Stanislaus Hoga

Stanislaus Hoga (Polish: Stanisław Hoga, surname also as Hoge) born Ezekiel Hoga (1791–1860) was a Hebrew translator, a Jewish convert to Christianity.[1]

Life

Hoga was born into a Hasidic family in the Lublin area, then and for a few years in Poland.[1] From Kuzmir (Kazimierz Dolny), he was the son of Yehuda Aryeh Leib, named Yehezkel;[2][3] his father was the Rabbi there, and a follower of the Lublin Rebbe Jacob Isaac Hurwitz.[4] After rabbinic education, support from Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski made it possible for him to study in Puławy. He became an interpreter for Napoleon's forces in the period 1807 to 1809.[5]

After the war Hoga lived in Warsaw (then part of the Russian Empire). He acted from 1816 as assistant to the Jewish censor Adam Chalmelewski.[6] He was himself appointed to the Jewish Censor Committee in 1818.[7] After that he worked for Luigi Chiarini, of Warsaw University, and became his deputy. Under pressure to be baptised a Christian, he converted in the years after 1822, when he had begun to publish in Hebrew and on Jewish tradition. At this point he dropped his Jewish forename, in favour of the Christian name Stanislaus.[4][6] By then he had left the Jewish censor post, and was engaged in Polish-Hebrew translation.[7]

Despite his apostate standing, Hoga defended Hasidism against state investigation in 1824.[8] The authorities had been alarmed by an inquiry in 1823 into Hasidism in Płock, and the Committee for Religious Affairs was asked for a report. Input to it from Jacob Tugenhold and Hoga helped the conclusions to tend to moderation, Tugenhold being another of the Jewish censorship personnel.[7][9] On 3 August 1824 Hoga defended Hasidism in a public disputation.[4]

In Warsaw Hoga met Alexander McCaul of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews (LSPCJ). With McCaul's encouragement he went to London, and by 1838 he participated in a translation into Hebrew of the New Testament.[6]

In later life Hoga took on literary work. He died ar 96 Charlotte Street, London, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.[4]

Views

The Controversy of Zion (1844) was Hoga's intervention in the debate around the methods of the LSPCJ. His view was that Jews, as Christian converts, should retain the traditions of Jewish law.[10] He expanded what he found in the writings of John Oxlee to the same effect, and allied himself with the views of Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna; similar sentiments went back to Joseph Priestley and Thomas Witherby. After a number of years the LSPCJ found his critical attitude unacceptable, and they parted company in 1849, by which time he was writing in a hostile fashion in periodicals.[11] Moses Margoliouth then followed Hoga with public criticism of the LSPCJ and Anglicans.[12]

Works

Hoga wrote:[13]

  • (in Polish) Tu chazy czyli Rozmowa o Żydach (1830), dialogue[14][15]
  • Songs of Zion, a selection of English and German hymns translated into Hebrew (1834; 2d ed., with additions, 1842).
  • In Hebrew, Śefat Briṭanya: A Grammar of the English Language for the Use of Hebrews (London, 1840), and The Controversy of Zion: a Meditation on Judaism and Christianity (1845).
  • In Hebrew translation, Pilgrim's Progress (London, 1844; 2d ed., 1851–52), and Alexander McCaul's Old Paths (1839).

References
  • Beth-Zion Lask Abrahams, Stanislaus Hoga—Apostate and Penitent, Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England) Vol. 15, (1939-1945), pp. 121–149. Published by: Jewish Historical Society of England. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777844

Notes
  1. William D. Rubinstein (22 February 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 434. ISBN 978-0-230-31894-6.
  2. I.e. Ezekiel in English; variants are Yecheskel, Yecheschel, Yeḥezkel, Chaskel etc.
  3. David Assaf (1 January 2012). Untold Tales of the Hasidim: Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism. UPNE. p. 533 note 3. ISBN 978-1-61168-305-9.
  4. Harry Rabinowicz (February 1997). A World Apart: the story of the Chasidim in Britain. Vallentine Mitchell. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-85303-261-8.
  5. Michael R. Darby (2010-10-05). The Emergence of the Hebrew Christian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. pp. 100 and 119. ISBN 978-90-04-18455-8.
  6. Michael R. Darby (2010-10-05). The Emergence of the Hebrew Christian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. p. 120. ISBN 978-90-04-18455-8.
  7. Glenn Dynner (8 January 2009). Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society. Oxford University Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-19-538265-5.
  8. Glenn Dynner (8 January 2009). Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society. Oxford University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-19-538265-5.
  9. Ada Rapoport-Albert (ed.). Hasidism Reappraiseddate=January 1997. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. p. 408.
  10. Michael R. Darby (2010-10-05). The Emergence of the Hebrew Christian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. p. 121. ISBN 978-90-04-18455-8.
  11. Michael R. Darby (2010-10-05). The Emergence of the Hebrew Christian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. p. 123. ISBN 978-90-04-18455-8.
  12. Michael R. Darby (2010-10-05). The Emergence of the Hebrew Christian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. p. 138. ISBN 978-90-04-18455-8.
  13. "Hoga, Stanislaus - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  14. Aleksander Hertz (1988). The Jews in Polish Culture. Northwestern University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-8101-0758-8.
  15. Stanisław HOGE (1830). Tu chazy, czyli rozmowa o żydach.

Attribution  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Hoga, Stanislaus". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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