Haskalah and History

Shmuel Feiner is Professor of Modern Jewish History at Bar- Ilan University and chairman of the Jerusalem Leo Baeck Institute. He is the author of The Jewish Enlightenment (2004), Moses Mendelssohn, Sage of Modernity (2010), and The Origins of Jewish Secularization in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2011).

'Meticulously researched [...] a definitive account of the Haskalah in its different manifestations.'- David Biale, American Historical Review'Shmuel Feiner's work becomes part of the mainstream of contemporary scholarship examining this aspect of European society and utilizing the paradigms of contemporary research [...] This text is essential to the scholar, particularly those dealing with Jewish thought after the Enlightenment. It is also totally relevant to our time.' - Uri Ben Alexander, European Judaism 'Makes an important and lasting contribution to the study of modern Jewish history and culture [...] excellent.' - Edward Breuer, Jewish Quarterly Review'A pathbreaking book which surveys a key aspect of Hebrew-language Jewish enlightenment (haskalahA) thought in the modern period with authority, broad scope as well as with a deep and perceptive understanding of the leading and not-so-leading thinkers in the movement [...] breaks new ground by giving serious attention to 'middle level' enlightenment writers as a means of penetrating the mind of the less sophisticated individuals who made up the bulk of the movement [...] offers clear presentations of the thought of almost all the important ideologues of the movement and gives full bibliographical references. This will be a standard reference text for many years [...] should be a basic book in any collection that deals seriously with modern Jewish thought as well as collections interested in religious modernizations in various cultures.' - Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies Review'Not only does this work successfully recapture a long-forgotten mental universe of maskilic historical writings, it also demonstrates the author's conviction that the Haskalah cannot be displaced from its central, if not exclusive, position in the narrative of Jewish modernization in Europe. Feiner deserves to be regarded as the leading historian of the Haskalah movement considered in its entirety. His mastery of the relevant sources and the scholarly literature on Enlightenment is phenomenal, as is the quality and quantity of his meticulous studies of key Haskalah phenomena and figures [...] a deeply rewarding book. Its very expansiveness suits its author's ambition to understand the Haskalah in its entirety, a task to which Feiner, as much as anyone, is equal [...] a work the reader can luxuriate in [...] this study, in its highly readable translation, now provides the best single-volume treatment in English of the broad (and yes, revolutionary) ideology of the Haskalah.' - Jonathan Karp, Studies in Contemporary Jewry

• Note on transliteration and conventions used in the text Introduction: ‘Haskalah’ and ‘History’ 1. From Traditional History to Maskilic History in Late Eighteenth-Century Germany An Enlightened Avant-Garde • The Legitimization of Traditional History • The ‘Judgement of Reason’: Legitimizations for a New History • Rationalistic, Realistic, and Moralistic History • The Modern Period in the Maskilic Picture of the Past • The Pantheon of Historical Heroes • The Dissemination of Maskilic History in the Early Nineteenth Century 2. The Manipulation of History in Nineteenth-Century Galicia The Galician Maskilim • The Unfolding of Maskilic History • A Natural History of Hasidism • Nahman Krochmal: The Middle-f-the-Road Maskil • Wissenschaft des Judentums in Galicia • The Struggle for Freedom of Thought • Iconoclasm: Attitudes to Religious Reform 3. Optimism under Oppression: Maskilic History in Russia, 1825–1855 The Idea Yearned to be Realized • A universal History for a Modern Era • The Maskilic Chain of Tradition • The Use of History in Maskilic Propaganda • Political History and Moral History 4. Reaching the Masses: The Dissemination of Maskilic History The Channels of Distribution • Optimistic and Patriotic History • Scientifc Knowledge of the Past • The Autobiography of the Haskalah Movement • Abraham Mapu and the Popularization of Maskilic History • Heroics and Sacred memories in Popular Historical Fiction • Improvement of the Masses: History in Yiddish • Kalman Schulman: The First Professional Popularizer 5. Maskilic History in Crisis The Radical Haskalah: A Loss of Optimism • The Anticlerical Struggle • The Historical Vindication of Hasidism • From ‘Maskilic History” to ‘National History’ Conclusion: New DirectionsGlossary Bibliography Index