Hirsch Lehren, also known as Tsebi Hirsch LehrenWorldcat.org Identities
/ref> (April 1784,

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

- September 1853,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) was a Dutch Jewish merchant and community worker. Lehren was prominent in the history of the

Ḥaluḳḳah The ''halukka'', also spelled ''haluka'', ''halukkah'' or ''chalukah'' (, meaning ''distribution'') was an organized collection and distribution of charity funds for Jewish residents of the Land of Israel (the Holy Land). General method of op ...

in the first half of the nineteenth century. Beginning with 1810, he, as a rich and influential merchant, was entrusted, together with Abraham Prinz and Solomon Reuben, with the responsibility of forwarding to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

the contributions which were sent annually to Amsterdam. In 1822 he ruled that in future only one representative, instead of two, should be sent from Palestine for both the

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

and the

Ashkenazic Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language t ...

congregations, and that the money collected for the Ḥaluḳḳah should be divided in proportion to the number of persons in the Palestinian congregations in question. When, in 1829, the congregation of the Ashkenazim in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

had become involved in financial difficulties through the building of a new synagogue and school, and was obliged to appeal for support to its coreligionists in Europe, Lehren, as president of the Ḥaluḳḳah committee, prohibited in a harshly-worded circular the transmission of any further contributions to Jerusalem. On this account he was vehemently attacked, and suspicion was even cast on his integrity in administering the funds. This produced a bitter literary quarrel (see

Julius Fürst Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German oriental studies, orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a dis ...

in "Der Orient," 1843, pp. 361 et seq., 377 et seq.; 1844, pp. 1 et seq.; "Sendschreiben an Unsere Glaubensgenossen den 18ten Schebat, 5603"). In his defense Lehren published "Drei Briefe aus Jerusalem zur Vertheidigung der Ehrlichkeit des Amsterdamer Comité's in Betreff der Palästinaspenden" with the Hebrew title "Ḳonṭres Emet me-Ereẓ" (part i., Amsterdam, 1843; part ii., ib. 1844), after he had already published the Hebrew article of

Solomon Kohen Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ruler of all Twelve Tribes of Israel ...

, "Emet me-Ereẓ," with the German title "Sendschreiben oder Wahrheit aus dem Heiligen Lande" (ib. 1843; Fürst, "Bibl. Jud." ii. 228). In 1840 the oppressed Jews of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

appealed to Lehren for aid, as they did to many other influential Jews; and he took up their cause. Together with Abraham Prinz, Lehren sent a circular letter to many rabbis, which in the autumn of 1844 resulted in a protest, signed by seventy-eight Orthodox rabbis of Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary, against the

Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick The Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick was a conference held in 1844 in Braunschweig, Brunswick, convoked by Levi Herzfeld and Ludwig Philippson. Other attendees included Solomon Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Mendel Hess, Samuel Holdheim. Although he ...

(June 12–19, 1844; see "Univ. Isr." 1845, ii. 12 et seq.). The letters of recognition for this service, sent to Lehren and Prinz by many rabbis, were published under the title "Torat ha-Ḳena'ot" (ib. 1845).

References

* Bernfeld, Toledot ha-Reformazion be-Yisraél, p. 199, Cracow, 1900; * Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1845, p. 125; 1853, p. 664; *

Heinrich Grätz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

, Gesch. xi. 480, 482, 517; * Jost's Annalen, ii. 219; iii. 217, 225, 235, 250, 268; *

Meyer Roest Meijer Marcusz Roest (19 December 1821, in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June ...

, Cat. Rosenthal. Bibl. i. 663.

External links

Source

Signature of Tsebi Hirsch Lehren (Rare Books of the Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies, Washington University)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehren, Hirsch 1784 births 1853 deaths Businesspeople from Amsterdam Dutch Jews Jewish merchants