The major field of action of the Haskala, the movement that brought the Enlightenment to Judaism, was in education. The maskilim, the supporters of the Haskala, sought to remove the study of the Talmud from its central position in Jewish education. The curriculum of the new schools included Judaic studies, but emphasized the study of secular subjects, modern languages, and practical training in trades, especially manual trades. They promoted the study of Jewish history and Biblical Hebrew as a way to revive Jewish national sentiment. They wanted Jewish children to be educated with common sense, tolerance, and good reasoning.

Some rulers indirectly helped the maskilim project. Emperor Joseph II of Austria issued an edict decreeing that Jews must establish “normal” schools or send their children to state schools. As a result of the decree, new modern Jewish schools were established. In 1820, Francis I decreed that rabbis had to study science, so a rabbinical seminary was opened in Padua in 1829.

It was in Berlin that the first school with the Haskala curriculum was founded. It was free of charge and aimed at poor children. They studied German, French, arithmetic, geography, history, art, biblical studies and Hebrew. The study of the Talmud was virtually abandoned. Other schools were established in other cities such as Dessau and Frankfurt. Teachers began to write textbooks with this new focus.

The Haskala also brought about changes in the education of women. The maskilim established free schools for girls in several German cities. Subjects included Hebrew, German, basic religious and ethical concepts, learning to pray and arithmetic. In some cities, reading and writing in Yiddish, crafts, art and singing were taught.

The first seminary for training teachers was established in Kassel in 1810. Others were established in Amsterdam and Budapest. Rabbinical seminaries sponsored by the Russian government and paid for by a special tax paid by local Jews, were established in Vilna and Zhitomir, but they were taught in Russian, so Hebrew and Jewish traditions were lacking. There were no Jewish secondary schools, and those who wanted to continue their studies had to do so in non-Jewish institutions.

The Haskala fostered a revival of Hebrew, especially Biblical Hebrew. Moses Mendelssohn wrote a commentary on the Bible in Hebrew along with a German translation. The journal Hameasef, which he compiles, was the first Hebrew periodical published by Mendelssohn’s students and lasted from 1783 to 1811.

The Haskala produced the first works of literature in Hebrew and the first on secular subjects in Yiddish. It developed a Jewish press written in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. Finally, we can say that he created an entire system of secular Jewish education that has influenced the Jewish world to this day. Now I understand where my Jewish school came from.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.