Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
suggestion, the International Jewish Missionary Conference at Leipzig in
1897, resolved to offer a prize for a life of Christ in Yiddish. Amongst
the competitors was the well-known Joseph Rabinowitz, but the umpires,
Professor Strack and the Rev. A. Bernstein, adjudged the prize to
Löwen's work, which is entitled "Podeh Umazil," which has found great
acceptance among the Jews. In 1901 a collection of essays appeared from
his pen, under the title, "Brod und Salz" (bread and salt), which was
gladly read. He also brought out a series of booklets entitled "Orchim,"
which was of the greatest missionary value. Löwen was stationed in
Berlin, Lemberg, Posen, and Vienna, where he continued to testify to
the Jews of the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the Lord crowned his
work with success, in that he was permitted to witness a spirit of
enquiry among the Jews, not a few of whom acknowledged Him as their Lord
and Saviour through his labours.
LÖWENTHAL, Rev. Isidor, a native of Posen, where he received a liberal
education, finishing his studies at the Gymnasium at the age of
seventeen. His father wished him to enter into business, but he had no
taste for such a life. With companions of the same age, he founded a
liberal political union, and owing to a poem of a radical character,
which he recited in public, he was arrested by the police. For this
reason he emigrated to New York in 1846. On his arrival he tried to get
employment, but failed. He was then obliged to become a pedlar. One cold
November day he offered his goods to the Rev. S. M. Gayley, of
Wilmington, Delaware, who, noticing his poor plight, invited him to his
house, where in conversation he soon learned that Löwenthal was well
educated. He then offered him hospitality until he should find a
situation as teacher of German and French. This he procured for him in
Fayette College at Easton, Pa., in 1847. There Löwenthal was
indefatigable in his studies of the English language and literature. His
iron will and his excellent memory enabled him soon to overcome all
difficulties. Hitherto he had not revealed to Mr. Gayley his Jewish
nationality, but now he not only did this but also told him that the
family prayers and the services which he had attended had led him to
study the Scriptures, and that he was convinced of the truth of
Christianity. He was then baptized by Mr. Gayley in the Presbyterian
Church. In 1848 he became teacher of languages at Mount Holly Collegiate
School, where he remained several years. Mr. Philipps, of the First
Presbyterian Church, New York, advised him to study for the ministry,
and he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey in
1852. During his course there he contributed articles to the "Biblical
Repository." When about to leave the Seminary, he gave a lecture on
Indian missions and then offered his services to the Board of Foreign
Missions. The Board sent him in 1856 to Afghanistan. He acquired the
language in one year, so that he could preach in it fluently; but he was
only permitted to labour there seven years. During this short time he
translated the whole of the New Testament in Pushtu and printed it, and
compiled a dictionary of that language which he left in manuscript. He
preached easily in five languages, and none knew the East better than he
did. He possessed the largest collection of Asiatic MSS. and rare books
that ever was the lot of a European. He was beloved by the natives and
Europeans alike. Sir John Lawrence, especially during the mutiny,
consulted him as a friend. He preached uninterruptedly in Afghanistan
and in the Khyber Pass. At the last, he was shot dead by his own
servant, it is said through a mistake, who, seeing him walking on the
roof at night, took him for a thief. This was in 1864, when he was only
thirty-eight.
LOWITZ, Rev. J., laboured for years as a missionary of the British
Society at Algiers, where he also acted as agent for the British and
Foreign Bible Society. In 1872 he succeeded Davidsohn as principal of
the British Society's Home for Converts and Enquirers, at 28, Alfred
Place, Bedford Square, London.
LUCKY, Rev. C. Theophilus, a native of Tisminitz, in Galicia, and a most
remarkable convert to Christianity in the nineteenth century. He was
known not only as a great Hebrew scholar, writing Hebrew in classical
style as a living language, and as thoroughly conversant with the whole
range of Jewish literature, but also as possessing a wide knowledge of
Christian literature. Having studied at the Berlin University and High
School for the knowledge of Judaism, and making researches in
philosophical and religious subjects, he was led to become a believer.
Lucky received Evangelical ordination in New York. In 1887 he first
published a Hebrew periodical, "Eduth le Israel," which he continued for
some years, when he returned to Galicia and took up his residence in
Stanislau. There he lived and laboured among his brethren, preaching by
the written and spoken word, but above all by his example, scarcely
receiving any help from men. He was a living illustration of a Hebrew
Christian of the first century; though thoroughly Orthodox as to the
cardinal doctrines of Christianity, yet he believed that it was
incumbent upon him to observe the Jewish Sabbath and all other Jewish
festivals and the dietary laws, not for the sake of being justified by
the works of the law, but for the sake of satisfying his own conscience,
and that he might be more useful as an evangelist amongst his brethren
in Galicia.
MAAS, Dr. M., was a teacher at Breslau in the nineteenth century, and
wrote the following works, advocating amalgamation of the Jews with
Christians: "Die Sociale Stellung der Juden in Deutschland und das
Ceremonial Gesetz," Löbau, 1876; "Die Mischehe das Einzig wirksame
mittel einer dauernden Vereinigung zwischen der jüdischen und
christlichen Bevölkerung Deutschland's," ib.
