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Haskalah


Secularism and Its Discontents Secularism and Its Discontents
Thursday, May 30, 2013 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In an essay first published December 17, 2010, Yehudah Mirsky examines a defense of Jewish secularism and finds it—and Jewish secularism itself—wanting.
Enigmas of Modern Jewish Identity Enigmas of Modern Jewish Identity
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 by Stephen J. Whitfield | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Over the course of a lifetime facing modernity's conflicting demands, how might Jewishness affect the struggle to sustain identity, and how might this struggle mark the contours of Diaspora history?
The Jewish Egyptian Revival The Jewish Egyptian Revival
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Passover marks the day on which God liberated the Israelites from Pharaoh’s rule.   But three millennia after the Exodus, emancipated Jews expressed their national identity by building synagogues in the Pharaonic style.
Leaving the Ghetto Leaving the Ghetto
Friday, February 8, 2013 by Jacob Katz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

"Was there any possibility," asks Jacob Katz in this 1996 Commentary essay, "that the Jews collectively might have been accepted in Europe on their own terms—that is, as a community, with a religion opposed to Christianity?" 
Antisemitism: Obsession or Logic? Antisemitism: Obsession or Logic?
Thursday, January 24, 2013 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Robert Wistrich’s new book, From Ambivalence to Betrayal:The Left, the Jews, and Israel, does much to demonstrate that anti-Semitism was and is a fixture of the Left—but stops short of that conclusion.
Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin? Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin?
Friday, January 18, 2013 by Michael A. Meyer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In this classic 1975 Judaism article, Michael Meyer argues that there is no value in "setting a definite terminus for the beginning of modern Jewish history."
A Pillar with a Past A Pillar with a Past
Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Gil S. Perl’s The Pillar of Volozhin sheds light on the Netziv, one of Lithuanian Jewry's greatest leaders, whose own intellectual development is reflected throughout the yeshiva world today.
The Turning of the Torah Tide The Turning of the Torah Tide
Tuesday, December 4, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

“Torah Judaism today retains more of its youth than at any time since the Haskalah.”  Historian Marc Shapiro recently made this remark.  Can he possibly be correct?
Reform of Tradition, Tradition of Reform Reform of Tradition, Tradition of Reform
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Max Lilienthal’s life provides a lens through which we watch American Judaism, Reform Judaism in particular, struggle with the consequences of its own idiosyncratic condition.
Out of the Well of the Past Out of the Well of the Past
Monday, August 2, 2010 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Jewish history was once regularly portrayed as a march from pre-modern stasis to modern revolution and change. This picture held its attractions, offering clearly marked battle lines for later proponents on either side of the ongoing ideological struggles between traditionalists and modernizers. By now, however, we have been well instructed in the deceptive simplicity of all such efforts to impress order on the relentless flux of history, which so often dissolves the closer we look at it.
Editors' Picks
Beyond Emancipation Robert Fine, Fathom. "Mendelssohn insisted that the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment of the 18th century, was about the education and advancement of Jews, not about saving humanity from their allegedly noxious influence."
Cue the Organ Benjamin Ivry, Forward. Once, churches forbade organs because they recalled Jewish Temple music in Jerusalem.  Later, the Haskalah re-introduced the organ to synagogues—partly to drown out the cantor.
Rochl and the World of Ideas Sheindl Franzus-Garfinkle, Jewish Fiction .net. Rochl’s mother laments the perils of study: “Your brother convinced himself he had to study in America.  Now he’s there working like a dog.  See what comes of your enlightenment!” (Fiction)