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Paulus Stephanus Cassel (February 27, 1821 – December 23, 1892), born Selig Cassel, was a German Jewish convert to Christianity, writer, orator, and missionary to Jews. ==Biography== Cassel was born in Gross-Glogau, Silesia, Prussia. His father was a sculptor, and his brother David was a well-known rabbi in Berlin and docent at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums (College for the Study of Judaism). Cassel studied at the Gymnasium of Glogau and Schweidnitz and at the University of Berlin, where he followed with special interest the lectures of the historian Leopold von Ranke. In 1849 he edited in Erfurt ''Constitutionelle Zeitung'', and in 1850-56 ''Erfurter Zeitung'', in a royalist spirit. He later received a doctor of divinity degree from Vienna. According to his own statement, his Christian friends, and especially his study of the history of Israel, led him to Christianity. He was baptized as a member of Evangelical Church in Prussia on May 28, 1855 in the St. Peter's Church of Büßleben (now a locality of Erfurt), receiving the name "Paulus Stephanus." In later years he celebrated May 28 as his "second birthday". He became librarian of the Royal Library in Erfurt and secretary of the Academy in Erfurt in the following year. He remained in Erfurt till 1859. King Frederick William IV bestowed the title of professor on Cassel in recognition of his loyal labors. In 1860 he removed to Berlin, where he was a teacher at a gymnasium for a short time, and occupied himself with literary work. He was briefly editor of the official ''Deutsche Reform''. He delivered public lectures, which drew increasingly large audiences, both Jews and Gentiles. These lectures made him known throughout Berlin and the country. In 1866-1867 Cassel was a Conservative member of the Prussian House of Representatives, the second chamber of the Prussian parliament. He became a prominent member of the Conservative Party of Prussia. In 1867 Cassel was appointed missionary by the ''London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews'' (a Jewish Christian missionary society now known as the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People or CMJ), a position which he retained till March 1891. At the same time (1867) Cassel was assigned to the pastorate of the Christuskirche in Berlin, with over a thousand sittings, erected from 1863 to 1864 by the Society on Königgrätzer Straße (renamed as Stresemannstraße, now in Kreuzberg's part of the Friedrichstadt quarter).〔The Christ Church was destroyed on 3 February 1945 in an American air raid, its successor building was erected on Hornstraße from 1963 to 1964.〕 He remained in service there for twenty-four years. He traveled and lectured widely, as this excerpt from a published letter shows ("Thoughts on the Jewish Mission", 1887):
He baptized 262 Jews in Christuskirche, among them doctors, authors, merchants. In a pamphlet published a short time before his death, he complained of the inconsiderate treatment he had received at the hands of his Christian friends (''Erstes Sendschreiben an Freunde in Deutschland und England über die Christuskirche in Berlin und ihr Martyrium durch die London Society'', 1891). Hermann Leberecht Strack states that it is not clear what induced Cassel to join the Christian Church, though he contends that Cassel's reasons were obviously not mercenary. (See Herzog-Hauck, ''Real-Encyc.'' iii. 744). Cassel combated anti-Semitism with considerable warmth (in ''Wider Heinrich von Treitschke: Für die Juden'', 1880; ''Die Antisemiten und die evangelische Kirche: Sendschreiben an einen evangelischen Geistlichen'', 1881; ''Ahasverus: Die Sage vom ewigen Juden; eine wissenschaftliche Abhandlung; mit einem kritischen Protest wider Ed. v. Hartmann und Adolf Stöcker'', 1885; also ''Der Judengott und Richard Wagner: Eine Antwort an die Bayreuther Blätter; Zum 28. Mai 1881''). He wrote and spoke against Adolf Stöcker and Richard Wagner and other expressions of Protestant anti-Semitism during a period of its resurgence. In his ''Emancipation und Mission'' Cassel endeavored to show that the Jews would obtain permanent relief from persecution not by civil enfranchisement, but through evangelization. In later years, however, he frankly receded from this view. De le Roi, the historian of Christian propaganda among the Jews, says that Cassel was animated by "a very decided Jewish spirit." In 1860 Cassel published ''Die Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes seit der Zerstörung Jerusalems'' (History of the Jewish people since the destruction of Jerusalem). He exerted himself in the interest of proselytism among Jews. He stated his views on missionary work among them in the pamphlet entitled ''Wie ich über Judenmission denke'', 1886; see also ''Nathanael. Zeitschrift für die Arbeit der Evangelischen Kirche an Israel'', edited by Strack, 1897. From 1875 to 1889 he edited the weekly ''Sunem, ein Berliner Wochenblatt für christliches Leben und Wissen'' (16 vols.). ''Hallelujah! Einhundertundachtundachtzig geistliche Lieder'' is a collection of hymns reprinted from this journal. In 1847 Cassel wrote an earnest though somewhat fantastic study of Hungarian archaeology, ''Magyarische Alterthümer'', which long remained of value. Of especial interest is his translation (with notes) of the reply to Chisdai ben Isaac of Joseph, king of the Khazars (pp. 183 et seq.). Cassel died at Friedenau near Berlin, his last words being, "Wo ist denn das Himmelreich?" (Where is it, the kingdom of heaven?) His grave is preserved in the Protestant ''Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde'' (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Kreuzberg, south of Halle Gate. According to the ''Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums'',
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