Haskalah (Hebrew: הַשְׂכָּלָה, “enlightenment”; hence maskil — “an enlightened person”, plural maskilim — “the enlightened”) was a Jewish intellectual, educational, cultural, literary, and social movement that emerged in the second half of the 18th century. The Haskalah opposed the cultural and religious isolation of the Jewish people and regarded the adoption of secular European education and engagement in productive labour as the key to improving the condition of the Jewish nation. The Haskalah marked a turning point in modern Jewish history and became the ideological source of all the major currents of Jewish national thought during the following two centuries. Paradoxically, both assimilationist and national-religious ideological movements originated in the ideology of the Haskalah. In religion, the concepts of the Haskalah stimulated both reformism within Judaism and a reaction in the form of neo-Orthodoxy (see Orthodox Judaism) and halakhic rigorism in Central and especially Eastern Europe. In the secular sphere, the Haskalah led not only to widespread linguistic and cultural assimilation among European Jewry, but also to the emergence of modern Hebrew literature and ideological movements of a national character — Hebraism (the movement for the revival of the Hebrew language), Yiddishism (as an expression of secular nationalism), and political Zionism.
Although the ideology of the Haskalah took shape in the 1770s under the influence of the European Enlightenment, the particular social, cultural, and economic circumstances of European Jewry meant that the problems and aims of the Jewish Haskalah differed considerably from those confronting European Enlightenment thinkers. Seeking to transform relations between Jews and non-Jews by eliminating the traditional separation of Jews from the non-Jewish environment and by introducing Jews to “universal” values, the maskilim advocated the teaching of secular subjects to Jews, the study by Jews of the languages of the countries in which they lived, the development of aspirations towards civil equality alongside civic loyalty, changes in appearance and behaviour — including the wearing of European dress and the adoption of European etiquette — and the transformation of Jewish economic activity in a more productive direction, so that Jews would no longer differ socially from the populations among whom they lived.
Over time, internal disagreements emerged within the ideology of the Haskalah. While most proponents of the Haskalah in Germany and France regarded the integration of Jews into civil society as their principal aim and believed that such integration required, and even justified, the abandonment of part of Jewish national and religious tradition, most maskilim in Eastern Europe sought to preserve the national and religious distinctiveness of the Jewish people and saw the solution to spiritual decline and poverty in adapting Enlightenment values to the worldview of the Jewish masses.
The influence of the ideas of the European Enlightenment began to be felt within Jewish society from the 1740s onwards. From this period, the reading of newspapers and books in German, as well as the study of foreign languages, natural sciences, and philosophy, became widespread among Jews in the German lands. The foundations of the ideology of the Haskalah were formulated in the works of Moses Mendelssohn (for this reason, the first period of the Haskalah is sometimes referred to as the Mendelssohnian or Berlin school). Mendelssohn regarded his translation of the Pentateuch into German (1780–83) as the “first step towards culture”, by which he primarily understood the linguistic refinement of the German literary language.
The programme of the Haskalah was first outlined in general terms by Naphtali Hirz Wessely in his epistles to the Austrian Jews, Divrei Shalom ve-Emet (“Words of Peace and Truth”, 1782), published in support of the “Edict of Tolerance” for the Jews of Vienna issued earlier that year by Emperor Joseph II. Among the maskilim, there prevailed a conviction that the authorities were, in principle, favourably disposed towards the Jews, and poets from among the maskilim composed laudatory and grateful odes in honour of reigning monarchs such as Frederick the Great, Joseph II, and others.
The maskilim regarded the principal means of achieving their goal — the creation of an enlightened Jewry that would become an integral part of European society and attain equal rights through moral virtue, loyalty to the authorities, and “worthy” labour — as the reform of the Jewish educational system. In Divrei Shalom ve-Emet, Wessely called for the immediate establishment of schools based on the curriculum proposed by Joseph II in the “Edict of Tolerance”; it is possible that Wessely feared that, unless Jews themselves reformed the curricula of their schools, Jewish children would be compelled to attend general state schools.
