Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hershon, Paul Isaac

by Gordon Goodwin

HERSHON, PAUL ISAAC (1817–1888), hebraist, born of Jewish parents in Galicia in 1817, became at an early age a Christian. As a missionary he was an active promoter of the objects of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews in England and the East. He became in succession director of the House of Industry for Jews at Jerusalem and of the model farm at Jaffa. In 1859 he retired from the mission field in order to devote himself to work on the Talmud and Midrashim. He died, comparatively suddenly, 14 Oct. 1888, at Wood Green, Middlesex, in his seventy-first year, leaving a large amount of literary matter in manuscript. He published:

1. ‘Extracts from the Talmud,’ 12mo, London, 1860.
2. ‘The Pentateuch according to the Talmud. Part 1. Genesis. With Commentary and Notes,’ 8vo, London (1878).
3. ‘A Talmudic Miscellany; … or a thousand and one Extracts [translated] from the Talmud, the Midrashim, and the Kabbalah,’ 8vo, London, 1880, forming vol. xix. of Trübner's ‘Oriental Series.’
4. ‘Treasures of the Talmud … translated, with Notes,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1882.
5. ‘The Pentateuch according to the Talmud. Genesis. With a Talmudical Commentary,’ 8vo, London, 1883.

He also translated from the Judæo-Polish, with notes and indices, Jacob ben Isaac of Janowa's rabbinical commentary on Genesis, 8vo, London, 1885; and compiled a digest of marginal references in Hebrew for the whole Bible, which is now the property of the London Jews' Society, but has not been published.

[Times, 15 Oct. 1888; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

G. G.