Ernst Simon

Not to be confused with Ernst Julius Walter Simon.

Ernst Akiva Simon (Hebrew: עקיבא ארְנְסְט סימון; March 15, 1900 – August 18, 1988) was a German-Jewish educator and religious philosopher who was born in Berlin and died in Jerusalem.

Ernst Akiva Simon
עקיבא ארְנְסְט סימון
minister of education zalman aran (left) awarding simon the israel prize in 1967
Born	(1900-03-15)15 March 1900 Berlin, Germany
Died	18 August 1988(1988-08-18) (aged 88) Jerusalem, Israel
Nationality	Israel
Education	Hebrew Reali School Haifa
Occupation(s)	Educator, religious philosopher
Known for	Co-founder of Brit Shalom Co-founder of the Ihud party
Awards	Israel Prize (1967)

Teaching career and political activism

In the 1920s, Ernst Simon co-founded Brit Shalom along with Martin Buber, an organization espousing a binational solution for promoting the co-existence of Jews and Arabs in the State of Israel. From 1930 to 1933 he taught at the Hebrew Reali School Haifa, headed by Arthur Biram. In 1942, he was one of the founders of the binationalist Ihud party.

Published works

• Aufbau im Untergang. Jüdische Erwachsenenbildung im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland als geistiger Widerstand. Tübingen: Mohr 1959. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Institute of Jews from Germany. 2).
• Brücken. Gesammelte Aufsätze. Heidelberg: Schneider 1965.
• Selbstdarstellung. In: Pädagogik in Selbstdarstellungen. Hamburg: Meiner, Bd. 1 (1975), S. 272–333.
• Entscheidung zum Judentum. Essays und Vorträge. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp Verlag 1980. (Bibliothek Suhrkamp. 641).
• Sechzig Jahre gegen den Strom. Briefe von 1917-1984. Hrsg. vom Leo-Baeck-Institut, Jerusalem. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 1998. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo-Baeck-Instituts. 59). ISBN 3-16-147000-1

Awards and recognition

Minister of Education Zalman Aran (left) awarding Simon the Israel Prize in 1967

In 1967, Simon was awarded the Israel Prize, for education.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

Further reading

• Rudolf Lennert: Über das Leben der deutschen Sprache in Jerusalem. In: Neue Sammlung. Göttingen. Bd. 6 (1966) S. 617-627 (über Ernst Simon, Ludwig Strauss and Werner Kraft).
• Jan Woppowa in: Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon. Begr. und hrsg. von Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz. Fortgef. von [Traugott Bautz]. Bd. 21 (2003) Sp. 1439–1446.
• Jan Woppowa (2003). "Ernst Simon". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 21. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1439–1446. ISBN 3-88309-110-3.
• Kurzinformation des Moses-Mendelssohn-Zentrum der Universität Potsdam
• Ephraim Chamiel, Between Religion and Reason - The Dialectical Position in Contemporary Jewish Thought, Academic Studies Press, Boston 2020, part I, pp. 98-107.