Israel Jacobson (October 17, 1768,
HalberstadtHalberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Framework Road....
– September 14, 1828,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a German
philanthropistA philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
and, according to Borowitz and Patz in
Explaining Reform Judaism (1985), is considered the "father" of the
Reform movement in JudaismReform movement in Judaism is an historic and on-going religious and social movement that originated simultaneously in the early nineteenth century in the United States and Europe. The term is used by two widely read and frequently cited historians of the movement: David Philipson and Michael Meyer...
.
The only son of wealthy businessman and philanthropist Israel Jacob, Jacobson's parents lived modestly yet contributed considerably to reducing the community debt. Owing to the very low level of efficiency of the Halberstadt public schools, Israel attended mainly the Jewish religious school, in his leisure hours studying German literature and the works of
Gotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature.-Life:Lessing was born in...
and
Moses MendelssohnMoses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted. For some he was the third Moses heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people...
on his own account.
Israel Jacobson (October 17, 1768,
HalberstadtHalberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Framework Road....
– September 14, 1828,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a German
philanthropistA philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
and, according to Borowitz and Patz in
Explaining Reform Judaism (1985), is considered the "father" of the
Reform movement in JudaismReform movement in Judaism is an historic and on-going religious and social movement that originated simultaneously in the early nineteenth century in the United States and Europe. The term is used by two widely read and frequently cited historians of the movement: David Philipson and Michael Meyer...
.
Origins
The only son of wealthy businessman and philanthropist Israel Jacob, Jacobson's parents lived modestly yet contributed considerably to reducing the community debt. Owing to the very low level of efficiency of the Halberstadt public schools, Israel attended mainly the Jewish religious school, in his leisure hours studying German literature and the works of
Gotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature.-Life:Lessing was born in...
and
Moses MendelssohnMoses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted. For some he was the third Moses heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people...
on his own account. His level of understanding of rabbinic literature and Hebrew led professors at the
University of HelmstedtThe University of Helmstedt, official Latin name: Academia Julia , was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810....
, where he was eventually granted a degree, to declare that Jacobson was a Hebrew scholar.
At the age of eighteen, after having accumulated a small fortune, he married Mink Samson, the daughter of respected financier Herz Samson and granddaughter of Philip Samson, founder of the Samson-Schule at
WolfenbüttelWolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...
, at which
Leopold ZunzLeopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed the "Science of Judaism" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...
and
Isaak Markus JostIsaak Marcus Jost was a Jewish historical writer.He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In Berlin he began to teach, and in 1835 received the appointment of upper master in the Jewish commercial school at Frankfort-on-the-Main...
were educated. Through the Samson family, Jacobson became friends with
Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Prince of WolfenbüttelCharles II William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel was a sovereign prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and a professional soldier who served as a Generalfeldmarschall of the Kingdom of Prussia...
, favorite nephew of
Frederick II of PrussiaFrederick II was a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
. Jacobson took up his residence in
BrunswickBraunschweig , known as Brunswiek in Low German, is a city of 245,810 people , located in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser...
and, possessing great financial ability, rapidly increased his fortune. It was through Jacobson's influence and persuasion that in 1803 the so-called "
LeibzollThe 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 :...
" (poll-tax), then levied in many German states, was abolished in the ducal Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Wolfenbüttel.
Developing a belief in
egalitarianEgalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English. It is defined either as a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic...
and
religious pluralismReligious pluralism is a set of religious world views that hold that one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in other religions...
in education, he established (1801) in
SeesenSeesen is a town and a municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz, approx. 20 km west of Goslar. It is twinned with the English town of Wantage, Oxfordshire.-See also:...
, near the Harz Mountains, a school in which forty children of Jewish parents and twenty children of Christian parents were to be educated together, receiving free board and lodging. This close association of children of different creeds was a favorite idea of his. The Jacobson school soon obtained a wide reputation, and hundreds of pupils from neighboring places were educated there. During the hundred years of its existence, it has stood foremost in every line of educational work.
