David Friedländer

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David Friedländer

David Friedländer (sometimes spelled Friedlander; 16 December 1750, Königsberg – 25 December 1834, Berlin) was a German banker, writer and communal leader.

Life

Communal leader and author in

Court Jews
in Prussia.

In 1799 Friedlaender sent his famous Sendschreiben ("Open Letter") to Pastor Teller in which he expressed, "in the name of some Jewish householders," a deistic conception of religion. For this reason, he rejected

Kant
, who exercised an influence on Friedlaender, disparaged biblical Judaism. Friedlaender shared the educational ideals and belief in liturgical reform current among representatives of the Jewish enlightenment in Berlin after Mendelssohn, giving expression to these ideas in his writings.

After the issue of the 1812 edict in

Talmudic law should be replaced by an analysis of the country's laws. Friedlaender even wanted to enlist the help of the government in his endeavors for reform. In part as a result of his efforts, a "Jewish free school" was established in 1778;[2] Friedlaender became the organizer and supervisor of the school, which he directed for almost 20 years, with his brother-in-law Daniel Itzig
, along with the Hebrew press and bookshop associated with it—the institution aimed at putting into practice the ideals of enlightened education.

From 1783 to 1812 Friedlaender, as the representative of Prussian Jewry, fought assiduously for the implementation of its demands for equal rights. He headed the "general deputies" of the Jewish communities of Prussia who assembled in Berlin in order to submit their requests to the commission set up by Frederick William II of Prussia in 1787. Under Friedlaender's leadership, the deputies rejected the unsatisfactory "Plan for Reform" proposed by the commission. In 1793 he published the documents pertaining to these negotiations under the title Acktenstücke, die Reform der jüdischen. Kolonien in den preussischen Staaten betreffend. In 1809 Friedlaender was the first Jew elected to sit in the municipal council. Continuing the struggle for emancipation, in 1810 he requested an audience with the Prussian chancellor, Carl August von Hardenberg; as an argument in favor of granting emancipation, he pointed to the "wave of baptisms" which indicated the degree of assimilation of Prussian Jewry. Friedlaender's efforts for the emancipation of Prussian Jews are especially important since in they reflected the main dilemma of Jewish life in Prussia in the first generation after Mendelssohn: how to hold fast to a Jewish identity within a society based on universalist principles. [3]


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."[4]

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 to Friedländer's initiative was overwhelmingly hostile  – it was called "a dishonorable act" and "desertion". Heinrich Graetz called him an "ape".[4]

In 1816, when the Prussian government decided to improve the situation of the Polish Jews, Franciszek Skarbek von Malczewski,

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.[5]

Works

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Simpson, Alan (20 Jun 2012). "Commissions of inquiry - Functions, power and legal status". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  2. ^ Schapkow, Carsten (6 Dec 2017). "Education and Reform. The Israelite Free School in the Context of Civic Emancipation". Key Documents of German-Jewish History. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  3. ^ J. Graetz, Michael (22 Mar 2023). "FRIEDLAENDER, DAVID". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-8050-5964-4
    pp. 73-75
  5. ^ "FRIEDLÄNDER, DAVID". JewishEncyclopedia. Retrieved 11 April 2023. by Isidore Singer and A. Kurrein.

References

"FRIEDLÄNDER, DAVID". JewishEncyclopedia. Retrieved 11 April 2023. by Isidore Singer and A. Kurrein.

  • Lowenstein, Steven M.:The Jewishness of David Friedländer and the crisis of Berlin Jewry. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan Univ., 1994. (Braun lectures in the history of the Jews in Prussia ; no. 3)
  • Friedlander, David, Schleiermacher, Friedrich, and Teller, Wilhelm Abraham: A Debate on Jewish Emancipation and Christian Theology in Old Berlin. Crouter, Richard and Klassen, Julie (eds. and translators) Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2004.
Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia article
  • I. Ritter, Gesch. der Jüdischen Reformation, ii., David Friedländer;
  • Ludwig Geiger, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vii.;
  • Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 250 et seq.;
  • Rippner
    , in Gratz Jubelschrift, pp. 162 et seq.;
  • Sulamith, viii. 109 et seq.;
  • Der Jüdische Plutarch, ii. 56-60;
  • Museum für die Israelitische Jugend, 1840;
  • Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, i. 256-273.

External links

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