LEBRECHT, FUERCHTEGOTT

LEBRECHT, FUERCHTEGOTT (1800–1876), German scholar and educator. Lebrecht, born in Memmelbach, Bavaria, studied in Fürth and later in Pressburg with moses sofer and was one of his favorite pupils; he studied Hebrew grammar under wilhelm gesenius in Halle. Most of his life was spent in Berlin, where first he taught at the Teachers' Institute directed by leopold zunz and then was head teacher and librarian at the Veitel Heine Ephraimsche Lehranstalt, whose standards he raised considerably by the introduction of modern educational methods. Lebrecht was a close friend of Zunz and the contributor of numerous articles to both learned and popular periodicals. His scholarly work includes an edition with V.H. Biesenthal of David Kimḥi's Sefer ha-Shorashim (1847); Die Rabbinische Bibliothek des Berliner Beth Hamidrash (1852); Handschriften und erste Ausgaben des babylonischen Talmud (1862); Kritische Lese verbesserter Lesarten und Erklaerungenzum Talmud (1864); and Bether, die fragliche Stadt im Hadrianisch-juedischen Kriege (1877), published posthumously. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ADB, vol. 18, 97–98. (Michael A. Meyer)