Selig Newman (1788, Posen – 20 February 1871,

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. It was an independe ...

) was a Polish-born

Hebraist A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...

and educator.

Biography

Selig Newman was born and educated at Posen. He devoted himself to

Biblical studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

, and at an early age he was given an office in the chief synagogue of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Newman moved to England in 1814, and was soon afterwards appointed minister to the Jewish community of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

Solomon Hirschell. While in London, Newman took part in spirited public debates at the

Freemasons' Tavern The Freemasons' Tavern was established in 1775 at 61–65 Great Queen Street in the West End of London, West End of London. It served as a meeting place for a variety of notable organisations from the 18th century until it was demolished in 1909 ...

with

Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and a ...

aries. Having challenged any Jewish convert or learned Christian to dispute with him on Old Testament messianic prophecies, he held a well-attended public

disputation Disputation is a genre of literature involving two contenders who seek to establish a resolution to a problem or establish the superiority of something. An example of the latter is in Sumerian disputation poems. In the scholastic system of e ...

with Joseph Wolff on 8 March 1827. Newman also delivered regular

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...

s at the

Jews' Free School JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School and later Jewish Free School) is a Jewish mixed comprehensive school in Kenton, North London, England, and was founded in 1732. Amongst its early supporters was the writer and philanthropist Char ...

, the building being always crowded by anxious listeners. At the same time, Newman taught

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. As a Jew, Newman was debarred from a professorship, but among his pupils were many distinguished Christian and Jewish scholars, including Morris Jacob Raphall,

David Woolf Marks David Woolf Marks (22 November 1811 – 3 May 1909) was a British Hebrew scholar and minister. He was the first religious leader of the West London Synagogue, which seceded from the authority of the Chief Rabbi, where he advocated a quasi- Kar ...

, and future

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

Archibald Campbell Tait Archibald Campbell Tait (21 December 18113 December 1882) is an Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England and theologian. He was the first Scottish Archbishop of Canterbury and thus, head of the Church of England. Life Tait was born ...

. Newman left for the United States in about 1849 and settled in New York City, gaining a livelihood as a teacher and writer. He died there in February 1871, and was buried in the

Beth Olam Cemetery The Beth Olam Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, New York, United States. It is located in the city's Cemetery Belt, bisected by the border between Brooklyn and Queens. It is a rural cemetery in style, and was started in ...

Work

In 1850 he published a

polemic Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

al tract in answer to

aries, entitled ''The Challenge Accepted'', consisting of a series of

dialogues Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is ch ...

between a Jew and a Christian respecting the fulfilment of the prophecies on the advent of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

. The work explained crucial biblical passages, mostly in the Books of

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

and

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

, and then moved on to question the authenticity of the

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

literature based on inner contradictions. Other publications of Newman include ''Emendations of the English Version of the Old Testament'' (1839); a ''Hebrew and English Lexicon'' (1841); and a Hebrew

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

, which was much used for elementary instruction among English Jews. Manuscripts of a condensed translation of the Bible were found after his death.

References

* *

Citations

External links

* at the

Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Selig 1788 births 1871 deaths 19th-century American educators 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century Jewish biblical scholars 19th-century Polish male writers Academics of the University of Oxford American Hebraists American male non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent British Hebraists English people of Polish-Jewish descent Grammarians of Hebrew Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish apologists Jewish counter-missionaries Missionary linguists People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom Polish emigrants to the United States Polish Hebraists Polish male non-fiction writers Prussian emigrants to the United States Writers from Poznań