Rev. Jacob W. Marcusson. Chicago Hebrew Mission, 1913.
Minutes of the First Hebrew Christian conference, Mt. Lake Park, Md. July 28-30, 1903
David Samuel Margoliouth 1858-1940
(October 17, 1858 in London, England, – March 22, 1940) was an orientalist. He was professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford (1889–1937) and was briefly active as a minister of the Church of England. He spent considerable time traveling in the Middle East. At Baghdad and in the surrounding area, he came to be regarded as more knowledgeable on Islamic matters than most Arab scholars.
Margoiouth's father was a JBY, who worked in Bethnal Green as a missionary to the Jews. He was also close to his uncle, Moses Margoliouth. David was educated at Winchester, where he was a scholar, and at New College, Oxford where he graduated with a double first in Greats and won an unprecedented number of prizes in Classics and Oriental languages.
Many of his works on the history of Islam became the standard treatises in English, including Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (1905), The Early Development of Mohammedanism (1914), and The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam (1924)[2].
He was described as brilliant editor and translator of Arabic works[2], as seen in The Letters of Abu'l-'Ala of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man (1898), Yaqut's Dictionary of Learned Men, 6 vol. (1907–27), and the chronicle of Miskawayh, prepared in collaboration with H. F. Amedroz under the title The Eclipse of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, 7 vol. (1920–21). Some of David Samuel Margoliouth's studies are included in The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Bookedited by Ibn Warraq.
He was a member of the council of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1905 onwards, its director in 1927, was awarded its triennial gold medal in 1928, and was its president 1934-37[1].
Works:
Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. 1905.
Umayyads and 'Abbasids. 1907.
The Early Development of Mohammedanism. 1914.
Yaqut's dictionary of learned men. 7 vols. 1908-1927.
The Kitab al-Ansab of al-Sam'ani. 1911.
Mohammedanism. 1912.
The Table-talk of a Mesopotamian judge. 2 vols. 1921-1922.
The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate. 1922.
The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam. Schweich Lecture for 1921. 1924.
Lectures on Arabic historians, delivered before the University of Calcutta, February 1929. Byzantine series, 38. New York City: Burt Franklin, 1930.
References
^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica (14th edition) - article Margoliouth, David Samuel
^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica (15th edition) - article Margoliouth, David Samuel
^ Werner Eugen Mosse and Julius Carlebach, Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom
^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
External links:
Britannica online article
onlne (pdf) versions of five of his works
David Samuel Margoliouth. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 18, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364763/David-Samuel-Margoliouth
George Margoliouth 1853-1924
George Margoliouth was a learned Biblical and Oriental scholar and writer for the British Museum where he was in charge of the Hebrew, Syrial and Ethiopic M.S.S. from 1891 till his retirement in 1914 he did much useful work. This included a descriptive list of the Hebrew and Samaritan M.S.S. in the Museum, published in 1893. To this he added a catalogue of these M.S.S. which appeared in 3 vols at intervals between 1899 and 1915. In 1899 he also published a descriptive list of Syrial and …….. M.S.S. acquired by the Museum since 1873. His other writings were "The SuperlinearPunctuation" 1893 and editions of the Liturgy of the Nile, Palistinian, Syriac and English 1896, of recently discovered portions of the Palistinian Syriac Version of Holy Scripture1896, of Ibn al Hiti's Arabic Chronicles of Karaite Doctors with an English translation 1897, of the original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus XXX1 1899, also "Hebrew Babylonian Affinities" 1899.
