Michael Solomon Alexander (1 May 1799 – 23 November 1845) was the first

Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem ( ar, أبرشية القدس الأنغليكانية) is the Anglican jurisdiction for Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It is a part of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and th ...

Life

He was the second son and one of five children born to Alexander Wolff. His ancestors may have come to Prussia from England, or may have been in Schönlanke for many generations. His education in the Talmud began when he was seven years old, and from age sixteen to twenty, he was a teacher in his community of both Talmud and the German language. He emigrated to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in about 1820, and became a private tutor for a Jewish family in Colchester. Then he became rabbi at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

. Here he came into contact with William Marsh, a stalwart of the ''London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews'' (now known as the

Church's Ministry Among Jewish People The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) (formerly the London Jews' Society and the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews) is an Anglican missionary society founded in 1809. History The society began in the early 19th ...

or CMJ). Attempting to flee Christian influences, he accepted the post of teacher and shochet at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

. He taught Hebrew to the Rev.

Benjamin Golding Benjamin Golding (7 September 1793 – 21 June 1863) was a British doctor and the founder of the West London Infirmary which later became the Charing Cross Hospital. He wrote the history of that hospital and of St. Thomas's Hospital, origin ...

of Stonehouse church. In 1825, he converted to Christianity. Soon afterwards, he and his wife, Deborah Levy, went to live in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, where he taught

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in 1827. This was followed by working with CMJ, firstly in Danzig between 1827 and 1830, and then in London between 1831 and 1841. He was professor of Hebrew at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

from 1832 until 1841 and helped Alexander McCaul of the CMJ to revise the Mission's translation of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

into Hebrew in 1835 and to translate the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

into Hebrew.

Diocese of Jerusalem

In 1841 the British and Prussian Governments as well as the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

and the

Evangelical Church in Prussia The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Pru ...

entered into a unique agreement - the establishment of a Protestant Bishopric in Jerusalem. Alexander was proposed as the first Protestant bishop. He was appointed bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

a bishop on 7 December 1841 at

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposit ...

. He arrived in Jerusalem in January 1842. Alexander's position was always a controversial one. He worked alongside the CMJ pioneer,

John Nicolayson Hans Nicolajsen, known as John Nicolayson (1803 in Løgumkloster – 1856 in Jerusalem) was a Danish missionary to Palestine for the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews. He was in effect the first representative of the B ...

, in consolidating the Protestant presence in Jerusalem. Various institutions were set up under his leadership, including a School of Industry for training Jewish believers in basic trades, an Enquirers House, a Hebrew College, and the first hospital in Palestine. His presence greatly antagonised the Jewish leadership, who considered him an apostate, as well as provoking the other major churches to consolidate their presence in Jerusalem. The

Roman Catholic church 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 ...

subsequently sent a

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in c ...

to (or re-established the medieval Latin Patriarchate in) Jerusalem to counteract Alexander's influence. Alexander, Michael Salomo 2 Zionsfriedhof Jerusalem

Alexander, Michael Salomo 2 Zionsfriedhof Jerusalem

He died in

Bilbeis Belbeis ( ar, بلبيس ; Bohairic cop, Ⲫⲉⲗⲃⲉⲥ/Ⲫⲉⲗⲃⲏⲥ ' is an ancient fortress city on the eastern edge of the southern Nile delta in Egypt, the site of the Ancient city and former bishopric of Phelbes and a Lat ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

while returning to England. He was buried in

Mount Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem The Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery (a.k.a., Jerusalem Mount Zion Protestant Cemetery, german: link=no, Zionsfriedhof; he, בית הקברות הפרוטסטנטי בהר ציון) on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, is a cemetery owned by the Angli ...

. He was succeeded by Bishop

Samuel Gobat Samuel Gobat (26 January 1799 – 11 May 1879) was a Swiss Calvinist who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death. Biography Samuel Gobat was born at Crémines, Canton of Bern, ...

. He had nine daughters (Sarah Jane Isabella Wolff, Fanny Vincent Steele, Deborah Rebecca Marsh, Anna, Elizabeth, Mary Anne, Louisa, Salome, and Emilie) and two sons (Michael Robert Richard Hawtrey and Alexander Benjamin).

References

Sources

* * Crombie, Kelvin (2006) ''A Jewish Bishop in Jerusalem: the life story of Michael Solomon Alexander''. Jerusalem: Nicholayson's

External links

Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander

Alexander, Michael Solomon
(

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

)
Records relating to Bishop Alexander at Lambeth Palace LIbrary
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Michael Solomon Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism 1799 births 1845 deaths 19th-century Anglican bishops in the Middle East English bishops Anglican bishops of Jerusalem Christianity in Jerusalem Christian Hebraists Academics of King's College London German emigrants to England 18th-century German Jews People from Trzcianka Burials at Mount Zion (Protestant) German Anglican missionaries 19th-century English rabbis German people of English descent Missionary linguists Messianic clergy