LITMIR.BIZ

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Saviour, and was baptized with his wife and children in 1860, in St. Matthew's Church, Berlin. With a recommendation from Queen Elizabeth of Prussia he came over to England, and from 1883 worked in connexion with the L.J.S. in London. He died March 5, 1901, deeply regretted by both Jews and Christians.

      Benfey, Theodor, born at Nöster, near Göthingen, January 28, 1809, became a convert to Christianity in 1848, died in 1881, at Göthingen. He was author of numerous linguistic works on the Sanscrit, Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, Egyptian, and Semitic languages. His two works in English must be mentioned here: "A Practical Grammar of the Sanscrit Language" (Berlin 1863, London 1868), and "A Sanscrit-English Dictionary" (London 1868). He established a periodical, "Orient and Occident," in 1862.

      Benjamin, Selig, a native of Bunzlau, Bohemia, and surgeon by profession about the middle of last century. Embraced Roman Catholicism, but found no peace, so he relapsed into Judaism, but remained in the same condition, wandering about to find satisfaction for his restless soul, until he came to Weikersheim in Würtemberg, and attended the services of the court preacher Kern, when he was converted. Whereupon he went to the synagogue and publicly confessed his evangelical faith before the congregation.

      Benjamin, a Dutch Jewish convert. The story of his conversion is a remarkable one and deserves a place here. Pauli and his assistant Bloch visited once a Kabbalistic Jew on a very stormy night. The Jewish neighbours, when hearing of their visit, watched for them outside the house. They followed them on their way home, and when passing a bridge, some called out, "Make an end of him (Pauli); throw him into the water." Whereupon Benjamin, who accompanied his visitors, cried, "Away with you!" and pushed the assailants aside. "He is a good man. He helped me to keep the Sabbath properly." They then went away abashed. Benjamin was afterwards baptized with his whole family in the presence of 3,000 Jews. This was the first entire family which Pauli baptized at Amsterdam.

      Benjamin, a Jewish convert in India, baptized by the Rev. – Laseron in 1849.

      Benni, a Jew who first heard the Gospel from Wendt and Hoff in Königsberg, became a Christian Pastor in Petrekow, later in Radorn, and through his faithful testimony not a few Jews decided to acknowledge Jesus as their personal Saviour.

      Benoly, Gabriel, M.D., baptized at Salem, Bromberg, in 1869, was afterwards for many years medical missionary of the L.J.S., and did good work in the East End of London.

      Ben Oliel, a well-known family in Oran, North Africa, has given to the Church three sons about the middle of the eighteenth century, baptized by the Wesleyans in Gibraltar.

      Ben Oliel, Rev. A., was for many years missionary in Rome, and then at Jaffa and Jerusalem. He was a true man of God, an ardent lover of his nation, whose spiritual welfare he endeavoured to promote by word and pen all through a long life. He died in America towards the close of last century.

      Ben Oliel, Rev. Maxwell Mochluff, after finishing his theological course at St. Aidan's, was ordained in 1860, and was curate in several churches; also domestic chaplain to the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, 1864-66; minister of St. Patrick and St. Saviour, South Kensington, 1878-81; missionary at W. Berkeley, California, 1889-91; Rector of San Bernadino, Cal., 1891-93. Returning to England, he conducted a mission to the Jews at Kilburn, by writing and lectures. As a good preacher and thoroughly conversant with Jewish and Christian literature, he was gladly heard in the churches and cathedrals of England. His writings on the Jewish subject are numerous.

      Ben Oliel, Moses, served for many years as Bible agent of the B. & F.B.S. at Oran.