Margoliouth was born of Jewish parents in Russian Poland on 4 Dec. 1853 and was educated at Dusseldorf and at the University of Bonn. He was a nephew of the Rev. Moses Margoliouth (1820 - 1881), a Hebrew Scholar, Vicar of Little Linford. Having prepared at Cuddesdon, he was ordained in 1881 to the curacy of St Thomas's, Leeds, and afterwards, while a curate at Cambridge entered at Queens College. He had been naturalised as a British Subject in 1887. Though illness prevented him from obtaining honours in the Semitic Language Tripos, he was bracketed equal for the Lynowhitt Hebrew scholarship in 1891, During his service at the British Museum, he founded the Text and Translation Society for the publication of Oriental works and served as secretary for 3 years. He was also, for 3 years, a member of the Aristotelian Society. On many occasions he examined in Hebrew and Aramaic for the University of London and was a member of the University Board "Studies in Theology". He contributed articles to the periodical "Quarterly Review" and other reviews and maintained an interest in general literature. He married in 1886, Marian, daughter of John Fearon of Cockermouth. He died Spring 1924 at ..B. They had at least 9 children: -
Herschel Maurice Margoliouth
He served from 1914 to 1919 in the Northamptonshire Regiment and reached the rank of Captain. After the war he was became tutor in English Literature in two Oxford colleges, and lecturer in English Literature at Kings College, London.; and in 1921 he was appointed Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, Southampton. From 1925 to 1947 he was Secretary to Faculties at Oxford. He became in 1935 a senior research fellow, and later emeritus fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. From 1947 to 1951 he edited the Oxford Magazine .
Margoliouth was a learned and able student of English Literature, and his edition of Marvell's poems and letters (1927) won high praise from the experts. His other published works are Wells of English (1926-29), William Blake (1951), Wordsworth and Coleridge (1953, William Blake's Vala (1956), and Traherne's Centuries, Poems and Thanksgivings (1958).
But during many years he had little time for research. The Secretary of Faculties is one of the most important of the permanent officers of the university, and Margoliouth threw himself into the work of the post with the greatest vigour and success. He had a very clear head; He was a rapid and accurate draughtsman; he was uniformly helpful to the professors, readers, and others, who came to him for advice; and he remained cheerful and unperturbed when difficult matters had to be settled. Both the University and his college will long miss a greatly valued and respected colleague.
(The Times, March 23rd, 1959)
Herschel had no children but assisted some of his nephews and nieces.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. new edition, Keren Ahvah Meschichit, 1999
Moses Margoliouth 1820-1881
Dr. Moses Margoliouth was born at Suwalki in 1820, and died in London, 1881. He was no relation to Ezekiel Margoliouth, though from the same town. He arrived in Liverpool in 1837 and met the Jewish missionaries Lazarus and H. S. Joseph. Following discussion with them, he came to faith in 1838.
Moses studied in Trinity College in Dubin, and became a well respected minister in the Church of England.
In 1847 he started a Hebrew Christian monthly magazine entitled "The Star of Jacob". In the 1870s he was editor of The Hebrew Christian Witness. He was also one of the revisers of the English version of the Old Testament.
Works:
The Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism Investigated (can be ordered from Keren Ahvah Meschichit, Jerusalem) The object of the present volume is to bring before the Christian public some information as to the present state of religion among the Jews, both with respect to the ceremonial and the moral law; and as it may excite some surprise that there should be room or occasion for such a publication; as it seems strange, that the religious practices, and even the moral principles of a people like the Jews should be still a subject for enquiry…
The Jews in Great Britain : a series of Six Lectures on the Antiquities of the Jews in England. (J. Nisbet, 1846) Read Online
The fundamental principles of modern Judaism investigated (B. Wertheim, 1843) Read Online
Vestiges of the historic Anglo-Hebrews in East Anglia (Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1870)
Read Online
The Penitential hymn of Judah and Israel after the spirit (Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856) Read Online
The Curates Of Riversdale: recollections in the life of a Clergyman, 1860. (Kessinger Publishing, LLC, June 25, 2007) HardcoverThe poetry of the Hebrew Pentateuch (S. Bagster, 1871) Read OnlineA pilgrimage to the land of my fathers.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. London; new edition by Keren Ahvah Meshichit, 1999.
Katz, David S.,, ‘Margoliouth, Moses (1815–1881)’, first published Sept 2004, 1040 words, with portrait illustration.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18055
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Louis Meyer 1862-1913
A Christian Prince in Israel
(Excerpts from the memorial speech by Mrs. T. C. Rounds; fromwww.lcje.net - the online Jewish Missions History Project.)
“Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel”—2 Sam 3:38.
Louis Meyer was born in the small town of Crivitz in the Dukedom of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in Northern Germany, on August 30, 1862. His parents, who were well-to-do Hebrews, determined to give him a good secular education, and at an early age he was sent to the Gymnasium in Parchim, Mecklenburg (an institution between an American College and a university), from which he was graduated in 1882.
