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

They were emerging from the ferment of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, in which thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn searched for ways that Jews, freshly emancipated in Western Europe, could embrace the new secular gods of rationality and progress and nation.

From New York Times

One of Sasha’s most informative chapters, inspired by the front room of his grandparents’ house, outlines the three main currents of 19th-century Judaism: scholarly, yeshiva-based orthodoxy; mystical Hasidism; and the Jewish Enlightenment movement known as the Haskalah.

From Washington Post

Mr. Wolfe traces its modern forms back to the 18th-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment he helped inspire.

From New York Times

In its wide sense Haskalah denotes enlightenment.

From Project Gutenberg

To each of them Haskalah implied different ideals, and through each it promulgated diverse doctrines.

From Project Gutenberg