Solomon Maimon
Born Solomon ben Joshua (Shelomoh ben Yehoshu’a) in Nieswiez (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; now Nyasvizh, Belarus), Solomon Maimon received a traditional Talmudic education and married at age eleven. He studied secular German-language books on Jewish philosophy (including Maimonides, whose surname he adopted), and on Kabbalah and Hasidism. His secular and philosophical interests pushed him to move to Germany and Holland in the 1770s. There he became part of a circle of maskilim and later became a foremost interpreter of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Maimon wrote several works, including an autobiography, which opened up a new genre for Jewish writers and portrayed the traditions of Polish Jewish life in a mocking tone.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography
Primary Source
Givat ha-moreh [Commentary to Maimonides’ Moreh nevukhim, Guide for the Perplexed]
Primary Source
The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon: Maskilic View of Heder
Related Guide
Life Writing: Biography, Autobiography, and Ego Documents, 1750–1880
The famous and the obscure, women and men, in epitaphs and private letters, ethical wills, cookbooks, and religious reflections, all reflect aspects of Jewish life in a period of great transition.
Related Guide
Haskalah and Pedagogy, 1750–1880
The first maskilim ransacked both Jewish and European tradition to find new platforms for creating and transmitting the Jewish cultural ideals they conceived. Jews enlisted diverse literary genres to call for social, educational, and economic change.