Fromet (Frumet) Mendelssohn

Dear Alan,

Are you related to Moses Mendelsohn through his wife, Fromet?

In reading Max DimontÕs ÒThe Jews in AmericaÓ, Dimont relates how Moses Mendelssohn (b. Dessau, Anhalt, Germany 1729-d. 1786-?Berlin), affected by reading John Locke and the Enlightenment, became a Òsalon Jewish philosopherÓ, a ÒJewish LutherÓ, who translated the Torah into German using Hebrew letters. This created a storm of criticism from the chief rabbi of Frankfort (who appears in the Alan Guggenheim genealogy). Moses Mendelssohn married Fromet Guggenheim and they had three children, all of whom converted to Christianity, so that MosesÕ grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn was born a Christian.

Dimont further describes the Reform Judaism Movement in Germany which was influenced by the French Revolution and Napoleon who summoned on July 29, 1806, an Assembly of Jewish Notables of 120 oustanding scholars, financiers, businessmen and rabbis. The rabbis were outnumbered which was significant in that much of their control was lost in the Reform Movement. Napleon presented questions to the Assembly(the first Great Sanhedrin in 1800 years since the fall of Jerusalem to Rome) the answers to which determined Jewish national loyalty to France, defence obligations, relations with Christians under Jewish law, police powers of the rabbinate, monogomy and divorce, and political and economic issues. The influence of the Assembly was to help do away with Western European ghettos and involve Jews in the professions.Orthodox Jews upset by ÒJewish ProtestantismÓ, appealed to the King of PrussiaÊ who in 1823 decreed that Jewish services could be held only in accordance with Orthodox ritual. Reform Judaism was banned in Berlin.