He was reared as a German Jew, but was well acquainted with Christianity and its doctrines, having read the New Testament in Greek in school. As a student he became a Rationalist, and was sometimes even ashamed of his Jewish birth.
His uncle, the celebrated, missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England in London, Rev. Theodore Meyer, visited frequently at the home of his brother, Mr. Meyer's father, but, having promised not to discuss religion during these visits, was faithful to his promise and never spoke of Christ to his nephew. He prayed, however, according to his later testimony, especially for this nephew, who visited him frequently in London.
Louis Meyer's own inclination drew him to the study of history and literature, but the fact that a Jew had, at that time, no hope of gaining any official position in Germany, caused him to begin the study of medicine in the universities of Berlin, 1882-1883; Marburg, 1883-1884; Wurzburg, 1884-1885; and Halle, 1885-1887. He became especially interested in surgery and served as “volunteer” in the Royal Surgical Hospital at Halle. There he contracted blood poisoning at a post mortem section in 1887, and the physicians thought only a long sojourn upon the ocean could restore the weakened nervous system. Thus he laid aside the practice of surgery for a time and went upon the sea for almost four years. He served first as steward, then as chief purser upon the Delcomyn, Dunedin, Bedford and other steamers, thus seeing almost every part of the world. His health having been fully restored, he came to the United States, and soon went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to again take up the practice of surgery, which he laid aside almost five years before. God ordered otherwise.
In Cincinnati, Mr. Meyer selected the Covenanter Church for his study of the English language, because the Psalms were sung and the worship was very simple. The sermons which led him to Christ, step by step, were a course of lectures by Rev. J. C. Smith, on “Christ in the Book of Leviticus.”The unbelieving Jew was converted and joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. He was baptized in 1892, by Rev. J. C. Smith, of the Clinton Street Reformed Presbyterian Church, whose oldest daughter became the wife of the young Hebrew Christian in 1898 .
At the urgent request of his Christian friends, Mr. Meyer gave up his medical career and became a missionary to the Jews in Cincinnati. Though he met with much encouragement, he was conscious of the need of better training for the preaching of the Gospel and went to the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Allegheny, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1897. A call from the Lake Reno congregation, near Glenwood, Minn., before his graduation, was accepted, and Louis Meyer was ordained and installed in January, 1898. He was the first Hebrew Christian minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. In May, 1900, he accepted the call to the larger congregation at Hopkinton, Ia., to which he ministered until February 20, 1906. During his pastorate a fine large church of brick and stone was erected and opened, practically free of debt. Four young men of that congregation consecrated themselves to the service of the Lord in the Gospel ministry. In 1901 the Presbyterian Synod of Iowa made Mr. Meyer a trustee of Lenox College of Hopkinton, in which capacity he served until 1906. He taught also the History of Missions, which formed a part of the curriculum in Lenox College, from 1902 till 1905, inclusive.
During the years in Hopkinton Mr. Meyer continued in larger measure to study Jewish Missions, a subject which he had commenced to investigate in 1896, when the Presbytery assigned that subject to him for his historical essay for licensure. He searched the libraries of Harvard, Yale, Boston and New York, making American Jews and American Jewish Missions his special study. Jews and Christians soon began to come to him for information, and the Missionary Review of the World, The Jewish Era and other German and English magazines published many of his articles. In 1901 he was invited to be one of the speakers at the Messianic Conference in Park Street Church, Boston. In 1902 he was one of the speakers at the Jewish section of the Student Volunteer Convention of Toronto, Canada. In 1903 he was the organizing secretary of the International Hebrew Christian Conference at Mountain Lake Park, Indiana. In 1902 he furnished the tables of the Jewish Missions for the Atlas of Missions by H. P. Beach, which he revised in 1904 for the New Encyclopedia of Missions, and again in 1910 for the “World Atlas of Christian Missions.” In 1905 he wrote the article on Judaism for the text-book of the Student Volunteers' “Religions of the Missionfield.”
In February, 1906, Mr. Meyer accepted the offer of the Chicago Hebrew Mission to become their Field Secretary.
