Klenz and Gehmkendorf and the peasant village Klein Markow (all three are components of today's Jördenstorf). In 1816 he swore his oath of fealty to Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, thus becoming the first Jew with a permanent seat and vote in the Estates of the Realm of a German state. As feudal lord he also held the patrimonial jurisdiction over his vassal peasants and the patronage of the pertaining Lutheran churches, which he conveyed to a Lutheran confidant. In 1817 he further acquired the neighbouring estates of Grambow and Tressow. His life and work, especially this part, is commemorated—among other things—in the permanent exhibition on Mecklenburg's Jewish history in the museum Engelscher Hof and the half-timbered former synagogue in Röbel, 66 km south of Jördenstorf. After Napoleon's fall (1815) Jacobson moved to Berlin, where he continued to introduce reforms in beliefs and divine service. For this purpose he opened in his own house a hall for worship in which eloquent sermons were delivered by Zunz, Eduard Kley (1789–1867), and Isaak Lewin Auerbach. Eduard Kley founded in 1817 the Hamburg Temple in this spirit. - However, the Prussian government, remembering the French sympathies of Jacobson, and receiving continued complaints from the Orthodox rabbis, ordered the services at Jacobson's house discontinued. Jacobson, using the title Consistorial President rtrd. (), aroused some unrest among Protestant clergy in Berlin, who considered that title to be exclusive for the retired consistorial presidents of the Evangelical Church in Prussia. Throughout his life Jacobson seized every opportunity to promote a cordial understanding between Jews and Christians, and his great wealth enabled him to support many poor of both faiths. His grave is preserved in the Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee in Berlin. References Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xiii. 619; Fürst, Bibl. Jud. ii.6. Marcus, Jacob Rader (1972) Israel Jacobson: The Founder of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press. . External links 1768 births 1828 deaths Court Jews People from Halberstadt People from the Principality of Halberstadt German Reform Jews 18th-century German businesspeople 19th-century German businesspeople