Surely, in the mid-eighteenth century, the odds against a poor Jewish boy from central Germany acquiring a first-rate education in Berlin and becoming a respected, polyglot Enlightenment philosopher were astronomical. Yet, that is what Moses Mendelssohn accomplished. A devout Jew, Mendelssohn shared the dedication of fellow philosophes like Voltaire to religious toleration. Mendelssohn's career proves that the Enlightenment was not limited to Christian or deist thinkers, but could be shared by Jewish intellectuals as well. Moreover, he no doubt inspired his progeny to lofty accomplishments; the best known of his descendents was the great composer, Felix Mendelssohn.

1. Take a fascinating virtual tour of Jewish Berlin, with a photograph of Moses Mendelssohn's tombstone (the only one remaining in the old Jewish cemetery) at
   http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/vjw/berlin.html
2. An excellent site on Mendelssohn, with a portrait, short biography, and links to related sites, may be visited at
   http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Mendelssohn.html
3. Mendelssohn's great contemporary, the enlightenment philosophe Voltaire, wrote a passionate defense of religious toleration, arguing that Jews, Muslims and others were his brothers; read this work at
   http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/voltaire.html
4. Moses Mendelssohn's famous grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, converted to Christianity and serves as an example of the assimilated, cultured western European Jew of the nineteenth century. Read a short biography and discography at
   http://web02.hnh.com/composer/btm.asp?fullname=Mendelssohn,%20Felix