Mr. Meyer was also editor of the Missionary department of The Jewish Era, the quarterly magazine of The Chicago Hebrew Mission, and was a regular contributor to the Christian Nation. In 1900 he began to be a frequent contributor to the Missionary Review of the World, and in 1909 became one of the associate editors. In this capacity he rendered very valuable service as translator for the General Missionary Intelligence department, as editor of the Jewish Missionary News and as compiler of missionary statistics. Dr. Meyer was also a frequent contributor to the Glory of Israel, Pittsburgh, and Zion's Freund, Hamburg, Germany.
For four years Mr. Meyer traveled as field secretary of the Chicago Hebrew Mission, visiting all parts of the country, from Maine to California, not as a collector of funds, but as a lecturer, to create an interest in Jewish work in general. His labors resulted in stimulating much personal work in the organization of local missions, and in strengthening the heart and hands of those engaged in missions already established....
Dr. Meyer, a man of marvelous linguistic power, possessed an unusually clear head, a very retentive memory, a logical mind. His brain was a storehouse of facts and figures on the Jewish problems of the day and on general missionary intelligence, which he could quote at a moment's notice. He was a statistician of acknowledged authority in the United States and abroad, and was exceedingly accurate and careful in collecting his material. Dr. Meyer's wife used to rally him in their early married life for spending so much time over statistical tables, but he replied: “These are my capital.” One gentleman used to refer to him as “a walking thesaurus.” Especially was he noted for the methodical arrangements of his papers. He never was at a loss to find a letter or paper of any kind, so accurately were they filed and indexed. It was a rare thing to find a converted Hebrew of whom he could not tell all about his birth, his conversion, his baptism, his occupation and his ministry.
Dr. Meyer was also a devout and intelligent student of the Word and a man of prayer, as all his sermons and lectures clearly evidenced. His writings showed a very clear and forceful style, so that no one had ever to guess at his meaning.
In 1912, Meyer was stricken down by hemorrhages of the lungs. ...
A few days before death he said something in Latin. When asked what he meant, he smiled and replied: “Tell Mrs. —— `The battle is over, the victory is won'.”
Though for three weeks he had been blind, with great self-control he concealed the fact from his wife, who was constantly by his bedside, lest it should distress her.
As he neared the heavenly shore his face lit up as with a beautific vision. His blinded eyes, now open, evidently caught the face of his Saviour, for he whispered “Christ”—then later, “Pa.” (This was his father-in-law, who had led him to Christ.)
Leopold Josef Neustetel 1798-1825
Leopold Josef Neustetel was born on 8 August, 1798, in Offenbach-am-Main (or Hanover, according to another source) and died in Nice on 24 January, 1825. His treatise was published only a few months before his premature death. In 1818, he had obtained a doctorate in canon and civil law in Heidelberg and was then registered as a supreme court attorney (Obergerichtsprokurator) in Hanau. His thesis (which, as was still the practice in those days, Neustetel wrote and defended in Latin) was entitled: Bona-fide transactions, entered upon where the other party had fraudulent intentions, are not null and void".
It should be noted here that the Heidelberg Law Faculty adopted a markedly liberal approach: Jewish doctoral candidates were matriculated and awarded degrees just like their Christian counterparts in those years. This was the case with Neustetel and his friends Sigmund Zimmern and Eduard Gans. All three brilliant men became believers in the Messiah of Israel, and given the liberal approach of the Heidelberg university it would be hard to claim that this was due to pecuniary motives
On 29 August, 1821, after an engagement lasting three years, Leopold was married, according to the law of Moses, to his friend's sister Regine Zimmern (1800-70). They had two daughters, Mathilde (b.1822) and Emma (b.1823).
Regine, who had been exposed to Christianity in high school, and whose elder brother had become a Christian, influenced her husband to consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. While still young he fell deathly ill, and during his illness was visied by an evangelical pastor. He came to faith on his deathbed, and desired to show his faith in baptism. He died before he could do so, but in respect to his wishes, his wife accorded him a Christian burial. She herself came to faith two years later.
