LEVY, ABRAHAM HIRTZEL:

By: Gotthard Deutsch, Joseph Jacobs

Alsatian martyr; born at Wittolsheim; executed at Colmar, Alsace, Dec. 31, 1754. He was accused with three other Jews of having stolen property amounting to three thousand livres from the house of a widow named Madeline Katin. Notwithstanding that they all proved an alibi, he was condemned to "the ordinary and extraordinary question." He did not confess and was broken on the wheel the next day. The chief Jews of Alsace, convinced of his innocence, brought the case on appeal before the Privy Council of Paris, which reversed the verdict and proclaimed Levy innocent June 16, 1755. His remains were removed from the gallows, enveloped in a ṭallit, and buried in the Jewish cemetery of Jungholtz.

D. J.