Maintaining the traditional distinction between “human” and “divine” sciences, Wessely introduced a significant modification by asserting that only one who had mastered the sciences was worthy of being called human. According to Wessely, the “human” sciences were to include both general subjects — arithmetic, geography, history, natural science, and the state language — as well as etiquette, moral principles, and religious piety. In addition, a Jew was expected to possess knowledge of the “divine” sciences, which comprised “the teaching and the law ordained by God”. However, one who had mastered the “divine” sciences without also possessing the “human” sciences, Wessely argued, became a burden upon humanity.
It should be noted that, since Judaism regards the study of the Torah (see also Talmud Torah) as the supreme obligation of a Jew, the study of secular sciences was often viewed as an impediment to Torah study and even as an occupation liable to divert a Jew from the observance of the mitzvot and from religious faith. However, Jewish attitudes towards secular learning were not always and everywhere negative. For example, the Jews of Italy not only did not regard the study of the sciences as incompatible with the study of the Torah, but, on the contrary, among Italian rabbis there were experts in medicine, philosophy, Christian theology, and classical literature. Nevertheless, even there the study of secular sciences was regarded as a supplement to traditional Jewish education, whereas for the ideologues of the Haskalah the study of secular sciences was not an adjunct to Jewish learning but an independent value of primary importance, enabling a person to attain intellectual heights no less significant than those of religious thought and contributing to human perfection and mastery over the forces of nature.
The proponents of the Haskalah regarded the study of secular sciences as the means by which Jews could partake in “universal” values and as a guarantee of their social and economic future within a new society founded upon the progress of scientific knowledge. This conception gave rise in Hebrew literature to a previously unknown genre of popular scientific writing; among the authors of such works were Mendel Lefin, Moshe Markuze, Mordechai Gompel ben Yehudah Leib Schnaber, known as Marcus Georg Levison (died 1797), Baruch Schick (1740–1812), and others. Among the writers in Russia who contributed to this genre was the outstanding author of his era Mendele Mocher Sforim. The genre enjoyed particular popularity during the flourishing of Haskalah literature in the Yiddish language.
The proposals of Naphtali Hirz Wessely did not provoke protests from the rabbis of Germany. An exception was the Berlin rabbi Zvi Hirsch Levin (1721–1800), although he was prompted to speak out against Wessely by rabbis from the eastern territories, in particular Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of Prague. During the ensuing debate, Rabbi Shaul Levin of Frankfurt an der Oder anonymously published a pamphlet defending Wessely and sarcastically criticising those who opposed changes in Jewish education and dismissed the achievements of humanity in the sciences and crafts. Educational issues were widely discussed in the journal Ha-Meassef (see below); its contributors called for reforms in Jewish education, advocated the study of science and philosophy, and stressed the necessity of cultivating morality, good manners, civic consciousness, and patriotism.
The first school founded on the principles of the Haskalah was established in Berlin in 1788. Intended for children from the poorer strata of the community, it was called the Freischule (“Free School”), since tuition was free of charge. The curriculum included German and French, arithmetic, geometry, history, natural science, and drawing; the Bible and Hebrew were taught to a comparatively limited extent, while the Talmud was not studied at all. Following the example of the Freischule, similar schools were opened on the initiative of the maskilim in Dessau, Frankfurt am Main, and other German cities. Each of these schools had its own curriculum, but in all of them relatively little time was devoted to the teaching of Hebrew and the Bible, while the Talmud was scarcely studied.
Some of the teachers at these schools compiled textbooks that reflected the worldview of the Haskalah. Among the earliest such works were Toldot Israel (“History of Israel”; Prague, 1796) by Peretz (Peter) Beer (1758 or 1764–1838) and Bnei-Zion (“Children of Zion”; in German, 1812) by Naphtali Herz Homberg (1749–1841). Schools inspired by the ideals of the Haskalah also appeared in France and other countries of Western Europe. However, attempts to establish secondary schools failed, since graduates of the elementary schools, with rare exceptions, proceeded to general rather than Jewish secondary schools. Some maskilim regarded this as a serious problem and advocated the establishment of Jewish secondary schools that would prepare students both for admission to rabbinical seminaries and universities and for engagement in commercial activity.
