Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
where he laboured successfully until he was called to higher service.
NEWMAN, Rev. Louis, a convert and student of the L.J.S., was ordained in
the American Episcopal Church, and laboured among the Jews in
Philadelphia with blessed results all his life. He was a great Hebrew
scholar.
NURNBERG, Rev. Nahum, was born in Russia, his father dying very early.
His mother and her children then went to live with her father, who was a
strict Jew, and as such Nahum was brought up. When about nine years old
an uncle adopted him and took him to Breslau to be educated. He became a
favourite with the proctor of the University there and at Berlin, and
through them he obtained a good deal of tuition. He also did
journalistic work, and in 1851 he came over to England to report on the
Great Exhibition. He stayed on in Hull as a correspondent. Whilst there
he came under the influence of the Rev. John Deck, by whom he was
eventually baptized. Later on he was, after finishing his course at the
L.J.S. missionary college, appointed a missionary of that Society, first
in England, and then in Roumania, but returned to this country as his
real home after a year's work, owing to the death of his wife. Soon
after he took orders, and engaged in parochial work, until 1879, after
which he retired, until his much lamented death on January 30th, 1904.
OCZERET, Rev. Leo, a native of Tarnopol, Galicia, was converted in
Jerusalem, and studied afterwards at the college of the L.J.S. in
London. His Jewish _fiancée_ also became a Christian. After being
stationed in Paris for about two years he was sent to Jerusalem and was
ordained by Bishop Hannington. In 1884 he was sent to reopen the mission
at Safed, and at first he had trouble with the spirit of fanaticism
which had ever existed among the Jews there; but gradually, by patience
and love, he won the hearts of many, so that when he became ill they
came to visit and console him. One old man even assured him that during
a whole fortnight he recited fifty Psalms (according to the custom of
pious Jews during illness) for his recovery. Oczeret went at last to a
hospital in Vienna, whence he wrote to the Committee, "Let the Lord's
will be done! Pray for us all. I do not give up every hope yet to work
for my Lord and Master, and to serve faithfully the Committee, to whom I
am wont to look as to a father." But though still young, he had finished
his course, and went to receive the crown of glory.
PALGRAVE (Cohen), Sir Francis, born in London, July 1788, died there
July 6th, 1861, son of Mayer Cohen, a member of the London Stock
Exchange. He was an infant prodigy. At the age of eight he made a
translation of Homer's "Battle of the Frogs" into French, which was
published by his father (London, 1796). He embraced Christianity, and
married a daughter of Dawson Turner, the historian. He was called to the
bar in 1827, devoting himself to pedigree cases. In 1832 he published
"The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth," which is generally
regarded as the earliest important study of English constitutional
history founded on the records. He was knighted in that year, and became
deputy-keeper of Her Majesty's records, in which capacity he issued
twenty-two annual reports of great historic value. His most important
work is "A History of Normandy and England," 4 vols., London, 1851-63.
Palgrave had four sons each of whom attained distinction of various
kinds.
PALGRAVE, Francis Turner (1824-1902), editor of the "Golden Treasury of
English Songs and Lyrics," Professor at Oxford.
PALGRAVE, Robert Harry Inglis (born 1827), editor of "The Dictionary of
Political Economy."
PALGRAVE, Sir Reginald Francis Dunce (1829-1903), Clerk of the House of
Commons.
PALGRAVE, William Gifford (1826-88), Eastern traveller and author of "A
Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia" (London, 1865) and
other works.
PALOTTA, Professor C. W., a native of Hungary, by birth and education a
gentleman. Coming to England early in the sixties of the nineteenth
century he was induced by a friend to attend the lectures and classes of
Dr. Ewald, and after due instruction was baptized in the Jews' Chapel,
Palestine Place. Not long after, he was sent by L.J.S. as missionary
assistant to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, at Bucharest, whose daughter he
married. From 1866 he laboured for two years itinerating through Servia
and Bosnia. He was the first missionary who took the Gospel to the Jews
in those countries. In 1868 he was stationed at Jassy, where he laboured
until 1871, when he settled at Vienna as a professor of languages.
Palotta was a gifted man and zealous missionary, and throughout his
Christian life he took a great interest in the mission to the Jews, and
voluntarily helped them in Vienna and also in Paris during the
exhibition in 1879.
PAULI, Rev. C. W. H., was born in Breslau in 1800 and was named Zebi
Nasi Hirsch Prince. His father who was a rabbi, gave him a thorough
rabbinic education. Already at the age of 21, being then a religious
teacher, he published "Sermons for Pious Israelites," in which he
emphasized the teaching of the Bible rather than that of the Talmud.
Whilst thus endeavouring to teach pure Mosaism he came in contact with
the L.J.S. missionary, C. G. Petri of Detmold, and received from him a
New Testament, of which he began to make use in his teaching. The Jews
then declared him crazy, and he resigned his office and went to Detmold.
