Show all records
Click image for high resolution zoom or multiple image views.

Biographical/Historical Information

Siegfried Moses was born in 1887 in Lautenburg, Germany. He was a lawyer from 1912 to 1937 and at the same time highly active in municipal and Jewish organizations. Moses emigrated to Palestine in 1937, working as a public accountant and income tax expert and assuming the post of managing director of Ha'avara (transfer of Jewish assets in Germany to Palestine). In 1949 he was appointed Israel's first State Comptroller, a post which he held until his retirement in 1961. In 1957 he was elected president of Irgun Olei Merkaz Europa ("Association of Settlers from Central Europe") and president of the Council of Jews from Germany and of the Leo Baeck Institute. Siegfried Moses died in Tel Aviv in 1974.

Helmuth Nathan - physician, teacher, and historian of medicine - was born on October 26, 1901 in Hamburg, Germany. He studied medicine and philosophy at the Universities of Freiburg and Hamburg and received his medical degree in 1925. Until his emigration in 1936, he worked at a number of hospitals in Hamburg and wrote extensively on medical topics, such as general surgery, surgical infections, pathology, and history of arts and medicine. Dr. Nathan settled in New York in 1936 and became a successful physician; he also taught for many years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. But Helmuth Nathan was also a well-established artist, creating drawings, graphics, glass windows, and sculptures. He tried and succeeded in bringing both of his passions - art and medicine - closer together. Helmuth Nathan died in New York in 1979.

Reproductions and Permissions

We welcome fair use of this content. Please credit the Leo Baeck Institute in your citation. For usage policies and to request higher resolution images, see Reproductions and Permissions.

Citation

Portrait of Siegfried Moses / photographed drawing by Helmuth Nathan; Lake Tiberias, April 1959, Leo Baeck Institute, F 3668.