Part 14 (1/2)

”The following is a list of his writings: 'Dictionary of National Biography'; Wood, 'Athenae Oxnienses,' ed. Bliss, i. 677; Cooper, 'Athenae Cantabrigienses,' ii. 239; Scaliger, 'Epistolae,' pp. 208, 594, Leyden, 1627; 'Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society,' Eng. i.

27.”--_Jewish Encyclopaedia._

FINKELSTEIN, Rev. A. M., had a school for Jewish children in Philadelphia in 1885.

FINKELSTEIN, Rev. Samuel, a convert from Russia, emigrated to Australia and became pastor of a German church at Melbourne, where he also founded a mission to the Jews in 1868.

FLEGEL, Petrus, a convert, was Professor of Hebrew at the University of Stra.s.sburg in 1564. More is not known of him.

FLEISCHALKER, Rev. J. C, was educated at St. Chrischona College, near Basle. He laboured for a time as L.J.S. missionary in Jerusalem, where he was ordained by Bishop Gobat. In 1868 he became pastor of St.

George's Episcopal Chapel, New York. He was a true servant of G.o.d.

FORTUNATUS, Wilhelm, a physician, became a convert to Christianity through the simple reading of the New Testament, and was baptized in Baden in 1639, (Wolff, Bibliotheca Hebraica 1, p. 564).

FOULD, Achille, French Statesman and Minister of Finance under two Napoleons, born in Paris in 1800 died in 1867. In the Jewish Encyclopaedia, it is stated that he married into a Protestant family, and his children were educated in that faith, but he never formally abjured Judaism, though he was buried with the rites of the Protestant Church.

But de le Roi states that in his ripe age, with full convictions, he joined the Reformed Church, of which he had always been a true member.

The two statements are easily reconciled. He was a regular attendant at that Church for many years, but was only baptized in his old age. (See ”Jewish Intelligence,” 1868, p. 13.)

FRANCO, Rabbi Solomon, baptized in London in 1670. Wolff in Bib. Heb.

1678 records the fact that he took Ps. lx.x.xv. 11 as his motto, ”Truth shall spring out of the earth,” and tried to convince the Jews that the earthly promises to Israel have a higher spiritual meaning in their being realized in Christ Jesus.

FRANCO, Abraham and Jacob, Portuguese Jews, who had once the first city houses in London. Their posterity have all become Christians, according to Peixotto.

FRANK, Rev. Arnold, born in Hungary, baptized in 1877 at Hamburg, studied theology at Belfast, was appointed missionary at Altona in 1884, where he [1909] still labours faithfully with tokens of divine blessing.

He is the author of a pamphlet ent.i.tled ”The Jewish Problem and its Solution” (Belfast, 1883).

FRANKEL, Dr. B., has written his own history ent.i.tled, ”Das Bekenntniss des Proselyten, das Ungluck der Juden und ihre Emanzipation in Deutschland” (Elberfeld, 1841).

FRANKEL, Rev. E. B., was first a missionary of the British Society, and then entered the service of the L.J.S., and laboured successfully at Jerusalem until 1869, where he had the privilege of baptizing his own brother. From Jerusalem he was transferred to Damascus, where he laboured for some years both as a missionary and chaplain to the English community, holding evening cla.s.ses and meeting the Jews at the book depot; the latter was once set on fire. Then he went to Tunis, and together with his son-in-law, the Rev. E. H. Archer-Shepherd, laboured faithfully till he retired to Bournemouth, where he died in the Lord.

FRANKEL, Dr. Ivan, Medical Councillor in Berlin, became, as a convert, a great friend of the Jewish mission, and attended the Missionary Conference in 1870.

FRANKHEIM, a convert in Breslau, wrote two books: 1, ”Doctrine of Cohesion” (Breslau, 1835), 2, ”Popular Astronomy” (_ib._, 1827 and 1829).

