Henry Aaron Stern
Henry Aaron Stern (*11 April 1820, Unterreichenbach near Gelnhausen; † 13 May 1885, Hackney, London) was an Anglican missionary and priest of Jewish origin.
Stern became especially known for his arrest and imprisonment by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II in 1863, which stemmed from political tensions between Great Britain and Abyssinia.
During his stay in London, Stern converted to Christianity under the influence of Alexander McCaul and was baptized on 15 March 1840, at the Palestine Place Chapel.
During this time, he wrote Dawnings of Light in the East, which compiled biblical, historical, and statistical information on his travels in Persia, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia.
The emperor allowed Stern to preach among the Beta Israel, under the condition that the Ethiopian Patriarch Abba Salama gave his approval.
Although the number of converts remained small, his work deeply impacted the social fabric of the community by distributing Bible translations in the local language and disrupting existing divisions within the Beta Israel.
Stern’s mission activities took place during a time of escalating tensions between Abyssinia and Britain, which led to his capture by Emperor Tewodros II in 1863.
On 10 April 1868, the Ethiopian army suffered a crushing defeat; three days later, Napier’s forces took Magdala, freeing Stern and the other captives.
He settled in Palestine Place, where he oversaw the Wanderers’ Home and regularly preached to Jewish audiences, aiming to convert them to Christianity.
After the death of his first wife Charlotte on 1 January 1874, Stern remarried Rebecca Davis, daughter of Strangman Davis-Goff and Susan Maxwell Ussher, on 3 March 1883.
Stern left behind significant works documenting his missionary journeys and experiences, including Dawnings of Light in the East: with Biblical, Historical, and Statistical Notices of Persons and Places in Persia, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia (1854), Journal of a Missionary Journey into Arabia Felix (1858), Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia: together with a Description of the Country and its various Inhabitants (1862) – a key source on the life of the Falashas before their conversion to normative Judaism – and The Captive Missionary: being an Account of the Country and People of Abyssinia – Embracing a Narrative of King Theodore’s life, and his Treatment of Political and Religious Missions (1868).
