Leffmann Behrends or Liepmann Cohen (born: Elieser (Ezechiel) Lippmann ben Issachar Hakohen; c. 1630 – January 1, 1714, in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

) was the German-Jewish financial agent of the dukes and princes of

, notably Ernest Augustus. He is considered "one of the most important

court Jews In early modern Europe, particularly in Germany, a court Jew (, ) or court factor (, ) was a Jewish banker who handled the finances of, or lent money to, royalty and nobility. In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges, incl ...

in northern Germany".

Biography

Leffmann Behrends' honorable position is lauded by Mannasseh ben Israel in his ''Hope of Israel''. Behrends frequently used his influence in favor of his coreligionists. His father, Issachar Bärmann by name (died August 23, 1675), was the son of the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic scholar Isaac Cohen of Borkum; and the name "''Behrends''" was adopted by ''Liepmann'' in honor of his father. His first wife, Jente (died 1695), was a daughter of Joseph Hameln, president of the congregation; his second, Feile (died 1727), a daughter of Judah Selkele Dilmann. Liepmann had the following children by his first marriage: Naphtali Hirz (died 1709), who became president of the congregation; Moses Jacob (died 1697), praised as a Talmudic scholar and philanthropist; Gumpert and Isaac, who, in 1721, were accused of an attempt at fraudulent bankruptcy, in consequence of which they were compelled to leave Hanover (1726). Behrends' daughter Genendel became the wife of the chief

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, David Oppenheim. She died at Hanover June 13, 1712. Behrends' services as president of the congregation, in his endeavors to preserve the congregational cemetery, and to secure a special rabbinate and other privileges for Hanover, were valuable in the extreme. In 1683 Duke Rudolph August appointed him chief supervisor of the bleacheries of his community in the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' der ...

. He stood in close relation to a number of princes, assisted Talmudic scholars, and established a ''bet ha-midrash'' in his own house. The library of his son-in-law David Oppenheimer, which he had himself enlarged, and which his son-in-law, owing to censorship and other reasons, did not wish to keep at Prague, was removed by Behrends to Hanover, thus enabling the pastor

Johann Christoph Wolf Johann Christoph Wolf (February 21, 1683, at Wernigerode – July 25, 1739, at Hamburg) was a German Christian Hebraist, polymath, and collector of books. He studied at Wittenberg, and traveled in Holland and England in the interest of science, c ...

of Hamburg to avail himself of it in preparing the ''Bibliotheca Hebræa''. Together with his son Naphtali Hirz, Liepmann in 1703 had a new

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

erected upon the site of the old one, which, constructed by order of the duke of Hanover in 1609, had been torn down four years after its erection. The fate of Liepmann's two sons Gumbert and Isaac is related in a family ''megillah'', published by Jost in the second volume of the ''Jahrbuch für die Geschichte der Juden''.

References

* *idem, in ''Hannoversches Magazin'', 1863, i.-ii.; *idem, in ''Berliner's Magazin'', 1879, pp. 48–63. {{DEFAULTSORT:Behrends, Leffmann 1630s births 1714 deaths 17th-century German Jews 17th-century German businesspeople Court Jews Year of birth uncertain 18th-century German businesspeople