Moses Mendelssohn

Nine years after the Vilna Gaon’s birth in Lithuania, another man was born whose influence opened the door to assimilation. He is known as the father of the Jewish Enlightenment, the Haskalah, which eventually helped birth the Reform and Zionist movements. Moses Mendelssohn was born in Germany on September 6, 1729, the son of Torah scribe Mendel of Dessau.1 A contemporary of the Vilna Gaon, h