BASSIN, ELIEZER:

Missionary at Jassy, Rumania; born about 1840 in the government of Mohilev, Russia. In 1869 he went to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of English missionaries who persuaded him to embrace Christianity. He was the author of a work entitled "The Modern Hebrew, and the Hebrew Christian," London, 1882. The work opens with an interesting autobiography relating the difficulties the author had had to overcome, after having been transferred from Constantinople to Russia as a deserter. One part of the book deals with the Jewish religion and Jewish ritual ceremonies. In many passages the author gives information concerning the religious opinions of the Jews of Russia, and especially of those of the sect Ḥabad, founded at the end of the eighteenth century by Solomon Sneerson.

In September, 1881, Bassin published a German paper entitled "Eintracht," pleading the cause of the Jews against the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.

Bibliography:
  • The Modern Hebrew and the Hebrew Christian, as above.
S. I. Br.
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