Do they? I doubt it

The clue was a Jewish leader named Mosheh ben Maimon, better known as this.

They all stood there silently, and Alex said, "You know him better as Maimonides."

Now, I could be wrong, but I don't think they know him at all. "Jewish" and "Maimon" gave me "Maimonides" though to my knowledge I'd never heard his birth name. And none of them looked like the name was at all familiar to them... 

(and while I'm here: Alex, Bavaria doesn't have the same As as Canada. Not in German, which presumably was your motive for saying the name in that tone, with that rolled R...)