      Ben Zion, Benedix (Baruch), born in Homoslaipolia in the government of Kiev, Russia, in 1839, was led to become a Christian in a remarkable manner. Once, when still a little boy in the Heder, he and his fellow-pupils passed by a Russian Church when they observed the cross and images. His companions at once repeated Deut. vii. 26, and spat on the ground. Ben Zion did not like this behaviour, so he made figures and a cross with his stick on the ground. This was reported to the teacher, who locked him up and punished him severely for it. The fanaticism of the Jews in the place was so great that Ben Zion's father lost his position as Talmud teacher, because his boy had been reading Mendelssohn's German translation of the Bible. At the age of 13 Ben Zion began his wandering career, and passing a chapel in a forest, his eyes met the image of the Madonna and Child. Without the least desire to render homage to the figure, but only conscious that for its sake he had already suffered, he took off his hat, knelt down, and in this posture fell asleep, and was finally awakened by a peasant. These apparently trifling circumstances caused him later on to think seriously of Christianity, and to search the Scriptures. He was baptized in Berlin in 1863, then studied medicine and graduated at the University of Würzburg in 1867. He went to England, and having entered the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, was sent to Roumania in 1874 as medical missionary. In 1876 he was transferred to Odessa, where he laboured successfully for ten years. Then he was for a short time in Constantinople, and since about 1888 he has been living in the United States and helping in missionary work. He is the author of "Orah Zedakah," a collection of proverbs and parables in the style of Ecclesiasticus (Odessa, 1876); "Kol Kore el Beth Israel" (translated from the English by Dr. Ben Zion, London, 1868); a translation into Judæo-German of Jos. H. Ingraham's "Prince of the House of David," under the title of "Tiferet Yisrael" (Odessa, 1883-88), and a translation into Judæo-German of Silvio Pelier's drama, "Ester d'Engedé," under the title "Der Falsche Cohengodel."

      Berdenbach, born at Offenbach, in 1809, brother of the great lawyer of that name in Darmstadt, was baptized by Pastor Schultz in Berlin, in 1839.

      Berger, Rev. S. D., convert and student of the L.J.S., was afterwards ordained to the Ministry in the Lutheran Church U.S., and was appointed missionary to the Jews in Chicago about 1885.

      Bergheim, M., a noble Jewish convert, was sent out by the L.J.S. in 1837 to assist the Rev. Nicolayson in his work in Jerusalem. He was afterwards a banker and died in 1896 as churchwarden of Christ Church, Mount Zion. The Jewish traveller, Dr. Ludwig August Frankel, who published a book on his visit to Jerusalem in 1860 (translated into Hebrew by M. E. Stern), says he found there 131 Jewish Christians in the Holy City, nine of whom were of the Bergheim family.

      Bergmann, Marcus S., convert of the L.J.S., is well-known as a missionary of the L.C.M. and translator of the Bible into Yiddish. A second edition, with improved translation into simple Jargon, was issued by him in 1905. In an account of his conversion he thus writes: —

      "I was born in Wieruszow, on the borders of Silesia, in the year 1846. My father (who was of the sect of Chassidim, which is the strictest sect of the Pharisees, and a great Talmudist) died when I was about a year old. Of my dear mother I have only a very dim recollection, as she, too, died when I was but six years old. I had one elder brother and one sister. My brother was established in a large way of business in Luben, a town near Breslau, and my sister was brought up in the house of the Chief Rabbi of Breslau, Rabbi G'dalia Titkin (who was a relative of ours), whilst I was brought up with my uncle, Woolf Bergmann, a Chassid like my father, in Wieruszow, under whom I studied much of the Talmudic and Rabbinical literature.

      "When I was fourteen years of age I was sent to Breslau to study under the chief Rabbi there. I did not like it at first, as I had to change my Chassidic dress for the German style, but I soon became accustomed to it. After a residence of three years in Breslau I went to one of my uncles who was a Rabbi in Frankenstein, under whom I had ample opportunity to practise for some time. I then went back to live with my sister in Kalisch, and applied myself more than ever to the study of the Talmud, believing it to be the most honourable of all employment and most conducive to the glory of God, and the best mode of making amends for my sins, which I found clung to me even when engaged in these religious duties.

      "The word of the Lord to Abraham (Gen. xii. 1), 'Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred … unto a land that I will shew thee,' seemed at that time to be constantly ringing in my ears, and made me so restless that I could not put my mind to anything. I obeyed that voice, and in 1866, I left my native country and came to England. Shortly after my arrival in London I established a small synagogue at which I gratuitously officiated as minister for nearly two years; my sister from time to time sending me remittances, as I required, from the portion which I inherited of my father's property.

      "It pleased the Lord at this time to lay

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