Josef Flesch (Yiddish: יוסף פלעש; 19 September 1781 – 17 December 1839) was Moravian writer, translator, and merchant. He has been called the "father of the Moravian Haskalah."[1]
Biography
Josef Flesch was born in Neu-Rausnitz, Moravia, the son of local rabbi Abraham Flesch. He attended yeshiva in Prague with his father's childhood friend, Baruch Jeitteles.[2] After marrying the daughter of Salomon Berger in Leipnik in 1801 and spending three years in the house of his father-in-law, he returned to his hometown and joined his father's business.[3]
He was a frequent contributor to the Bikkure ha-Ittim,[4] and translated into Hebrew several of the writings of Philo,[5] notably Quis rerum divinarum heres sit (under the title Ha-yoresh divre Elohim, Prague, 1830) and De vita Moysis (under the title Ḥayye Moshe, Prague, 1838).[6] To the former work was added the oration which Flesch delivered at his father's funeral. His other publications include a Hebrew translation of philosopher Karl Heinrich Heydenreich,[2] and a list of Jewish scientists under the title Reshimat anshe mofet (Prague, 1838).[7][8]