Ernst A. Simon Library

Ernst Akiba Simon (1899-1988) was born in Berlin on March 15, 1899. He studied Philosophy, History and German Studies in Berlin and Heidelberg and completed his doctorate in 1923 with a thesis on Ranke and Hegel under the supervision of Herrman Oncken. After passing the state exams in Frankfurt am Main in 1926, Simon worked as an editor for the journal Der Jude ("The Jew"), co-edited by Martin Buber, until 1928. Through Gershom Scholem he came to the Freie Jüdische Lehrhaus ("Free Jewish Teaching House") in Frankfurt am Main - first as a student, then as a teacher - and worked there until his emigration to Palestine in 1928.

His engagement with the traditions of Judaism was decisively influenced by Martin Buber. At Buber's request, Simon returned to Germany in 1934 for barely a year to develop educational concepts for German Jews together with Buber and Leo Baeck. In 1939 Simon became a lecturer of History and Philosophy of Education, and in 1950 Professor of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He played a decisive role in the development of the Israeli educational system.

Throughout his life, Simon was active as a visionary for Jewish-Arab understanding and was a constant partner in the Jewish-Christian dialogue. In 1955 he was one of the co-founders of the Leo Baeck Institute. Numerous lecture tours took the "Brückenbauer" ("bridge builder"), as Buber once called him, to Germany again and again. Ernst Simon died in Jerusalem in 1988.

In the summer of 2000, the 12,000-volume library was acquired by the Moses Mendelssohn Center. The library's focus is on Philosophy, especially Jewish Philosophy, Zionism, Jewish History, Educational Sciences and Literature.

Ernst A. Simon Library

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