Jonatan Warschauer dealt with medicine and politics. As a Jew, he aimed at the assimilation of his fellow Jews into the Polish nation. As a politician, he supported Polish independence aspirations in the 19th century.

Jonatan Warschauer was born on 2 March 1820 in Kraków. He attended the St. Anne’s Gymnasium there. In 1843, he obtained a doctorate in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He was not, however, solely concerned with medicine. 

In 1846, the Krakow Uprising broke out and Kraków was part of a state called the Republic of Kraków, which was dependent on Austria, Russia, and Prussia. Those three states had violently carried out three partitions of Poland in the 18th century, which led to the removal of Poland from the map of Europe. The Krakow Uprising was one of several Polish attempts to break out for independence. 

The uprising was supported by Jonatan Warschauer. He turned out to be not only an excellent Polish physician of Jewish origin, but also a great advocate of Poland’s independence and the assimilation of Jews into the Polish nation. He was imprisoned for his support of the Kraków Uprising. He was also an enthusiast of the Poznań uprising of 1848, part of the Spring of Nations. At that time, he urged the Jews of Wielkopolska region to support Polish aspirations. 

In 1848 and 1866, he was elected to the City Council of Kraków. His ambitions reached higher, however, as he tried to become a member of the National Sejm and of the Vienna Council of State.  Unfortunately, he was not successful – probably because of his fervent support for the assimilation of Jews with Poles. His views are evidenced by a pamphlet “On the Polonisation of Galician Jews” from 1882. He also fought anti-Semitism with his works.

Warschauer ran an independent medical practice. He published in medical journals. In 1880, he became president of the Kraków Medical Society. 

He died on 10 November 1888 in Kraków.