Louis Barnett Abrahams

Abrahams began his studies at the Manchester Hebrew School, but left there to go to London, where he lived with his uncle, Rabbi Aaron Levy, a sofer and dayan (judge) on the London Beth Din.[3][4][5] He became a student-teacher at the Jews' Free School on 1 June 1854,[4][6][7] and then entered the University of London, completing a bachelor's of arts degree in 1863.[3][5]

He became a teacher at the Jews' Free School, and became head of the English department in 1864. While continuing to teach there, he also studied at John Curwen's Tonic Sol-Fa College, graduating in 1874 and adding music to the subjects he taught at the Jews' Free School. He became a school administrator in 1884 and headmaster in 1897, succeeding Moses Angel.[3]

As Moses Angel did before him, Abrahams disliked the Yiddish spoken by Jews newly arrived to England in a wave of immigration from Russia. In a 1905 speech at a prize-giving ceremony, he called Yiddish "that miserable jargon which was not a language at all". Instead, he favored immersion in English as a way of quickly assimilating Yiddish-speaking students.[3][7][8] Along with the introduction of music to the curriculum, he founded a cadet corps at the school, built a gymnasium, and organized sporting activities for the students.[3] He also moved the school away from purely theoretical studies and towards technical and vocational training, by opening new physics and chemistry laboratories and woodworking and metalworking shops.[9][10] Under his leadership the school became "the largest public elementary school in the world".[11][12][9] He retired from the school in 1907.[3][9]

Abrahams founded a periodical, the Jewish Record, in 1868, and served as its first editor for three years.[3][4][5][11] He also helped found the Jewish Educational Board and the Teachers' Training Committee,[6] and worked with several local benevolent societies. After retiring, he became honorary president of the synagogue at Westcliff-on-Sea.[3]

A portrait of Abrahams by Solomon Joseph Solomon was a part of an exhibition at the Burlington House in the Royal Academy of Arts in 1908.[13]

Abrahams was born on 3 October 1839 in Swansea.[3][4][14] His father, Barnett Abrahams (1785–1868), taught Hebrew there,[4] and became cantor in Manchester in 1845. His mother, Hannah, was Barnett's second wife, came from a Polish family, and died in 1868. Abrahams married Fannie Rosetta Mosely on 11 February 1869; they had two children.[3] His son, Bertram Louis Abrahams (1870–1908) was a physician, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.[15] He died on 3 June 1918.[3]

Abrahams was the author of:[4][6]

• Murby's Chronological History of England (1870)
• A manual of Scriptural History for Jewish Schools and Families (1882)
• A Translation of the Prayer-Book for School Use (1908)

His translation of the prayer-book was widely used in Jewish schools throughout England.[4]

A sonnet by Abrahams was included in The Standard Book of Jewish Verse.[16]