Early Life
Born as Isaak Leeser in Neuenkirchen/Rheine, Westphalia, Isaac Leeser received his education at the primary school of nearby Dülmen and thereupon at a gymnasium in Münster. He was well-grounded in Latin, German, and Hebrew. He also studied the Talmud tractates Moed, Bava Metzia, and portions of Kodashim and Bava Batra under Hebrew masters. At the age of seventeen he emigrated to America, arriving at Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1824. His uncle, Zalma Rehiné, a respected merchant in that city, sent Leeser to a private school but after ten weeks the school closed, and for the next five years Leeser was employed in his uncle's counting-room. Although his circumstances were inhospitable for the growth of his Jewish knowledge, Leeser showed his bent by voluntarily assisting the hazzan to teach religion on Saturdays and Sundays and also by defending Judaism in the public press from time to time when it was assailed.
Read more about this topic: Isaac Leeser
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Foolish prater, What dost thou
So early at my window do?
Cruel bird, thou’st ta’en away
A dream out of my arms to-day;
A dream that ne’er must equall’d be
By all that waking eyes may see.
Thou this damage to repair
Nothing half so sweet and fair,
Nothing half so good, canst bring,
Tho’ men say thou bring’st the Spring.”
—Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)
“What is a life or two, Guy! Some people are better off dead. Like your wife and my father, for instance.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)