Haskala

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1. Early Maskilim: Raphael Levi Hanover • Salomo Dubno • Tobias Kohen • Marcus Elieser Bloch
2. The Berlin Haskalah: Salomon Jacob Cohen • David Friedländer • Hartwig Wessely • Moses Mendelssohn
3. Austria: Judah Löb Mieses • Solomon Juda Rapoport • Joseph Perl • Baruch Jeitteles
4. Russia: Abraham Bear Gottlober • Abraham Mapu • Samuel Joseph Fünn • Isaac Bear Levinsohn

The Haskala , also Haskalah ( Hebrew השכלה" Education ", "philosophy", also "enlighten with the help of the mind"; von sekhel "Reason", " Intellekt "), from 1831 also called " Jewish Enlightenment ", was a movement that arose in Berlin and Königsberg in the 1770s and 1780s and spread from there to Eastern Europe . It was based on the ideas of the European Enlightenment, which it in turn knew how to expand and thus sometimes also advocated tolerance and an equal position for Jews in European societies. The last phase of the Haskalah ended in Russia around 1881 with the rise of Jewish nationalism .

meaning

During the 18th century, Jewish society was in a cultural crisis. It fell apart, which accompanied the rabbis' loss of authority . In order to solve the problems, different movements arose, in particular the Haskala. The movement had its origins in the Jewish bourgeoisie in Berlin , which was inspired by the writings of the French Enlightenment in particular and, in view of the changes in social structures driven by historical and economic developments, feared a further isolation of Judaism. The Haskala first received legal recognition of its concern for the legal equality of the Jews in France through the " Assemblée constituante ", which on September 27, 1791 granted the Jews full citizenship. The Haskala played a prominent role in the process of Jewish emancipation as a mediator between the elites of the Christian majority societies and the Jewish communities in Europe. It also found support from a few Christians and “ enlightened despots ” who wanted to integrate the minority into the population.

The main goals were aimed at secularization , i.e. separation of religion and state , and opening up to the Christian majority society by establishing personal and institutional contacts and introducing them to the Jewish doctrines. A tension developed between the sought-after renewal of Judaism and the confrontation with Jewish orthodoxy .

The beginning of the European Enlightenment is generally dated to around 1700. The beginning of a Jewish enlightenment movement, on the other hand, was put in 1770 with the activities of Moses Mendelssohn and his circle, albeit between an "early" Haskala, i.e. the Enlightenment movement within the Jewish establishment, and a "Prussian" movement (extension also to non-Jewish circles) must be distinguished under Moses Mendelssohn. The Jewish Enlightenment (name: Maskil from 1783) was distinguished by its activities (publicity, public expressions of opinion, participation in the discussion rounds, material and financial support), but also by its level of education (mostly university degree).

The bourgeois revolution in Western Europe was linked to the hoped-for emancipation of the Jewish population, and at the same time a modern hostility to Jews arose .

people

Important representatives ( Maskilim ) of the Haskala in Germany were among others:

  • Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) was a philosopher who was also recognized by non-Jews . On the one hand, by defending the Dresden Jews in 1777, he helped prevent their expulsion. On the other hand, with his German translation of the Bible (in Hebrew letters) and the supervision of the Biur (a grammatical explanation of the Bible ), he has made lasting contributions to raising the level of knowledge of Judaism, which was previously only Talmudically formed, and lasting both the German and the Hebrew language Given impetus. Mendelssohn served Lessing as a model for the main character in his verse drama Nathan the Wise .
  • David Friedländer (1750–1834) founded the first Jewish free school in Berlin in 1778 , whose educational program was dedicated to the Haskala and formed a counterpart to traditional upbringing in cheder .
  • Isaac Euchel (1756–1804) was editor of the Hebrew Enlightenment magazine Ha-Meassef , writer, publisher and founder of various societies of the Jewish Enlightenment. Euchel fought for the renewal of the Hebrew language and a reform of Judaism.
  • Israel Jacobson (1768–1828) was the founder of the school (→  Jacobson School ).
  • Hartwig Wessely (1725–1805) was a businessman, linguist, religious and educational reformer, and worked on Moses Mendelssohn's translation of the Bible.

In Galicia , Solomon Juda Rapoport and Menachem Mendel Lefin were the most important maskilim from 1800.

