The philosopher who bridged Judaism and the European Enlightenment, father of the Haskalah — the Jewish Enlightenment.
Life
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), a largely self-taught German-Jewish philosopher, won fame in the wider Enlightenment for his writings on metaphysics and aesthetics while arguing, in Jerusalem, for religious toleration and the compatibility of Judaism with reason and civic life. He translated the Torah into German to open European culture to Jews, and inspired the Haskalah movement. A model of the cultured, observant modern Jew, his legacy shaped the debates over emancipation, reform, and Jewish identity that followed.