In mid-18th century Berlin, a process began which was to fundamentally change Jewish life throughout Germany: Jews moved out of the isolation in which they had been living, calling age-old traditions and ways of thinking into question and adopting the language, culture, and conventions of their surrounding environment. Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the great philosopher of European Enlightenment, played a crucial role in furthering this development.
In 1743, Mendelssohn came to Berlin as a young Talmud scholar. In Dessau, where he grew up, he had studied the Bible, the Talmud, and the writings of the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. Now, he was learning modern languages and secular sciences—thereby daring to step out of the confines of traditional Jewish life.
At first he earned his living as a private tutor, then as a bookkeeper and partner of the silk manufacturer Isaac Bernhard. Mendelssohn suffered under his office work, as it kept him from his studies: “This business! This annoying business! It’s driving me into the ground and consuming the energy of my best years.”
Inspired by his friend, the poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Mendelssohn himself began to publish. He became known as the “German Socrates” after the publication of his book Phaedon or On the Immortality of the Soul (1767). He dedicated himself to tolerance among the religions.
Probably Elimelech Polta Ben Simson Rofe, Portrait of Moses Mendelssohn, after 1767, gouache on horn or ivory; Jewish Museum Berlin, accession 2001/357/0, photo: Jens Ziehe
Probably Elimelech Polta Ben Simson Rofe, Portrait of Moses Mendelssohn, after 1767, gouache on horn or ivory; Jewish Museum Berlin, accession 2001/357/0, photo: Jens Ziehe
In Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism (1783), he tried to harmonize Judaism with the philosophy of the Enlightenment.
As no other Jew before him, Mendelssohn left his mark on the culture of his time—all the while living strictly according to the precepts of the Jewish religion. Later generations saw in him the first modern German Jew.
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Moses Mendelssohn
Discover objects related to the philopsopher and enlightener in our collections (in German)
Online Collections
From Wedding Dress to Torah Curtain
Moses and Fromet Mendelssohn had a Torah curtain made out of Fromet's wedding dress.
From our Holdings
“We dreamed of nothing but Enlightenment” – Moses Mendelssohn
Exhibition
14 Apr to 11 Sep 2022
In the Shade of Oaks and Firs
Thomas Lackmann writes about Moses Mendelssohn as passionately devoted to Berlin’s green spaces
JMB Journal Nr. 22: Berlin
2021
Moses Mendelssohn and His Time
A deep dive into themes of the exhibition “We dreamed of nothing but Enlightenment”
Online Feature
2022
Based on a True Story
An interview with the artist Typex on his graphic novel Moishe
JMB Journal 23
2022
Moishe. Six Anecdotes from the Life of Moses Mendelssohn
Graphic novel (with reading sample for download)
Publication
2022
With Love from Fromet and Moses Mendelssohnplatz!
The Mendelssohns' marriage inscribed in the map of Berlin
Essay
2013