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A C k n o w l e d g m e n t s i discussed my ideas concerning idolatry and enlightened Judaism with friends and colleagues. i am grateful for their suggestions and criticism . in an early stage of my work, ursula goldenbaum, Rachel livnehFreudenthal , and Reinier Munk encouraged me to turn my initial ideas into a more comprehensive study. i am particularly grateful to hannah Kasher, who has been my permanent consultant and challenging interlocutor but above all helpful in innumerable ways. israel Fischer, ariel Furstenberg, avi warschavsky, and ynon wygoda read an early version of the manuscript and discussed it with me in a very supportive and mildly critical spirit. discussions with Maoz Kahana, Martin Schüle, hartwig wiedebach, and Klaus hamberger helped me clarify my final conclusions. the research for this book was done in part in Berlin. as always, i enjoyed there the hospitality of the Max-Planck-institute for the history of Science. i am grateful to the director of department i, Jürgen Renn, for the opportunity to work in this inspiring setting. i am also deeply indebted to my friends in Berlin for their support in good and bad times. Finally, i owe much to my grandfather Siegfried (Shimon) Freudenthal z”l (Breslau, September 28, 1877–Jerusalem, december 26, 1960). his personality taught me more about Mendelssohn’s spirit than i could have learned from books. Fifty years ago he also gave me some volumes of Mendelssohn’s Netivot ha-Shalom, which i used when writing this book. ix ...

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