MACKHAN, Beatus Christian (Nehemiah Cohen), after having travelled in
three continents, and held the office of Rabbi at Avignon embraced
Christianity, in the Baltic Provinces in 1672. In 1690 he published in
the German language: "Schriftmässiger Jesus--Palmbaum oder Klarer
Beweissthum wider die Juden, dass Jesus der wahre Messias sei" (Riga),
Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraica 3. N., 1648.
MAGATH, Rev. Julius, some time after his baptism became Professor in the
Wesleyan College in Oxford (Georgia, U.S.A.) Later on he was requested
by the Conference to do missionary work among the Jews. In 1886 he
published a periodical entitled, "The Hebrew Missionary," and this was
changed in 1888 to "The Hebrew Messenger." He also translated a
treatise, written by the Roman Catholic Jewish convert M. M. Leman,
entitled, "Jesus before the Sanhedrin," 1887.
MAIMUNY, Rabbi Mordecai, was born at Bona, Algeria, in 1817. His father
was a well-to-do goldsmith, who had settled in Tunis in 1823, where
Maimuny received a strict rabbinical education. When Dr. Ewald was
stationed at Tunis, Maimuny was his great opponent and used to blaspheme
the name of Jesus. Later on he went to Jerusalem, where his fanaticism
became more excited when he observed the activity of Bishop Alexander.
However, the bishop's calm and gentle disposition made a great
impression upon him, and he received a Hebrew New Testament, which he
studied diligently and became a changed man. His wife seeing that he
visited Nicolayson and the other missionaries was very angry with him.
To pacify her, and in the hope that she would change her mind, he left
Jerusalem with her, and they wandered through Asia, North Africa, and
Europe, and then returned to Jerusalem, where he had to undergo great
persecution, and was obliged to return to his native place. Finally, in
1853, he was baptized by the Scotch missionary, the Rev. Benjamin Weiss.
MAMLOCK, L. C, a native of Kalisch, was instructed and baptized by Dr.
Ewald in 1863. After being in the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution
for some considerable time, Dr. Ewald employed him as his assistant, and
he became a parochial lay reader. Subsequently he was appointed by the
L.J.S. as missionary in Manchester, and was transferred to Paris after
the Franco-German war. There he laboured faithfully the rest of his
life, spreading the Gospel far and wide during several exhibitions, and
had the privilege to see many sons and daughters trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ for their salvation.
MARCUS, Moses, born in London, 1701, was sent by his father to Hamburg
for his education. There he had intercourse with Christians, read the
New Testament, and came to a saving knowledge of the truth. In 1721 his
father returned to England from India, where he had amassed a fortune,
and summoned him to come home. Marcus then told his father of his
religious convictions, when the latter was shocked, and threatened to
disinherit him if he should be baptized; he once even threw a long knife
at him. Marcus, however, persevered and was baptized in 1723. In 1724 he
wrote a pamphlet entitled, "Principal Motives to leave the Jewish
Faith." In defence of Christianity, against the then prevalent
rationalism, he translated into English the second part of Dr. J.
Gottlob Carpzov's "Critica Sacra," adding his own notes (London, 1729).
MARCUSOHN, Rev. J. W., was sent by the Scotch Church as a missionary to
Constantinople, at the request of the American Board of Missions, in
1859. He subsequently preached the Gospel to the Jews in the United
States of America.
MARGOLIOUTH, Ezekiel, was a very remarkable man, a typical Jew, and a
typical convert to Christianity. As an Hebraist he was equal to any of
his day. He had a profound knowledge of the Talmud, rare even amongst
Talmudists. It was, however, in the composition of modern Hebrew that
his chief talent lay, and competent scholars often spoke
enthusiastically of the elegance of his rabbinic writings. Like his
namesake, Dr. Moses Margoliouth, he was a native of Suwalki in Poland,
where he was born in November 1816. His father, Abraham, had been
thirty-three years chief rabbi of the town, and his mother could trace
twelve rabbis amongst her ancestors. It was natural that Ezekiel should
study the Talmud and practise all the precepts of the rabbis with the
utmost vigour. After he had become bar mitzvah, he studied with his
father, and later on went to Brody, in order to perfect himself in
rabbinic lore. There he met enlightened Jews, and often disputed with R.
Solomon Kluger. He began to study the Bible, and philosophical works in
Hebrew, like those of Maimonides; his desire for knowledge being
fostered under Michael Perl of Tarnopol, the first Jewish reformer in
Galicia. Later on he went to the rabbinical seminary at Warsaw, where he
first met missionaries of the L.J. Society, through whom he was
irresistibly drawn to Christ, His Person, and His teachings. At the age
of twenty-seven he confessed faith in Christ as his Saviour, though his
wife, whom he had married the previous year, for a long time refused to
become a Christian. He then came over to England, where she afterwards
joined him, and in 1848, also became a Christian. In the same year he
entered the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution to learn bookbinding.
In 1852 he was appointed a missionary of the L.J.S. in London, and
worked as such almost to the end of his life. It was not as a popular
preacher that he excelled, though his faith in, and knowledge of, the
Word of God always profoundly attracted his audiences. His chief labours
were literary, and in these he had no rival. His "Derech Emunah" and
"Nethivoth Olam," in Hebrew, are masterpieces. His greatest work was the
revision of the New Testament in Hebrew in 1865. On May 2, 1894, he
passed away in a gentle and peaceful death, greatly mourned both for