Segall, Rev. Joseph F., a native of Piatra (Moldavia), came with a number of young friends into possession of missionary literature which a colporteur from Bucharest had left in the town in 1874. This they studied secretly in rotation. After being solemnly impressed by the truth, they wrote a letter to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, asking for admission to some institution in which they might learn more of the Gospel. Mr. Kleinhenn replied that he had no such home, and could not encourage anyone to come to him except on his own means and on his own responsibility. However, one day Segall and his friend Suffrin appeared at Mr. Kleinhenn's house, and he had to take them in. They were then instructed by Mr. Kleinhenn and Mr. Bernstein for some considerable time, and then baptized. The history of the two runs to some extent together. The relations of each tried their utmost to win them back to Judaism, but they had grace given to them not to yield. In the same year Mr. Bernstein, then stationed at Strasburg, was the medium of their being admitted by Dr. Heman, at Basel, into his home for proselytes, to be trained for future usefulness. After finishing their course of study they applied to the L.J.S., passed through its missionary college, and were appointed missionaries. Segall was stationed at Birmingham, and ordained by the Bishop of Worcester in 1877-8 to the curacy of St. Martin. Subsequently he was appointed to the charge of the mission at Damascus, where he also acted as chaplain to the English colony there.
Simon, Erasmus, was one of the earliest converts of the L.J.S. This excellent man seems to have been a native of Holland. In London he made the acquaintance of J. Frey, and heard the Gospel from him and was baptized. In 1820 he was appointed to work under the Rev. A. S. Thelwall at Amsterdam. In 1829 he formed a society called the "Friends of the Hebrew Nation," under the patronage of the Bishop of London. This society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers, and started the "Operative Jewish Converts' Institution." Amongst its inmates were the future founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, Ridley Herschell, and Wertheimer, the future well-known bookseller. The former was one of twelve candidates for baptism presented by Simon to Bishop Blomfield, who baptized them in St. James', Piccadilly.
Simson, Martin Eduard, son of a banker, German jurist and statesman, born Nov. 10, 1810, at Königsberg, and died at Berlin, May 22, 1899. He embraced Christianity as a young man, studied law, and in 1833 he became professor of Roman law, and three years later a judge. In 1848 he received the title of "Rath" in the higher court. In 1848 he was sent as a deputy from Königsberg to the National Congress at Frankfurt, and was soon raised to be its president, and had the honour to offer the crown of the German Empire to King Frederick William IV. of Prussia. Subsequently he held high offices of state, and in 1879 he was appointed first president of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig; in 1888 he received the decoration of the Black Eagle of Prussia and was ennobled. In 1892 he retired to private life. He was the author of "Geschichte des Königsberger Ober Tribunals." Of his three baptized brothers, one became professor of Oriental languages at Königsberg, and the other two lawyers at Berlin.
Skolkowski, J., was a native of Calwary in Russian Poland, baptized at Königsberg, and then studied at the L.J.S. Missionary Training College in London. In 1849 he laboured as a missionary in London, Cairo, Lublin, Gnesen, and Posen, and then, in 1869, at Königsberg. "His annual reports," says the Rev. W. T. Gidney, "supplied most interesting details of mission service, together with glimpses of the social condition, pursuits, and religious opinions of Jews, among whom he devotedly carried on the work of preaching Christ and Him crucified, until his retirement in the beginning of 1888, after a long service of very nearly forty years."
Sobernheim, Dr. Joseph Friedrich, an earnest convert in Berlin in the middle of the nineteenth century. The history of his conversion is as follows. A student had pawned a New Testament with a Jew for a paltry sum of money, and when he came to redeem it, the pawnbroker, having in the meantime read it and become a Christian, gave the student a hundred Louis d'or as a token of gratitude because he had through this book come to a saving knowledge of Christ. This Jewish convert was instrumental in the conversion of nine other Jews, among whom was Dr. Sobernheim and his father. He was esteemed as an author of medical works. He wrote: "Handbuch der Praktischen Arzenimittelehre" (Berlin, 1844), "Beiträge zur Phänomenologie des Lebens," ib., 1841. He died in 1846. ("Jewish Intelligence," December, 1864.)
