Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort (c. 1715–1761) was a Dutch Hebrew professor, responsible for translating an Indian version of the Hebrew New Testament and a Hebrew Quran. Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort was born Jewish between 1714 and 1717 in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in December 1745 in Aachen. He studied briefly philosophy at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

with professo
Johann Friedrich May
in 1753. In 1754 he was enlisted by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC) to work as a professor of Hebrew Language at the Seminary of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

, Ceylon. In 1756 he traveled to

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, India, where he was commissioned by

Ezekiel Rahabi Ezekiel Rahabi (1694–1771) was the chief Jewish merchant of the Dutch East India Company in Cochin, India for almost 50 years. Rabbi ''Rahabi Ezekiel'', (or ''Ezekiel Rahabi'') also was a rabbinical writer known only through his polemical Heb ...

to finish the translation of the Hebrew New Testament (1741-1756), which

Claudius Buchanan Claudius Buchanan FRSE (12 March 1766 – 9 February 1815) was a Scottish theologian, an ordained minister of the Church of England, and an evangelical missionary for the Church Missionary Society. He served as Vice Provost of the College of C ...

took with him to England and currently resides in the

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...

. Ezekiel Rahabi also commissioned van Dort as the translator of the Hebrew

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

(1757-1761), which resides in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Van Dort is further known for his 1757 translations of the excerpts of the chronicles of the Jews of Cochin. Van Dort died in 1761, at the age of 46.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dort, Leopold 1710s births 1761 deaths Year of birth uncertain People from Dordrecht Dutch expatriates in Sri Lanka Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Leipzig University alumni Translators to Hebrew Translators of the New Testament into Hebrew Quranic translation People of Dutch Ceylon Jewish Indian history Jewish Dutch history