Sources:
[Anonymous], Reflexionen über den Büchernachdruck: besonders zur Gewinnung eines neuen Gesichtspunktes in Betreff seiner Widerrechtlichkeit (Heidelberg: Neue Akademische Buchhandlung, 1823)
Braun, J., "Sigmund Zimmern (1796-1830) - ein deutsch-jüdisches Gelehrtenschicksal daragestellt anhand von Auszügen aus Akten und Briefen", Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte 106 (1991): 210-236
Gieseke, L., Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht. Die Entwicklung des Urheberrechts in Deutschland bis 1845 (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995)
Kawohl, F. (2008) ‘Commentary on Leopold Josef Neustetel, The Reprinting of Books (Heidelberg, 1824), in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Neustetel, L. J., Bonae fidei negotia dolo inita non esse nulla / auctore Leopoldo Josepho Neustetel (Heidelberg 1818)
Neustetel, L. J. and S. Zimmern, Römisch-rechtliche Untersuchungen für Wissenschaft und Ausübung (Heidelberg: Carl Groos 1821)
Vogel, M., "Deutsche Urheber- und Verlagsrechtsgeschichte zwischen 1450 und 1850", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 29 (1978): 1-180
Wadle, E., "Nachdruck als Injurie", in his Geistiges Eigentum. Bausteine zur Rechtsgeschichte (Weinheim: VCH, 1996), 129-144
http://www.flechsig.biz/08PPLakt.html
Friedrich Adolf Philippi 1809-1882
Friedrich was the son of a wealthy Jewish banker, who belonged to the well-known Mendelssohn circle. His father had the children educated in a Christian school, something not unheard of in that era.
While at primary school Friedrich received his first impressions of the christian faith. Later, at the Gymnasium, or high-school, he began to be interested in classic studies thanks to the influence of his cousin, Jakobi. It was in this time period that Jakobi, who became a well-known mathematician, became an earnest believer of Yeshua. Friedrich was very interested and began to talk much with his cousin on the Bible. Jakobi gave him a New Testament to read. Others also noticed his interest. A school friend gave him a copy of a book written by a well known minister, Strauss by name, and Friedrich sought him out personally. Strauss felt at the time that the young man's thoughts of "becoming a christian" like his cousin, were still immature and unripe, and did not take on his instruction in the faith.
On graduation from the high school in 1827 Friedrich decided to study philology in the university. Again he visited Strauss, and this time the preacher agreed to teach him of the faith. However, even after a time of study, Friedrich did not reach an inner peace or full understanding of the faith in Messiah. Two years later we find him in Leipzig, where he visited Professor Lindner and continued his spiritual search. Now, at last, he came to a full understanding and asked to be baptised. His decision could not be kept a secret, and raised a furor in his parental home. But after a time of anger, his parents made peace with him. Many of his relatives followed his example, including his cousin Jeannette Pincson, who later became his wife.
Having completed studies of philosophy and theology at Berlin and Leipsic (Ph.D. 1831), Friedrich began to teach, with success, at a private school in Dresden and at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium at Berlin (1833). In 1837 he received his diploma as Lutheran minister, and in 1838 was admitted as privat-docent to the theological faculty of the University of Berlin. In 1841 he was elected professor of theology at the University of Dorpat; he received the degree of D.D. "honoris causa" from the University of Erlangen in 1843.
Of Philippi's works may be mentioned: "Die Lehre vom Thätigen Gehorsam Christi," Berlin, 1841; "Kirchliche Glaubenslehre," Güterslohe, 1854-1879 (3d ed. 1883-85), a standard work from the Orthodox Lutheran point of view; "Vorlesungen über Symbolik," ib. 1883.
Philipp's eldest son became a pastor in Mecklenburg and produced the church paper; the second son became a Professor of oriental languages in Rostock, and the third a lawyer.
Philippi died on 29 August, 1882.
Sources:
L. Schulze, Friedrich Adolf Philippi, Nördlingen, 1883;
De le Roi, Juden-Mission, 2d ed., i. 204-6, Leipsic, 1899.S. F. T. H.
Read more: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=268&letter=P&search=philippi#ixzz0V8uVNB5z
Joseph Wolff 1795-1862
The Jewish David Livingstone
Sigmund Zimmern 1796-1830
Zimmern, eldest son of a family of eleven, was born on 4 March 1796 at Heidelberg to a wealthy banking family. After highschool he studied law at the Heidelberg University, attaining a Doctor of Law in February 1817. His training was continued with a year in Berlin and then in Göttingen. He returned to the Heidelberg University as lecturer in the Faculty of Law, and in May 1821 received the title of Grand Duke of Baden's counsel.
