Saul Ascher

Born Saul ben Anschel Jaffe in Berlin, Saul Ascher was an author, translator, editor, publisher, and philosopher. He sought social and civil reform for Jews, and fought against antisemitism; one of his works was burned in 1817 at a festival in Wartburg. Ascher was connected to other Haskalah figures, such as Solomon Maimon and Eduard Gans, and in secular thinking he followed the philosophy of Kant, vociferously rejecting the ideas of Fichte. Ascher’s Leviathan, oder über Religion in Rücksicht des Judentums argues that Judaism’s uniqueness comes from Maimonides’ Thirteen Articles of Faith rather than from ritual commandments.