The late Dr. Manfred Lehmann was a many sided person. He was a very successful international businessman, a fine Judaic scholar, a Passionate collector of Hebrew books and a well known philanthropist. Above all he was a great Jewish patriot. During the last years of his life he was prominently associated with efforts to prevent the surrender of any part of the Land of Israel to the Arabs.
He was born in 1922 in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1928 his parents moved to Hamburg so that their son could receive a proper Jewish education. After the rise of Nazism in Germany in 1933, his parents returned to Sweden.
In May 1940, passing through Germany, Manfred Lehmann traveled from Sweden to Italy where he embarked on a boat for the U.S.
He studied at Yeshiva Torah VoDa’ath in Brooklyn New Yor and later at Ner Yisrael in Baltimore where he also attended John Hopkins University, studying with the famous Orientalist William Foxwell Albright. Lehmann also studied at the University of Chicago and at Harvard University.
He published studies in various areas of Jewish knowledge, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, wrote on contemporary Jewish affairs and about his visits to distant Jewish communities.
Following in the footsteps of his father, he was an avid collector of Hebrew books. “My late father Hans Lehmann (1885-1949) loved books and scholars and acquired books wherever he lived in his various abodes: Germany, Sweden and the U.S.A,” Manfred Lehmann wrote. “By showing me his love for books, but primarily by exposing me to outstanding bibliophiles and scholars from my earliest years, he implanted in me the passion for book collecting.”
Lehmann has put his large book treasures — which was believed to be the largest collection of its kind in private hands — at the disposition of Jewish scholars. He himself was involved in the publication of manuscripts in his possession, editing some of them and writing learned introductions to others.
It was his greatest love for Hebrew books, which inspired him to campaign for the return by the Vatican of Hebrew manuscripts confiscated or looted from Jewish communities. He founded the “Committee for the Recovery of Jewish Manuscripts” and served as it chairman.
In the 1980s Lehmann began publishing Ohel Hayim, a series of catalogs describing the manuscripts and rare books of his family’s library. The series carried the name of his son Menahem Hayim Gamliel who died in 1982 at the age of 32. He was a promising young scholar whose interests encompassed Jewish law, lore and literature as well as English literature and music.
The Lehmann family established various memorials for Jamie. These include the Jamie Lehmann Chair in Piyut at the Bar Ilan University and the Jamie Lehmann Institiute of Jewish Ethics (Beth HaMussar Al Shem Chaim Menachem Lehmann) in Jerusalem.
The first volume of Ohel Hayim was published in 1988. It was devoted to a description of Manfred Lehmann’s Kabbalistic manuscripts.
Two years later volume 2 of Ohel Hayim was published. It described the Lehmann’s Family’s Biblical manuscripts including the Samaritan Targum of the Pentateuch and fragments of Saadya Gaon’s Arabic translation of the Torah.
In his introduction to this volume Manfred Lehmann tells us something of his efforts to recover Hebrew manuscripts from the Vatican. When some years ago 37 magnificent Hebrew manuscripts held by the Vatican were exhibited in the U.S., the Vatican in order to counteract Lehmann’s campaigns sent a senior Cardinal to visit the U.S. for the opening of the last exhibition which took place at Harvard University. Cardinal A.M. Stickler, Librarian Emeritus of the Vatican, spoke at the opening ceremonies about a number of “Renaissance Popes,” such as Paul IV and Clement VIII who “loved’ the Hebrew language and therefore sent out emissaries to buy Hebrew manuscripts.
No discussion was allowed after the lecture, but when Lehmann loudly demanded the floor, the Cardinal invited him to the podium for a quite talk. Lehmann had brought with him a facsimile of the Bull issued by Clement VIII which declared that the Talmud and other Jewish writings were obscene and blasphemous and that neither Christians nor Jews were allowed to own, give buy, sell or otherwise dispose of them — all had to be burnt!” The Cardinal refused to study the document, shouting that this was not true. “He sounded very much like some of the neo-Nazis who today deny that the Holocaust ever took place,” states Lehmann.
IN 1996 the third volume of Ohel Hayim was published. It describes Lehmann’s Hebrew incunabula (books printed until 1500_ and Hebrew books printed during the 16th century. Some of the books carry signatures or notes by Gedolei Yisrael written in their own hand. These too are described in the volume.