The problem of training teachers for these schools was addressed through the establishment of teachers’ seminaries, the first of which was opened in Dessau in 1825. It was followed by seminaries in Münster (1826), Berlin (1840; founded on the initiative of Leopold Zunz), Hanover (1848), and other German cities; teacher training was also conducted in rabbinical seminaries.
Under the influence of the Haskalah, significant changes took place in the education of girls. The daughters of affluent Jews generally received education at home, and therefore the maskilim were primarily concerned with providing education for girls from poorer families. In the 1890s, girls’ schools were opened in Breslau, Dessau, Königsberg, and Hamburg. Their curricula included the basics of Hebrew, the German language, the foundations of religion and morality, prayers, and arithmetic; in some of these schools, instruction was also given in reading and writing Yiddish, handicrafts, singing, and drawing.
The influence of Haskalah ideas began to make itself felt within Orthodox Jewish circles both in Germany and beyond, finding expression in the establishment of so-called “integral” schools (the first such schools being founded in Halberstadt and Hamburg), where general secular subjects were taught alongside Jewish disciplines.
The efforts of the maskilim to reform the Jewish educational system corresponded to the “Enlightenment” policies of the authorities, whose official aim was to transform Jews into “useful” citizens, which in practice implied a drive towards their assimilation. The maskilim welcomed government intervention in Jewish internal affairs and therefore frequently offered advice to the authorities and were prepared to assist practically in the implementation of reforms. At times, this assistance took the form of informing (see informers), and some maskilim, having received official appointments, shrank from nothing in their zeal to introduce an “enlightened” way of life into Jewish society.
The “Enlightenment” policy initiated by the decrees of Joseph II required Jews either to establish “normal” schools or to send their children to general state schools. Anyone teaching the Talmud before completion of the compulsory school curriculum risked imprisonment; marriage was forbidden to those who did not possess a certificate of school completion.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the rulers of the German states adopted the policies of Joseph II, requiring Jews either to establish their own secular schools or to send their children to general schools (only in some German states were Jews forbidden to establish secular schools, the authorities preferring Jewish children to study either in ḥeders or in general schools). At the same time, Jewish communities were obliged to establish religious schools, which Jewish pupils attending general schools were required to attend after classes or on Saturdays (alternatively, parents were permitted to employ a private tutor in the Jewish religion for their children).
窗体顶端
窗体底端
Government intervention also extended to the sphere of the religious and moral education of adults. In 1820, a decree was issued in Austria requiring rabbis to study secular subjects and to deliver sermons and prayers in the language of the country in which they lived. Although the decree was never fully implemented, it led to the establishment in Padua in 1827 of a rabbinical seminary where, alongside Jewish religious subjects, theology, philosophy, and secular sciences were taught. In 1828, in Württemberg, candidates for the post of rabbi were required to pass a state examination that included subjects beyond Judaism alone. In various German states, candidates for rabbinical office were obliged to sit examinations before commissions composed of professors from faculties of philosophy, and similar arrangements were introduced elsewhere.
Alongside the reform of Jewish education, the ideologues of the Haskalah sought to promote the productive employment of Jewish labour. This concept was connected with an idea that became widespread in Germany during the first half of the 18th century and derived from the then popular physiocratic theory: since the economic activity of German Jews was concentrated exclusively in finance and trade, and since they neither produced goods nor assisted nature in its productive activity, the inevitable consequence was allegedly their “immorality”. The ideologues of the Haskalah believed that a transition by Jews to productive labour would contribute to the moral improvement of Jewry, which was thought to be experiencing moral decline as a consequence of commercial activity, and would also serve as a response to Judeophobes who claimed that engagement in trade deprived Jews of the right to civil equality.
