LEHMANN, LÉONCE

LEHMANN, LÉONCE (1836–1892), French advocate and philanthropist, born in Augsburg, Bavaria. He was appointed secretary to the Turkish embassy in Naples (1856). Later Lehmann practiced law in Paris. In 1870 Adolphe Crémieux made him chief secretary at the Ministry of Justice. He was a member of the central committee and then general secretary of the Alliance Israélite Universelle from 1888 to 1892. In 1869 Lehmann and narcisse leven visited the hunger-stricken Jewish centers in Lithuania and Poland. In 1887 Lehmann traveled to Russia and negotiated with the government about baron de hirsch 's projected loan of 50,000,000 francs for the establishment of Jewish elementary and professional schools in Russia. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bulletin de l'Alliance Israélite Universelle (1892), 14–15; N. Leven, Cinquante ans d'histoire: L'Alliance Israélite Universelle (1860–1910), 2 (1920), index.