Moses Mendelssohn in the context of "Dessau"

The Haskalah (Hebrew: הַשְׂכָּלָה, Ashkenazic: Haskole; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world. It arose as a defined ideological worldview during the 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism.

The movement advocated against Jewish reclusiveness, encouraged the adoption of prevalent attire over traditional dress, while also working to diminish the authority of traditional community institutions such as rabbinic courts and boards of elders. It pursued a set of projects of cultural and moral renewal, including a revival of Hebrew for use in secular life, which resulted in an increase in Hebrew found in print. Concurrently, it strove for an optimal integration in surrounding societies. Practitioners promoted the study of exogenous culture, style and language as well as the adoption of modern values. At the same time, economic production, and the taking up of new occupations was pursued. The Haskalah promoted rationalism, liberalism, relativism, and enquiry, and is largely perceived as the Jewish variant of the general Age of Enlightenment. The movement encompassed a wide spectrum ranging from moderates, who hoped for maximal compromise, to radicals, who sought sweeping changes.

Raphael Levi Hannover (1685 – May 17, 1779) was a German Jewish mathematician and astronomer. The son of Jacob Joseph, Hannover was born at Weikersheim, Franconia in 1685. He was educated at the Jewish school of Hanover and at the yeshivah of Frankfurt am Main, and became bookkeeper in the firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover. Here he attracted the attention of Leibniz, and for a number of years was one of his most distinguished pupils and lived by him for three years (including last secretary), and afterward teacher of mathematics, astronomy, and natural philosophy. He also corresponded with Moses Mendelssohn.

Raphael Levi Hannover wrote: "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur," astronomical tables for the Jewish calendar; "Tekunat ha-Shamayim," on astronomy and calendar-making, especially commenting on the Talmudical passages on these topics, with glosses of Moses Tiktin. An enlarged revision of the latter work, with two other astronomical works of his, is in manuscript. The "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur" has been published with M. E. Fürth's "Yir'at Shamayim," on Maimonides' "Yad," Ḳiddush ha-Ḥodesh. He died in Hanover in 1779.

Baruch Jeitteles (Hebrew: ברוך ייטלס) (22 April 1762 – 18 December 1813) was a Jewish scholar, writer, and doctor from Bohemia, associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement (Haskalah). His teachers were Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of Prague and later Moses Mendelssohn of Berlin.

Isaac Baer Levinsohn (Yiddish: יצחק בער לעווינזאהן; October 13, 1788 – February 13, 1860), also known as the Ribal (ריב״ל), was a Jewish scholar of Hebrew, a satirist, a writer and Haskalah leader. He has been called "the Mendelssohn of Russia." In his Bet Yehudah (1837), he formulated a philosophy and described Jewish contributions to civilization in an effort to improve Jewish-Christian relations.

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (which includes his "Wedding March"), the Italian and Scottish Symphonies, the oratorios St. Paul and Elijah, the Hebrides Overture, the mature Violin Concerto, the String Octet, and the melody used in the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.

Mendelssohn's grandfather was the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, but Felix was initially raised without religion until he was baptised aged seven into the Reformed Christian church. He was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn received a similar musical education and was a talented composer and pianist in her own right; some of her early songs were published under her brother's name and her Easter Sonata was for a time mistakenly attributed to him after being lost and rediscovered in the 1970s.