קהילת יהודי פרנקפורט אם מיין

מקס רודולף (1902- 1995), מנצח. נולד בפרנקפורט, גרמניה. למד בקונסרבטוריון הוך בעיר מולדתו. היה מאמן באופרה העירונית בפרייבורג (1923-1922) ובדרמשטט (1925-1923), ושם מונה אחר כך למנצח ראשי (1929-1927). בשנים 1935-1929 ניצח בפראג וב-1935 ניצח על התזמורת הסימפונית של גטבורג, שוודיה, ועל תזמורת רשות השידור השוודית. ב-1940 הגיע לארה"ב וב-1945 הצטרף להנהלת המטרופוליטן אופרה בניו-יורק. ב-1950 מונה למנהל האמנותי. ב-1958 שימש מנצח של התזמורת הפילהרמונית של סינסנטי. הוא מחברו של הספר "הדקדוק של הניצוח" (1949).

Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900-1980), psychoanalyst, social philosopher and author, born in Frankfurt, Germany. His father was a orthodox Jewish business man but his connection with organized religious lessened when he was about 25. He was deeply affected by the extreme, and his opinion, irrational expressions of nationalism during World War I. Fromm wanted to understand the irrationality of mass behavior and he found some answers in the writings of Karl Marx. He first studied at the University of Frankfurt where, in 1920, he helped to found of the "Freies Judisches Lehrhaus" ("The Free Jewish House of Learning") which was directed by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig and which during the six years in which it operated became the most important Jewish institution for adult education in Weimar Germany. Fromm received his PhD in sociology from Heidelberg in 1922 and began a career as a psychotherapist.

In 1924 he began to study psychoanalysis at first in Frankfurt and then at the Berlin Institute of Psychoanalysis. On finishing his studies he helped to found the Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute, and was invited to join Frankfurt Institute for Social Research by Max Horheimerthen (and by so doing he became a member of the so called "‘Frankfurt School"). From 1929 to 1932 he lectured at both the Psychoanalytic Institute and at the University of Frankfurt and worked on a study of the authoritarian character structure of German workers prior to Hitler’s coming to power. The work was published only in 1984 as "The Working Class in Weimar Germany". Fromm wished to bring together insights from psychoanalysis and an appreciation of the impact of social structure. “I wanted to understand the laws that govern the life of the individual man” in the context of the society in which he lived, he later said. The Frankfurt Institute was forced out of Germany by the Nazis. It went first to Geneva, Switzerland, and then in 1934 to Columbia University in New York, USA. Fromm himself moved to the United States in 1934 and settled in New York City. In the USA he lectured at the New School of Social Research (1934–1939), Columbia (1940-1941), Yale (1949-1950), and Bennington (1941-1950)

He began to publish papers that were critical of Freudian thinking. His focus seemed to shift from a Freudian concern with unconscious motivations, to a recognition that humans are social beings whose beliefs and motivations are deeply influenced by the societies and cultures of which they are part. In 1941 was published “Escape From Freedom," the first of Fromm’s most important books. In it he argued that ‘freedom from the traditional bonds of medieval society, though giving the individual a new feeling of independence, also made him feel isolated, filled him with doubt and anxiety, which drove him into new submissions and into compulsive and irrational activity’. This alienation from place and community, and the consequent insecurities and fears, helps to explain how people seek the security and rewards of authoritarian social orders such as fascism. His critique of Freud led to him being suspended from supervising students by the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1944.

Fromm later joined with Clara Thompson, Harry Stack Sullivan, and ex-wife Frieda Fromm-Reichman to found the William Alanson White Institute of which he was Clinical Director from 1946 to 1950. In 1950 he relocated to Mexico where he received a position at the National Autonomous University, Mexico City and where he taught until 1965. Erich Fromm still practiced as a psychoanalyst and was invited to found the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, which he directed till 1976. He continued to teach for around three months a year in the USA until 1967 (having been named Professor at New York in 1961/2). He was also active politically. He was involved in the civil rights movement, campaigns for nuclear disarmament, in anti-Vietnam war activities, and the ecology movement.

