Alexander McCaul

Born in Dublin on May 16, 1799, he studied at Trinity College Dublin and was later sent to Poland by the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. During his years in Warsaw, he learned Hebrew and German and became closely engaged with Jewish texts and religious life, experience that shaped much of his later scholarship and polemical writing.

After returning to Britain, he was ordained in the Church of England and went on to hold major academic posts at King's College London, including professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature and later professor of divinity. Sources also note that he declined the bishopric of Jerusalem and instead supported Michael Solomon Alexander for the role.

He is especially remembered for works such as The Old Paths, which sparked strong responses from Jewish scholars and made him a significant figure in Jewish-Christian religious controversy in the 1800s. He died in London on November 13, 1863.