German educator; born at Memmelbach, Bavaria, Nov. 16, 1800; died at Berlin, Sept. 1, 1876. He studied at Fürth, and later at Presburg under Moses Sofer, devoting himself mainly to the Talmud and to the Hebrew literature of the Middle Ages. In 1827 he went to Halle, where he received a thorough grammatical training under Gesenius, whom in turn he aided in Neo-Hebraic literature. After a few years spent at Halle, he went to Berlin, where he devoted himself to literary work. He secured a position as teacher at the Lehrer-Seminar (founded under the direction of Zunz in 1840), and continued there until 1848. In 1856 he became head teacher at the Veitel Heine Ephraim'sche Lehranstalt (Bet ha-Midrash), a position he retained until his death, serving also as librarian. This institution had been established in 1774, but was not maintained on a high pedagogical plane until Lebrecht introduced modern educational methods and elevated it to a level of efficiency that attracted to it wide-spread attention.
Lebrecht was a constant contributor to Jewish periodicals, such as Geiger's "Jüd. Zeit.," Fürst's "Der Orient," the "Historische Jahrbücher für Kritik," the "Allg. Zeit. des Jud."; also to the "Vossische Zeitung" and the "Spenersche Zeitung." In 1862 he published his "Handschriften und Erste Ausgaben des Babylonischen Talmud" in the "Wissenschaftliche Blätter aus der Veitel Heine Ephraim'schen Lehranstalt," and two years later his "Verbesserter Kritische Lesarten und Erklärungen zum Talmud," Berlin, 1864. In 1874 his "Adelheid Zunz" was reprinted from the "Vossische Zeitung." His last work (posthumously published) was his "Bethar, die Fragliche Stadt im Hadrianisch-Jüdischen Kriege: Ein 1700 Jähriges Missverstädniss; Beitrag zur Gesch. und Geographie des Alten Palästina," Berlin, 1877, an enlarged reprint of his article in Berliner's "Magazin," 1876, pp. 27-40, 77-93, the principal addition being a historical appendix. Together with Johann B. Biesenthal he edited David Ḳimḥi's "Sefer Shorashim" (Berlin, 1847), and to A. Asher's edition of Benjamin of Tudela (vol. ii. London, 1841) he contributed an essay on the state of the califate of Bagdad during the latter half of the 12th century. Several of his essays—"Juden als Arabische Dichter," "Die Oppenheimer'sche Bibliothek," "Jehuda ben Koreisch, der Erste Lexicograph der Bibel"—were published in the "Orient, Lit." 1841-44. His pamphlet, "Zum 150. Geburtstage Moses Mendelssohn's," was edited by Dr. A. Berliner (Berlin, 1878).
- Steinschneider, in Bolletino Ital. degli Studi Orientali, 1876, p. 153.