The Childhood and Youth of a Man of the Enlightenment

Born in Nový Bydžov, Bohemia, Peter (Perez) Beer was an educator, author, and religious reformer. He attended yeshivas in Prague and Pressburg (Bratislava); he also learned Latin and German. Beer was one of the first Habsburg Jews to study in a teaching seminary, and he taught at the German Jewish school in Prague from 1811 until his death. Beer wrote Jewish and biblical histories, as well as religious manuals, a prayer book for women, and a commentary on the Book of Genesis 1–24 (1815). He contributed to periodicals such as Sulamith and Ha-me’asef. Valued by Austrian authorities and controversial among Jews, Beer was a founder of the Reform synagogue in Prague.