Samuel Heinrich Christian Immanuel Frommanns
Dr. Heinrich had been studying in Dessau, under rabbi David Fraenkel. One day he visited a tailor who began to weep in front of him. Astonished, Heinrich asked him why he was weeping! He answered, for sorry that such a nice young man should be lost. Heinrich was angry, but nevertheless returned later to accept the New Testament the tailor had urged upon him. He could not read it, because it was in German, so he left it at the house. He then tried to purchase a Bible, but was unable to afford the price the bookseller demander. Still, he could not forget the tears of the tailor, and at least he bought the German Old Testament and began to teach himself to read it. He was then glad to read the New Testament as well, and began to study it diligently.
Heinrich was baptisted in 1723, and went on to study medicine. During his studies he translated parts of the New Testament into Yiddish, in 1730. He also wrote a tract “Light at Evening Time” which was well circulated among the Jews. He managed to acquire the art of setting up type and of printing when he was studying at Callenberg Institute, and personally printed this work. He published his own missionary literature, books and commentaires and translated other Christian books, , and composed the fundamental part of the rabbinic commentary on the Gospel of Luke, which Dr. Joachim Biesenthal (Raphael Hirsch) edited and had published.
His efforts are considered the foundation of the famous Institutum Judaicum.
Works
Hebrew translation and commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Institutum Judaicum. (1735). Click here. Our thanks to Keren Ahvah Meshihit for scanning the book and making it public.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ. Keren Ahvah Meshihit, new edition 1999. pp. 226-7
Biesenthal, Dibre Emeth, no. 1 and 2. 1855 “Leben des Proselyten Heinrich Christian Immanuel Frommanns”
De le Roi, J.F.A., Die Evangelische Christenheit und die Juden, vol. I, Leipzig 1884. pp. 388-394.
Vine of David