Sir Leon Levison - the Lion Hearted  

by Nahum Levison

In the ancient, holy city of Safed, sacred to Jewish tradition, a boy, Leon Levison, was born. He was the fourth son of the distinguished Rabbi Nahum Levison, who was famous as a profound expositor of the principles of Jewish Law and customs.

Rabbi Levison wanted his sons to have the best Jewish education avialable, so he invited Rabbi Joshua of Acre, one of the most famous teachers of youth in the Holy Land, to come to Safed as tutor. Rabbi Joshua was a saintly and unworldly man, a strict observer of Rabbinic Law. It has been said that he was one of a small group who kept silence from Friday afternoon till Saturday evening, discussing nothing except things concerning the Sabbath.

Rabbi Joshua became very fond of Leon, and Leon idolised him and was much impressed with his kindly and beautiful spirit. But Leon felt that the study of the Torah by itself was not a sufficient occupation in life. For had he not been told that Rabbi Hillel was a woodcutter; Rabbi Shammai a carpenter; and many other celebrated rabbis were shoemakers, tailors, sandalmakers, smiths, potters! Leon, too , wanted to work with his hands, and was finally given permission to study tailoring. He was very proud of his work and persisted until he was able to make a suit for himself. That accomplished, tailoring was given up for an interest in agriculture. Leon experimented with cross grafting, and developed a particularly luscious eating grape, superior to any grown in the Holy Land.

At the age of thirteen he made his bar mitzvah, became a son of the Law, and was now responsible for his own actions in the moral law. He had no patience with any law that did not have love, mercy, and forgiveness at its root, and early began to show great concern in other peoples' problems.

The story is told that he was barely fourteen when a quarrel arose between two sheikhs which could easily have led to the beginning of a blood feud. It was a dangerous situation, and as a rule Jews kept out of quarrels between Arabs. But Leon, accompanied by a Jewish courier named Herschel, met with each sheikh and arranged an offer of peace, which was accepted.

Leon seems to have been a born leader. The young Jews of Safed were divided among the Sephardic (Spanish-Portuguese) and Ashkenazi (German-Polish-Russian). These young men had formerly very little  to do with each other, and Leon welded them into a group which rendered considerable service to the community.

His determination to become efficient in the things that interested him led him to study French. his argument was, "You must know what other people think." It was this same determination that ultimately brought him into contact with Christianity. He wanted to learn English, but the only teachers available were those connected with the School of the Free Church of Scotland Mission.  In spite of his great prejudice, Leon and a few of his friends arranged to study secretly at night with Masud-el-Hadad, a Christian teacher in the school. English lessons continued, and the discussions also included the claims of Jesus as Messiah.

After the first winter, the teacher invited the medical missionary, Dr. George Wilson, to speak to the young Jewish men. Dr. Wilson was a man of kindly disposition, and before long his visits to the class became frequent and the youths took a great liking to him. He was a strong witness for Christ, and a number of the young men, including Leon, showed more than passing interest.

Dr. Wilson suggested that Leon go to Scotland to visit his uncle, Dr. Hood Wilson, pastor of the Barclay Church, Edinburgh. Here Leon worked for two years in a factory to earn his living. He took classes at the University and also studied at New College, all with the idea of fitting himself for Christian work.

Leon's parents loved him very much, and it was difficult for him to break the news to them of his acceptance of Christ. The worst of it was that they thought he was now an enemy of the Jewish people. He returned home, and on the way said, "I would let them curse me, beat me, do what they like to me for believing in Christ, but I cannot have them think that I hate our people, that I do not love them with all my heart."

The meeting with his mother showed the deep affection that bound them to each other, but also her terrible anger at his acceptance of Christ.

"You must leave the Nazarene out of this house; you must not mention his name so long as you are in this house. Do you hear?"

"Yes, mother," was Loen's reply. "But I cannot leave him out. He and I are inseparable."

She kissed him, and nothing further was said. The next day was Saturday and Leon went to synagogue with members of his family. He promised a donation to help the poor, and stayed till the prayers were over. He was criticized by some who thought that he had compromised his faith, but Leon never flinched.

"If you want me to explain, I will do it. If you care to condemn me without hearing me, I have a clear conscience before God and my Messiah."

For over thirty years Leon worked in Scotland for the Jew and for Christ. He was fascinated by the Zionist movement, and never relinquished his dream of a Hebrew Christian colony in the Holy Land. He was a man of strong, but gracious personality, of infinite resource, wise statesmanship, broad human sympathies, and consecrated Christian spirit. He worked along his own lines, and his efforts were most effective when, in the privacy of his home, he met many of his brethren who came to him secretly by night to inquire about the Messiah.

On the public platform and in the pulpit, Leon was also supreme. He went throughout the length and breadth of Scotland, arousing the conscience of Christians to a sympathetic understanding of the Jew. His are natural gift for forming friendships, readily obtained openings for him to advocate the cause of better understanding between Jews and Christians, and as an eloquent speaker he won the interest and support of his audiences.

During WWI Leon raised over 200,000 GBP for various Jewish Relief Funds, and also did invaluable secret service work fo rthe British Government. Honours poured in upon him. He was knighted by the King, made a knight of the Holy Sepulchre, and was presented with the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh.

Sir Leon was the author of a number of books, including a "Life of Paul"; was director and chairman of the publishing house of Marshall, Morgan & Scott; and one of the founders and first president of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance. As president he was no mere figurehead, but threw himself, heart and soul, into the work.

The needy were his brothers and sisters; the fallen his care; and his greatest gift that of enlisting the sympathy of others in good causes. He was roused to indignation where others were concerned, and once he had taken up the cause of an individual, or an ideal, he fought for it with all the courage of his name, "Lion".

To the end, Sir Leon remained essentially humble, simple hearted, a devout lover of the Messiah whom he served so well, and at heart the boy who once wantdered over the Galilean hills and found in their silence the peace of God first revealed there two thousand years before, in his own Son, born a Jew.

His work for Jews in Russia, Germany, Poland, central Europe, the Holy Land and America will never be forgotten. He was universally repsected and, in the country of his adoption, was honored by all people, from the highest to the lowest.

Upon his death, tributes poured in from the great, the near-great, and the humberl, but one expression seems to sum them up: "A Prince has fallen in Israel. In very truth, there has never been such a man in this generation."

*******

George Stevens' writes, "His last few years were clouded by the beginnings of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Although he did not live to see the climax of Hitler's attempt to find a "final solution" for the Jewish "problem" he saw enough nearly to break his heart. he left no stone unturned to help such refugees as could be brought to this country [England] and he was seeking to press the authorities to allow more to go to Palestine, at that time governed by Britain under the League of Nations mandate. Friends became anxious for his health as he worked at ever increasing pressure but the cause of his people came before all selfish considerations.

In the very midst of his work, while engaged in important conferences on the future of Jewish mission work in Scotland, he passed suddenly away at the age of 55 leaving the many friends associated with the causes so dear to his heart stunned by his unexpected passing. But he had "fought the good fight" and was true to his name, the lion-hearted son of Levi, to the very end."

Works

The Tragedy of the Jews in the European War Zone
The Jew in History

Sources

Levison, Frederick.  Christian and Jew: Leon Levison 1881-1936. Pentland Press, Edinburgh. 1989.
Levison, Nahum. Sir Leon Levison - The Lion Hearted. in Would I? Would You? ed. henry and Marie Einspruch. 1970
Schonfeld, Hugh. The History of Jewish Christianity.
Stevens, George H. Jewish Christian Leaders. Oliphants Ltd., London 1966.
 

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