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The Jewish Enlightenment
Winner of the 2004 Koret Jewish Book Award in History
Winner of the Meyer-Struckmann-Preis for 2007 from the University of Duesseldorf. At the beginning of the eighteenth century most European Jews lived in restricted settlements and urban ghettos, isolated from the surrounding dominant Christian cultures not only by law but also by language, custom, and dress. By the end of the century urban, upwardly mobile Jews had shaved their beards and abandoned Yiddish in favor of the languages of the countries in which they lived. They began to participate in secular culture and they embraced rationalism and non-Jewish education as supplements to traditional Talmudic studies. The full participation of Jews in modern Europe and America would be unthinkable without the intellectual and social revolution that was the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. Unparalleled in scale and comprehensiveness, The Jewish Enlightenment reconstructs the intellectual and social revolution of the Haskalah as it gradually gathered momentum throughout the eighteenth century. Relying on a huge range of previously unexplored sources, Shmuel Feiner fully views the Haskalah as the Jewish version of the European Enlightenment and, as such, a movement that cannot be isolated from broader eighteenth-century European traditions. Critically, he views the Haskalah as a truly European phenomenon and not one simply centered in Germany. He also shows how the republic of letters in European Jewry provided an avenue of secularization for Jewish society and culture, sowing the seeds of Jewish liberalism and modern ideology and sparking the Orthodox counterreaction that culminated in a clash of cultures within the Jewish community. The Haskalah's confrontations with its opponents within Jewry constitute one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the dramatic and traumatic encounter between the Jews and modernity. The Haskalah is one of the central topics in modern Jewish historiography. With its scope, erudition, and new analysis, The Jewish Enlightenment now provides the most comprehensive treatment of this major cultural movement.
Winner of the Meyer-Struckmann-Preis for 2007 from the University of Duesseldorf. At the beginning of the eighteenth century most European Jews lived in restricted settlements and urban ghettos, isolated from the surrounding dominant Christian cultures not only by law but also by language, custom, and dress. By the end of the century urban, upwardly mobile Jews had shaved their beards and abandoned Yiddish in favor of the languages of the countries in which they lived. They began to participate in secular culture and they embraced rationalism and non-Jewish education as supplements to traditional Talmudic studies. The full participation of Jews in modern Europe and America would be unthinkable without the intellectual and social revolution that was the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. Unparalleled in scale and comprehensiveness, The Jewish Enlightenment reconstructs the intellectual and social revolution of the Haskalah as it gradually gathered momentum throughout the eighteenth century. Relying on a huge range of previously unexplored sources, Shmuel Feiner fully views the Haskalah as the Jewish version of the European Enlightenment and, as such, a movement that cannot be isolated from broader eighteenth-century European traditions. Critically, he views the Haskalah as a truly European phenomenon and not one simply centered in Germany. He also shows how the republic of letters in European Jewry provided an avenue of secularization for Jewish society and culture, sowing the seeds of Jewish liberalism and modern ideology and sparking the Orthodox counterreaction that culminated in a clash of cultures within the Jewish community. The Haskalah's confrontations with its opponents within Jewry constitute one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the dramatic and traumatic encounter between the Jews and modernity. The Haskalah is one of the central topics in modern Jewish historiography. With its scope, erudition, and new analysis, The Jewish Enlightenment now provides the most comprehensive treatment of this major cultural movement.
456 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 2003
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About the author
Shmuel Feiner
16 books1 followerShmuel Feiner (Hebrew: שמואל פיינר) is professor of Modern Jewish History at Bar Ilan University and holds the Samuel Braun Chair for the History of the Jews in Prussia. His books include Haskalah and History: The Emergence of a Modern Jewish Historical Consciousness and The Jewish Enlightenment (winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award).
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March 9, 2020
Interspersed among many pages of details of little interest to me were some exciting descriptions of this most defining period (late 18th c) as Jewry began to evolve from a world bounded by rabbis and Talmud to a much broader place which included secular thinking and behavior ...
*** from my notes ...
... young Jews, well-versed in Talmudic studies, sought to also acquire knowledge of European culture and Jewish philosophy … there was much inner torment as the boundaries of forbidden knowledge were crossed
... new Jewish intellectuals assumed the right to speak to the Jewish public … to propose world views and set forth plans for the regeneration of Jewry … the rabbinical elite regarded this as an intolerable provocation and a revolutionary step to undermine their authority
... Herz Wessely dared to propose a new curriculum which included foreign-language, science, history, and geography … advocating the ideal of enlightenment, which recognize the individuals right to fulfill his potential as he saw fit
… the study of Torah would become one of the options
*** from my notes ...
... young Jews, well-versed in Talmudic studies, sought to also acquire knowledge of European culture and Jewish philosophy … there was much inner torment as the boundaries of forbidden knowledge were crossed
... new Jewish intellectuals assumed the right to speak to the Jewish public … to propose world views and set forth plans for the regeneration of Jewry … the rabbinical elite regarded this as an intolerable provocation and a revolutionary step to undermine their authority
... Herz Wessely dared to propose a new curriculum which included foreign-language, science, history, and geography … advocating the ideal of enlightenment, which recognize the individuals right to fulfill his potential as he saw fit
… the study of Torah would become one of the options
Displaying 1 of 1 review