The Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement in the 18th-19th centuries that sought to modernize Judaism by synthesizing Jewish traditions with secular knowledge and values from the Enlightenment. It appealed for reforms in Jewish education and the acquisition of secular knowledge. This document discusses how the Haskalah influenced different conceptions of Jewish identity as either a religious community, a nation or race in the 19th century.

1. The Haskalah
Jewish Enlightenment

2. The Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment was a movement that sought to rejuvenate the
Jewish way of life by synthesizing it with secular knowledge and reshaping it according
to Enlightenment values, appealing for reform in education and acquisition of secular
knowledge.
Zaban, Yahil "Haskalah". In Oxford Bibliographies Jewish Studies, (2021): https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199840731/obo-9780199840731-0095.xml

3. Moses Mendelsohn
1729 - 1786 (Prussia)
Father of the Enlightenment
13

4. Moses Mendelsohn
• Translated Pentateuch into German
• German commentary on Talmud
• On the Condition of the Jews
• Advocated for Jewish emancipation
• Advocated Jewish education
14

5. Napoleon Bonaparte
1799 - 1804
Conquered Central Europe and Poland with all
their Jewish communities
15

6. Napoleon Bonaparte
September, 1791
Granted Jews full citizenship
Established a French Sanhedrin
16

7. Benjamin Disraeli
July, 1837
• First Jewish Member of Parliament
17
Sir Benjamin Disraeli, MP (1845 - 1880)

8. Religious Opinions
Relief Act
July 31, 1845
• Championed a bill allowing Jews to be MP
• Lionel Rothschild
fi
rst non-Christian MP
• Granted civil freedoms to Jews
• Jewish Emancipation
18
Sir Benjamin Disraeli, MP (1845 - 1880)

9. Now that Jews are no longer excluded from Christian society,
What distinguishes Jews as a people group?
19

10. Jewish Identity in the 19th Century
• Religious Identity — Jews are a religious community
• National Identity — Jews are a scattered nation
• Racial Identity — Jews are a race
20

11. Reform Judaism
Jewish as a Religious Distinction
Isaac Mayer Wise Temple in Cincinnati

12. Abraham Geiger
1810 - 1874
b. Breslau Germany
Father of Reform Judaism
22

13. Abraham Geiger
• Raised traditional Judaism
• U of Bonn & U of Marburg
• Rabbi in Wiesbaden (1832 - 1837)
• Reformed the synagogue
• Introduced German liturgy
• Jews are religious community
• Judaism is a German religion
23

14. Isaac Mayer Wise
1819 - 1900
• b. Bohemia
• Immigrated to America 1846
• Appointed rabbi in Cincinnati 1853
• Built the Plum Street Synagogue 1865
24

17. Isaac Mayer Wise
• Founded Hebrew Union College 1875
• Central Conference of American Rabbis 1889
27

18. Isaac Mayer Wise
• Judaism became an American Denomination
• Judaism had an accredited seminary
• Judaism was an American Religion
28

19. The Pittsburgh Platform
November 1885
Statement on nature of Jews and Judaism
29

20. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and
therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacri
fi
cial worship under the
sons of Aaron [priests], nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the
Jewish state.
James G. Heller, Isaac M. Wise: His Life, Work and Thought. (NY: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1965), pp. 46
4­
-465

21. What are the implications for Jewish Identity, if Jews are a religious community?
31

22. Secular Zionism
Jewish as a National Distinctinction
Theodore Herzl

23. Theodore Herzl
1860 - 1904
Founder of Modern Zionism
The Jewish State, 1896
33

24. Dreyfus Affair
1894 - 1906
Captain accused of espionage
Assimilated French Jew
Stoked public anti-Semitism
34

25. The Jewish State
• Judaism & and separation fed suspicion and hatred
• Emancipation failed
• Jews will never be accepted
• Jews will only thrive in their own land
35

26. The Jewish question is no more a social one than a religious one…it is a national
question, which can only be solved by making it a political question…we are a people.
Theodore Herzl, The Jewish State, (Jewish Virtual Library, 1896), Chapter 1, Paragraph 8.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-the-jewish-state-quot-theodor-herzl

27. What are the implications for Jewish identity if Jews are a political state?
Theodore Herzl, The Jewish State, (Jewish Virtual Library, 1896), Chapter 1, Paragraph 8.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-the-jewish-state-quot-theodor-herzl

28. Racial Identity
Jewish as a Racial Distinction
“Principle Types of Mankind”, 1893

31. Theories of Race
Developed developed Europe in
19th Century as scienti
fi
c theory.

32. Carl Linnaeus
1707 - 1778
Swedish Botanist & Zoologist
Biological theory of the Races

33. Carl Linnaeus
America Red
Asia Yellow
Africa Black
Europe White

34. Joseph-Arthur Comte de Gobineau
1816-1882
• French aristocrat wrote:
• “On the Inequality of Human Races”
• Intrinsic racial qualities
• Published in 1855

35. Jews as Semitic Race

36. Fagin in “Oliver Twist”
Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice”
Benjamin Disraeli
In political cartoons

37. Racial Distinctions
Jews became categorized by race, not religion
Jews were “Semites” in Europe
Jews were “Hebrews” in America
“Anti-Semitism” coined by Wilhelm Marr in 1879

38. Immigration to US
1880 - 1924
Rise of American Nativism
Fears of non-white immigrants

39. Immigration to US
1880 - 1924
In America
Jews were not white or black
Jews were Hebrew Race

40. Jews Embrace Racial Identity

41. Adoption of “Race”
Jews adopted the terms to distinguish themselves
Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of England

42. “All is race: there is no other truth”
Sidonia, the Jewish superwoman
speaking to a gathering of English
aristocrats.
Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of England
Disraeli, Tancred, 1847

43. All is race; there is no other truth ,and every race must fall which carelessly
su
ff
ers its blood to become mixed.
Benjamin Disraeli, Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography, (1852): 331.

44. Jews drew comfort from a racial self-de
fi
nition during the late nineteenth century
because it gave them a sense of stability at a time when old distinctions of
Jewish identity were disappearing.
Eric Goldstein, “Di
ff
erent Blood Flows in Our Veins,” American Jewish History, 85 no. 1 (March, 1997): 29-55.

45. What are the implications of racial identity?
55