Henry Einspruch (born חײם יחיאל איינשפרוך Khaim-Yekhiel Aynshprukh in Tarnów, Galicia, 27 December 1892 – 4 January 1977), was a Galician-born Jew who became a Lutheran, becoming translator and publisher. Einspruch translated Christian literature into Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and English. His most notable work was a translation of the New Testament into Yiddish.

Early life in Tarnow, Galicia

His father Mendel was a scholar, an iron merchant, and a Santser Hassid. His mother Mirl was the daughter of the cantor of the main synagogue in the city of Jarosław. As a teenager, Einspruch was drawn to Christianity. Raised in a Yiddish-speaking home, he was a yeshiva student who studied under the rabbi of Barnov. Einspruch attended a Baron Hirsch School and the Tarnów High School. Along with other Jewish socialists, Einspruch was active in the Poale Zion movement and helped organize a strike of clerks, tailors, and teachers at religious elementary schools. He began his literary career in 1908-1909, working as the Tarnów correspondent for Poale Zion’s magazine Der Yidisher Arbeyter (The Jewish Worker). In 1909, at the age of 17, he made aliyah to Ottoman Palestine and worked at Merhavia, a moshav in Galilee. In 1911, he immigrated to the Khedivate of Egypt. After living in Egypt, he returned to Poland and became a follower of Yeshua under the guidance of the Khayem (Lucky) Yedidiah Pollak. By 1913, he had immigrated to the United States and lived in Cleveland and New York City, working at a restaurant and an iron factory. Moving to Chicago, he studied at Moody Bible Institute and graduated in 1916; he also studied at McCormick Theological Seminary. He moved to Baltimore in 1920 and studied at Johns Hopkins University.

Ministry in USA

in 1923, Einspruch founded the Salem Hebrew Lutheran Mission in East Baltimore, located at the intersection of South Caroline and East Baltimore streets in Baltimore’s historic Jewish quarter close to Corned Beef Row. The Salem Hebrew Lutheran Mission’s church building has a Magen David above its entrance with the Greek letters iota eta sigma (IHS, a monogram for “Jesus Christ”).

Einspruch founded Lederer Messianic Jewish Communications, which became the largest publisher of “Hebrew-Christian” literature in the world. On Shabbat, Einspruch was known to regularly stand on a soapbox in front of various Baltimore-area synagogues and deliver Christian sermons in the Yiddish language.

Later life and death

Einspruch died in January 1977 in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife Marie (April 3, 1909 – March 17, 2012), whom he married in 1941.

Marie Einspruch was a Christian missionary from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who was of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage and thus could easily understand Yiddish due to the high level of mutual intelligibility of Yiddish and the Pennsylvania Dutch language. As a Lutheran deaconess, she joined the Jewish Mission in Baltimore in 1931, and was the official typesetter for her husband’s

Yiddish translation of the Christian New Testament. Following Henry Einspruch’s death in 1977, Marie became the director of what had become known as the Lederer/Messianic Jewish Resources International. Marie Einspruch died in Rockville, Maryland in 2012 at the age of 102. Henry and Marie Einspruch are survived by their daughter Muriel.

Stuart Dauermann writes:

I knew Einspruch and sat at his table more than once listening to his stories. I wonder if they are going to make him a pathetic figure. He was anything but. 

Very European, cultured, learned, and exacting. I remember him taking a hard copy of the RSV Bible off his shelf, opening to the fly-leaf, where he had written all the typos he had found in the Bible. 

His wife Marie had been his secretary. She was from Pennsylvania Dutch country. SHARP and wise. She was considerably younger. Maiden name was Gerlach. 

She died a few years ago I believe. Over a hundred years old. 

The Jewish newspaper in Mexico City wrote a review of Einspruch’s NT, which he translated from the Greek into what they termed excellent literary Yiddish. Einspruch was proud of that. 

Some years earlier, in the1920’s or early 30’s he had complained at a missionary conference about “missionary Yiddish” which was notoriously crude.  So he went out and improved the breed. He couldn’t get any printer to print the book so he type set it himself. And she helped him. 

A remarkable man. He came to faith in Amsterdam. He had gone to Alexandria Egypt to visit his brother, and on the way back to his home in Austria, he took ill in Amsterdam where Christians showed him the love of Messiah. . . . 

He was a Lutheran Missionary to the Jews who also did street preaching in Yiddish, although you would never guess from meeting him. He was a scholarly, thin man. 

