Markus G. Dreyfus
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Markus Getsch Dreyfus also Markus Götsch Dreifus(s), (18 November 1812 - 20 May 1877) was a Jewish teacher and publicist involved in the struggle for Jewish emancipation in Switzerland.
Markus G. Dreifus was born on 18 November 1812 in Endingen as the son of Getsch Marum Dreyfus. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi Abraham Ris. Following a traditional Jewish upbringing, he attended the Talmud College in Breisach at the age of fourteen. He continued his education at the Protestant teachers' seminary in Karlsruhe (today the Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe). In 1831, after passing the teacher training examination in Aarau, he took over the position of Hebrew teacher at the newly founded Israelite primary school in Endingen. Alongside this, he continued his education at the cantonal school in Aarau, and in 1834, he was enrolled for a short time at the University of Basel.[1] He was the first Swiss Jew to do so.[2]
He soon decided to devote himself entirely to teaching. One summer, he taught at the Fellenberg Institute in Hofwil and then in Hagenthal in Alsace. Having been declared the first Jew eligible to become head teacher, he took that position at the newly organised Israelite school in Endingen.[3] He continued this role for numerous years, with brief interruptions in 1843 and 1861, when he worked as a religion teacher for the Jewish community in Geneva, and as editor of the Winterthurer Landbote respectively. He then accepted a position in Frankfurt am Main, where he was commissioned by the banker Hahn to establish a Jewish agricultural school.[4] Dreyfus returned to Switzerland in 1872, and worked as a religion teacher in Zurich until 1876.
