Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ Part 14

"The following is a list of his writings: 'Dictionary of National Biography'; Wood, 'Athenae Oxnienses,' ed. Bliss, i. 677; Cooper, 'Athenae Cantabrigienses,' ii. 239; Scaliger, 'Epistolae,' pp. 208, 594, Leyden, 1627; 'Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society,' Eng. i.

27."--_Jewish Encyclopaedia._

FINKELSTEIN, Rev. A. M., had a school for Jewish children in Philadelphia in 1885.

FINKELSTEIN, Rev. Samuel, a convert from Russia, emigrated to Australia and became pastor of a German church at Melbourne, where he also founded a mission to the Jews in 1868.

FLEGEL, Petrus, a convert, was Professor of Hebrew at the University of Stra.s.sburg in 1564. More is not known of him.

FLEISCHALKER, Rev. J. C, was educated at St. Chrischona College, near Basle. He laboured for a time as L.J.S. missionary in Jerusalem, where he was ordained by Bishop Gobat. In 1868 he became pastor of St.

George's Episcopal Chapel, New York. He was a true servant of G.o.d.

FORTUNATUS, Wilhelm, a physician, became a convert to Christianity through the simple reading of the New Testament, and was baptized in Baden in 1639, (Wolff, Bibliotheca Hebraica 1, p. 564).

FOULD, Achille, French Statesman and Minister of Finance under two Napoleons, born in Paris in 1800 died in 1867. In the Jewish Encyclopaedia, it is stated that he married into a Protestant family, and his children were educated in that faith, but he never formally abjured Judaism, though he was buried with the rites of the Protestant Church.

But de le Roi states that in his ripe age, with full convictions, he joined the Reformed Church, of which he had always been a true member.

The two statements are easily reconciled. He was a regular attendant at that Church for many years, but was only baptized in his old age. (See "Jewish Intelligence," 1868, p. 13.)

FRANCO, Rabbi Solomon, baptized in London in 1670. Wolff in Bib. Heb.

1678 records the fact that he took Ps. lx.x.xv. 11 as his motto, "Truth shall spring out of the earth," and tried to convince the Jews that the earthly promises to Israel have a higher spiritual meaning in their being realized in Christ Jesus.

FRANCO, Abraham and Jacob, Portuguese Jews, who had once the first city houses in London. Their posterity have all become Christians, according to Peixotto.

FRANK, Rev. Arnold, born in Hungary, baptized in 1877 at Hamburg, studied theology at Belfast, was appointed missionary at Altona in 1884, where he [1909] still labours faithfully with tokens of divine blessing.

He is the author of a pamphlet ent.i.tled "The Jewish Problem and its Solution" (Belfast, 1883).

FRANKEL, Dr. B., has written his own history ent.i.tled, "Das Bekenntniss des Proselyten, das Ungluck der Juden und ihre Emanzipation in Deutschland" (Elberfeld, 1841).

FRANKEL, Rev. E. B., was first a missionary of the British Society, and then entered the service of the L.J.S., and laboured successfully at Jerusalem until 1869, where he had the privilege of baptizing his own brother. From Jerusalem he was transferred to Damascus, where he laboured for some years both as a missionary and chaplain to the English community, holding evening cla.s.ses and meeting the Jews at the book depot; the latter was once set on fire. Then he went to Tunis, and together with his son-in-law, the Rev. E. H. Archer-Shepherd, laboured faithfully till he retired to Bournemouth, where he died in the Lord.

FRANKEL, Dr. Ivan, Medical Councillor in Berlin, became, as a convert, a great friend of the Jewish mission, and attended the Missionary Conference in 1870.

FRANKHEIM, a convert in Breslau, wrote two books: 1, "Doctrine of Cohesion" (Breslau, 1835), 2, "Popular Astronomy" (_ib._, 1827 and 1829).

FRAUENSTADT, Christian Martin Julius, German student of philosophy, born at Boyanawo, Posen, 1813; died at Berlin, 1879. He was educated at the house of his uncle at Neisse, and embraced Christianity in 1833. He wrote, "Studien und Kritiken zur Theologie und Philosophie," Berlin, 1840; "Ueber das Wahre Verhaltniss der Vernunft zur Offenbahrung,"

Darmstadt, 1898; "Aesthetische Fragen," Dessau, 1853; "Die Natur wissenschaft in Ihren Einfluss auf Poesie, Religion, Moral, und Philosophie," _ib._, 1885; "Der Materialismus, seine Wahrheit und sein Irrthum," _ib._, 1856; "Briefe uber die Naturliche Religion," _ib._, 1858; "Lichtstrahlen aus Immanuel Kants Werken," _ib._, 1872. He also wrote much about Schopenhauer's philosophy, whose works he edited in six volumes.

