Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn (September 6, 1729–January 4, 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher. He was an important Jewish figure of the 18th century, and to him is attributable the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment. To some he was the third Moses (the other two being the Biblical lawgiver and Moses Maimonides) with whom a new era opens in the history of the Jewish people. To others, he was a step into the beginning of assimilation and loss of identity for Jews and the dilution of traditional Judaism.

Old age and legacy

Despite this, Mendelssohn's theory was a strengthening bond in Judaism. For he maintained that Judaism was less a "divine need, than a revealed life." In the first part of the 19th century, the criticism of Jewish dogmas and traditions was associated with a firm adhesion to the older Jewish mode of living. Reason was applied to beliefs, the historic consciousness to life. Modern reform in Judaism is parting to some extent from this conception, but it still holds good even among the liberals.

Related Topics:
19th century - Dogma

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In Mendelssohn's remaining years, he progressed in fame, numbering among his friends many of the greatest men of the age. His Morgenstunden oder Vorlesungen über das Dasein Gottes (Morning hours or lectures about God's existence) appeared in 1785, and he died as the result of a cold contracted while carrying to his publishers in 1786 the manuscript of a vindication of his friend Lessing, who had predeceased him by five years.

Related Topics:
Morgenstunden oder Vorlesungen über das Dasein Gottes - 1785

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Mendelssohn had six children. His sons were: Joseph (founder of the Mendelssohn banking house, and a friend and benefactor of Alexander Humboldt), whose son Alexander (d. 1871) was the last Jewish descendant of the philosopher; Abraham (who married Leah Bartholdy and was the father of Fanny Hensel and J. L. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy); and Nathan (a mechanical engineer of considerable repute). His daughters were Dorothea, Recha and Henriette, all brilliantly gifted women.

Related Topics:
Alexander Humboldt - 1871 - Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

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