Robert Haas was a nineteenth-century Lutheran minister, who advocated the civil equality of Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 in Germany

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...

. Active in the Duchy of Nassau, he counted Reform Jewish

Reform Judaism

Reform 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...

 leader Abraham Geiger

Abraham Geiger

Abraham Geiger was a German rabbi and scholar who led the founding of Reform Judaism...

  among his friends, and endorsed the 1837 rabbinical convention in Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

. That same year, he produced a circular addressed to "all Christians in Germany," calling on them to assist in the establishment of a faculty of Jewish studies

Jewish studies

Jewish studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history , religious studies, archeology, sociology, languages , political science, area studies, women's studies, and ethnic studies...

at a German university. He published several work, most notably Das Staatsbürgertum der Juden vom Standpunkt der Inneren Politik.