From there he was sent to Minden, where he was baptized December 21st,
1823. His sponsors were Baron Blomberg and Major Grabowski. The former,
who through the influence of the L.J.S. founded the mission at Detmold,
then recommended Pauli as a missionary to the Posen Society. A year
later he went with Petri to England and studied at Cambridge. From there
he was called to be Lecturer of Hebrew at Oxford. In this capacity he
laboured there for thirteen years, during which time he wrote various
books, his "Analecta Hebraica" deserving special mention. In 1840 he
received a call from the L.J.S. to go as a missionary to Berlin, where,
by his learning and piety and loving disposition, he made a salutary
impression upon the Jews. In 1844 he was transferred to Amsterdam, and
laboured there till 1874. The results of his activity there appeared
from time to time in the "Jewish Intelligence." He then retired to
Luton, where he died in 1877, with the words upon his lips: "Into Thy
hands, O God, I commend my spirit. My Saviour is near."
PAULY, a Jewish savant, was baptized at Hamburg in 1810. He lived with
an unbelieving brother in Berlin, at the time when Pauli was stationed
there, who had the privilege of administering the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper to him on his dying bed when he was eighty years of age
(Annual Report, 1843, p. 60).
PHILIPPI, Dr. Friedrich Adolf, was born in Berlin in 1809. His father
was a banker and belonged to the circle of the Mendelssohns. Philippi
received Christian impressions at school, and in riper years he received
from a fellow student a treatise entitled "Glocktöne," by Court Chaplain
Strauss, which caused him to attend his sermons. His uncle Jakobi, the
mathematician, had at that time become an Evangelical Christian. This
event, too, caused him to seek for the truth until he found it for
himself and was then baptized by Pastor Zehme in Grossstädtel, near
Leipzig, in 1829. Later on he studied theology under Hengstenberg, and
became professor at Dorpat and later at Rostock. He was the author of
the following works:--"Die Lehre von dem thätigen Gehorsam Christi,"
1841; "Glauben's Lehre," 1853; a posthumous work, published by his son,
"On the Epistle to the Galatians and the Synoptics." He died on August
29, 1882.
PICK, Aaron, Biblical scholar, was born at Prague, where he was
converted to Christianity and lectured on Hebrew at the University. He
lived in England during the first half of the nineteenth century, and
was the author of translations and commentaries of various books of the
Bible. His works comprised a literal translation from the Hebrew of the
twelve Minor Prophets (1833), of Obadiah (1834), and of the seventh
chapter of Amos, with a commentary. In 1837 he produced a treatise on
the Hebrew accents, and in 1845 he published, "The Bible Student's
Concordance." He was besides the author of a work entitled, "The
Gathering of Israel or the Patriarchal Blessing as contained in the
Forty-ninth chapter of Genesis. Being the Revelation of God concerning
the twelve Tribes of Israel, and their ultimate Restoration."
PICK, Abraham, a native of Senftenberg, Bohemia, was influenced by his
brother Israel to examine the evidences of Christianity, and then had
intercourse with a Scotch missionary, the Rev. Daniel Edward, in 1866,
and at last was brought to the Lord by the Rev. Abraham Herschell, who
also baptized him in 1869 at Stuttgart together with his wife. His
daughter Catharine was already baptized through Edward, at Breslau in
1857. His daughters, Rosie and Philippine, were baptized at Kaiserswerth
by the Scotch Free Church missionary, Van Andel, and his daughter Regina
and his son Joseph were baptized at Kornthal in 1878. His daughters
Charlotte and Therese were baptized in Switzerland by Pastor Bernoulli,
and Elizabeth was baptized by Pastor Axenfeld in Cologne. The whole
family became in various ways useful workers in the service of the
Master, and in 1879 they had the joy of knowing that seven of their
relatives had confessed Christ in baptism. Abraham Pick became
afterwards the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at
Lemberg, where he laboured for many years in spreading the Word of God
in Galicia and in the Bukowina, where he and his family were almost the
only sympathizing friends of the L.J.S. missionaries.
PICK, Israel, a brother of the above, had received a strict Talmudical
education. When he came to the age of discretion he began to waver
between rabbinic orthodoxy and freethought, but he felt an inward call
to do something great for the emancipation of his brethren and for
restoring the Jewish kingdom. At first he was engaged in journalistic
work at Vienna, and then he became a preacher and teacher in a synagogue
at Bucharest, where he endeavoured to infuse vital religion into the
congregation, but had to leave them disappointed. His enthusiasm for the
temporal and spiritual welfare of his people caused him to correspond
with missionaries and to lay before them a plan for the establishment of
a Hebrew Christian National Church. He also addressed a letter to that
effect to the Jews in Amsterdam in 1853, but received no encouragement
anywhere. At last he embraced Christianity and was baptized by Daniel
Edward at Breslau in 1854. On this occasion he wrote: "A Word to my
People," afterwards "The Star of Jacob," "Kol nidre night," "Is there no
Physician there?" In all these writings he displayed almost a
prophetical spirit, speaking from the fulness of a heart inflamed with
love to his people, and no less to his Saviour. This enthusiasm led him
eventually in 1859 to Jerusalem, and then he was heard of no more. The
probability is that he was killed somewhere in Palestine.
PICK, Joseph, after studying in Basel and in the L.J.S. College, was
appointed missionary at Strassburg in 1877, and in 1888 he was
transferred to Cracow. He was a gifted and an energetic man and laboured
in both places under peculiar difficulties. In 1897 he visited London,
and on his return died rather suddenly, his loss being deeply felt by
all who knew him.
PICK, Rev. Dr. Bernard, was baptized in Berlin in 1861. Later he went to
the United States, where he studied theology and was appointed to a
church at Rochester, New York. He was a prolific writer. The following