Isaak Markus Jost - Biography

Biography

Jost was one of a poor family of eleven, most of whom died in infancy; and when his father became blind, the duty of guiding him fell upon Isaac. At the age of ten he lost his father and was taken to Wolfenbüttel; there he attended the Samsonschule, which at that time was conducted in the style of an old-fashioned cheder. This condition improved, however, when Samuel Mayer Ehrenberg took charge of the school in 1807; under him Jost began to study the German language. An intimate friendship connected him with Leopold Zunz, who was also a pupil in that school, and together they prepared themselves for the entrance examination of the gymnasium. Jost entered the gymnasium at Brunswick, supporting himself during the years 1809-13 as a tutor in the family of one of the trustees of the Samsonschule; then, supported by Israel Jacobson, he entered the University of Göttingen, removing a year later to that of Berlin. He graduated in 1816, and took up the profession of teaching, refusing an offer of Jacobson, who wished him to become a preacher; for Jost believed that the task of modern Judaism lay not in any reform of the services, but rather in an improvement of education. His first charge was the Bock school, where, in accordance with the system then advocated by Jewish and Christian humanitarians, Jewish and Christian pupils were educated together. In 1819, however, the reactionary government of Prussia prohibited the reception of Christian children; this severely injured the school, as a great many Jewish parents had sent their children to it solely because they desired them to come into contact with Christians. Nevertheless, Jost remained at his post until 1835, when he was called to Frankfort-on-the-Main as teacher in the "Philanthropin," which position he held up to his death.