ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author defines the Jewish Enlightenment, or the Haskalah movement. His model is the Berlin Haskalah of the 1780s, which took a new spiritual and cultural position regarding both Judaism and the Jews as well as their relation to European society and culture. The new direction discernible during the second half of the eighteenth century was an intermediate phase between the traditional way of life and the mature Haskalah movement. The dependence of the maskilim of Russia upon the Haskalah of Berlin was most conspicuous in the realm of ideology. The tendency of the Russian maskilim to see the stereotypical figure of the German Jewish maskil as an ideal embodiment of the Haskalah vision was connected to their German linguistic and cultural orientation. German language and literature served as the principal gateway for the Russian maskilim to enter the realm of European culture.
