Michael Hess (educator)

Michael Hess (also Michael Heß , born April 9, 1782 in Stadtlengsfeld , † February 26, 1860 in Frankfurt am Main ) was an educator and director of the philanthropist in Frankfurt am Main.

Life

Michael Isaac Hess was born in Stadtlengsfeld in the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach in 1782 as the son of Rabbi Isaac Hess Kugelmann (1762-1827). The town was the center of Jewish life in the front Rhön in the 18th and early 19th centuries and comprised around 800 Jewish citizens. Hess' younger brother Mendel (1807–1871) later became Chief Rabbi of Saxe-Weimar.

Hess became a student of the famous Talmud school in Fürth at an early age . He was strongly influenced by the works of Moses Mendelssohn and studied mainly educational writings. From 1804 he worked as a private tutor to Jakob Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main.

Just two years later, Siegmund Geisenheimer appointed him principal teacher and, in 1807, director of Philanthropin. Until his retirement in 1855, Hess worked for over 50 years in the Jewish community of the Free City of Frankfurt and wrote a. a. two pamphlets that dealt with current issues of Jewish emancipation . He was a committed representative of Liberal Judaism and campaigned for civil equality for Jews. Within the community he opposed the establishment of an Orthodox school. He founded a girls' school at Philanthropin and introduced numerous innovations based on Protestant worship into the school's devotional hours, which later also influenced the worship of the Jewish community. This included the use of German instead of Hebrew in sermons and prayer, playing the organ and singing in congregations.

Works (selection)

• 1816: Frank examination of the writing of Professor Rühs , Frankfurt am Main. ( Digitized version of the Freimann Collection of the University Library in Frankfurt am Main )
• 1831: Preliminary remarks on the Dr. HEG Paulus published under the title: The Jewish national segregation according to origin, consequences and means of improvement (together with Michael Creizenach ), Frankfurt am Main. ( Digitized version of the Freimann Collection of the University Library in Frankfurt am Main)
• 1838: The community and secondary school of the Israelite community, its creation, further training and current form . Johann David Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main ( full text in the Google book search).

literature

• Arthur Galliner , Festschrift for the centenary of the Realschule of the Israelite community in Frankfurt , 1 (1904), pp. 91–95
• Hess, Michael . Biographical article. In: Michael Berenbaum , Fred Skolnik (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Judaica . Gale Virtual Reference Library. 2nd Edition. tape 9 . Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit 2007, pp. 75 (English, online ).
• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 , p. 325 .