Herz Homberg

Born near Prague, Herz Homberg served as supervisor of the German Jewish schools in Galicia, as well as a censor of Hebrew religious books in Vienna. A close friend of Moses Mendelssohn, Homburg was the first Jew in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to complete the University of Vienna’s formal examination. Disliked by traditional Jewish leaders, Homberg’s zeal to impose enlightened reforms was also seen as excessive by many of his fellow reformers. He founded some one hundred schools, stressing education in the German language.