In September of that year he joined the Lutheran church in Karlsruhe. The exact circumstances of his coming to faith are unknown, though it is known that two friends of his, Eduard Gans and Leopold Neustetler, also came to faith, as well as his sister Regine. (See Regine's biography in this section). He married Karoline Walther from Hanau, and had a daughter and son.
In the autumn of 1826 Sigmund moved to Jena after rejecting a call from the Breslau University. In the autumn of1827 he returned home sick from a trip; in the spring of 1829 he was compelled to discontinue his lectures at the university. To regain his health, he intended to travel to southern France, but only got as far as Heidelberg. He died there on 9 June 1830 at the age of 34.
Works:
Geschichte des römischen Privatrechts bis Justinian“ (Bd. 1 in 2 Abthlgn. Heidelberg 1826, Bd. 3 ebd. 1829)
Source:
Jews in Public Service Under the German Monarchy. The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 1964 9(1):206-238; doi:10.1093/leobaeck/9.1.206
G. J. Zuckertort
Zuckertort came to faith through the preaching of Wendt, a missionary with the London Jews Society. In 1836 he was appointed assistant missionary in Lublin. There he preached to his own relatives and had the joy of seeing one, a physician, come to faith. The doctor's wife came to faith four years later, and their four children also confessed faith.
Zuckertort was the father of Johannes Zuckertort (1842-1888) a writer, physician, linguist and famous chess player who founded the UK based Chess-Monthly, one of the era's most influential chess magazines. Johannes died of a stroke following two yeas of failed health, at the age of 45. A short biography of Johannes reveals that his father married the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). Because the Christian mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was frowned on by the authorities the Zukertort family emigrated to Prussia.
Sources:
Adams, Jimmy. Johannes Zukertort: Artist of the chessboard. Caissa editions. 1989.
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshichit, Jerusalem. new edition 1999.
Joseph Segall
Joseph Segall and his friends first came into contact with the Gospel when they began to read Christian literature left behind by a colporteur from Budapest in 1874. They studied it secretly, taking turns. Bernstein writes:
After being solemnly impressed by the truth, they wrote a letter to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, asking for admission to some institution in which they might learn more of the Gospel. Mr. Kleinhenn replied that he had no such home, and could not encourage anyone to come to him except on his own means and on his own responsibility. However, one day Segall and his friend Suffrin appeared at Mr. Kleinhenn's house, and he had to take them in. They were then instructed by Mr. Kleinhenn and Mr. Bernstein for some considerable time, and then baptised. The history of the two runs to some extent together. The relations of each tried their utmost to win them back to Judaism, but they had grace given to them not to yield. "
In the same year the two continued to a school in Basel for training, after which they applied to the London Jews' Society , studied at its missionary college and began to work as missionaries. Segall worked first of all in the UK, and then was sent to take carge of the mission at Damascus, where he also acted as chaplain to the English ex-patriates there.
Haim Simeon
Haim, or Judah, was one of the first to come to faith through the testimony of Joseph Frey, founder of the London Jews' Society, in London. He came from Poland. His father, Abraham Simeon, was a rabbi, who made sure to train each of his sons in a trade - after which they would be allowed to study whatever they wished. Haim learned watchmaking, and then went to Edinburgh to study law. It was there that he came to faith and took the name "Erasmus" after a Dutch reformer. Though he had hoped his family would listen to him, and he would be able to win them to the faith, it was not to be. However, he did talk with many of his former neighbours and found that there were many who believed in Messiah but were fearful of taking a stand because it would mean loss of family and livelihood. The realisation that a Christian Jew is cast out of both Jewish society, for being Christian; and Christian society, for being a Jew, affected him deeply. His life hereforth was dedicated to improving the situation of believing Jews and making a decent livelihood possible for them. His first thought was to establish a colony in the United States where Jewish believers, immigrants from Europe, could live with dignity. His new wife, a Scotswoman named Barbara, supported him wholeheartedly and together they left the UK for the shores of the United States.
