Henry Einspruch

Henry Einspruch (born חײם יחיאל איינשפרוך Khaim-Yekhiel Aynshprukh in Tarnów, Galicia, 27 December 1892 – 4 January 1977), was a Galician-born Jew who converted to Lutheranism, becoming a Messianic missionary affiliated with the Hebrew Christian movement. Einspruch translated Christian literature into Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and English. His most notable work was a translation of the Christian New Testament into Yiddish.^[1][2][3]

Early life

His father Mendel was a

in 1923, Einspruch founded the Salem Hebrew Lutheran Mission in East Baltimore, located at the intersection of South Caroline and East Baltimore streets in Baltimore's historic Jewish quarter close to Corned Beef Row. The Salem Hebrew Lutheran Mission's church building has a Magen David above its entrance with the Greek letters iota eta sigma (IHS, a monogram for "Jesus Christ"). Einspruch founded Lederer Messianic Jewish Communications, which became the largest publisher of "Hebrew-Christian" literature in the world. On Shabbat, Einspruch was known to regularly stand on a soapbox in front of various Baltimore-area synagogues and deliver Christian sermons in the Yiddish language.^[5]

Later life and death

Einspruch died in January 1977 in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife Marie (April 3, 1909 – March 17, 2012), whom he married in 1941. Marie Einspruch was a Christian missionary from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who was of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage and thus could easily understand Yiddish due to the high level of mutual intelligibility of Yiddish and the Pennsylvania Dutch language. As a Lutheran deaconess, she joined the Jewish Mission in Baltimore in 1931, and was the official typesetter for her husband's Yiddish translation of the Christian New Testament. Following Henry Einspruch's death in 1977, Marie became the director of what had become known as the Lederer/Messianic Jewish Resources International. Marie Einspruch died in Rockville, Maryland in 2012 at the age of 102. Henry and Marie Einspruch are survived by their daughter Muriel.^[6]

In popular culture

New Yiddish Rep's "The Gospel According to Chaim" (די בשׂורה לויט חיים, Di psure loyt khaim) dramatizes Einspruch's life and his attempts to publish the New Testament in Yiddish. According to The Forward, the play is one of the first new, full-length Yiddish plays in decades.^[7]

References

Bibliography

• Einspruch, Henry. 600,000,000 People Can't Be Wrong: A Modern Jew Looks at Jesus, Chicago: Good News Publishers, [date of publication not identified]
• Einspruch, Henry. Der Brīf fūn Yaʻqov ha-shaliyaḥ, Baltimore: The Mediator, [1933?]
• Einspruch, Henry. Der Bris Hadoshe, Balṭimor: Laybush un Ḥayah Lederer Fond, 1959.
• Einspruch, Henry; Geden, A. S.; Kilgour, R.; American Bible Society. Dīʼ gūṭeʻ Beśūrah lōyṭ Matyaʼ : ʼa nayyeʻ ʼībeʻrzeʻṣūng., New York : American Bible Society, 1925.
• Einspruch, Henry. Jewish Confessors of the Faith, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Amsterdam Bd. of Missions to the Jews, 1925.
• Einspruch, Henry. Lider fun gloybn Hymns of faith, rendered into Yiddish, Baltimore, Mediator, 1935.^[1]
• Einspruch, Henry. When Jews face Christ, Brooklyn: American Board of Missions to the Jews, 1939.

External links

• "Henry Einspruch". Find a Grave. Retrieved 29 September 2021.