Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
were from his pen: "The Mission among the Jews," in the Encyclopædia of
Biblical, theological and ecclesiastical literature (New York, 1881, pp.
166-177). "The Talmud, what it is and what it knows about Jesus and His
followers" (New York, 1887). "Luther as a Hymnist," 1888. "Historical
Sketch of the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem," 1887.
PIERITZ, G. Wildon, born at Klecko in Posen, in 1808, baptized 1835,
laboured as a missionary of the L.J.S. in the forties of the nineteenth
century at Jerusalem, in Damascus, and subsequently settled at Oxford,
where he was engaged in teaching. He was a learned and spiritually-minded
man, as his articles in the "Hebrew Christian Witness, 1874-5," testify.
He was the author of "The Gospels from the Rabbinical Point of View,"
London and Oxford, 1873.
PIERITZ, Rev. Joseph Abraham, was a missionary of the L.J.S., stationed
at Bristol in 1844, and laboured amongst the Jews generally in the West
of England, also in Dublin and other places. He afterwards went out to
British Guiana, and became rector of the parish of St. Patrick, Berbice,
where he died in 1869, aged sixty-five, as the result of a carriage
accident. His funeral was taken by the Bishop, and was attended by over
2,000 persons.
POLAN, Rev. Mark, was born at Wilna, a town known as the "Jerusalem of
Lithuania," where a high type of Judaism prevailed and where Rabbinical
learning flourished, and where also the Greek churches mostly
represented a sensuous and ritualistic Christianity. At Wilna there is a
flourishing trade in cereal products, and Mark's father was a corn
merchant. His parents gave him a rigorous religious training. His mother
could speak Hebrew well, and the boy was instructed in the Talmud and
other Rabbinical writings. As an illustration of the sectarian rigour of
the Jews at Wilna, it may be mentioned that a law having been passed
compelling education in the Russian language, the Jews proclaimed a Fast
and made provision for the private tuition of their children.
Young Polan left his native place in 1872 intending to proceed to
Australia and join a relative there. A change of plan, under pressure
from home, led him to linger first at Königsberg and then in London. In
London he soon came in contact with missionaries. His aim, however, was
not enquiry but opposition. Rumours then reached his friends that he had
become a Meshummad, but careful enquiries satisfied them that their
suspicions were mistaken and he was left unmolested.
But the living God was also watching and guiding. Gradually his attitude
to Christianity began to change. For one thing, the absence of images in
the English churches made an impression upon him. The first Christian
book that he read was the "Pilgrim's Progress" in Hebrew. Then there
came eager readings of Commentaries written on St. Luke, Acts, Romans
and Hebrews by Dr. Biesenthal, once a rabbinical Jew; he was thus led to
a careful study of the New Testament. In the Rev. Theodore Meyer the
enquirer at last found a wise and loving instructor and friend. From the
first, Mr. Meyer's erudition and sincerity drew forth the confidence and
interest of the young Jew.
After four years' instruction, Mr. Polan came forward for baptism, and
it was arranged to take place in Park Church, Highbury. An incident,
however, happened which led to its postponement. On the eve of his
proposed baptism he had a dream which led him to withdraw, and was the
cause of severe and protracted mental struggles. It is said by the
rabbins, and believed by the Jews, that in Paradise a dark veil is made
to hang before the parent whose child has become an "apostate." In his
dream Polan saw his mother in Paradise behind the dark curtain. The
effect upon his mind was such that he could not face baptism; nor did
he, until nearly a year afterwards. It may have been that the first
decision was resting mainly upon mental conviction of the truth. At any
rate, there followed more serious consideration and prayerful searching
of the Scriptures, with the result that a certain word of the Lord
reached his heart and touched it with signal power. The word was: "Let
not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me."
Under the power of this word this earnest seeker emerged into the light.
Ultimately, in 1878, he openly confessed Christ by baptism, the
ordinance being administered by Mr. Meyer in Park Church, Highbury.
The inevitable ostracism and persecution, with their attendant
sufferings, followed. It was a welcome mitigation to the new convert's
trials that his father did not entirely cast him off. And the spirit in
which he suffered may be gathered from the reply he sent to his brothers
and sisters, when, at his father's death, they hurled over him their
anathemas, telling him that his name had been expunged from the family
register. "It has caused me great pain," he wrote to a friend, "but
though my name is not now in the family tree, it can be found in the
Lamb's Book of Life."
In those days Mr. Polan was a member of Park Church, Highbury. The
pastor at the time was Dr. Edmond, who, with Mr. Meyer, proved a
spiritual father to the young Hebrew Christian. There he was surrounded
by strong missionary influences, and through the Fellowship Association
which supported two foreign missionaries, a desire in him was awakened
to become a messenger of the Cross in the foreign field.
In 1878 Mr. Meyer wanted a helper in his mission to the Jews, and Mr.
Polan was invited to take up the work. In this opening he recognised a
call of God to give his life to testifying for Christ to his Jewish
brethren. For twelve years he served as a valued helper of Mr. Meyer,
like a son with a father, busily engaged in district visitation and
taking part in the services. Personal studies also occupied his
attention, and he found time to his great joy and profit to attend the
course of lectures on "Systematic Theology" delivered at Queen's Square
by the Rev. Principal Dykes.