FRESHMAN, Rev. Jacob, was the son of a Hungarian Rabbi, who settled in Quebec, Canada, in 1855. His father officiated in the synagogue there for three years, and after becoming convinced of the truth of Christianity together with his wife, four sons and three daughters, were all baptized by the Rev. J. Elliot, then President of the Montreal Methodist Conference. Freshman, senior, was soon appointed as a Pastor among the Germans in the province, and laboured in this office for nine years. On account of his ability and learning, the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him. Several Jews were also brought to a knowledge of the truth through his ministry. He died through an accident in 1875. His son Jacob was an equally able and zealous man, established a mission to the Jews in New York City under the name, "Hebrew Christian Work." By his popular lectures to Christians on Jewish subjects, and by his earnest addresses to Jews, he won the hearts of both, and glorious results followed his ministry. Many of the converts became themselves ministers of the Gospel. Having built a church especially for this work, he retired from the mission to carry on private ministerial work.

FREY, Rev. (Joseph Samuel) Christian Friedrich, born at Stockheim, near Wurzburg, in 1771. His father was an a.s.sistant rabbi, in good circ.u.mstances, and a distinguished opponent of Christianity, owing to his wife's brother having become a Christian. The children were early prejudiced against Christianity by their home teacher, who read to them the story about Jesus as given in the "Toldoth Yeshu." At the age of eighteen Frey became a teacher and a precentor in small congregations.

In the course of his wanderings he met a Christian merchant, who induced him to enquire into Christianity, and this happened repeatedly with others. He then learned the trade of shoemaking, and was finally converted in 1798, at Prenzlan, when his master, a worldly man, dismissed him on account of attending prayer meetings frequently.

Encouraged by Christian friends he went to Berlin, and applied to Pastor Janicke for admission into his missionary training school in 1800. From there he went to London. Then, after holding meetings with Jews in Bury Street, Spitalfields, he wrote a most touching appeal to the Committee of the L.J.S. (or rather to those earnest Christian men who formed themselves later into a Committee) in 1801, and thus he gave the first impulse to the establishment of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1809. (See "Our Missions," p. 19).

Of Frey's converts at that time an excellent one was Erasmus H. Simon, who after his baptism studied theology at Edinburgh, and went with Thelwall to Amsterdam, in 1820, to work in that city amongst the Jews, as he knew the Dutch language. In 1816 Frey went to America, where he a.s.sisted in the reconstruction of the already existing American Society for Evangelizing the Jews, under the t.i.tle of "The Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews in New York," under which he laboured for some time.

Frey is the author of a long and learned dialogue, ent.i.tled "Joseph and Benjamin;" also of a Hebrew Dictionary.

FRIEDBERG, Emil Albert von, born in Kanitz, 1837, studied law in Berlin and Heidelberg, became eventually Professor of Ecclesiastical Law at Leipzig in 1869, and was enn.o.bled in Wittenberg. His published works on Church law are too numerous to mention here. (See de le Roi, vol. ii.

230, 231).

FRIEDBERG, Heinrich, born in Friedland, 1813, also a great lawyer, became, after holding important offices of state, Minister of Justice in Prussia, and received from the Emperor Frederick the Order of the Black Eagle.

FRIEDBERG, Eduard, also born in Friedland, in 1827, and evidently a relative or a brother of the preceding was baptized by Pastor Ideler.

FRIEDENTHAL, Karl Rudolf, embraced Christianity together with his parents and the whole family. In 1838 the family bought an estate near Neu Silesia, where they did much in the diffusion and strengthening of evangelical life in the midst of a Roman Catholic population.

Friedenthal was born in Breslau, 1827, studied law, held offices under the Government, and then retired to the family estate, devoting his time to good works. He published a pamphlet in 1864, ent.i.tled "Solus Republicae Supremae," in which he strongly advocated the organization of charity to the poor. He was elected a member of the Reichsrath. During the Franco-German war he volunteered for the purpose of nursing the wounded. He died in 1890. A near relative, Major A. D. Friedenthal, likewise became an evangelical Christian.

FRIEDLANDER, Benjamin, born 1773, the son of David Friedlander, the friend of Mendelssohn, embraced Christianity at the age of 61, together with his wife. They, in this respect, followed the example of their children. The whole family were decided Christians, and one of them, Dr.

