The Jewish community of Königsberg at the beginning of the twentieth century was distinguished as one of the pioneers of modern culture. Its first rabbi, Solomon Fürst, was a matriculate of the university in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and was assistant in the royal library. In the second half of that century the Friedländer family especially, and men like Isaac Euchel, Marcus Herz, and Aaron Joel, pupils of Kant, introduced the ideas of Mendelssohn into Königsberg. In that city Euchel issued his appeal for the founding of a Hebrew literary society and the periodical "Ha-Meassef," the first volumes of which appeared there; and there he published, in 1782, a circular letter ("Sefat Emet") in which he advocated institutions for the education of the young modeled after the "Freischule" at Berlin. But his efforts in this direction did not succeed, owing to the opposition of the Orthodox. In 1812, and again in 1820 (when Isaac Asher Francolm was called as preacher and teacher of religion), the school question occasioned further dissension; Francolm finally was obliged to resign (1826), and his position remained vacant until 1835. During the incumbency of his successor, Joseph Levin Saalschütz (1835-63), the first Jewish professor at Königsberg, services were held for a short time (in 1847) on Sunday morning. After his death and that of Rabbi Mecklenburg, who had held the rabbinate during Saalschütz's term of office, the functions of rabbi and preacher were combined. When the organ was installed in the communal synagogue, in 1870, a number of Orthodox members formed a separate congregation, which subsequently took the name of "Adass Jisroel." Besides these, there are three private synagogues. The new synagogue of the community was dedicated Aug., 1896.