“To Have or To Be” (1976) was Fromm's last major work. In it he argues that two ways of existence were competing for 'the spirit of mankind' - having and being. The having mode looks to things and material possessions and is based on aggression and greed. The being mode is rooted in love and is concerned with shared experience and productive activity. The dominance of the having mode was bringing the world to the edge of ecological, social and psychological disaster. Fromm argued that only a fundamental change in human character 'from a preponderance of the having mode to a preponderance of the being mode of existence can save us from a psychological and economic catastrophe' and made some suggestions as to how mankind should proceed.

Erich Fromm died in 1980 in Switzerland.

Rothschild, James Jacob Mayer (1792-1868), banker, founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family, born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

Rothschild moved to Paris in 1811 and in 1817 opened de Rothschild Frères. An advisor to two kings of France, he became the most powerful banker in the country and following the Napoleonic Wars, played a major role in financing the construction of railroads, industries, factories, shipping, and mining interests which helped make France an industrial power. Rothschild amassed a fortune that made him one of the richest men in the world. In 1822 James de Rothschild, along with his four brothers, was bestowed the hereditary title of "Freiherr" (Baron) by Emperor Francis I of Austria. That same year he was appointed consul-general of the Austrian Empire, and in 1823 was awarded the French Legion of Honor. King Louis XVIII refused to receive James' wife at court because she was not Christian. As a result Rothschild refused to do business with the king. Following the July 1830 Revolution which saw King Louis-Philippe come to power, James de Rothschild put together a loan package to stabilize the finances of the new government, and in 1834 a second loan. In gratitude for his services to the French nation, Louis-Philippe elevated him to a grand officer of the Legion of Honor.

In addition to his banking business, in 1868 James de Rothschild purchased Château Lafite, one of France's most outstanding vineyards. Located in the Bordeaux region, it is a business that remains in the family to this day. James de Rothschild and his sophisticated Viennese wife were at the center of Parisian culture. They patronized major personalities in the arts, including Gioacchino Rossini, Frédéric Chopin, Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Delacroix, and Heinrich Heine. Beyond his business activities, James de Rothschild made the first significant acquisitions for what became the French family's massive art collections. His art included Vermeer's 1668 work "The Astronomer", which remained in the family until it became the property of the Louvre in the 1970s. He also used his enormous wealth for philanthropic works and became a leader of the French Jewish community. James's contributions to France, along with those of his offspring can be found in many fields, including medicine and the arts.

Sons Alphonse and Gustave took the reins of a vast French business empire, whose industrial interests spread as far afield as Africa and the South Sea Islands.

Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885), pianist, composer and conductor, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Hiller was the son of the wealthy merchant Justus Hiller (originally Isaac Hildesheim). At the age of ten he played a concerto by Mozart in public. Between 1825-1827 he studied in Weimar with Johan Nepomuk Hummel and in 1827 he went to Vienna, where he visited Beethoven just before his death. From 1828 to 1835 Hiller lived in Paris. He later worked as conductor in Frankfurt, Leipzig (where he was a friend of Mendelssohn) and Dresden, and held the position of Music Director in Duesseldorf (1847) and Cologne (1850). He subsequently converted to Christianity. In 1850 he founded the Conservatory of Koln, Germany, and served as its director until his death. He composed approximately 200 works, including six operas, several oratorios (among them Die Zerstoerung Jerusalems, 1840; Saul, 1853), cantatas (among them Rebecca), symphonies, chamber music and settings for Psalms. He devoted himself to conducting and to writing the biographies of several Romantic composers of his generation. He also wrote a book on musical theory. In 1849 he was elected member of the Berlin Academy.

