Ernst Simon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernst Simon

Ernst Akiva Simon (Hebrew: עקיבא ארְנְסְט סימון; March 15, 1900 in Berlin – August 18, 1988 in Jerusalem) was a German-Jewish educator and religious philosopher.

Biography[edit]

Ernst Avika Simon was born in Eisenstadt, Austria. His father Ludwig was a shoe factory worker. In 1938, at the age of eight, he witnessed Jewish prayer books and Torah scrolls being burned by the Nazis in what was later known as Kristalnacht. His parents secured him a place on the Kindertransport. He was reunited in the UK with his parents and brother, Kurt, a month later. Simon later attended Leeds University, where he was awarded a degree in economics and commerce.[1]

Teaching career and political activism[edit]

In the 1920s, Ernst Simon co-founded Brit Shalom along with Martin Buber, an organization espousing a binational solution for promoting the co-existence of Jews and Arabs in the State of Israel. From 1930 to 1933 he taught at the Hebrew Reali School Haifa, headed by Arthur Biram. In 1942, he was one of the founders of the binationalist Ihud party.

Published works[edit]

  • Aufbau im Untergang. Jüdische Erwachsenenbildung im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland als geistiger Widerstand. Tübingen: Mohr 1959. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Institute of Jews from Germany. 2).
  • Brücken. Gesammelte Aufsätze. Heidelberg: Schneider 1965.
  • Selbstdarstellung. In: Pädagogik in Selbstdarstellungen. Hamburg: Meiner, Bd. 1 (1975), S. 272–333.
  • Entscheidung zum Judentum. Essays und Vorträge. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp Verlag 1980. (Bibliothek Suhrkamp. 641).
  • Sechzig Jahre gegen den Strom. Briefe von 1917-1984. Hrsg. vom Leo-Baeck-Institut, Jerusalem. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 1998. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo-Baeck-Instituts. 59). ISBN 3-16-147000-1

Awards and recognition[edit]

Minister of Education Zalman Aran (left) awarding Simon the Israel Prize in 1967

In 1967, Simon was awarded the Israel Prize, for education.[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Balint, Barnabas (2023-03-20). "Ernest Simon obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  2. ^ "Israel Prize Official Site - Recipients in 1967 (in Hebrew)". Archived from the original on 2012-03-07.

Further reading[edit]

  • Rudolf Lennert: Über das Leben der deutschen Sprache in Jerusalem. In: Neue Sammlung. Göttingen. Bd. 6 (1966) S. 617-627 (über Ernst Simon, Ludwig Strauss and Werner Kraft).
  • Jan Woppowa in: Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon. Begr. und hrsg. von Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz. Fortgef. von [Traugott Bautz]. Bd. 21 (2003) Sp. 1439–1446.
  • Jan Woppowa (2003). "Ernst Simon". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 21. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1439–1446. ISBN 3-88309-110-3.
  • Kurzinformation des Moses-Mendelssohn-Zentrum der Universität Potsdam
  • Ephraim Chamiel, Between Religion and Reason - The Dialectical Position in Contemporary Jewish Thought, Academic Studies Press, Boston 2020, part I, pp. 98-107.