Solomon, Rev. Benjamin Nehemiah, was born at Lemberg in 1791, and in due time became a rabbi. In 1814 he came to London, and through the instrumentality of J. Frey became a Christian, and was ordained in 1817. He then accompanied Lewis Way on his missionary journey through Holland, Germany and Russia, both preaching the Gospel to the Jews everywhere. Lewis Way having obtained for him permission from the Emperor Alexander to work in Poland, he first of all translated the New Testament into Yiddish, for the use of Polish Jews. In 1821 he accompanied McCaul to Warsaw, but from Amsterdam he wrote to Thelwall that the condition of his wife and children in Galicia obliged him to return home. His own father declared to the missionary Smith, in 1827, that he was living as a Christian.
Stahl, Friedrich Julius, son of a banker, jurist and publicist, was born at Munich, January 16, 1802, and died at Bruckenau, Aug. 10, 1861. He became a Christian in his eighteenth year, and was baptized at Erlangen in 1819. Already at the age of fourteen he discussed religious topics with his fellow scholars. The writings of Thiersch had a great influence upon him. After he had become a Christian, he acted as a missionary to his own family and brought his parents and brothers and sisters to the Saviour. He studied law at the Universities of Wurzburg, Erlangen, and Heidelberg. In 1834 he represented the University of Erlangen in the Bavarian Parliament. In 1840 he became professor of law at the University of Berlin, where his lectures drew an audience of all classes. His idea of Christianity was that it should pervade the whole life and also the State. According to Lord Acton, Stahl had a more predominant influence and shewed more political ability than Lord Beaconsfield (Acton, Letters to Mary Gladstone, p. 103, London, 1904). His writings are as follows, "Die Philosophie des Rechts nach Geschichtlicher Ansicht," 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1830-37); "Ueber die Kirchenzucht" (1845-58); "Das Monarchische Princip" (Heidelberg, 1845); "Der Christliche Staat" (ib., 1847-8); "Die Revolution und die Constitutionelle Monarchie" (1848-9); "Was ist Revolution?" (ib., 1852), of which three editions were issued; "Der Protestantismus als Politisches Princip" (ib., 1853-4); "Die Katholische Widerlegungen" (ib., 1854); "Wider Bunsen" (1856); "Die Lutherische Kirche und die Union" (1859-60). After his death were published, "Siebenzehn Parlamentarishen Reden" (1862), and "Die Gegenwärtigen Partien in Staat und Kirche" (1868).
Steinhardt, son of the landlord for many years of the L.J.S. schools at Bucharest naturally came in contact with the mission there, but no one of the family shewed any inclination towards Christianity, yet the seed sown in the son's heart bore fruit in time. He went to Constantinople and was baptized there. Then he became a city missionary in New York, studied theology, and became, in 1871, pastor of a Swiss congregation in Fountain City, Wisconsin, and in 1882 at Louisville, Ky.
Stern, Dr. Henry A., was born of Jewish parents on April 11, 1820, at Unterreichenbach, in the Duchy of Hesse Cassel. Subsequently the family removed to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where they resided in the quaint old "Judengasse," now a thing of the past. Though educated in this town with a view to the medical profession, Stern, when about seventeen years of age, decided to follow commerce, and to that end repaired to Hamburg. It was there, in the providence of God, that his attention was first drawn to Christianity, by noticing some Christian literature in a glass case near the house of the London Jews' Society's missionary, Mr. J. C. Moritz. The impression subsequently obtained by its perusal was increased when, on arrival in London, in 1839, Stern was induced by a fellow-lodger to attend a Sunday afternoon Hebrew service in Palestine Place, conducted by Dr. Alexander McCaul. Thoroughly awakened, Stern sought the missionary the next day, and, indeed, for many days, until he became a recognized enquirer, and was eventually admitted into the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution. There he was further carefully prepared in Christianity, and baptized on March 15, 1840. For two years longer he remained in the Institution, working at his trade, but it was very evident that Stern, by his learning and gifts, was eminently fitted to be a missionary, and consequently he was taken into the Society's College for a further term of two years.
In 1844 Stern received his first missionary post, and was sent to Bagdad. He left London under the direction of the Rev. Murray Vickers, accompanied by three other young missionaries. They broke their journey at Jerusalem, where Stern was ordained deacon by Bishop Alexander, on July 14 of the same year. Arriving at Bagdad, Stern threw himself into his work with great zeal and ardour.