David Friedländer
Encyclopedia
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
– 25 December 1834, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Jewish banker, writer and communal leader.
Life
Friedländer settled in Berlin in 1771. As the son-in-law of the rich banker Daniel ItzigDaniel Itzig
Daniel Itzig was a Court Jew of Kings Frederick II the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia....
, and a friend, pupil, and subsequently intellectual successor of Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...
, he occupied a prominent position in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles of Berlin. His endeavors on behalf of the Jews and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
included the emancipation of the Jews of Berlin and the various reforms connected therewith. Frederick William II
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...
, on his accession, called a committee whose duty was to acquaint him with the grievances of the Jews, Friedländer and Itzig being chosen as general delegates. But the results of the conference were such that the Jews declared themselves unable to accept the reforms proposed, and not until after the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, with the edict of March 11, 1812, did the Jews then living on Prussian territory succeed in obtaining equal rights from Frederick William III.
Friedländer and his friends in the community of Berlin now turned their attention to the reform of worship in harmony with modern ideas and the changed social position of the Jews. The proposition in itself was perfectly justified, but the propositions of Friedländer, who had meanwhile been called (1813) to the conferences on the reorganization of the Jewish cult held in the Jewish consistory at Cassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, were unacceptable to even the most radical members, as they tended to reduce Judaism to a mere colorless code of ethics.
Friedländer was more successful in his educational endeavors. He was one of the founders of a Jewish free school (1778), which he directed in association with his brother-in-law, Isaac Daniel Itzig. In this school, however, exclusively Jewish subjects were soon crowded out. Friedländer also wrote text-books, and was one of the first to translate the Hebrew prayer-book into German.
The "dry baptism" initiative
Friedländer was concerned with endeavors to facilitate for himself and other Jews entry into Christian circles. This disposition was evidenced in 1799 by his radical proposal to a leading Protestant provost in Berlin (Oberconsistorialrat) Wilhelm Teller. Friedländer's open letter (Sendschreiben) "in the name of some Jewish heads of families," stated that Jews would be ready to undergo "dry baptism": join the Lutheran Church on the basis of shared moral values if they were not required to believe in the divinity of Jesus and might evade certain Christian ceremonies. Much of the Open Letter was a polemic arguing that the Mosaic rituals were largely obsolete. So Judaism would thereby in return abandon many of its ceremonial features. The proposal "envisioned the establishment of a confederated unitarian church-synagogue."This "Sendschreiben an Seine Hochwürden Herrn Oberconsistorialrath und Probst Teller zu Berlin, von einigen Hausvätern Jüdischer Religion" (Berlin, 1799), elicited over a score of responses in pamphlets and the popular press, including ones from Abraham Teller and Friedrich Schleiermacher. Both rejected the notion of a sham conversion to Christianity as harmful to Christianity and the State, though, in line with Enlightenment values, neither precluded the idea of more civil rights for unconverted Jews. Jewish reaction on Friedländer's initiative was overwhelmingly hostile, and it was called "a dishonorable act" and "desertion". Heinrich Graetz
Heinrich Graetz
Heinrich Graetz was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective....
called him an "ape".
In 1816, when the Prussian government decided to improve the situation of the Polish Jews, Franciszek Malczewski (Malziewsky), Bishop of Kujawy, consulted Friedländer. Friedländer gave the bishop a circumstantial account of the material and intellectual condition of the Jews, and indicated the means by which it might be ameliorated.
Literary career
Friedländer displayed great activity in literary work. Induced by Moses Mendelssohn, he began the translation into German of some parts of the Bible according to Mendelssohn's commentary. He translated Mendelssohn's "Sefer ha-Nefesh," Berlin, 1787, and "Ḳohelet," 1788. He wrote a Hebrew commentary to Abot and also translated it, Vienna, 1791; "Reden der Erbauung Gebildeten Israeliten Gewidmet," Berlin, 1815-17; "Moses Mendelssohn, von Ihm und über Ihn," ib. 1819; "Ueber die Verbesserung der Israeliten im Königreich Polen," ib. 1819, this being the answer which he wrote to the Bishop of Kujawia; "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Judenverfolgung im XIX. Jahrhundert Durch Schriftsteller," ib. 1820.Friedländer was assessor of the Royal College of Manufacture and Commerce of Berlin, and the first Jew to sit in the municipal council of that city. His wealth enabled him to be a patron of science and art, among those he encouraged being the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Works
- Lesebuch für jüdische Kinder, Nachdr. d. Ausg. Berlin, Voss, 1779 / neu hrsg. u. mit Einl. u. Anh. vers. von Zohar Shavit, Frankfurt am Main : dipa-Verl., 1990. ISBN 3-7638-0132-4
- Übersetzung von Moses Mendelssohns Sefer ha-Nefesh. Berlin, 1787.
- Übersetzung von Moses Mendelssohns Ḳohelet 1788.
- David Friedländers Schrift: Ueber die durch die neue Organisation der Judenschaften in den preußischen Staaten nothwendig gewordene Umbildung 1) ihres Gottesdienstes in den Synagogen, 2) ihrer Unterrichts-Anstalten und deren Lehrgegenstände und 3) ihres Erziehungwesens überhaupt : Ein Wort zu seiner Zeit. - Neudr. nebst Anh. der Ausgabe Berlin, in Comm. bei W. Dieterici, 1812. Berlin: Verl. Hausfreund, 1934. (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin / Stern.
- Reden der Erbauung Gebildeten Israeliten Gewidmet Berlin, 1815-17.
- Moses Mendelssohn, von Ihm und über Ihn Berlin, 1819.
- Ueber die Verbesserung der Israeliten im Königreich Polen Berlin, 1819.
- Beiträge zur Geschichte der Judenverfolgung im XIX. Jahrhundert Durch Schriftsteller Berlin, 1820.
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia
- über die jüdische Freischule
- searching "David Friedländer" - Online-Gesamtkatalog Der Deutschen Bibliothek
See also
- Moses MendelssohnMoses MendelssohnMoses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...
- HaskalahHaskalahHaskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
- Reform JudaismReform JudaismReform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
- LeibzollLeibzollThe Leibzoll was a special toll which Jews had to pay in most of the European states in the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.- Rate of the toll :...
- Itzig familyItzig familyMany of the thirteen children of Daniel Itzig and Miriam Wulff, and their descendants and spouses, had significant impact on both Jewish and German social and cultural history...