Henry Aaron Stern

Henry A. Stern (third from the left, standing) and his fellow prisoners. The photo was taken immediately after the prisoners’ liberation by the Napier Expedition in 1868.

Henry Aaron Stern (*11 April 1820, Unterreichenbach near Gelnhausen; † 13 May 1885, Hackney, London) was a Anglican missionary and priest of Jewish origin. After converting to Christianity in London in 1840 and studying with the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, he dedicated himself to missionary work, especially among Jewish communities in the Middle East and the Beta Israel (Falashas) in Ethiopia.

Stern became especially known for his arrest and imprisonment by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II in 1863, which stemmed from political tensions between Great Britain and Abyssinia. During his multi-year captivity, he endured severe torture. He and his fellow captives were eventually freed in 1868 by a British expeditionary corps. After his return to England, he worked as a leading missionary for his society until his death. His work Wanderings Among the Falashas in Abyssinia (1862) is considered one of the key sources on the life of the Falashas before their conversion to normative Judaism.