Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
Lebrecht's autobiography, which closes with a prayer for the conversion
of Israel.
LEDERER, Gideon R., born in 1804. As the son of a rabbi he was educated
in strict rabbinical orthodoxy, and for a time was a rabbi himself. He
and his wife were converted under the ministry of the early Scotch
missionaries, and afterwards assisted them to spread the Gospel in
Hungary. In 1853, he came to London, but soon after went to New York,
where he laboured for the rest of his days, as a humble city missionary,
with much blessing. He edited a periodical entitled, "The Israelite
Indeed," and the writer knew him as such an one himself.
LEENER, de Louis, a Dutch convert of the nineteenth century, was a
respected author. Among his works are these--(1) "Ben Onie, Tafereelen
uit het dagboek van een tot het Christendom bekeerden Israelit," (2) "De
waarde vrouw in Israel," (3) "De Nederlandsche jood," (4) "Ons Pascha,"
Amsterdam, 1865-70.
LEHRS, Karl, was born in Königsberg in 1802, and died 1878. It is
recorded that while studying in Berlin he became a Christian from
conviction, and was baptized in 1822. A number of his relatives were
influenced by him for Christianity. He was a classical teacher in
several schools, and then Professor at the University of Königsberg. He
published a book of considerable merit under the title, "De Aristarchi
Studiis Homericis," 1833; "Questiones Epicae," 1837; "Pindars-scholien,"
1873.
LEIBNISTH, Samuel, born 1823, was a Jewish teacher, and after his
conversion, about 1868, devoted his leisure to voluntary missionary work
among the Jews in Germany. In 1874, he was appointed missionary at
Elberfeld, where he died in 1882.
LEITNER, H. C., was won for the Master by the Rev. C. A. Schönberger. He
laboured at Constantinople as a very able teacher in the Scotch mission
schools for many years.
LEITNER, Dr. M., born at Pesth in 1800, studied medicine and settled as
a practitioner at Broussa in Turkey. Having come into possession of a
New Testament, he read it carefully, and was converted and baptized in
1844. He then gave up his lucrative position and devoted his life to
missionary work. He was the L.J.S. medical missionary at Constantinople
from 1853 to 1861, when he died of fever.
LEO, Dr., a physician in Warsaw, after having had intercourse with the
L.J.S. missionaries for eight years, became fully convinced of the truth
of the Gospel, and was baptized with his family in 1831.
LEONHARD, Friedrich Conrad, a convert in the latter half of the
eighteenth century, published a dialogue under the title, "Erweis dass
die Rabbinen Schnurstracks wider dass Gesetz Moses lehren, Aus den
Kirchengesetzbüchern der heutigen Juden geführt," with a preface by
Pastor Siegmund Mörl, Nürnberg, 1781.
LESSMAN, Daniel, was born in Soldin (Brandenburg), 1794, studied
medicine in Berlin, was wounded in the war, baptized in 1824, he became
a great author, novelist, biographer and poet.
LEVI, Jacob, a native of Smyrna, according to the report of Dr.
Buchanan, heard the Gospel from a C.M.S. missionary. He then bought a
New Testament and studied it with the intention of refuting the
arguments of the missionary, and for this purpose he translated it into
Hebrew, but the result was that he became a believer and preached Christ
to Jews, Mohammedans and Christians.
LEVI, Jacob, baptized by the missionaries Lewis and Hartley at Athens,
about 1840-1. Was cast into prison by the Rabbis ten times. In the
prison at Casanegra, he was bastinadoed and kept six months, but he
declared if he was there a thousand years he would still confess that
Jesus was the true Messiah.
LEVI, Dr. Leone, was born in Ancona, 1802, and settled in England. An
article of his in the "Liverpool Album," in 1849, occasioned the
establishment of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he became secretary.
He joined the Presbyterian Church, was author of "Commercial Laws, their
Principles and Administration," 1850-52; "Wages and Earnings of the
Working Classes," 1867; "History of British Commerce and of the Economic
Progress of the British Nation," 1863-70. He became professor of
political economy at King's College in 1862; barrister in Lincoln's Inn,
1859; D.L. of Tübingen, 1861: and died in 1888.
LEVIEN, Edward, was born in 1818, of highly respectable Jewish parents,
nearly related to the distinguished Goldsmids. His parents returned to
the true faith, and were baptized and admitted into the Church of
England, with their children, when the latter were yet of tender age. He
was educated at Shrewsbury Grammar School, under Drs. Butler and
Kennedy, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took honours in
classics. In that department he filled a professor's chair at Glasgow.
His great skill in ancient manuscripts, and intimate acquaintance with
historical lore commended him, in 1850, to an important post in the MSS.
department of the British Museum. This post he held for nearly a quarter
of a century, with advantage to the public and credit to himself. He was
also honorary secretary of the British Archæological Association, to
which he rendered essential service in promoting its prosperity, in
various ways, literary and otherwise. His loss to that Association was
as keenly felt by their Committee as by his most intimate friends. The
catalogue of the British Museum has several pages devoted to his
literary productions.
LEVINSOHN, Hessel, a brother of the next named, who together with his
parents had anathematized Isaac on account of his supposed apostasy, was
in the first place influenced by him through correspondence, not to pass
such a harsh judgment upon himself. Then, when he came to England, he
was gradually won by him and other Hebrew Christians to read the New
Testament, and to search the Scriptures earnestly, until he too could
publicly confess that Jesus was his own Redeemer. He afterward became a
missionary of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
amongst the Jews.
