Background
Ernst Simon was born on March 15, 1900, in Berlin, Germany.
1967
Ernst Simon receiving the Israel Prize.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg University where Ernst Simon received a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Ernst Simon was born on March 15, 1900, in Berlin, Germany.
Ernst Simon studied German literature, history and philosophy in Berlin. Later he moved to Heidelberg where he continued to study. In 1923 he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Heidelberg University.
Ernst Simon started his career as an editor at Der Jude magazine in 1923 and held this post until 1928. In 1930, he took up a post of a teacher at Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. He worked there until 1933. In 1935 Simon started to work at Hebrew University as Professor of Philosophy and History of Education. He participated in Jewish education programs in various parts of the Jewish world and was a co-editor of the Enẓiklopedyah Ḥinnukhit ("Educational Encyclopedia"; 5 vols. 1961–66).
Ernst Simon wrote his first book Aufbau im Untergang. Jüdische Erwachsenenbildung im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland als geistiger Widerstand in 1959. Later he wrote such books as Brücken. Gesammelte Aufsätze, Selbstdarstellung. In: Pädagogik in Selbstdarstellungen and Sechzig Jahre gegen den Strom. Briefe von 1917-1984.
(German Edition)
1998Ernst Simon was one of the founders of the binational Ihud party. He was an active member of virtually every group advocating a binational state in Palestine. He was a member of the Peace and Security Movement established in 1969. He spoke at rallies movement, which called for recognition of the right to self-determination for Palestinians and the return of the territories occupied during the war.
Ernst Simon defined his philosophy in numerous articles as religious humanism. In his view, our world is neither theocentric nor anthropocentric. It is to be looked upon not as a circle but as an elipse with two foci. He said that God and man, bound to each other by that mutuality of correlation and tension that is meant by the concept of the Covenant. God has not created a perfect world, but rather has left it to man to work on its growing perfection. This activity takes on mainly two forms: politics and education. The first representing the problems in their full tragical rigor and the second offering a modest chance of finding a way out.
Ernst Simon was a member of the Peace Alliance Brit Shalom, League for Jewish Arab Rapprochement and the Leo Baeck Institute.
Ernst Simon married Toni Rapoport. The marriage produced two children.