Berlin, Germany
Isaac Daniel Itzig and his brother in law, David Friedlaender established the school. The school concentrated on math, German, French, and commercial courses rather than Talmud and Hebrew studies. After 1806, non-Jewish students were accepted, and they soon became one-third of the student body. (Due to Juedische Freischule being the first Haskalah school established, the date marked the beginning of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) Movement, whose initial aim was to “modernize” Judaism by opening it to European culture and specifically to a philosophy of rationality which was spreading throughout Europe. Jews were encouraged to adopt the manners, dress, and language of their host country. In the beginning there were Orthodox leaders who supported some of the educational aims of the movement. When it became apparent that the movement was leading to an anti-halachic and assimilationist direction, the Orthodox establishment banned the movement, and established its own educational response to it through Samson Rafael Hirsch and others.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Prussian government forbade Christian children to attend Jewish schools in 1819, which, in turn led to many Jewish students exiting. The school was closed, in due course, by 1825.