Naphtali Hirz Wessely was the first among the maskilim to propose that young men who showed no special aptitude for scholarship should be directed towards learning crafts and trades. Demands for productive employment were also advanced by David Friedländer and a number of other proponents of the Haskalah. In the schools established by the maskilim in Germany, crafts were taught alongside other subjects. In various German states, societies were founded to facilitate the placement of Jews as apprentices with Christian craftsmen for vocational training. As a result of these efforts, from the 1830s onwards a considerable number of Jews in the German lands became employed in various branches of handicraft production.
In Galicia, with the assistance of the Austrian government, two Jewish agricultural settlements were established — New Jerusalem and New Babylon. The idea of settling Jews on the land was also discussed by the maskilim in Poland during the period between the first and second partitions of the country.
Under the influence of the philosophy of the European Enlightenment, some figures of the Haskalah adopted a critical and rationalist approach to religion, foreshadowed by Baruch Spinoza. Certain maskilim rejected the ideas of Divine Providence, posthumous reward and punishment, and the concept of the chosen people. Radical representatives of the Haskalah denied the binding authority of the mitzvot prescribed by the Halakhah, while some rejected even those commandments contained in the Torah itself. In Galicia, Isaac Erter Schor argued that, despite the historical importance of the Talmud, the laws established therein reflected the social and spiritual conditions of the past and therefore could no longer be regarded as binding.
窗体顶端
窗体底端
In his struggle for Jewish equality, Moses Mendelssohn did not reject the messianic idea (see also Messiah), but argued that messianic expectations did not influence the civic conduct of Jews — at least in countries where tolerance towards Jews existed. However, with the onset of emancipation, a number of maskilim began openly to reject messianic expectations. In 1793, Lazarus Bendavid (1762–1832) argued that belief in the Messiah did not belong among the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion. During discussions concerning Jewish emancipation in the Netherlands (1796), D. Friedrichsfeld published a pamphlet in which, among other things, he divided Jews into three groups: enlightened deists who did not believe in the coming of the Messiah; Orthodox Jews who believed in his coming, although this belief did not affect their civic behaviour; and an intermediate group for whom Zion and Jerusalem were no more than symbols of a perfect world order.
In the German-language Jewish monthly Sulamith (founded in 1806 in Dessau), one of its founders, D. Fränkel (1779–1856), wrote that the redemption of Israel lay in emancipation. During the process of emancipation in Prussia, David Friedländer demanded the removal from prayer books of the “absurd lamentations” over the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as prayers for redemption and return from exile. He wrote: “We know no fatherland other than Prussia, and it is only for her prosperity that we should pray”, adding that “the German language is our native tongue”.
Another aspect of the critical attitude towards Judaism was the view of it as a natural historical phenomenon capable of becoming the subject of scholarly research. In 1819, a group of German maskilim founded the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews, whose aim was to identify the distinctive characteristics of Judaism as a historical phenomenon in order to acquaint both Jews and non-Jews in Germany with the past of the Jewish people. The founders of the society intended to provide Jews with new spiritual foundations through the creation of a scholarly history of Judaism expressing the spirit of the Jewish people. The society planned to organise lectures on Jewish history and to publish collections devoted to Jewish thought. Its founders believed that the scholarly study of Jewish history would enrich Jews through knowledge of their past and would enhance the prestige of Jewry in the eyes of non-Jews. This approach to Judaism and Jewish history laid the foundations for a new conception of Jewish culture as worthy of study no less than any other human culture. The scholarly activity of the society and of its eastern branch, Hokhmat Israel (“Wisdom of Israel”), laid the groundwork for the academic study of Judaism (see Wissenschaft des Judentums).
Speaking of the Jews as a nation, Mendelssohn viewed this nation primarily in religious terms and even regarded the Jews as a kind of community of theists. However, in 1796 D. Friedrichsfeld compared Jews to Catholics and Protestants, who “cannot be regarded as nations”. In their desire no longer to be considered “foreigners” in Germany and in their struggle for equality, the maskilim began referring to themselves as “Germans of the Mosaic faith”. In France, the assembly of Jewish notables convened by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 introduced the term “Frenchmen of the Mosaic faith” and declared that the Jews were no longer a separate nation and that France was their fatherland. In 1807, the French authorities officially replaced the designation “Jew” (juif) with “Israelite”, since the term “Jew” “related more to a people than to a religion” and was also associated with “long-standing prejudices”. The designation “Israelite” also came into use in the German states.
