Isaak Markus Jost - His Personality

His Personality

While not a man of public life, Jost devoted himself to the cause of orphans, and to his initiative was due the establishment in Frankfort-on-the-Main of a girls' orphan asylum (1853). He was instrumental also in founding a society (Permissionistenverein, 1843) for the aid of those who, according to the law then in existence, had no claim on the Frankfort charitable institutions, not being freemen of the city; he founded the Creizenach Stiftung, for the aid of aged teachers and their families (1842), and he often assisted young students and poor authors with both advice and influence. He was also a member of the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews alongside Joel Abraham List, Isaac Marcus Jost, Leopold Zunz, and Eduard Gans. While advanced in his views, he was indifferent to Reform, and for years never attended a religious service (Zirndorf, Isaak Markus Jost und Seine Freunde, p. 130). He married in 1816 a Miss Wolf, niece of Isaac Euchel. She died in 1842. He devoted himself with paternal affection to the pupils of the orphan asylum, whom he liked to call his children.