The Jewish Enlightenment

PrefaceIntroduction: The Jews and the EnlightenmentPART I. A PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE1. Intellectual Inferiority: The Affront-The Restoration of Jewish Honor-"Precursors of the Haskalah" or "Early Maskilim"?2. The Early Haskalah and the Redemption of Knowledge-The Erotic Seductiveness of Knowledge-The Redeemers of the Neglected Sciences-Confronting Skepticism: The Noble Savage-Shaping Rational Thinking3. The Secular Author in the Public Arena-On the Verge of Separation from the Rabbinical Elite-Patrons and the First Circles-Three Avenues of DevelopmentPART II. JEWISH KULTURKAMPF4. The Wessely Affair: Threats and Anxieties-Orthodox Counterreaction-The Subversive Intellectual5. Projects of Enlightenment and Tests of Tolerance-The Jewish Free School-Religious ToleranceDohm: On the Civil Improvement of the Jews-Mendelssohn's Bi'ur of the Pentateuch-The Posner Affair6. The Rabbinical Elite on the Defensive-"To Publicize the Wickedness of the Evil Man, Herz Wessely"-An Ultimatum from the Seven Berliners-Rabbi Levin Flees Berlin7. On Religious Power and Judaism-Saul Levin's Ktav Yosher-Mendelssohn's Jerusalem-Rabbinical Reactions-Wessely and the Italian RabbisPART III. THE MASKILIC REPUBLIC 8. The Society of Friends of the Hebrew Language-Establishing a New Public Sphere-A Maskilic Association in Koenigsburg9. The Maskilim: A Group Portrait-In Mendelssohn's Salon-Circles and Boundaries in Maskilic Society-Two Groups of Maskilim10. Euchel Establishes the Haskalah Movement-The Genesis of a Maskil-The Haskalah Project's First Initiatives-Hame'asef, 1785-178611. The Society for the Promotion of Goodness and Justice-The Freischule Printing House-The Haskalah Is Institutionalized-Intensive Acculturation in Berlin12. Growth and Radicalization-The Haskalah Library Expands-The Kulturkampf Escalates-An Attack on Rabbi Raphael Kohen-The Search for the Ideal Jewish SocietyPART IV. ON TWO FRONTS13. Crisis at the Turn of the Century-Voices of Despair and Protest-Decline in the 1790s-Jewish-German Intelligentsia-Friedlander and the Letter to Teller14. Tensions and Polemics in the Shadow of Crisis-Satanow and the Haskalah Library in the 1790s-Hame'asef, 1794-1797-The Early Burial Controversy-The Besamim Rosh Affair15. On Frivolity and Hypocrisy-The Enemies of Enlightenment-Internal Rifts-Rabbi Josephche and Jettchen in the BrothelAfterword: Haskalah and SecularizationThe Haskalah as a Revolutionary EventSecular RevolutionNotesIndex