Poper, Henry

Poper, Henry a clergyman of the Church of England and missionary among the Jews, was born of Jewish parentage, in the year 1813, at Breitenbach, in Electoral Hesse, Germany. At Hildesheim, the native place of his mother, he received his early education at the famous school which flourished under the superintendence of the Jewish rabbi Wolfsohn. Besides, he was also privately instructed that he might prepare himself for the office of a teacher. When about the age of eighteen (May, 1831), Poper received an appointment as Jewish teacher and reader in the synagogue, having also occasionally to lecture in the synagogue. During the period of eight years he filled this office in two places in the kingdom of Hanover, when, at last, by reading the N.T. Scriptures and Christian intercourse, that change was brought about which was decisive for his whole future life. July 15,1839, he received Christian baptism. When in the following year the London Society for Propagating Christianity among the Jews opened the Hebrew college for the purpose of training up missionaries to work among God's ancient people, Poper was enrolled as one of the first students. In June, 1842, Poper was appointed by the committee to labor at Frankfort-on-the- Main, was subsequently ordained to the ministry of the Church of England, and continued to be engaged in the Master's service in that city until his death, April 22, 1870. Poper was a very active missionary, and was highly esteemed for his zeal and efforts both among Jews and Christians. When, on April 25, 1870, his earthly remains were carried to their resting place, all the Protestant pastors of the city, accompanied by many Hebrew- Christians and Jews, followed to the grave. A rabbi of a reformed synagogue, when informed by a missionary of Poper's death, said, "Mr. Poper was a very good man. I have known him well. He was greatly respected among my friends, who were also his friends. I liked him very much, although he was a convert to Christianity"—a remarkable testimony for a Jew to make of an apostate. See Jewish Intelligencer— 1870; Missionsblutt für Israel, 1870; Dibreh Emeth (Breslau, 1870). (B. P.)