Henry Aaron Stern

Who was Henry Aaron Stern?

Henry Aaron Stern was an Anglican missionary and captive in Abyssinia.

He was the youngest son of Aaron Stern, a Jew, and Hannah his wife, was born in the Duchy of Hessen-Kassel. He received his education at a school in Frankfurt, to which place his parents had removed when he was young. His father destined him for the medical profession, but, at his son's special request, sent him when seventeen years old to Hamburg to be trained for a commercial life. In 1839 Stern received the offer of a good appointment in London, but the firm failed, and he found himself unsuccessful in obtaining employment. While in London he was taken to the Palestine Place chapel, where, through the influence of Dr. McCaul, he became a Christian, and was baptised on 15 March 1840. He was then placed in the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, where he learned the trade of a printer. In August 1842 he was admitted into the Hebrew College of the London Jews' Society, with the ultimate intention of becoming a missionary to the Jews.