Moses Samuel was a clockmaker, translator of Hebrew works and writer.

Life

His parents were Emanuel Menachem Samuel and Hanna Hinde; his father moved from Kempen in Posen in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

(now

Kępno Kępno (german: Kempen in Posen) is a town in south-central Poland. It lies on the outskirts of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, bordering the historical region of Silesia and the Łódź Voivodeship. As of December 31, 2009 Kępno had a populati ...

in Poland) to London. Moses with his mother moved to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

around 1805. He went into business, not with any great success, but founding what later became the

H. Samuel H. Samuel is a mass-market jewellery chain, operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of the Signet Group of jewellery retailers. History In 1862, Harriet Samuel (née Wolf) took over her father-in-law Moses Samuel's clock-making ...

chain. His older brother Louis (1794–1859) was the father of

Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling (21 December 1832 – 12 January 1911), was a British banker who founded the bank of Samuel Montagu & Co. He was a philanthropist and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons of ...

and grandfather of

Sir Stuart Montagu Samuel, 1st Baronet Sir Stuart Montagu Samuel, 1st Baronet (24 October 1856 – 13 May 1926) was a British banker and Liberal politician who was Member of Parliament for Whitechapel. Samuel was the elder brother of Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel. He attended ...

and

Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to beco ...

Works

He was the originally anonymous translator of the Italian Jewish

kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

text Book of Jasher (Venice, 1625) which later became a para-canonical text in

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. He later wrote "I did not put my name to it as my Patron and myself differed about its authenticity".''Jewish historical studies: transactions of the

Jewish Historical Society of England The Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early presidents of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Michael Adler, Joseph Jacobs ...

'' 2000 The patron was

Mordecai Noah Mordecai Manuel Noah (July 14, 1785, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – May 22, 1851, New York) was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. He was born in a family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry. He was the most imp ...

, the New York publisher, who purchased the text after the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

declined it. He also translated works of

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

(notably ''Jerusalem,'' London, 1838) into English. An orthodox Jew, he campaigned against both the

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

movement, and as author of ''An Address to the Missionaries of Great Britain'' against Christian efforts to proselytise Jews. He co-edited ''The Cup of Salvation - Kos Yeshuot'', a magazine in Hebrew and English, with D. M. Isaacs.

References

External links

''Jewish Encyclopedia'' "...Samuel was a zealous advocate of the emancipation of his coreligionists, and a rebuke, entitled "The Jew and the Barrister," he administered to a member of the bar was favorably noticed in several magazines."
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Moses 1795 births 1860 deaths Translators from Hebrew English clockmakers English Jews Writers from Liverpool 19th-century translators