I miss him. What an honor to know him. 

Prayer – Einspruch’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer with transliteration

The Lord’s Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13  – English, Hebrew, Transliteration 260122

‘”Deriber zol ir mitpalel zayn af a voyd [un] fon:Undzer foter, vos bist in himl, Gehilkht zol vern dayn nomen. Zol kumen dayn malchus, Zol dayn ratzon geton vern Af der erd, azoy vi er vert geton in himl. Gib undz haynt undzer teglekh broyt; Un zey undu mokhel undzer shuldikayt, Vi mir zenen oikh mokhel undzer baaleykhoovos; Un breng undu nit tsu kayn nisoyon, Nyerst zey undu mazil fun dem shlekhtn. Varyum dir gehert di malukhe, un di gvure, Un der kovod, af ivik. Omen.”

Our Father in (the) heaven(s)	Avinu shebashamaim	׳אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם,	Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν ⸂τοῖς οὐρανοῖς⸃·
Hallowed/made holy/be your name	yitkadeish shimcha	יִתְקַדֵּשׁ שִׁמְךָ,	ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·
May your kingdom come	Tavo malchut’cha	10 תָּבוֹא מַלְכוּתְךָ,	10 ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
May your will be done	Ye’aseh r’tszoncha	יֵעָשֶׂה רְצוֹנְךָ	γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,
On earth as in (the) heaven(s)	K’vashamayim kein ba’aretz	כְּבַשָּׁמַיִם כֵּן בָּאָרֶץ.	°ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ ⸆ γῆς·
Give us today our daily bread	Et-lechem chukeynu ten lanu hayom	11 אֶת לֶחֶם חֻקֵּנוּ תֵּן לָנוּ הַיּוֹם,	11 τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·*
And forgive us our sins/debts/	U’selach lanu al chata’eynu	12וּסְלַח לָנוּ עַל חֲטָאֵינוּ	12 καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν ⸂τὰ ὀφειλήματα⸃ ἡμῶν,
As we forgive those who sin against us	Ke’phi she’sol’chim gam anachnu lachot’im lanu	כְּפִי שֶׁסּוֹלְחִים גַּם אֲנַחְנוּ לַחוֹטְאִים לָנוּ.	ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ⸀ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
And do not lead us into temptation/testing	V’al t’vieinu lidei nissayon	13 וְאַל תְּבִיאֶנוּ לִידֵי נִסָּיוֹן,	13 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,*
But deliver us from evil	Ki im chaltzenu min hara’	כִּי אִם חַלְּצֵנוּ מִן הָרָע.	ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. ⸆
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours	Ki l’cha hamamlachah v’hag’vurah v’hatiferet	׳  כִּי לְךָ הַמַּמְלָכָה וְהַגְּבוּרָה וְהַתִּפְאֶרֶת	ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα
Now and forever. Amen	L’olmei olamim. Amen	לְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים. אָמֵן	εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν.

⁹ Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου,  ¹⁰ ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς·  ¹¹ τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·  ¹² καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·  ¹³ καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.  ¹⁴ ἐὰν γὰρ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν, ἀφήσει καὶ ὑμῖν ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος·  ¹⁵ ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οὐδὲ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ἀφήσει τὰ παραπτώματα ὑμῶν.  

 Michael W. Holmes, The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature, 2011–2013), Mt 6:9–15.

Resources:

Click to access 169-einspruch-most-noted-jewish-book-in-the-world.pdf

BIBLE. 1959. YIDDISH. N.T. EINSPRUCH. Der Bri Ḥadoshe. 2. oyfl. 566 p. ill.
Originally published: Balṭimor : Leybush un Ḥayah Lederer Fond, 1959, 712.
Added t. p.: The New Testament. Translated by Henry Einspruch. 2d ed.
#0-657-06335-5 online at https://archive.org/details/nybc206335/page/n79/mode/2up and https://ia802608.us.archive.org/1/items/nybc206335/nybc206335.pdf

Church Mystery Reveals Hidden Local Jewish History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Einspruch

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200296884/henry-khaim-yekhiel-einspruch

https://www.yiddishnewtestament.org/en/about-us

https://archive.org/details/nybc206335

https://diariojudio.com/opinion/when-missionaries-wrote-in-yiddish-the-rise-and-fall-of-missionary-yiddish-in-america/3838/#content