For a long time Moses Mendelssohn's (1729-1786) »Jerusalem« was one of the neglected works of the German Enlightenment period. Only in recent years has it started to be given the critical attention it merits, albeit almost exclusively from the perspective of the history of emancipation and of minorities. The present study examines the work in terms of the history of ideas and places it in the context of contemporaneous European thought, demonstrating that in it Mendelssohn presents a highly innovative angle on the issue of human rights and the possibility of pluralistic societies.