Accomplishments
Jacobson very soon perceived the necessity of imbuing the young as early as possible with proper religious impressions. In 1810 he built a beautiful
templeA synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer....
within the school grounds and showed his Reform sympathies by supplying it with an organ, the first instance of the placing of an organ in a Jewish house of worship. Hymns in German were sung by the boys; and prayers in German were added to those in Hebrew. The progressive nature of his views was further shown by his strong advocacy of the introduction of confirmation. In the Seesen temple it was Jacobson himself who confirmed the first five Jewish boys. When, under Napoleon's rule, the
Kingdom of WestphaliaThe Kingdom of Westphalia was a historical state that existed from 1807-1813 in parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoléon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, but had little territory in common...
was created, and the emperor's brother
Jérôme BonaparteJérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...
was placed at its head, Jacobson, who had removed to the residence of the king at
CasselCassel is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Its settlement dates from Roman times and it has been the site of several battles.-History:...
, was appointed president of the
Jewish consistoryIn Jewish usage, a consistory is a body governing the Jewish congregations of a province or of a country; also the district administered by the consistory...
. In his capacity as consistorial president, assisted by a board of officers, he did his best to exercise a reforming influence upon the various congregations of the country. He opened a house of prayer in Cassel, with a ritual similar to that introduced in Seesen; he also advocated a seminary for the training of Jewish teachers.
Reform religious innovations were egalitarian and based on
EnlightenmentEnlightenment in Western secular tradition refers mainly to the European intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason referring to philosophical developments related to scientific rationality in the 17th and 18th centuries.Enlightenment is wisdom or...
thinking and reason. With Jacobson's services from the beginning of the 19th century, there was no longer references to a liberating
MessiahMessiah literally means "anointed "...
who would reintroduce the state of Israel. Male worshippers were no longer required to cover their heads, and there also came an end to daily public worship. Work was allowed on the
SabbathIn Christianity, the Sabbath is generally a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by one of the Ten Commandments...
, and the dietary laws were abandoned. Women and men worshiped and studied together; liturgy stressed congregational readings in unison, sermons from the pulpit and a respectful environment; ethics were taught and discussed.
After the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin emancipated its Jewish subjects in 1813 Jacobson bought in that duchy two feudal manor estates, Klenz and Gehmkendorf and the peasant village Klein Markow (all three are components of today's
JördenstorfJördenstorf is a municipality in the district of Güstrow, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany....
). In 1816 he swore his oath of fealty to Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, thus becoming the first Jew with permanent seat and vote in the
Estates of the RealmThe Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe...
of a German state. As feudal lord he also held the patrimonial jurisdiction over his
vassalA vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief. By...
peasants and the
patronageJus patronatus, also spelt ius patronatus, imitating classical Latin orthography, is the term in Roman Catholic canon law for the "right of patronage"....
of the pertaining
LutheranThe Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Mecklenburg is a Protestant church in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, serving the citizens living in Mecklenburg. The seat of the bishop is the state capital Schwerin with Schwerin Cathedral as the principal church...
churches, which he conveyed to a Lutheran confidant. In 1817 he further acquired the neighbouring estates of Grambow and Tressow. His life and work, especially this part, is commemorated - among other things - in the permanent exhibition on Mecklenburg's Jewish history in the museum
Engelscher Hof and the half-timbered former synagogue in
RöbelRöbel is a municipality in the Müritz district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the western shore of Lake Müritz, 25 km north of Wittstock, and 27 km southwest of Waren.-Sights:...
, 66 km south of Jördenstorf.
After Napoleon's fall (1815) Jacobson moved to
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where also he continued to introduce reforms in beliefs and divine service. For this purpose he opened in his own house a hall for worship in which eloquent sermons were delivered by Zunz, Eduard Kley, and Isaak Lewin Auerbach. However, the
PrussianThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
government, remembering the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
sympathies of Jacobson, and receiving continued complaints from the Orthodox rabbis, ordered the services discontinued. Jacobson, using the title Consistorial President rtrd. , aroused some unrest among Protestant clergy in Berlin, who considered that title to be exclusive for the
consistorial presidents-Antiquity:Originally, the Latin word consistorium meant simply 'sitting together', just as the Greek synedrion ....
of Evangelical Church in Prussia.
Throughout his life Jacobson seized every opportunity to promote a cordial understanding between Jews and Christians, and his great wealth enabled him to support many poor of both faiths. His grave is preserved in the Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee in Berlin.