who in 1801 had taken over the direction of the Singakademie. He later engaged the pianist Ignaz Moscheles to give his children some lessons, and this led to a lasting association between Moscheles and the family. When Felix made his first visit to England in 1829 Abraham entrusted him to Moscheles's care; and when Abraham himself later visited London he stayed with Moscheles. The Mendelssohn household in Berlin was often the setting for concerts and at many of these semi-domestic occasions the early music of Felix was performed and Felix and Fanny themselves played. Abraham and Lea had two other children: Rebecka (b. 1811), who married the mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and the banker Paul (b. 1812). In 1825 Abraham was elected a town councillor in Berlin. Abraham and his wife are buried close to three of their children and their graves are preserved in the Trinity Church Cemetery No. 1 in Berlin. Attitude to Judaism Abraham took an uncompromising attitude towards his Jewish origins. He felt that the day of Judaism was over and that it was necessary to take practical steps to assimilate with German society. To this end he and Lea took the (then) daring decision not to have their sons Felix and Paul circumcised after their births in 1809 and 1812 respectively, although this led to arguments with Lea's mother. He further took the advice of Lea's brother Jakob to change his surname. Jakob had adopted the name Bartholdy after a property which he had acquired, and Abraham, too, chose to take this name. As he was to write later to Felix, urging his son to drop the Mendelssohn name and use only Bartholdy because of the fame of Moses Mendelssohn, "there can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than a Jewish Confucius." Despite this, Felix continued to use both names himself, and his public tended to use only 'Mendelssohn'. Abraham's children were brought up at first without any religious education; they were baptised in 1816, and Abraham and Lea were baptised on 4 October 1822 in Frankfurt am Main in the Calvinist French Reformed Church, that is, well away from their friends and relatives in Berlin. Their son Felix later married the daughter of the former minister of that church. Notes Sources Sebastian Hensel, tr. Carl Klingemann, The Mendelssohn Family 1729–1847: From Letters and Journals, 4th ed. 2 vols, London 1884 1776 births 1835