Moses Mendelssohn and His Time [CLOSED]

About the Exhibition

Moses Mendelssohn’s career foreshadowed the historical trend which he came to symbolize – the movement of the Jews out of the Ghetto and into the world of European culture.
Mendelssohn was lionized by Berlin society, where he was admired for his wisdom and known as “the German Socrates”. His home attracted the leading intellectuals of the day. But at all times he was a traditional and conscious Jew ready to use his influence in the Christian world to help fellow Jews and Jewish communities in distress. He did not live to see the realization of Jewish Emancipation but he was the spiritual leader in the struggle for its attainment, and many aspects of Jewish Enlightenment can be traced back to his teachings.

The trends he ushered in were not without their dangers. As Jews entered into German society and culture and were dazzled by it, many – including Mendelssohn’s own descendants – chose to break all bonds with Judaism and embrace Christianity.

Nevertheless, Mendelssohn’s own life exemplified the symbiosis of the best in European culture with faithful adherence to Jewish tradition.

The original idea for the exhibition came from the noted German-Jewish photographer Nahum (Tim) Gidal. He collected books, paintings, and lithographs, from which he realized an exhibition depicting the many-faceted
activities of this great Jewish thinker, on the background of his times.