HIRSCHENSOHN-LICHTENSTEIN, JEHIEL ẒEVI HERMANN

HIRSCHENSOHN-LICHTENSTEIN, JEHIEL ẒEVI HERMANN (1827–1912), apostate and missionary. Born in Russia, he converted to Christianity in 1855 at Jassy, Romania, but keeping this secret he spent some time among the Hasidim of *Lubavich and worked on his Derekh ha-Kodesh ("The Way of Holiness," 1872), which deals with the fundamentals of the Jewish faith, but betrays the author's Christianizing tendencies. From 1868 to 1878 he worked, under the name of Hermann Lichtenstein, for the Protestant mission in Berlin. He then returned to Russia where, disguised as a hasidic rabbi, he distributed his book. He married in Kishinev, Moldavia, a sister of Joseph *Rabinovich who later, probably under Hirschensohn's influence, founded the sect called Community of Evangelian Jews. His true character discovered, he had to leave Russia, and became lecturer at Franz *Delitzsch's Institutum Judaicum at Leipzig. He also wrote Ḥizzuk Emunat ha-Emet ("Support of the True Faith"), directed against the Ḥizzuk Emunah of the Karaite Isaac *Troki;Sheva Ḥokhmot (1883), an anthology of rabbinic statements on science (geography in particular), with annotations; Toledot Yeshu'a ("The Life of Jesus," 1883); and Yeshu'a ve-Hillel ("Jesus and Hillel," 1894), based on Delitzsch's work under the same title.

bibliography:

E. Deinard, Zikhronot Bat Ammi, 2 (1920), 135; S.L. Zitron, Me-Aḥorei ha-Pargod, 2 (1925), 105ff.; Zeitlin, in: zhb, 19 (1916), 41.

[Shimon Ernst]