Markus G. Dreyfus

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Markus G. Dreifus, photo from the 19th century

Markus Getsch Dreyfus , also Markus Götsch Dreifus (s) , (born November 18, 1812 in Endingen AG ; † May 20, 1877 in Zurich ) was a Jewish teacher and publicist in the fight for the emancipation of Jews in Switzerland .

Life

Markus G. Dreifus was born on November 18, 1812 in Endingen as the son of the wealthy Getsch Marum Dreyfus. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi Abraham Ris . After a traditional Jewish education, he attended the Talmud College in Altbreisach at the age of fourteen . Then he received a modern pedagogical training at the Protestant teacher training college in Karlsruhe (today Karlsruhe University of Education ). After the examination as a teacher candidate in Aarau , he took over the position of Hebrew teacher in 1831 at the newly founded Israelite elementary school in Endingen. In addition, he continued his education at the Aarau Cantonal School in 1832 and was briefly enrolled in 1834 as the first Swiss Jew at the University of Basel .

However, he soon decided entirely on pedagogy. One summer he taught at the Fellenberg Institute in Hofwil and then in Hagenthal in Alsace . After he was declared the first Jew to be eligible head teacher, he took over the post of senior teacher at the reorganized Israelite school in Endingen. He fulfilled this function with short interruptions - in 1843 as a religious teacher for the Jewish community in Geneva and in 1861 as editor of the Winterthurer Landbote - until 1869. After that, he accepted a call to Frankfurt am Main , where he started a Jewish agricultural school on behalf of the banker Hahn should erect. Dreyfus returned to Switzerland in 1872 and worked as a religion teacher in Zurich until 1876. There he participated in the establishment of the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zurich until his death in 1877 .

meaning

Markus G. Dreyfus dedicated his life entirely to the modern education of Jewish youth. In addition, he was intensively involved in the fight for the emancipation of Jews in Switzerland. His pedagogy was based on the reform schools of the German-Jewish Enlightenment . The First Hebrew Reader he wrote saw several editions. After all professions were open to Jews in Switzerland too, he worked towards a professional shift. In 1839, for example, he founded the Poel tow craft association to support Jewish apprentices. The attempt to establish an agricultural school in Endingen failed due to a lack of financial means. In addition to his work as a teacher, Dreyfus was also active as a journalist and maintained contact with key representatives of liberal Judaism such as Rabbi Ludwig Philippson , for whose Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums he was a correspondent, with the pioneer of Reform Judaism Abraham Geiger and the historian Isaak Marcus Jost .

In the years 1839 to 1866 Dreyfus wrote several petitions to the canton of Aargau and to the federal government in the fight for civil equality for Jews . In 1860 he published the work on the appreciation of Judaism among his non-confessors , in which he presented the principles of Judaism against the attacks and denials in dialogue form. Two years later, however, the emancipation of the Jews in Aargau suffered a severe blow with the rejection of the new Jewish law. Dreyfus responded with the widely acclaimed brochure On Civil Equality for Israelites in Aargau , which was printed in 1862 without the author's name. As a contact for the Alliance Israélite Universelle (Paris), he also published articles in the French press about discrimination against Jews in Switzerland. In addition to the historian Meyer Kayserling , who was rabbi of Lengnau and Endingen from 1861 to 1870 , Markus G. Dreyfus was one of the most important figures in the struggle of Swiss Jews for their equality.

Works

  • Respectful presentation of the Israelite communities of Endingen and Lengnau to the Hohe Vorort in Bern, for the attention of the High Federal Revision Commission and the High Diet . Basel 1848.
  • First Hebrew reading book for Israelite schools . Digitized 5th edition 1880
  • For the appreciation of Judaism among its non-confessors . With a foreword by Meyer Kayserling, Winterthur 1860. Digitized 2nd edition 1862
  • About the civil equality of the Israelites in Aargau , Aarau 1862. Digitized
  • The plum or Büntel war in 1802. From Switzerland. Told by an eyewitness . In: Jüdisches Volksblatt for instruction and entertainment in the Jewish field , 1/33 (1854).

literature

  • Robert Uri Kaufmann : A Swiss-Jewish life for modern education and emancipation. Marcus Getsch Dreifus (1812-1877) from Endingen . In: Abraham Peter Kustermann, Dieter R. Bauer (eds.): Jewish life in the Lake Constance area. On the history of Alemannic Judaism with theses on Christian-Jewish conversation . Ostfildern 1994, pp. 109-132. ISBN 3-7966-0752-7
  • Augusta Weldler-Steinberg : History of the Jews in Switzerland from the 16th century to after emancipation . Zurich 1966.
  • Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg : Dreyfus, Markus G. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Aargau . Aarau 1958, pp. 162-163.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After Kaufmann (HLS) at the philosophical faculty, after Guggenheim-Grünberg (1958) at the medical faculty.
  2. ↑ a b Guggenheim-Grünberg (1958)
personal data
SURNAME Dreyfus, Markus G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dreyfus, Markus Getsch (full name); Dreifuss, Markus Götsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss teacher and publicist for the equality of Jews
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Endingen AG
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1877
Place of death Zurich