Haskalah

American  

[hah-skuh-lah, hah-skaw-luh, hah-skah-lah] / ˌhɑ skəˈlɑ, hɑˈskɔ lə, hɑ skɑˈlɑ /

noun

1. an 18th–19th-century movement among central and eastern European Jews, begun in Germany under the leadership of Moses Mendelssohn, designed to make Jews and Judaism more cosmopolitan in character by promoting knowledge of and contributions to the secular arts and sciences and encouraging adoption of the dress, customs, and language of the general population.

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Etymology

Origin of Haskalah

From the Hebrew word haśkālāh enlightenment

Example Sentences

It is reproduced, together with many Haskalah reminiscences, by Gottlober in Ha-Boker Or, iv.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Raisin, Jacob S.

Austria, Haskalah in, 12, 188;   influence on Russian Maskilim, 195;   place of study for Russian Jews, 285, 298.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Raisin, Jacob S.

The Haskalah was steadily drawing recruits from both, and it threatened ultimately to become more dangerous to both than they were to each other.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Raisin, Jacob S.

It had been established by Meïr Horn, Moses Landau, and Hirsh Hurwitz, all of whom were indefatigable laborers in the cause of Haskalah in the Ukraine.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Raisin, Jacob S.

Hasidim, 65;   their teachings, 66, 67, 150;   spread, 69;   persecuted by the Mitnaggedim, 76, 131;   efforts at reconciliation with Mitnaggedim, 120-121, 260;   reformed, 122;   united with Mitnaggedim against Haskalah, 134;   fought by Maskilim, 168.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Raisin, Jacob S.