זיגפריד אוקס (1858- 1929), מלחין ומנצח. נולד בפרנקפורט, גרמניה. הגיע לברלין ב-1877 ולמד אצל פרידר (Frieder), יואכים ואדולף שולצה (Schulze). ב-1882 הקים את המקהלה הפילהרמונית של ברלין, חידש אתה יצירות נשכחות מאת באך והנדל וקידם את יצירותיהם של ברוקנר והוגו וולף. לימד בבית הספר הגבוה למוסיקה בברלין.
עם יצירותיו נמנות האופרה הקומית בשם החוק (1888), וסדרה של וריאציות הומוריסטיות לפסנתר שהלחין על שיר הילדים הגרמני הנה באה הציפור המעופפת, ובהן חיקה סגנונות של מלחינים גדולים שונים. כתב אוטוביוגרפיה (1922) וסקירה היסטורית של תולדות שירת המקהלה בגרמניה וכותרתה "איגוד הזמרים הגרמני" (1923-28). נפטר בברלין, גרמניה.

ארנסט אמסהיימר (1904-1989) מוסיקולוג.

נולד בפרנקפורט, גרמניה. בשנים 1937-1932 היה עוזר מחקר באקדמיה הרוסית למדעים בלנינגרד. ב-1949 התמנה לאוצר של המוזיאון להיסטוריה של המוסיקה בשטוקהולם. אמסהיימר התמחה במוסיקה של העם המונגולי ובחקר כלי נגינה.

Moshe Loeb Kann (?-1761), rabbi and scholar, head of the Frankfurt am Main yeshiva, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, into a wealthy family. He and his father in law, court Jew Samson Wertheimer, cooperated to enable J.L. Frankfurter, rabbi of Frankfurt, to publish his new edition of the Talmud in 1714. Frankfurter's Talmud was banned as a results of the efforts of apostate Paul Christian, but Kann intervened with the Elector of Mainz and the ban was cancelled. Moshe and his brother Beer Loeb Isaac, who almost single-handed ran the Frankfurt community, doubled the sum of 10,000 thalers which their father had left in his will to support Torah students and they presented the sum to the community in 1736. Moshe Loeb's second wife was the daughter of court Jew Behrend Lehmann.

In 1749 David Kulp started a revolt against the Beer Loeb Isaac's management of the community, the community was divided, disturbances broke out and troops had be called to restore order. Accusations and litigated cases followed; finally Beer Loeb was cleared, but both sides were impoverished by the legal costs. Beer Loeb died in 1754. His grandson Hirschel (1772-1819) founded a financial company which developed into a leading bank in the 19th century.

Richard Kaufmann (1877-1958), architect born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He studied architecture in Munich. In the early years of the 20th century he worked in town planning and architecture in Germany and then in Norway, but in 1920 he emigrated to the Land of Israel, where he started to work for the Jewish Agency.

Many of the moshavim and kibbutzim established at that time were built in accordance with his plans. He also designed many urban developments including Afula, Kiryat Haim and also the Rehavia, Talpiot and Beit HaKerem districts of Jerusalem. He was also responsible for the designs of many apartment blocks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as well as projects in the Jordan valley, where he had to find solutions to the problems of extreme climat conditions. He was one of the fathers of Israeli architecture.

Fritz Haas (1886–1969), zoologist born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Haas was a curator of invertebrate zoology at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main 1911 to 1936. Following the Nazi take over he was forced to leave his position at the muszeum in 1936. He immigrated to the USA settling in Chicago where he was curator at the department of lower invertebrates at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 1938 to 1959. Haas specialized in the field of malacology.

Haas' specialty involved the study of land and freshwater snails, as well as research of the family Unionidae (freshwater mussels). He performed extensive field research in Norway (1910), Western Europe (1914-1919), Southern Africa (1931-1932; as part of the Hans Schomburgk expedition) and the Americas (1937 and after).

His published researches include the monograph "Superfamilia Unionacea" (1969). Haas combined over 4000 names from the family Unionidae into 837 recognized species (1969).

Haas passed away in Hollywood, CA.