Ackord, Elias
ACKORD, ELIAS
ACKORD, ELIAS (d. 1811), physician, born in Mogilev (White Russia). Ackord, who studied medicine in Berlin, received his medical diploma in 1788 in St. Petersburg. From 1789 he served as an army doctor in Kiev and in Wasilkov, and subsequently practiced as a civilian. Interested in the reform of Jewish conditions in Poland, Ackord translated an anonymous pamphlet, Die Juden oder die nothwendige Reformation der Juden in der Republik Polen (1786), from Polish into German, urging the necessity of improving the status of Polish Jewry. Ackord recorded with satisfaction that he, a native of Poland, was able to translate the work into German. He attacked and amended several of the writer's conclusions, stating that they were insulting to the Jews. He denied the author's assertion that Jews opposed secular learning, adding that they had been prevented from receiving a higher education. His arguments reflect the influence of the school of Moses Mendelssohn and the scholars of the Haskalah.