TONNA, CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH°

TONNA, CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH ° (1790–1846), British philosemitic writer and editor. Born Charlotte Browne in Norwich, England, the daughter of an Anglican vicar, she became an extreme Protestant Evangelical writer and edited The Christian Lady's Magazine from 1834 until 1846 as well as other religious journals. Tonna was an outspoken philosemite who, most unusually, discarded the normal aim among Evangelicals of converting the Jews, instead adopting the position that Jews remain a Covenant people and that Judaism represented a valid alternative means of attaining salvation. Her magazine reproduced articles on Judaism by Jacob *Franklin, the editor of the Jewish newspaper The Voice of Jacob, and she supported the efforts of British Jews to assist persecuted Jews overseas. Tonna also believed that Protestants should themselves practice the Jewish rites, including circumcision. In contrast, she was an outspoken opponent of Roman Catholicism. Well known in her day – a collection of her works was published in 1845 with an introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe – she was largely forgotten until recently, when her remarkable views attracted renewed interest.

bibliography:

odnb online; H.L. Rubinstein, "A Pioneering Philosemite: Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790–1846) and the Jews," in: jhset, 35 (1996–98), 103–18; W.D. Rubinstein and H.L. Rubinstein, Philosemitism: Admiration and Support in the English-Speaking World for Jews, 1840 – 1939 (1999), index.

[William D. Rubinstein (2^nd ed.)]