The second work is Toledot Moses ben Menahem or Mendesssohn’s Leben. It is a biography of Moses Mendessohn. (September 6, 1729 – January 4, 1786) a German-Jewish philosopher. He was an important Jewish figure of the 18th century, and to him is attributable the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment. To some he was the third Moses (the other two being the Biblical lawgiver and Moses Maimonides) with whom a new era opens in the history of the Jewish people. To others, he was a step into the beginning of assimilation and loss of identity for Jews and the dilution of traditional Judaism. He was also the grandfather of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn.