Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Did you know the very first book for Jewish children in Germany was published in 1779?
David Friedländer’s Lesebuch für jüdische Kinder wasn’t just a schoolbook — it was part of a movement to modernize Jewish education during the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. Thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn and Friedländer believed secular learning was the key to Jewish emancipation, combining Jewish values with Enlightenment ideals.
This video is the first in our new series on the history of German-Jewish children’s literature. More episodes coming soon — stay tuned!
🔗 Want to learn more about Jewish children’s books? More to read on our website — lbi.org/collections/childlit/inventing-part-one
📚David Friedlaender's Lesebuch für jüdische Kinder was the first book published for Jewish children. It was compiled in Berlin in 1779 "zum Besten der jüdischen Freyschule," the first Jewish school opened to teach secular subjects. This copy is a reprint from the Soncino-Gesellschaft. Berlin : Soncino-Gesellschaft, 1927. LBI Library, PF 3114 F7.
🖼️Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher and poet Johann Caspar Lavater, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in a discussion at Mendelssohn's home, as imagined by the Jewish artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1856). Collection of the Judah L. Magnes Museum.
🖼️Moses Mendelssohn, (1771, Porträt von Anton Graff, Kunstbesitz der Universität Leipzig) public domain – Wikipedia
🖼️ Portrait of David Friedländer. In: Gallerie der ausgezeichnetsten Israeliten aller Jahrhunderte, ihre Portraits und Biographien. Stuttgart : Brodhag, 1834. LBI Library, q DS 115 B74
🖼️ Prague, by Hugo Steiner-Prag, LBI Collection
#JewishHistory #GermanJewish #Haskalah #ChildrensLiterature #LeoBaeckInstitute
Did you know the very first book for Jewish children in Germany was published in 1779?
David Friedländer’s Lesebuch für jüdische Kinder wasn’t just a schoolbook — it was part of a movement to modernize Jewish education during the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. Thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn and Friedländer believed secular learning was the key to Jewish emancipation, combining Jewish values with Enlightenment ideals.
This video is the first in our new series on the history of German-Jewish children’s literature. More episodes coming soon — stay tuned!
🔗 Want to learn more about Jewish children’s books? More to read on our website — lbi.org/collections/childlit/inventing-part-one
📚David Friedlaender's Lesebuch für jüdische Kinder was the first book published for Jewish children. It was compiled in Berlin in 1779 "zum Besten der jüdischen Freyschule," the first Jewish school opened to teach secular subjects. This copy is a reprint from the Soncino-Gesellschaft. Berlin : Soncino-Gesellschaft, 1927. LBI Library, PF 3114 F7.
🖼️Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher and poet Johann Caspar Lavater, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in a discussion at Mendelssohn's home, as imagined by the Jewish artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1856). Collection of the Judah L. Magnes Museum.
🖼️Moses Mendelssohn, (1771, Porträt von Anton Graff, Kunstbesitz der Universität Leipzig) public domain – Wikipedia
🖼️ Portrait of David Friedländer. In: Gallerie der ausgezeichnetsten Israeliten aller Jahrhunderte, ihre Portraits und Biographien. Stuttgart : Brodhag, 1834. LBI Library, q DS 115 B74
🖼️ Prague, by Hugo Steiner-Prag, LBI Collection
#JewishHistory #GermanJewish #Haskalah #ChildrensLiterature #LeoBaeckInstitute
