A learned Jew originally from Wallachia on the Danube. He first met Nicolayson in Izimir when he first became interested in the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel. He moved to Jerusalem with his family and was baptized there by Nicolayson with his wife, 14-year old daughter and four year old son in 1839, taking on the name "Wildan Charles". This family were the firstfruits of the LJS mission in the Holy City. Rosenthal served for a while as foreman of the building project in Jerusalem. However, in 1849 he was sued in court for having misused funds sent for the purchase of building materials and for the wages of workers hired by the London Society, a charge he denied and which was not proven. This was just the first incident of several when the London Society accused one of its workers of improprieties, and may at least partially be due to insufficient communication and a lack of understanding of Middle Eastern ways as opposed to British. Simeon found work after this as interpreter for the British Consul, and rose in the good graces of James Finn, then consul at Jerusalem. In 1857 Finn sought to appoint Rosenthal in his place as his representative in times the consul was absent from his post in the city.
Simeon and his wife Anna Emilia went on to have four more sons and a daughter in Jerusalem. The youngest son was named after the rabbi-Bishop Michael Alexander. His eldest daughter, Maria Dorothea, who was baptised with him in Jerusalem at age 14, became the wife of Melville Peter Bergheim, businessman and banker. Together they raised a further two generations of Jewish believers born and raised in Jerusalem and did a great deal for the welfare of their fellow Jews in then-Palestine.
Simeon died in 1822.
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ Perry, A. Clouds and Wind Without Rain. Israel, 2001
L.J.S. Remarks of the Committee upon Mr. Young's Letter relative to Mr. Simeone Rosenthal's Case. Dep. Cmj, c.110McCaul, S. Jerusalem: Its Bishop, its Missionaries, and its Converts, being a Series of Letters Addressed to the Editor of the "Daily News" in the Year 1858 Daily News (2.4.1858) p. 9
