Childhood in Dessau

Moses Mendelssohn was born in Dessau, capital city of the small principality of Anhalt-Dessau, on September 6, 1729 (Elul 12, 5489), the youngestprobably- of the three children of Mendel (Menahem) Heymann and his wife Bela Rachel Sara. On his father's side he was of rather humble origin. In 1726, three years before Moses was born, Mendel Heymann appears in the list of Dessau synagogue officials as custodian (Külster) and Schulklopfer, as one whose job it was, early every morning, to knock at the doors of members of the community, calling them to the service. Eventually he achieved the position of teacher and scribe (sofer). In a brief autobiographical note, written in 1774, Mendelssohn described his father to a non-Jewish public as “schoolmaster and writer of the Ten Commandments.” The office of sofer implies, of course, much more than this description indicates. It entails the writing of Tora scrolls and the mending of defective ones, and the preparation of legal documents such as bills of divorce (gittin) and of ritual objects such as phylacteries (tefilin) and doorpost capsules (mezuzot)-activities demanding considerable knowledge and skill. The sofer was also the secretary of the community. Until about 1706 this office had been administered in Dessau by the gifted Arye Löb Lipschütz, hailed as “the great scribe of our community,” who translated into Yiddish the poetic Hebrew dirges (kinot) of the fast day of the ninth of Av. He had moved to Berlin where he died in 1736. Compared to him, Mendel Heymann was a quite ordinary man, yet one qualified for his profession. The elegant handwriting of the “Sohn of Mendel” probably reflected a paternal influence.

On the maternal side, Mendelssohn was of truly aristocratic descent. Among the early Jewish settlers in Dessau, where Jews were first admitted in 1672, was the family of Simha Bonem (Benjamin) Wulff. Its ancestor was the illustrious Moses Isserles, of Cracow (ea. 1520-1572), author of the glosses to the Shulhan ‘Arukh (“The Prepared Table”), Joseph Karo's codification of Jewish laws and customs. Simha Bonem's father, Simon Wolf, was a grandson of Dresel, Isserles’ daughter from his second marriage.