Julius Friedlander, wrote a history of the Reformation, and a history of Numismatics, and other historical works.

FRIEDLANDER, Ludwig, born in Konigsberg, 1824. As a Christian he became Professor of cla.s.sical Philology and Archaeology. He wrote "Worterverzeichniss zu Homer," Leipzig, 1860; "Homerische Kritik von Wolf bis Grote," Berlin, 1853; "Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms," 3 vols., 1862-71, in which his Christian principles especially appear.

FRIEDLANDER, Rev. Zebi Herman, a native of the Archduchy of Posen, was baptized by Dr. Ewald, in London, about 1862. By his piety and affectionate gentle disposition he exercised a salutary influence over the enquirers, whom, under Dr. Ewald, he also instructed. In 1870 he was sent by the L.J.S. to Tunis, after having laboured for a short time at Manchester. In 1873 he was transferred to Jerusalem, where he was ordained by Bishop Gobat. The Jerusalem Jews revered him more than any missionary before, because he had manifested to them practical love by being very charitable to the poor refugees from Russia, in 1885. He was chiefly instrumental in founding the Jewish agricultural colony at Artouf. He edited at that time a paper ent.i.tled, "Tidings from Zion." He went later on to New York, where he edited "The Peculiar People." He died there whilst engaged in prayer on his knees.

FRIEDMAN, Rev. George, a convert of Pastor Faltin, in Kischineff, became his a.s.sistant there about 1885. He then translated the Lutheran Catechism into Hebrew. Having afterwards sojourned for a time in Jerusalem, he went from there to London, and was after a while appointed by the British Society as missionary at Wilna, and he has since been doing faithful work for the Master in various towns in Russia. In 1895, the year of the great and horrible pogroms, he rendered great and immortal service by consoling and supporting the poor suffering Jews.

FRIEDMANN, Paul, born at Berlin about the middle of the nineteenth century. Although the son of a Jewish convert, he may exceptionally be mentioned here, as he is a very suitable ill.u.s.tration of the fact that Christians of Jewish origin cherish in their hearts warm affection to the people from whom they have sprung. Moved by a feeling of compa.s.sion towards the Jews, who suffered persecution in Russia between 1880-90, he visited the land of Midian in 1890, with the intention of founding a colony there. He, after due negotiation with the Egyptian Government, actually founded one in 1901, on the east side of the Gulf of Akabah, but the new colony did not last more than two months. Internal dissensions broke out between the leaders, who were Christians, and the Jews. Friedmann, who had sunk 170,000 marks in the project, brought a suit against the Egyptian Government for 25,000. The Russian Consul in Cairo also opened an investigation, and violent denunciatory articles appeared in the Egyptian press, especially in connexion with the death of one of the settlers, who had been forced to leave the encampment because of insubordination. In connexion with the venture Friedmann privately published "Das Land Madian," Berlin, 1891.

FRIEDMANN, Rev. Ben Zion, a native of Russia educated in the strictest school of the Pharisees, emigrated to Palestine between 1870-80, took up his abode in Safed, where he studied the Talmud with the other disciples of the Hahamim in the Beit-hamedrash. Whilst there he found Jesus Christ as his Saviour. In the same place he has been working as a missionary among his former friends and companions for many years, and is certainly regarded by them as one who has not, by embracing Christianity, forfeited a share in the world to come. Mr. Friedmann has been to a great extent the means of establis.h.i.+ng a hospital for the Jews in Safed and a school for their children. He is the author of a tract, "Or Haolam" ("The Light of the World"), and he translated "Gideon and the Angel of the Lord" into Hebrew.

FRIEDRICH, J. C., wrote several works, among which are these--"Die Sohne Jacobs," "Weissagungs parallelen mit Virgil," Breslau, 1841, "De Christologia Samaritanum," Leipzig, 1881.

FROHLING, Carline, a Swedish converted Jewess, laboured as a.s.sistant missionary at Stockholm, in 1880-82, by conducting an industrial school in which poor Jewish children were taught useful work, and by visits among the resident families, and spreading the Gospel.

FROMMAN, Dr. Heinrich Christian Immanuel, physician and author, was one of the most distinguished converts in the first half of the eighteenth century in Germany. He had been studying in Dessau, under rabbi David Frankel, when one day he visited a tailor who, on seeing him, began to weep. Asking for the cause, the tailor said that he was grieved by the thought that such a nice young man should be lost. Fromman thereupon rebuked him sharply--but the tailor did not mind it--and offered him a New Testament, urging him to read it. He went away, but came again another time and asked for the same Book, but when he saw it was written in German, which he could not read, he threw it on the table and left the house. He then went to a bookseller, wis.h.i.+ng to buy a Bible, who demanded a thaler for it, which he could not afford to pay. However, the tears of the tailor gave him no rest, and at last he bought the German Old Testament, and spent whole nights in learning to read. Having acquired this knowledge, he was glad to receive the New Testament and to study it diligently. He then went to Gotha and confessed his faith in Christ, and was baptized about 1722 or 1723. During his study of medicine, he translated the Gospel of St. Luke into Judaeo-German, in 1730. Later he translated other parts of the New Testament. Having written the tract, "Das Licht am Abend" ("Light at Eventide"), which is still circulated and appreciated among the Jews, he managed to acquire the art of setting up type and of printing when he was an inmate of the Callenberg Inst.i.tute, and produced the work with his own hands as well as mind. He also wrote and translated other Christian books, and composed the fundamental part of the rabbinic commentary on St. Luke, which Dr. Biesenthal perfected and brought to light.

FUERST, Dr. A., a native of Pommern, Germany, when only fourteen years old, heard the L.J.S. missionary Moritz discussing Christianity with the Jews in his native town, and received from him a Bible. Another time he received a tract from the L.J.S. missionary Hartmann, which made a strong impression upon him. After studying in a seminary for teachers, in Schneidemuhl (Posen), he went to England, and was instructed and baptized by the Rev. Ridley Hersch.e.l.l in 1856. Subsequently he was appointed by the British Society as a missionary in England. From 1867 to 1871 Dr. Furst laboured among the Jews in Stettin. He then entered the service of the Free Church of Scotland, and was stationed at Prague, Amsterdam, and Strasburg, and latterly he retired to Stuttgart, where he still bore testimony to the Jews of the a.s.sured hope of salvation, through his Master whom he so long and faithfully served. Dr. Furst was a fine scholar, and he wrote a book ent.i.tled, "Christen und Juden Licht und Schattenbilder aus Kirche und Synagoge," Strasburg, 1892.

GANS, Eduard, born in Berlin, 1798, studied, and through the influence of the philosopher Hegel, embraced Christianity in 1825, and in 1828 became professor in the Berlin University. He wrote, among other works, "Das Erbrecht in Weltgeschichtlicher Entwickelung" (4 vols.), Stuttgart, 1834, which was translated into French by Leomenie, Paris, 1845; "Ein System des romischen Civil Rechts," Berlin, 1827. He edited Hegel's "Geschichte der Philosophie," and "Jahrbucher fur wissenschaftliche Kritik." He died as professor in 1839.

GELBFLAUM, Rev. Isidor, was born in the city of Warsaw, in Russian Poland, in the year 1865, of orthodox Jewish parents. We cull the following from his autobiography:--"My father was a corn merchant in very comfortable circ.u.mstances. His desire from the day of my birth was to bring me up in strict adherence with Rabbinical traditions, and I, on my part, followed dutifully and cheerfully the guidance of my dear father. But very early in my career, G.o.d graciously intervened, and in 1877 I came into contact with a colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who sold me a copy of the Hebrew New Testament. Though I was only then in my thirteenth year, I nevertheless read the newly-acquired treasure with intense longing to find out whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. I used diligently to read the New Testament whenever the opportunity presented itself. One day my father suddenly came into the room where I was reading the Acts of the Apostles. He immediately demanded the production of the book, and I instantly gave it to him. A few weeks later on I had occasion to be in the market-place, and I purchased another copy of the same colporteur, which I read with greater caution. Although I thus read the Book again and again, I could not understand it, much less could I apply its contents. I was like the Ethiopian eunuch, and needed some one to explain to me the meaning of the revelation of G.o.d's purpose to mankind. Soon after an event occurred which contributed greatly to determining my spiritual future. My parents, noticing the abatement of my zeal for rabbinical Judaism, decided to send me to a _Yes.h.i.+ba_, and they determined on Pressburg, in Hungary. I had not been in Pressburg more than a week, when I was brought into contact with a Hebrew Christian missionary from Vienna, who was visiting the place at the time for missionary work. He spent over an hour with me explaining the things of G.o.d, and directing my attention to the Messiahs.h.i.+p of the Lord Jesus. I remained in Pressburg till the spring of 1881, after which I returned to Warsaw. In 1885 a Protestant Christian lady in Warsaw became interested in me, and by her advice, and with a letter of introduction to the late Rev. Dr. Stern, I came to England in June of that year, only to find that my would-be instructor had been called home to his rest. I waited till the arrival of the Rev.

