Rome and Jerusalem

Born in Bonn, Moses Hess received a traditional Jewish education from his grandfather and no further formal schooling. However, Hess taught himself French and German and became active in socialist circles, often writing for the Rheinische Zeitung, edited by his friend Karl Marx. Though he was initially uninterested in Jewish concerns, the 1840 Damascus affair (a blood libel against notable members of the city’s Jewish community) inspired in him a new belief in the necessity of a Jewish homeland, leading him to become an early leader of Labor Zionism.