Isaak Markus Jost

He also published an abridgment under the title Allgemeine Geschichte des israelitischen Volkes (1831–1832), and an edition of the Mishna with a German translation and notes (6 volumes, 1832–1834).

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.

He wrote also Theoretisch-Praktisches Handbuch zum Unterricht im Deutschen Stil (Berlin, 1835; the title of the second edition was Lehrbuch des Hochdeutschen Ausdruckes in Wort und Schrift, published in 1852).

Toward the end of his life he wrote another historical work, Geschichte des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten (3 volumes, Leipzig, 1857–59), which deals with the whole of Jewish history down to 1858.

Jost appeared repeatedly as an apologist of Judaism against political reactionaries and detractors of rabbinical literature; his Was Hat Herr Chiarini in Angelegenheit der Europäischen Juden Geleistet?

Between 1839 and 1841 he edited the Israelitische Annalen, a weekly chiefly devoted to the collection of historical material, and between 1841 and 1842 the Hebrew periodical Zion (in collaboration with his friend and colleague Michael Creizenach).

His earlier works lack to a great extent the strictly historical interest, and evidence too much of Jewish sentiment (Allgemeine Geschichte ii.

His best work is in the presentation of modern Jewish history, in which he is singularly exact and conscientious, and to which he gives an exhaustive literature of sources; here he exhibits not only a fine discernment of what is historically important, but a spirit of fairness which is the more creditable because he wrote in the midst of the struggle for Reform.

He was also a member of the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews (Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden) alongside Joel Abraham List, Leopold Zunz, and Eduard Gans.

While advanced in his views, he was indifferent to Reform, and for years never attended a religious service (Zirndorf, Isaak Markus Jost und Seine Freunde, p. 130).