J. M. Eppstein, who instructed me and subsequently baptized me in 1886.

I then entered the Operative Jewish Converts' Inst.i.tution, and pa.s.sed the following two years there in happy a.s.sociation with other converts to Christ. In 1888 I offered my services to and was accepted by the London City Mission, and worked among my brethren in the East End of London till March, 1893, when I was appointed by the British Society, and ultimately sent to Leeds. Since coming to that city, I have been the humble instrument, in G.o.d's hand, of leading many of my brethren to Christ, two of whom have become Christian ministers, one in the west of England and the other in the United States of America. A third convert given to me is an earnest Sunday school teacher, and a fourth a local preacher."

GELLERT, Alexander, was a missionary of the L.J.S., first in England and then, in 1861, in Roumania, where he had some fruits of his labours, and died in 1870.

GELLING, Michael, was born 1597, and baptized 1616. He translated in Hamburg R. Isaac Troki's "Chizzuk Emunah," 1633, into German. Dr. John Muller made use of this MS. in his "Judaismus detectus," 1694, and it came into possession of M. Chr. Ziegra. Wolff in his "Bibliotheca Hebraica," iv. p. 639, gives detailed information about this MS. and a specimen of Gelling's translation. Bishop Kidder wrote a refutation of the "Chizzuk Emunah" in his "Demonstration of the Messiah," in 1694.

Jacob Gusset likewise in his "Controversarium adversus Judaeos ternio,"

Dortrecht, 1688. The whole was edited by Arnold Borst, and published in 1712, at Amsterdam, under the t.i.tle, "Jesu Christi Evangeliique Veritas, salutifera, demonstrata in confutatione libri Chizzuk Emunah." The Rev.

A. Lukyn Williams is now answering the same in English, and the writer is translating it into Yiddish.

GERMa.n.u.s, Johannes Isaac Levita, having been convinced that Isaiah liii.

was a Messianic prophecy and fulfilled in Jesus, was baptized with his wife and his son Stephen by Joh. Draconites in 1546. Later he became professor of Hebrew in London and in Cologne. He wrote a controversial work ent.i.tled: "Defensio veritatis Hebraicae," Cologne, 1558, also a Hebrew grammar, "Mebo Imre Shofar," which pa.s.sed through several editions; a treatise on the book of Ruth; and translated some of the works of Maimonides and Juda Ibn Tibon into Latin. His son, Stephen, who was a physician, translated the prophet Malachi into Latin.

GEROLD, Rev. G. L., was a rabbinical student in Breslau, baptized by Dr.

Stern in the year of his death, graduated at Cambridge, was ordained in 1898, and is now Rector of Easthope, Much Wenlock, Salop, in the diocese of Hereford.

GERSON, Christian ben Meir Biberbach, born at Reeklichhausen, August 1, 1567, received the usual Talmudical education, and was a teacher in several places. A neighbour, who was a Christian woman, borrowed from him ten pence, giving him as security a Lutheran New Testament. Curious to know the source of the Christian errors, he and his two brothers-in-law read it with much amus.e.m.e.nt. Yet finding there quotations from the Old Testament, he continued reading it more earnestly, comparing Scripture with Scripture, until his conscience was awakened and felt the need of salvation through Christ. He wrote afterwards--"I found such light, for which I have to thank the Lord G.o.d all my life." He was baptized by Pastor Silberschlag at Halberstadt, October 19, 1600. Gerson's son Stephen was baptized years later, but his wife got a divorce from him. He then taught Hebrew at Copenhagen, and eventually, after being persuaded by friends, he became a preacher of the Gospel. Testimony is given him that he heartily loved his people, and defended them against blood accusations. His works are: "Des Judischer Talmud furnehmster Inhalt und Widerlegung," Gislav, 1707, Gera, 1613. A German translation of the eleventh chapter of Tract Sanhedrin. Gerson died on October 22, 1642, only 47 years old, as a preacher of the Gospel, in poverty. He was pastor of two parishes, receiving a stipend of six gulden, and had to work as a farm labourer for his living. In the Jewish Encyclopaedia it is stated that Gerson was drowned at Roelheim, September 25, 1627. Here is a specimen of the contradictory statements of historians.