The Jewish enlightenment / Shmuel Feiner ; translated by Chaya Naor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Feiner, Shmuel.

Contributor:

Naor, Chaya.

Series:

Jewish culture and contexts

Jewish Culture and Contexts

Standardized Title:

Mahpekhat ha-neʼorut. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Intellectual life--18th century.

Jews.

Haskalah--History--18th century.

Haskalah.

Jewish learning and scholarship--History--18th century.

Jewish learning and scholarship.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (455 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

pt. 1. A passion for knowledge

pt. 2. Jewish Kulturkampf

pt. 3. The Maskilic republic

pt. 4. On two fronts.

Notes:

Originally published as Ma'apechat ha-neorut, tenuat ha-Haskalah ha-Yehudit ba-mea ha-shmune esre.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-428) and index.

ISBN:

9781283890458

1283890453

9780812200942

0812200942

OCLC:

794925523