Markus Magnus (d. 1736)[1] was an Elder of the Jewish community of Berlin in the first quarter of the eighteenth century and court Jew to the crown prince, afterward King Frederick William I.

Markus Magnus
Personal
Died1736 (1737)
ReligionJudaism
OccupationCourt Jew

The Jewish community of Berlin was divided into two hostile camps by Magnus' quarrels with his rival, wealthy jeweler Jost Liebmann.[2] Frederick I favored the latter, while the crown prince supported Magnus, as did Berlin's increasingly-prominent Viennese Jewish families, who had been expelled from their native city under Leopold I.[3]

After the death of Liebmann, his widow and sons continued these quarrels, which ended in the victory of Magnus.[4] He induced the members of the community to build a public synagogue in place of the private synagogue previously maintained by members of the Liebmann family. The new Great Synagogue was consecrated on Rosh Hashanah, 14 September 1714, in the presence of Queen Sophie Dorothea.[5][2] When on 16 March 1722 the government issued a new regulation for the administration of the Berlin Jewish congregation, Magnus and Moses Levi Gumpertz were appointed permanent chief elders with a salary of 300 thalers each.[6]

References edit

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainDeutsch, Gotthard; Mannheimer, S. (1904). "Magnus, Markus". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 258.

  1. ^ Storm, Jill (2010). Culture and Exchange: The Jews of Königsberg, 1700–1820 (Dissertation). Washington University in St. Louis. doi:10.7936/K7T43R5J.
  2. ^ a b Nachama, Andreas; Schoeps, Julius Hans; Simon, Hermann (2002). Jews in Berlin. Berghahn Books. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-89487-426-1.
  3. ^ Cohen, Richard I. (1998). Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-520-20545-1.
  4. ^ Lowenstein, Steven M. (1994). The Berlin Jewish Community: Enlightenment, Family and Crisis, 1770–1830. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-19-535942-8.
  5. ^ Feiner, Jeffrey M. (2020). "From London to Jerusalem: Confrontations and Disputes". The Jewish Eighteenth Century: A European Biography, 1700–1750. Translated by Green, Shmuel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-05258-2.
  6. ^ Wolbe, Eugen (1937). Geschichte der Juden in Berlin und in der Mark Brandenburg (in German). Berlin: Verlag Kedem. pp. 121 ff., 128, 157.