Jewish Enlightenment Research Paper

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Recommended: European age of enlightenment

Beatriz Fernández
Professor Coenen Snyder
HIST 384
12 February 2015
Haskalah
The era of Enlightenment in Europe inspired many thinkers and philosophers to contemplate on the status of the marginalized Jewish community in Europe. As a product of these reflections, the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment was created. The Haskalah was an intellectual movement that lasted from approximately 1770 to 1880. Those who were supporters of this movement sought to change the popular perception of Jews in Europe; this created much controversy and became the topic of numerous debates and essays.
One of the most influential Haskalah thinkers was Christian Wilhelm Dohm; he was a German philosopher who published one of the first articles advocating for Jewish …show more content…

Michalis, a German scholar, believed that not only were the Jews dangerous as individuals, but their religion posed a threat to the community as well. Michaelis paints the picture of the epitome of anti-Semitism, he argued that because of their religion, Jews could never be citizens because they would never be able to love their country unconditionally. Not only did Michaelis criticize the Jews because of their Jewish ways, he also warned that a Jew who changes his ways to be more like that of the Christians is a hypocrite, a Jew who cannot be trusted for betraying his religion. Furthermore, Jews could not participate in military activity because Michaelis claimed that they were too short, probably wouldn't eat the food rations provided for them during war, and would most likely refuse to fight for their country on …show more content…

Despite being a Jew, Mendelssohn did not fight for Jewish emancipation; he declared that he would not compromise Judaism for emancipation. Mendelssohn wanted to preserve Judaism while presenting it to Europe and to modern culture in a positive light. In his quest to preserve Judaism, Mendelssohn rejected Yiddish, claiming that the slang was bringing Judaism, and attempted to win back the unobservant Jews by translating the Bible into German in Hebrew characters, unfortunately, many people had deviated very far from Hebrew studies and this was not a successful attempt on his part. Mendelssohn claimed that Judaism constituted the principles of natural religion and argued that it would be the ideal religion for a secular state. He described the ideal society as "a pluralistic and tolerant state where only secular authorities could compel action, where religion is a private matter and there is separation of church and state, moreover the ideal Judaism consisted of tolerance and rationale where Jews and Christians occupy the same moral ground, he described Judaism's path to be by way of Torah and the religion being eternally relevant and compatible with philosophical ethics" (The Jews: A History,

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