LEVINSON, Rev. Isaac, was born in Kovno (Russia), in 1855. His father
was a pious man, and used to fast every Monday and Thursday. When Isaac
was five years old, his father himself taught him Hebrew, and then sent
him to school, where he made rapid progress in learning, so that at the
age of eight he could read the Pentateuch with the Targum and Rashi's
commentary. Henceforth he studied mostly the Talmud, in which he felt no
delight nor even satisfaction, especially when at thirteen years of age
he became bar mitsvah (confirmed), and began to realize responsibility
for his sins. This caused him to lay aside the doctrines of men, and to
study more diligently the Word of God. In 1871 he took leave of his
parents, and after much hardship and God's loving care on the journey,
arrived in London, September 19th, with the intention to go from there
to America or Australia. But just as he landed he was robbed of the
little baggage he possessed, and a kind Jew took him to his house, with
whom he spent the Day of Atonement. Subsequently he once passed by the
L.J.S. Chapel at Palestine Place, and noticed a Hebrew inscription on
the front. Thinking it was a synagogue he entered, and was surprised to
find that it was a Christian place of worship, where the prayers were
said in Hebrew. He listened to the service, and after it was over, a
Hebrew Christian spoke to him, and told him that he had found peace in
believing in Jesus as the Messiah. This was exactly what Isaac was
searching for. He then made the acquaintance of Dr. Stern, was
instructed and baptized by him, and entered the Operative Jewish
Converts' Institution. After a time Levinson was for some years a clerk
in the R.T.S., where he made good use of his time in preparing himself
for studying in Spurgeon's College. He was then ordained to the Baptist
ministry, and was engaged by the British Society as deputational
secretary, in which capacity he laboured zealously and ably for some
years, until he was called to succeed the late Rev. John Dunlop, as
chief secretary of the same Society.
LEVY, Benjamin, was the son of Moses Levy, one of a well-known firm of
shipowners in London. When he was quite a young man he set up in
business as a clothier and draper in Holborn. Subsequently he removed to
Sunderland, where he spent the last forty-two years of his life; and so
greatly did he prosper that he opened branches of his business in
Shields, Stockton, Middlesborough, West Hartlepool and Barrow in
Furness. His admission by baptism into the Church of Christ took place
when he was twenty-six years old. Before then he had drifted away from
the moorings of the synagogue, and then soon followed his total neglect
of all religious observance, and all belief in the Bible. It was at this
crisis in his religious life that he was brought under decidedly
Christian influences. He came in contact with a clergyman of the Church
of England, who led him to accept Christ and Him crucified; after which
he ever remained a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, and a promoter
of Christian work. He became Warden of St. Thomas', Sunderland, for
which Church he did a great deal. He was elected member of the Town
Council of Bishopwearmouth in 1861, and in 1871 he was made Alderman of
the Sunderland Ward; had he lived longer, he would have attained the
chief civil dignity there. His funeral was attended by the whole Town
Council in its official capacity. He left a family of four sons and five
daughters, all of whom were doing well at that time.
LEVY, Philip, was converted in England, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century. He published an English, Hebrew, and Chaldee Grammar
in 1705, at Oxford.
LEWALD, Fanny, daughter of a Jewish banker at Königsberg, and born 1811,
became a member of the Evangelical Church by baptism in 1828. She is
distinguished as a great authoress. Her works comprise twelve vols., six
of them under the title, "Meine Lebens Geschichte" (Autobiography),
Berlin, 1871-75. She died at the age of 78, in 1889.
LEWIS, Dr. de Leno, was editor of "Israel's Watchman," at Baltimore,
1888.
LICHTENSTEIN, George Philipp (Susskind Mayer), was born at Frankfort in
1606, and became a Christian through intercourse with pious Christians,
and through hearing Christian hymns.
LICHTENSTEIN, Jacob, the brother of the above, born in 1826, became a
more famous pastor and theologian. He published "Das Leben unsers
Herrn," Erlangen, 1855; "Prüfet alles und das Gute behaltet," 1870. He
died in 1875.
LICHTENSTEIN, Jehiel Zebi (Hershensohn), was born at Jassy, in 1831, and
brought up in Bessarabia, among the Chassidim and Kabbalists. Having
received a New Testament at Jassy, he studied it diligently, and being
convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, he baptized himself in a river in
1855. In 1868, he published a Kabbalistic book, entitled, "Limude
hanebiim," in which he tried to show that the teaching of the Kabbalah
and of the New Testament are identical. In 1872, he came to London and
was baptized by Dr. Stern. He then assisted for a short time Mr.
Dworkowicz in Warsaw and Pastor Weber in Neudeklslau. From 1874 to 1879
he laboured as a missionary of the Berlin Society in Berlin. He then was
for a time in Russia, whence he went to Leipzig in 1885, where he was
afterwards appointed to be one of the tutors at the Institutum
Delitzschianum. He is the author, besides the above-mentioned, of the
following Hebrew works:--"Chizzuk Emunah Emeth" (A defence of
Christianity against the Jewish book "Chizzuk Emunah,") 1879; "Toldoth
Jeshua," a refutation of the book under that name, 1883; "A Short
Rabbinic Commentary on the whole of the New Testament," published
gradually. Lichtenstein also translated the whole of the Old Testament
into Yiddish for the British and Foreign Bible Society, of which parts
have appeared.