He came from Hrubieszow, Poland, where his father was rabbi. Speaking French and German, he was known for his enlightened views and published a proposal for Jewish Emancipation (1796), He dedicated the work to Count Hoym, the Prussian commissioner for the annexed Polish areas. Some of his proposals, which included the replacement of the heder (the traditional Jewish elementary school) by state schools and the adoption by Jews of European dress and customs, were incorporated in the regulations for Jews introduced in southern and eastern Prussia in 1797.

Bibliography:

KATZ, Jacob. Out of the ghetto; the social background of Jewish emancipation, 1770-1870. Pp. vi, 271. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973