Most Intelligent GMGer

[Kullervo]

I'll preempt Greg and nominate Ubloobideega.

[Haffner]

Anyone whom believes that Elgar or Mendellsohn is the greatest composer whom ever lived.

[Saul]

Anyone whom believes that Elgar or Mendellsohn is the greatest composer whom ever lived.

Anyone that knows how to spell Mendelssohn correctly.

[karlhenning]

Anyone who has enough sense of humor to creatively misspell MElgarssohn

[Saul]

Anyone who has enough sense of humor to creatively misspell MElgarssohn

Anyone who has a better sense of creativity... then just to misspell something...on purpose...

[The new erato]

Anyone who has a better sense of creativity... then just to misspell something...on purpose...

Yes, shame on you Kral Hennig!

[karlhenning]

Yes, shame on you Kral Hennig!

I ma so ashmaed of myfles!

[greg]

I ma so ashmaed of myfles!

you misspelled "os" and "fo".....

[karlhenning]

Dit nod!

[Haffner]

Dit nod!

Na-NU!

[karlhenning]

Can I go mambo dogface in the banana patch now?

[Saul]

Dit nod!

THITH 1+1!

[Sergeant Rock]

Anyone that knows how to spell Mendelssohn correctly.

Anyone who knows his last name was really Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.


Sarge

[Saul]

Anyone who knows his last name was really Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.


Sarge

Bartholdy was added to appease the anti semitic Germans....

Hardly a last name...

[Sergeant Rock]

Bartholdy was added to appease the anti semitic Germans....

Hardly a last name...

Felix's father converted voluntarily to Christianity against the wishes of his father. Felix converted too. Neither was forced to and it had nothing to do with appeasing anyone. They wanted to be Christian (I'll remind you that Jesus was also a Jew who was a Christian )  Bartholdy was his legal last name, the name he went by his entire life, the name that's on his gravestone, and the name he's still known by in his native country: Germany. He was a Christian German, and obviously proud of it. Nothing wrong with that.

Sarge

[karlhenning]

Don't confuse Saul with the facts, his mind is made up.

[Saul]

Felix's father converted voluntarily to Christianity against the wishes of his father. Felix converted too. Neither was forced to and it had nothing to do with appeasing anyone. They wanted to be Christian (I'll remind you that Jesus was also a Jew who was a Christian )  Bartholdy was his legal last name, the name he went by his entire life, the name that's on his gravestone, and the name he's still known by in his native country: Germany. He was a Christian German, and obviously proud of it. Nothing wrong with that.

Sarge

Pure nonsensical fabrication and delusional disruption of famous realistic facts.

Abraham never converted to Christianity out of love for this faith, but he did it because the Germans substantially limited the areas where Jews can participate.

Take the arts and the sciences as examples. The Germans barred the Jews from engaging in German culture and take part in the secular arts.

The conversion was only meant to widen the opportunities for his family and children, nothing more and nothing less. To claim otherwise is a direct insult and a slap on the face to every intellectual and history lover on earth.

Shame on you Sarge, for talking out of thin air without any shred of knowledge about the situation of European Jewry during those times.

[springrite]

Certainly not me. My binary IQ is 101.

[Brian]

Certainly not me. My binary IQ is 101.

Must not be me either, because I have no clue what this means. 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Pure nonsensical fabrication and delusional disruption of famous realistic facts.

Abraham never converted to Christianity out of love for this faith, but he did it because the Germans substantially limited the areas where Jews can participate.

Shame on you Sarge, for talking out of thin air without any shred of knowledge about the situation of European Jewry during those times.

What about this, then:

Abraham Mendelssohn took an uncompromising attitude towards his Jewish origins. He felt that the day of Judaism was over and that it was necessary to take practical steps to assimilate with German society. To this end he and Lea took the (then) daring decision not to have their sons Felix and Paul circumcised after their births in 1809 and 1812 respectively, although this led to arguments with Lea's mother. He further took the advice of Lea's brother Jakob to change his surname. Jakob had adopted the name Bartholdy after a property which he had acquired, and Abraham, too, chose to take this name. As he was to write later to Felix, (urging his son to drop the Mendelssohn name and use only Bartholdy), because of the fame of Moses Mendelssohn ´there can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius´ . (Despite this, Felix continued to use both names himself, and his public tended to use only 'Mendelssohn'). Abraham's children were brought up at first without any religious education; they were baptised in 1816, and Abraham and Lea were baptised on 4th October 1822 in Frankfurt-on-Main, that is, well away from their friends and relatives in Berlin.