FRAUENSTADT, Christian Martin Julius, German student of philosophy, born at Boyanawo, Posen, 1813; died at Berlin, 1879. He was educated at the house of his uncle at Neisse, and embraced Christianity in 1833. He wrote, ”Studien und Kritiken zur Theologie und Philosophie,” Berlin, 1840; ”Ueber das Wahre Verhaltniss der Vernunft zur Offenbahrung,”

Darmstadt, 1898; ”Aesthetische Fragen,” Dessau, 1853; ”Die Natur wissenschaft in Ihren Einfluss auf Poesie, Religion, Moral, und Philosophie,” _ib._, 1885; ”Der Materialismus, seine Wahrheit und sein Irrthum,” _ib._, 1856; ”Briefe uber die Naturliche Religion,” _ib._, 1858; ”Lichtstrahlen aus Immanuel Kants Werken,” _ib._, 1872. He also wrote much about Schopenhauer's philosophy, whose works he edited in six volumes.

FRESHMAN, Rev. Jacob, was the son of a Hungarian Rabbi, who settled in Quebec, Canada, in 1855. His father officiated in the synagogue there for three years, and after becoming convinced of the truth of Christianity together with his wife, four sons and three daughters, were all baptized by the Rev. J. Elliot, then President of the Montreal Methodist Conference. Freshman, senior, was soon appointed as a Pastor among the Germans in the province, and laboured in this office for nine years. On account of his ability and learning, the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him. Several Jews were also brought to a knowledge of the truth through his ministry. He died through an accident in 1875. His son Jacob was an equally able and zealous man, established a mission to the Jews in New York City under the name, ”Hebrew Christian Work.” By his popular lectures to Christians on Jewish subjects, and by his earnest addresses to Jews, he won the hearts of both, and glorious results followed his ministry. Many of the converts became themselves ministers of the Gospel. Having built a church especially for this work, he retired from the mission to carry on private ministerial work.

FREY, Rev. (Joseph Samuel) Christian Friedrich, born at Stockheim, near Wurzburg, in 1771. His father was an a.s.sistant rabbi, in good circ.u.mstances, and a distinguished opponent of Christianity, owing to his wife's brother having become a Christian. The children were early prejudiced against Christianity by their home teacher, who read to them the story about Jesus as given in the ”Toldoth Yeshu.” At the age of eighteen Frey became a teacher and a precentor in small congregations.

In the course of his wanderings he met a Christian merchant, who induced him to enquire into Christianity, and this happened repeatedly with others. He then learned the trade of shoemaking, and was finally converted in 1798, at Prenzlan, when his master, a worldly man, dismissed him on account of attending prayer meetings frequently.

Encouraged by Christian friends he went to Berlin, and applied to Pastor Janicke for admission into his missionary training school in 1800. From there he went to London. Then, after holding meetings with Jews in Bury Street, Spitalfields, he wrote a most touching appeal to the Committee of the L.J.S. (or rather to those earnest Christian men who formed themselves later into a Committee) in 1801, and thus he gave the first impulse to the establishment of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1809. (See ”Our Missions,” p. 19).

Of Frey's converts at that time an excellent one was Erasmus H. Simon, who after his baptism studied theology at Edinburgh, and went with Thelwall to Amsterdam, in 1820, to work in that city amongst the Jews, as he knew the Dutch language. In 1816 Frey went to America, where he a.s.sisted in the reconstruction of the already existing American Society for Evangelizing the Jews, under the t.i.tle of ”The Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews in New York,” under which he laboured for some time.

Frey is the author of a long and learned dialogue, ent.i.tled ”Joseph and Benjamin;” also of a Hebrew Dictionary.

FRIEDBERG, Emil Albert von, born in Kanitz, 1837, studied law in Berlin and Heidelberg, became eventually Professor of Ecclesiastical Law at Leipzig in 1869, and was enn.o.bled in Wittenberg. His published works on Church law are too numerous to mention here. (See de le Roi, vol. ii.

230, 231).