One of the tasks the Lessing Academy has set itself is to investigate complex and controversial aspects of German-Jewish history in a way that reflects the multiplicity of contacts between German and Jews, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present volume is fully in line with this intention, assembling as it does the findings of a conference organized jointly by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Lessing Academy. The main focus of the articles is the discussion of overtures, encounters, skirmishes and tentative alliances in matters philosophical and intellectual.