On the retirement of Mr. Meyer, Mr. Mark Polan succeeded to the headship
of the Mission to the Jews in East London. In 1888 he became an elder in
the John Knox Church, Stepney.
POPER, Rev. Heinrich, D.D., was born at Breidenbach, Germany, in 1813.
His father died before his birth, and his mother went back to her home
at Hildesheim. There he prepared himself to be a teacher, and began to
give lessons to Jewish and Christian children at the age of fourteen.
Later he came to the conviction that the Talmud was not in accord with
the Bible, and after three years inward struggle, he came to England and
was baptized by Reichardt in 1839. He was for a time in the Operative
Jewish Converts' Institution, and then in the Hebrew Missionary College,
and in 1844 he was sent as missionary to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where
he laboured with great efficiency until his departure in 1870. In 1859
Dr. Poper reported that there probably were from five hundred to a
thousand proselytes in the district. (See "At Home and Abroad," by the
Rev. W. T. Gidney, 1900.)
POSNER, Sigismund August (Löbel), was born in 1804, of wealthy parents
at Auras in Silesia who gave their children a strict orthodox education;
he was well instructed in the Bible. When studying at Berlin, Mr. Lachs,
Director of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, sowed in his heart the seed
of the Gospel, which took root and led eventually to his conversion, and
he was baptized by Pastor Schultze in 1828. His father was at first
grieved, but became afterward friendly to him. He studied theology and
became a very earnest preacher of the Gospel, so that only decided
Christians liked to hear him. He died in 1849. His biography was
published by Professor Tholuck for Sunday reading.
RABINOWITZ, Joseph, was born at Resina on the Dniester, September 23,
1837, and died at Kischineff, 1899. He was the son of David ben Ephraim,
and belonged to a rabbinic family. On the early death of his mother, her
father Nathan Neta took him to be educated at his house. When he was six
years of age he could repeat the Song of Solomon by heart. He remained
with his grandfather till 1848, when he went to other relations. At the
age of thirteen they betrothed him. Being compelled by an imperial ukase
to acquire the Russian language, his eyes were opened to a new world of
literature, and he began to think for himself. In 1855 Jehiel
Hershensohn (Lichtenstein), his future brother-in-law, gave him a L.J.S.
New Testament in Hebrew, declaring at the same time that possibly Jesus
of Nazareth might be the true Messiah, at which news he was very much
surprised. However, the immediate effect was that he left the Chassidim
and went back to Orgeyev to his grandfather, and studied the Bible more
and Russian law, so that he could act as a solicitor among his people.
In 1856, he was married, and was then regarded as an influential citizen
of the town, especially when it was seen that he took an active interest
in the education of children and that he contributed important articles
to the Jewish newspapers, and gave lectures at Kischineff, in which he
advocated the principles of reform and progress. In 1878 he wrote an
article in the Hebrew paper, "Haboker Or," in which he requested the
Rabbis to work for the improvement of the condition of the Russian Jews
by teaching them the necessity of becoming gradually an agricultural
people, and he showed this by his own example in cultivating his garden
himself. Not long afterward persecutions broke out in Russia, and he
went to Palestine on a mission of enquiry with a view of establishing a
Jewish colony there. But when he arrived in Jerusalem and became
acquainted with the sad temporal and spiritual condition of the Jews
there, his heart sank within him, and he was about to leave the Holy
City in despair, but before doing so he went to the Mount of Olives.
There he sat down in deep meditation, and reviewing the sad history of
his unfortunate people, the thought came to him as an inspiration: "The
key to the Holy Land is in the hands of our brother Jesus." This thought
he made then the matter and basis of his future work. Returning to
Kischineff, he drew up thirteen theses, the substance of which was that
Jesus is the only Saviour of Israel as well as of the whole world. With
great courage and enthusiasm he then endeavoured by word and pen to
propagate his conviction, and gained in a short time many adherents both
at Kischineff and in other towns of Bessarabia. Having in 1885 published
his "Symbol of the Israelites of the New Covenant" in seven articles,
Professor F. Delitzsch and the Rev. John Wilkinson encouraged him, and
in Glasgow an association was formed in 1887 for the support of his
movement. Rabinowitz was baptized in Berlin by Professor Mead, of
Andover U.S.A., in 1885, and henceforth his mission work took a more
decisive but also perhaps a more restrictive character. He was asked by
Provost Faltin, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Kischineff, to join
that Church, but for good reasons he declined to do so, as neither he
nor his adherents who had just come out from the synagogue could worship
in a church where there was a crucifix. For still stronger reasons he
could not join the Russian Church as he was asked to do by the highest
authorities. Consequently he had to build a hall, in which he preached
the pure Gospel as long as he lived. The result of this movement was
that not only Rabinowitz, and his wife and seven children with his
brother and family, and other individual Jews who heard the Gospel from
his lips publicly confessed Christ as their Saviour, but also that the
attitude of the Jews in general toward the person of our Lord has since
then changed for the better.
RAGSTATT, Friedrich de Weile, was born at Metz in 1648. His father David