The trip to the USA was not very comfortable - the couple had hired a Dutch ship which did not have decent accommodation for passengers. By the time the two arrived in New York they had a harrowing voyage behind them, and were half starved! But once in New York, their friends received them kindly, and they were encouraged to pursue their vision of forming a settlement. The ASMCJ was already in existence and as their vision coincided, they joined forces. Erasmus was asked to make a tour to churches, pleading the case, and raising funds with which to purchase land and found a settlement. When he had raised enough to begin the project, differences of approach came to light, and rather disappointed Erasmus left the Society and left them with the funds he had raised.
At that time he became interested in the native Americans of North America, thinking perhaps they were descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel! He and Barbara lived among them for some time, teaching them, and preaching the Gospel to them.
Once back in London, Erasmus formed a society called the "Friends of the Hebrew Nation" under the patronage of the Bishop of London. His hope was to establish a church of Jewish believers, like the first church in Jerusalem! The society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers, and started the "Operative Jewish Converts' Institution". Inmates were to live there for three years, learning a trade (in this case, bookbinding) and studying the Bible, growing in faith and in learning until they could stand on their feet independently. One of those who lived there for a time was the future founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, Ridley Haim Herschell. Herschell was sent, eventually, to Ireland to establish a similar home there.
A friend of the family writes that Erasmus and Barbara lived very simply in their last years, content that all their income should go to the support of the younger believers.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. 1909. New edition 1999, Keren Ahvah Meshichit
Farrer, John Mrs. (Eliza) Recollections of Seventy Years [chapter XXVI A Converted Jew.] Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866. rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1980.
Henderson, Geoffrey. All Love: A Biography of Ridley Herschell, pp 35-6. HTS Media, 2007.
Berk, George L. Defending the faith: Nineteenth century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus. State University of New York Press, Albany. 1989
http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/jewishconverts.html (London Jews Society).
Simon, Barbara. Memoir of Erasmus H. Simon. 1837.
Martin Eduard Simson 1810-1899
Simson was raised in an intellectual Jewish home in Koenigsberg, oriented towards education and advancement. For this purpose, though evidently not without deep personal conviction, his parents had their children converted to the evangelical faith, some years before they themselves followed suit. Of his brothers, one became a professor of Oriental languages in Koenisberg, and the other two studied law.
Martin Eduard studied law and became professor of Roman law in 1833. In 1836 he was made judge, and by 1848 had risen to the title of advisor (Rath) in the higher court. In this year he represented Koenigsberg in the National Congress at Frankfurt. He became the president of the Congress, and headed the deputation of the Frankfort parliament to announce to King Frederick William IV his election as German Emperor by the representatives of the people. The king, either apprehensive of a rupture with Austria, or fearing detriment to the prerogatives of the Prussian crown should he accept this dignity at the hands of a democracy, refused the offer. Simson, bitterly disappointed at the outcome of his mission, resigned his seat in the Frankfort parliament, but in the summer of the same year was elected deputy for Konigsberg in the popular chamber of the Prussian Landtag. Here he soon made his mark as one of the best orators in that assembly. A member of the short-lived Erfurt parliament of 1850, he was again summoned to the presidential chair. who offered the crown of the German Empire to King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Subsequently he held other offices of state. In 1879 he was appointed first president of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig.
In 1888 Simson received the decoration of the Black Eagle of Prussia and was ennobled. He retired from public life in 1892 and dedicated himself to academic studies and law.
The Jewish Encyclopedia notes:
His political career coincides with the era of German struggles towards unity. As a politician he was one of the leaders of modern Liberalism, and though always loyal when appeals were made to patriotism, such as government demands for the army, he remained obdurate on constitutional questions; and he resolutely opposed the reactionary policy of the Prussian Conservatives. On his retirement from the presidency of the Reichsgericht, he left Leipzig and made his home in Berlin, where he died on the 2nd of May 1899.
Works:
Geschichte des Koenigsberger Ober Tribunals.
Sources:
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshichit, new edition 1999.
Mast, Peter. Simson, Eduard von. in Ostdeutsche Biographie
Meinhardt, Guenther. Eduard von Simon. Der Parlamentspraesident Preussens und der Reichseinigung, Bonn 1981.
Petersdorff, Herman von. Eduard von Simon; in: Allegemine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 54 (1908), S. 348-364 (mit Literature)
Simson, Bernhard von. Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben. Leipzig, 1900
Jewish Virtual Library
Jewish Encyclopedia