(1729-1986)
German philosopher. He was born in Dessau. He lived in Berlin, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, Latin, French and English, and became a partner in a silk factory. In 1754 with the help of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, he began to publish philosophical studies and in 1763 was awarded the first prize of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences for his philo-sophical works. He became embroiled in a dispute about Judaism, and from 1769 devoted his literary work to issues dealing with the Jewish faith. He published a German translation of the Pentateuch with a Hebrew commentary (Biur). His Jerusalem is an analysis of Judaism and a defence of toleration.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography. Dan Cohn-Sherbok.