Moses Mendelssohn, who was born in 1729 in central Germany, came from a poor Jewish family. He was fortunate to get a traditional Jewish education with some philosophical input. At age fourteen, he moved to Berlin to continue studying with his rabbi. While in Berlin he learned French, Italian, English, Latin, and Greek on top of the German and Hebrew he previously knew. Mendelssohn began to write and publish some philosophical essays in German. To some he was known as the "Jewish Socrates." (2)
             Mendelssohn became life long friends with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who later wrote a play using Mendelssohn as the model Jew. He was portrayed as Nathan in Nathan the Wise, published in 1779, who was the Jewish hero and spokesman for brotherhood and love of humanity (2). This of course was written during the Enlightenment era.
             Both Mendelssohn and Lessing were both heavily influenced by the writings of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who attempted to reconcile Christianity with science (1).
             In Nathan the Wise, the Moslem Sultan calls upon Nathan and asks him, "What faith and what law do you hold to be the best?" He asks him this because by the people he is known as very "wise." The sultan, Saladin, wants to know Nathan's reason for being a Jew and states, "A man like you won't let the accident of birth hold him to one religion! Or, if it holds him, it will surely be of his own choice because his insight and his reason prompt him to make that choice as the best religion of the three...I'll also make it mine!" The sultan then leaves the room and gives Nathan a moment to think about his answer. When he comes back Nathan is finally ready and has a story to tell. A quick summery of the story is that there was a father who received a ring of "priceless value... And whoever wore this ring, believing in its power, found grace with God and with man as well
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