Ben Oliel was a well-known family in Oran, north Africa; baptized by the Wesleyans in Gibraltar. The portrait is of Moses Ben-Oliel.
Avraham was born in Tangier in 1826, came to faith at the age of 18 while attending a Yeshiva. He joined the British Society four years later and served in Europe, Asia and Africa for fifty years, particularly in Rome and Jaffa.
For a long time his face was set to go to Jerusalem, and when the British Society declined to send him, he left Jaffa and established the Jerusalem Christian Union Mission in 1890. His ripe experience, thorough scholarship, linguistic attainments, and brilliant intellect, fitted him for this difficult field; and his long association with Sephardim Jews seemed a specially providential preparation for his work among this class in the Holy City. His gifted wife was a true helpmeet, and their home became the center of various activities, including preaching services, mothers' meetingsand sewing classes. His advanced years forbade the expectation of a lengthy service in this new field. He was obliged to retire in 1897 and died in America not many years after.
He was a true man of God, an ardent lover of his nation, whose spiritual welfare he endeavoured to promote by word and pen all through a long life.
Ben Oliel, Maxwell Mochluff was ordained in 1860. After 1893 he conducted a misson to the Jews at Kilburn, by writing and lecturers.Though conversant with Jewish and Christian literature, and a prolific writer on the Jewish subject.
Ben Oliel, Moses, served for many years as Bible agent of the B. & F.B.S. at Oran
Sources
Bernstein, A. Jewish Witnesses for Christ Thomson, Century of Jewish Missions