An author writing in Sulamith argued that the term “Jew” (Jude in German) was incorrect because it referred not to religion but to a political and geographical reality — the state of Judea — which no longer existed; Jews, he maintained, were not a nation and should therefore be called Israelites. Under the influence of the maskilim, the Prussian authorities issued a decree in 1815 (repealed in 1836) stipulating that passports should state not “Jew” but “professor of the Mosaic faith” or “professor of the Old Testament faith”. Thus the concept of the “German of the Mosaic faith” became widespread in Germany. In opposition to this approach, Gabriel Riesser, a campaigner for Jewish equality in Germany, demonstratively named the newspaper he published in Hamburg between 1832 and 1835 Der Jude (“The Jew”), thereby initiating the gradual restoration of the term “Jew” in Germany and subsequently in France as well.
The aspiration to reform the traditional Jewish way of life and to participate in European culture also affected the sphere of synagogue liturgy (see also Reform Judaism) and was accompanied by linguistic assimilation. Attitudes towards Hebrew differed among representatives of the Haskalah in different periods and countries. By the middle of the 18th century, a view had begun to emerge of Hebrew as the “natural language” of the Jewish people and as their national heritage. This view was shared by Moses Mendelssohn, who insisted upon the enrichment and wider use of Hebrew so that it might meet the cultural needs of the Jew.
This attitude towards Hebrew was closely connected with a change in attitudes towards the Bible, which in the educational programme of the maskilim during this period assumed the central place previously occupied by the Talmud. Writers of the Haskalah regarded Biblical Hebrew as the language in which universal values, later inherited by all humanity, had first been formulated. Biblical Hebrew was contrasted with the Hebrew of rabbinic literature and served as the stylistic model for modern Hebrew literature during the Haskalah period. Some maskilim advocated the introduction of Hebrew as a spoken language, while at the same time pointing out that Biblical Hebrew alone was insufficient for this purpose and had to be enriched by the language of the Mishnah and the Talmud.
In 1783, a society dedicated to the popularisation of Hebrew among Jews was founded in Königsberg. In the journal Ha-Meassef published by this society (see above, as well as Periodical Press: Introduction to the History of the Periodical Press), all the leading German maskilim published their works, among them Salomon Maimon, D. F. Mendes (1713–92), Isaac Euchel (1756–1804), and others. Although the journal’s literary and artistic achievements were modest, the contributors to Ha-Meassef made a substantial contribution to the development of Hebrew, transforming it into an instrument of secular and scientific thought and thereby preparing the ground for its later revival as a spoken language.
Among the pioneers of Hebrew belles-lettres were Naphtali Hirz Wessely in Austria (who imitated the epic poetry of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Friedrich Schiller), Ephraim Luzzatto (1729–92) in Italy (who followed the models of Hebrew lyric poetry from the Renaissance), and the publicist Isaac Leib Nevakhovich in Russia.
In Germany, with the spread of the German language among Jews, Hebrew lost its importance within the sphere of enlightenment, although attempts by assimilationists to exclude Hebrew from the curricula of Jewish schools met resistance from a significant section of German Jewry. In Haskalah literature in Germany, poetic genres predominated — the epic and didactic poem, poetic drama, fable, and lyric poetry. The activities of the first generation of German maskilim stimulated the development of Hebrew literature in Eastern Europe — in Galicia, Lithuania, and within the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. The maskilim in these regions wrote in Hebrew not only because a substantial readership existed there, but also because they regarded the language as a national and religious factor uniting the Jewish people in the past and guaranteeing such unity in the future.
