orig. Salomon ben Joshua born 1754, Nieswiez, grand duchy of Lithuania died Nov. 22, 1800, Nieder-Siegersdorf, Silesia Polish Jewish philosopher. As a young man, he pursued Hebrew and rabbinic studies, adopting the name Maimon out of admiration for Moses Maimonides. His unorthodox commentaries on Maimonides earned him the enmity of other Jews, and he left Poland at age 25 to wander through Europe as a scholar and tutor. A skeptic who emphasized the limits of pure thought, he is best known for his Search for the Transcendental Philosophy (1790), a major critique of Kantian philosophy. His other writings include Philosophical Dictionary (1791) and Critical Investigations of the Human Spirit (1797)
orig. Salomon de Goyer born 1600, Naarden, United Provinces buried Nov. 1, 1670, Haarlem, Neth. Dutch landscape painter. Uncle of Jacob van Ruisdael, he entered the Haarlem painters' guild in 1623 and became its head in 1648. Unlike other Baroque landscape painters of the period, including his nephew, Ruysdael generally painted actual landscapes, sometimes combining motifs from several places in one picture. His powerful later work exhibits a command of landscape elements and an increasing use of colour for effect
born April 28, 1886, Berlin, Ger. died July 7, 1944, Auschwitz, Pol. German photographer. He studied law at the University of Munich but soon abandoned his practice to pioneer in photojournalism. He specialized in photographing heads of state in unguarded moments at international conferences and social gatherings. His purpose was to show the human qualities of world leaders, who up to that time had been stereotyped in stiff formal portraits. In May 1944 he was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he died
born 1740, Lissa, Pol. died Jan. 6, 1785, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. American patriot and financier. Forced to flee Poland for his revolutionary activities, he arrived in New York in 1772 and soon became a successful merchant and financier. A supporter of the patriot cause in the American Revolution, he was arrested and imprisoned by the British. In 1778 he escaped to Philadelphia, where he opened a brokerage office. He made loans in excess of $600,000 to help finance the new government, extended interest-free private loans to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and others, and obtained French loans to the American government