The very thorough and detailed catalogs have been prepared by well known experts in their respective fields. They have been assisted by Rabbi Elazar Hurwitz, who is the general editor of the Ohel Hayim series. Hurvitz, a member of the faculty of Yeshiva University, is the author of fine studies and the editor of excellent editions of writings by early rabbinic authorities
Several months ago the fourth volume of Ohel Hayim was published. The first to appear since the death of Manfred Lehmann in the spring of 1997. It discusses the manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of Maimonides Mishneh Torah in possession of the Lehmann family. Our next article will be devoted to this volume.
The Jewish Press, Friday August 27, 1999
Conclusion
Volume 4 of Ohel Hayim discusses, as mentioned in our first article, manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of Maimonides Mishneh Torah in the possession of the Lehmann family.
The volume consists of two parts. Part one is devoted to a description of the variant readings found in Lehmann’s manuscripts of Sefer Zemanim. Part two presents us with a detailed description of more than 100 fragments of Mishneh Toah manuscripts.
The Lehmann collection includes two almost complete manuscripts of Sefer Zemanim as well as a number of ms fragments of that book.
Rabbi Michael Erlich, Betzalel Amos and Yosef Shmuel Moskowitz, the associates of the Ariel Institutions in Israel, studied the versions of Sefer Zemanim as reflected in the Lehmann manuscripts and compared them with the texts of the early printings of Mishneh Torah and the variant readings included in the Pagi, Reb Shabse Frankel and Rabbi Yosef Kapah editions of Maimonides’ code. They recorded the variant readings of the Lehmann manuscripts’, adding explanations and indicating parallels in printed editions and in other manuscripts.
In his introductory article to the descriptions of the variant readings, Rabbi Michael Erlich discusses in great detail the significance of some of these. He states that the Lehmann manuscripts of Sefer Zemanim contain variant readings, the likes of which are not found in any printed edition or in other manuscripts of Maimonides Mishneh Torah.
Rabbi Elazar Hurvitz, the general editor of the Ohel Hayim series, has contributed in this part of the new volume a fine essay about the different versions of Mishneh Torah, how they came about and which are the most authentic.
The second part of the volume which features detailed descriptions of more than 100 fragments of Mishneh Torah in the Lehmann collection is entirely the work of Rabbi E. Hurvitz, who was also the first to identify the new fragments.
Rabbi Hurvits writes in his preface that many of the fragments he described were in a very bad state when Lehmann acquired them. Some had been used to strengthen book bindings, others were remnants of burned books. They were crumpled, torn ditry and charred. Lehmann with great love and devotion, cleaned, pressed and restored them.
Hurvits added to his descriptions a list of additional manuscripts of Maimonides writings (both in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabi) in possession of the Lehmann family.
Ohel Hayim volume 4 also carried general introductions both in English and in Hebrew.
Barbara Lehmann Siegel, a daughter of Manfred Lehmann writes in the English introduction how her father’s love of Maimonides. “When we were young (indeed, until we were all married and living far away from home) for the months before each Hag, we sat together on Shabbat afternoon to study the Rambam’s laws and words of Guidance,” she relates. “We were taught frequently, with great awe of the wide scope of the Rambam’s knowledge and activities.”
This introduction is followed by a short biography in English of Manfred Lehmann, which acquaints us not only with his scholarly achievements and communal activities, but also with his widespread business interests in various part of the globe especially in developing nations.
Included in this volume is a select bibliography of Lehmann’s writings as well as a list of books and articles which are based on manuscripts in the Lehmann collection (all of the mentioned articles which appeared in a variety of publications, were authored by Lehmann himself).
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen , Chief Rabbi of Haifa and head of he Ariel Institutions, wrote a general introduction (in Hebrew) about variant readings in Maimonides’ code. Printed in the volume is also the eulogy he delivered at Manfred Lehmann’s funeral in Jerusalem. Rabbi Cohen praised Lehmann as a scholar, supporter of Torah and a great fighter for the integrity of the Land of Israel.
The Jewish Press, Friday, September 3, 1999