At the beginning of the 19th century, German maskilim wrote predominantly in German, while by the 1820s Galicia had become the centre of literary creativity in Hebrew. Following the example of Ha-Meassef, local maskilim there published the annuals Bikkurei ha-‘Ittim (1821–31) and Kerem Ḥemed (1833–56). Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport, Joseph Perl, Nachman Krochmal, Isaac Erter, and Max Letteris in Galicia; Isaac Baer Levinsohn in Ukraine; Abraham Dov Lebensohn, Micah Joseph Lebensohn, Judah Leib Gordon, and Abraham Mapu in Lithuania; Samuel David Luzzatto in Italy; Mendele Mocher Sforim in Russia; and later Peretz Smolenskin, Reuben Asher Braudes, and others not only transformed Hebrew into a highly artistic literary language but also significantly brought it closer to the condition of a living spoken tongue (see also Modern Hebrew Literature).
The Hebrew literature created by Haskalah writers in Eastern Europe affirmed traditional Jewish values and emphasised the distinctive spiritual character of the Jewish people, thereby preparing the ground for the emergence of the Jewish national movement (see Hovevei Zion and Zionism). Eastern European Haskalah writers also made a major contribution to the development of secular Yiddish literature, whose most significant representative during this period was Mendele Mocher Sforim.
In Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, proponents of the Haskalah hoped to find support for their ideas from the government. Some of the more radical maskilim repeatedly appealed to the tsarist authorities with proposals to prohibit Jews from wearing traditional dress. In 1797, the military contractor, merchant, and public figure N. Notkin submitted to the Russian government a plan for settling Jews on the fertile lands of southern Russia so that they might engage in agriculture, cattle-breeding, sericulture, the processing of agricultural produce, and textile manufacture. In 1807, as part of the campaign to colonise the southern Ukrainian steppes, 38 Jewish agricultural settlements were established in the Kherson and Ekaterinoslav provinces (see Agriculture); in the mid-19th century, the Russian government founded a number of Jewish agricultural settlements in Bessarabia. On the initiative of the Russian administration and with the support of the Jewish community, several Jewish agricultural settlements were also established in central regions of Poland during the mid-19th century.
The policy of the Russian government regarding Jewish education, formulated in the legislation of 1804, followed the Austro-German model. In practice, however, this legislation had little effect upon Jewish education in the Russian Empire. The issue was raised anew by Nicholas I of Russia, who hoped to convert the Jews of the empire to Christianity. In 1841, the Minister of Public Education, Sergey Uvarov, entrusted Max Lilienthal with the implementation of the government project for the reform of Jewish education. Despite resistance from Russian Jewry to the establishment of state Jewish schools, a decree ordering their creation was issued in 1847. Russians were appointed as directors of the new schools (approximately 100 in total); about half of the teaching hours were devoted to Jewish subjects, while the remainder was allocated to the Russian language, Russian history and geography, and arithmetic. Religious subjects were taught from anthologies containing extracts from the Bible, the Mishnah, and Mishneh Torah by Maimonides, accompanied by parallel German translations.
The influence of Austro-German models was also evident in the establishment in 1847 of rabbinical seminaries in Vilnius and Zhytomyr, where secular sciences were taught alongside Jewish subjects. It was intended that, after twenty years, only graduates of these seminaries would be appointed to rabbinical posts. The state Jewish schools aroused intense hostility among the Jewish population; in 1873 they had only 4,700 pupils throughout Russia, most of them from impoverished families. At the same time, a social stratum of wealthy Jewish contractors, suppliers, and merchants emerged, whose children studied in Russian gymnasia. In 1873, when the Russian government no longer wished to maintain separate schools for Jews, they were transformed into “Jewish elementary schools” intended to prepare pupils for admission to general schools (see also Russia: The Era of the “Great Reforms”. The Pursuit of Secular Education).
From the late 1870s onwards, the ideology of the Haskalah began to decline. This was connected with the rise of nationalism and antisemitism in Europe, the pogroms in Russian Empire, and the changing attitude of the Russian government towards Jewish education, which was now regarded as harmful to the state and to the indigenous population. The final collapse of Enlightenment optimism in the 1880s contributed to the emergence of nationalist and socialist ideologies (see Zionism and Jewish Socialism).