DAVID, MEYER MICHEL:
Hanoverian court banker and agent of the board of finance; born in Hanover in the middle of the eighteenth century. He was a son of Michel David of Hanover, the friend of Moses Mendelssohn. Michel David made a gift to his native city of the synagogue which he and Solomon Getschlick had purchased. Meyer, his son, left (c. 1798) one hundred thousand thalers to found a school in Hanover in which sons of the Jewish poor might obtain free instruction in the sciences, in Hebrew, and in certain modern languages, and might receive besides a monthly allowance. This school, called the "Meyer Michel Davidsche Freischule," was reorganized in 1835; J. M. Frensdorff was inspector until 1861, and S. Kayserling from Frensdorff's death until 1898. It has produced rabbis, teachers, bankers, mechanics, and merchants, and still continues its beneficent work.
