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Moses Mendelssohn
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Moses Mendelssohn was an 18th-century German-Jewish philosopher and theologian who became one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of his era. He matters because he played a key role in promoting Jewish integration into European society while advocating for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Moses
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Germany
- Place of birth
- Dessau
- Place of death
- Berlin
- Spouse
- Fromet Mendelssohn
- Occupation
- Bible translator
- Languages spoken
- German
- Religion
- Judaism
- Family
- Mendelssohn family
- Movement
- continental philosophy
- Image
- MosesMendelssohn-von-AntonGraff-Kupferstich.gif
Show 12 more facts
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- Commons category
- Moses Mendelssohn
- date of birth
- 1729-00-00
- date of death
- 1786-01-04
- Commons gallery
- Moses Mendelssohn
- name in native language
- Moses Mendelssohn
- place of burial
- Jüdischer Friedhof Berlin-Mitte
- time period
- 18th-century philosophy
- influenced by
- Benedictus de Spinoza
- writing language
- German
- P8168
- Colette Rolland
- archives at
- Berlin State Library
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
29 objects attributed to Moses Mendelssohn, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
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Encyclopedic overview
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the Haskalah, or 'Jewish Enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, and originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought and literature. Through his writings on philosophy and religion he came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both Christian and Jewish inhabitants of German-speaking Europe and beyond. His involvement in the Berlin textile industry formed the foundation of his family's wealth.
His descendants include the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn; Felix's son, chemist Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Fanny's grandsons, Paul and Kurt Hensel; and the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Moses Mendelssohn” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.