In his response to Michaelis, Lessing contrasts the urban milieu of Berlin with the limited horizon of Göttingen. In Berlin, he had the opportunity to “get to know the Jews more closely”, rather than identifying them with “the slovenly rabble” that “wanders around the fairgrounds” (B 1, 492). Berlin is a metropolis of immigrants. Lessing roams the coffee houses and clubs, where he meets representatives of a modern Judaism, who – much to the rabbis’ chagrin – were fascinated by the journalistic and social culture of the city. Among them were the Jewish doctor Aaron Salomon Gumpertz and a young man who had come to Berlin penniless at the age of 14 and who, after years of existential uncertainty, had found shelter in the house of a Jewish silk manufacturer: Moses Mendelssohn.