Herz Cerfbeer of Medelsheim

Heart Cerf Beer of Medelsheim, original case. Naphtali Ben Dov Beer (French also Cerfbeer ), ( * 1726 in Medelsheim; † December 7, 1793 in Strasbourg ) was a Court Jew and an early champion of Jewish emancipation.

Life

His father Beer Hertz ( also Dov Beer) was a merchant. Cerf Beer (today Saarland) was born in what was then the kingdom belonging to Count von der Leyen Medelsheim. About his childhood nothing is known. However, it is likely that he learned a good education because he showed great skill and agility in business.

On September 3, 1748 he married the Jewess in Strasbourg Jüttel or Julia Weyl from Bisch home and settled there. The marriage produced eight children were born. After the death of his first wife, he married 1783 Hannah, who as he was widowed and had three children from her first marriage to Jacob Sussman Ratisbonne. His step- son of this marriage, the banker Jean Sussman called Auguste Ratisbonne, married his granddaughter Adelheid. Two of her sons, Theodore and Alphonse Ratisbonne obtained later after their conversion to the Catholic faith as a religious founder importance.

1775 awarded him Louis XVI. as the first Jews of Alsace French nationality. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, the now reclusive and old Cerf Beer was temporarily arrested in the spring of 1793. In the same year he died and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Rose Willer.

He entertained a wide kinship network in which there are also other well-known personalities. He was related to the Kaufmann family Seligmann. Two sons Cerf Beers were respected bankers in Strasbourg and the opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer was his nephew.

Entrepreneur

Cerf Beer benefited from the activities of his father, who laid the foundation of his business, and was active as a tenant of several iron works. He thus entered into business relations with Prince William Henry of Nassau- Saarbrücken. In the years after 1746 Cerf Beer came to great wealth. He owed this particularly his role as army supplier. So there is evidence that he delivered in 1767 by the French cavalry lining in the garrison of Strasbourg. Louis XVI. awarded him the official title of Directeur général of fourages and Military. He was also exempt from the usual for Jewish head tax.

He appeared as a financier of the princes and their courts, but especially the French king on. In this context, his name appeared in the collar affair. He earned particularly in Strasbourg but also in Paris extensive land and real estate, which was not allowed Jews readily.

Philanthropist

Cerf Beer is always described as a God-fearing and strong character. An improvement of the situation of the Jews was a big concern to him. So he demanded a representation of Jews in the States General. For his service to his coreligionists, he was awarded the title as the first Syndic général de la nation Juive.

In connection with the ongoing discrimination and a hate campaign against the Alsatian Jews Cerf Beer turned to Moses Mendelssohn, who in turn his friend Christian Wilhelm Dohm led to the publication of his book On the Civic Improvement of the Jews.

He ransomed the Alsatian Jews from the poll tax with substantial means. He financed in Paris a cemetery for German Jews and donated 175,000 livres for the study of the Talmud and the Jewish youth to marry her for poor girls.