CROOL, JOSEPH:

Teacher and controversialist; flourished in England about 1838. He gave lessons in Hebrew to a few students in the University of Cambridge when, for several years, the regius professors of Hebrew were absentees. He was not by any means a man of learning, though he could read three languages, English, German, and Hebrew; he was given over to prejudices, and delighted in old wives' fables and vain traditions. He was in the habit of wearing a parchment girdle, on which were inscribed passages from the Law and the Talmud.

Crool was opposed to the emancipation of the Jews; believing that the introduction of Jews to Christians in the legislature would lead to the conversion of the former to Christianity. He wrote two works on this subject in 1829, entitled "The Fifth Empire" and "The Last Generation," both published at Cambridge.

Bibliography:
  • Jewish Chronicle, London, June 30, 1848;
  • Cambridge Independent Press, June 11, 1848.
J. G. L.
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