In the Russian Empire , Isaak Bär Levinsohn was the most important representative of the Haskala, later also the writers Abraham Mapu , Abraham Bär Gottlober , Eisik Meir Dick and Jehuda Leib Gordon .

See also

literature

  • Shmuel Feiner: Towards a Historical Definition of Haskalah , pp. 184-219, in: Shmuel Feiner, David Sorkin: New Perspectives on the Haskalah , Litmann, 2001, ISBN 978-1-904113-26-3 .
  • Shmuel Feiner: Haskalah , in: Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture , 7 volumes. JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung and Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag 2015.
  • Isaac Euchel: Of the benefits of the enlightenment. Writings on the Haskala. Edited by Andreas Kennecke, Parerga, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-930450-58-9 .
  • Shmuel Feiner: Haskala - Jewish Enlightenment. Story of a cultural revolution. Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-487-13531-1 (Translation of the Hebrew edition, Netiva , Volume 8, Ways of German-Jewish History and Culture . Studies by the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute , Jerusalem 2002)
  • Michael Graetz: Jewish Enlightenment , pages 251–351; in: Mordechai Breuer , Michael Graetz: German-Jewish History in the Modern Age, Volume 1, Tradition and Enlightenment 1600–1780 , Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-406-39702-8 .
  • Karlfried founder , Nathan Rotenstreich : Enlightenment and Haskala from a Jewish and non-Jewish perspective . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 978-3-484-17514-3 .
  • Gerhard Lauer: The back of the Haskala. Story of a little enlightenment. Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0345-4 .
  • Ingrid Lohmann (Ed.): Chevrat Chinuch Nearim. The Jewish free school in Berlin (1778–1825) in the context of Prussian educational policy and Jewish cultural reform. A collection of sources. Münster, New York: Waxmann Verlag 2001.
  • Uta Lohmann, Ingrid Lohmann (eds.): "Learn reason!" Jewish educational programs between tradition and modernization. Source texts from the time of the Haskala, 1760–1811. Waxmann, Münster 2005, ISBN 978-3-8309-1504-1 .
  • Josef Meisl : Haskalah. History of the Enlightenment Movement among the Jews in Russia , re-edited by Andreas Kennecke. Improved new edition of the original edition from 1919, Verlag von Übigau, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-942047-00-5 .
  • Marie Schumacher-Brunhes: Enlightenment in the Jewish Style: The Haskalah Movement in Europe , in: European History Online , ed. from the Institute for European History (Mainz) , 2010 Retrieved on: June 14, 2012.
  • Christoph Schulte : The Jewish Enlightenment. Philosophy, religion, history. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48880-3 .
  • Naphtali Herz Wessely, words of peace and truth. Documents of a controversy about education in the European Late Enlightenment , edited, introduced and commented on by Ingrid Lohmann. Münster, New York: Waxmann Verlag 2014.

Web links

Wiktionary: Haskala  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Graetz: Jewish Enlightenment , in: Mordechai Breuer, Michael Graetz: German-Jewish History in the Modern Age , Volume 1, Tradition and Enlightenment 1600–1780 , CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-406-39702-8 , P. 251
  2. ^ Hermann Cohen: Ethics of Maimonides , University of Wisconsin Press, 2004, ISBN 0-299-17760-2 , p. 146 ( Online , PDF)
  3. ↑ Christoph Schulte: The Jewish Enlightenment - Philosophy, Religion, History , Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 2000, ISBN 3-406-48880-3 , p. 17
  4. ^ Robert Mandrou: L'historiographie des minorités en France - bilans et positions deproblemèmes ; in Myriam Yardeni (ed.): Les juifs dans l'histoire de France - premier colloque internationale de Haïfa , EJ Brill, Leiden, 1980, p. 9
  5. ^ Marie Schumacher-Brunhes: Enlightenment in the Jewish Style: The Haskalah Movement in Europe Haskalah Movement. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Mordechai Breuer: The image of the Enlightenment in the German-Jewish Orthodoxy . De Gruyter, 1990, ISBN 978-3-11-094749-6 , doi : 10.1515 / 9783110947496.131.xml ( degruyter.com [accessed on 13 August 2020]).
  7. ↑ Anika Reichwald: Haskala - the early Jewish Enlightenment. De Gruyter, 2016, accessed August 13, 2020 .