August Ferdinand Carl Schwartz
DD (1817–1870) was a Hebrew Christian clergyman and minister of the
Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to:
* Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical
* Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...
serving in
Amsterdam and
London.
Life
He was born on 20 January 1817 in Meseritz in
Prussia, now
Międzyrzec Podlaski
Międzyrzec Podlaski ( la, Meserici, german: Meseritz) is a city in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, with the population of 17,162 inhabitants . The total area of the city is . Międzyrzec is located near the Krzna river, not ...
in
Poland, the son of Isaac Levin Schwartz and Bertha Wollstein. He studied at the universities of
Berlin and
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
.
[
Carl Schwartz converted to Christianity while at University in Prussia. He appears to have moved to London in the 1840s and was representative of the London Jews Society in Constantinople in 1842. While there he met Rev ]Robert Walter Stewart
Robert Walter Stewart (1812–1887) was a Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland and who spent much time working in Italy and served as Moderator of the General Assembly 1874/75. He helped to promote the Waldensian Church and the P ...
of the Leghorn mission. The Society abandoned their mission there in 1843 and by some mechanism he transferred to the mission linked to the newly created Free Church of Scotland (possibly the latter took over his existing mission building). In 1844 he took on the role of Free Church of Scotland missionary to the Jews in Berlin, staying in this position until 1849. He then served a similar role for the Free Church of Scotland in Amsterdam from 1849 to 1864.[Ewing, William ''Annals of the Free Church'']
From 1864 Schwartz was minister of Trinity Chapel, in Newnham Street (earlier John Street) off the Edgware Road in London. There he succeeded the previous minister, Ridley Herschell, himself also a Polish-born Jew who had been converted to evangelical Christianity. Schwartz in 1865 sent letters to many Christians of Jewish origin known to him, calling for a united Hebrew Christian congregation. In 1867 he became minister of Harrow Road Presbyterian Church, also continuing on his work of converting Jews, now in London.
He died on 24 August 1870 in Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
in London.
Family
Schwartz married twice; first, in 1843, Maria Dorothea Saphir of Budapest, the sister of Adolph Saphir, another Jewish-convert Protestant minister.[ Among his children was Jozua Marius Willem Schwartz (known under his pen-name as novelist Maarten Maartens).]
Publications
* ''The Scattered Nation'' in 3 volumes
Vol. 1Vol. 2Vol. 3
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Carl
1817 births
1870 deaths
Hebrew Christian movement