CULTURE
The improvement of the political conditions influenced the intellectual and social life of the Jews to a considerable degree. This is noticeable in their literature, education, religious life and finally in their communal organizations.
Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), of Dessau, came as a boy to Berlin. After a youth filled with hardship he found employment in the house of a manufacturer, first as tutor and then as bookkeeper. His main object was to raise Jews from their intellectual isolation. He translated the Pentateuch, the Psalms and some smaller books of the Bible into correct German, and edited this work with a Hebrew commentary. It soon became popular and was the medium for teaching the young people the German language. He also defended Judaism against various attacks and presented its teaching in a German work, “Jerusalem.” In his work on the Bible, he was assisted by various co-workers, among whom the most prominent is Naphtali Herz Wesel, who called himself Hartwig Wessely (1725-1805). The latter’s epic on the life of Moses, patterned on Klopstock’s “Messias,” was written in elegant Hebrew verse, and became an inspiration to many other writers disgusted with the obscure and artificial style of Rabbinic Hebrew, and having a taste for literary beauty. An organ for such endeavors was presented by the publication of the first Hebrew magazine, “Meassef” (1784).
The progress of secular education made Hebrew literature soon disappear in Western Europe, but the influence of Wessely and his disciples made itself very strongly felt in the East of Europe, and particularly in the countries comprising the former kingdom of Poland. Their modern Hebrew writings introduced the young men to the knowledge of history and science, and gave them a taste for secular education and for a western conception of life. Isaac Bär Loewinson (1788-1860) wrote works in defense of Judaism, and advocated secular culture, patriotism, manual trades and the emancipation from mediæval conditions still existing in these countries. Marcus Aaron Guenzburg (1795-1846) worked chiefly as translator of popular works, such as juveniles like Campe’s “Robinson Crusoe.”
A more independent character was given to Hebrew literature by Abraham Mapu (1808-1867) who wrote two novels from Biblical life, “The Love of Zion,” and “The Guilt of Samaria,” and another describing the life of the Jew in his Lithuanian home, “The Hypocrite.” Mapu used Biblical Hebrew with great facility and became the father of a new development in Hebrew and later in Yiddish, giving to Jewish literature a high literary character. He was followed by Judah Loew (Leon) Gordon (1833-1892), whose satirical poems not merely possess a value for the ease with which the author handled the Hebrew language, but have been a great force impressing upon the minds of the Jews in Eastern Europe the defects of their intellectual isolation and the shortcomings of Rabbinic teachings. Among the later poets Chayim Nachman Bialik, born 1873, is the most popular. His elegy on the massacre of Kishineff is one of the gems of modern Hebrew literature.
Yiddish literature from its earliest beginnings in the sixteenth century was mostly used as a vehicle for the religious instruction of women and people of little education or merely adapted and translated some of the popular literature of the countries where its exponents lived. From the middle of the nineteenth century it commenced to assume a more independent character and thus secured a place in the world’s history as is shown by the fact that some of its works were translated into other European languages. Among the novelists may be mentioned Shalom Jacob Abramowitsch (born 1836) who writes under the pseudonym, “Mendele the bookseller,” Shalom Rabinowitsch (born 1859) and, the most popular of all, Isaac Loeb Peretz (born 1851). A poet who presents the tragic as well as the humorous side of the New York ghetto, Morris Rosenfeld, born 1864, is to be mentioned; his works have been translated into various European languages. Of dramatists whose works have occasionally found their way to the German and English stage there are Shalom Asch, and Jacob Gordin (1853-1909), who deals with the life of Russian Jews in America.
The disappearance of the social and intellectual isolation in the life of the Jews created a special literature which is called the ghetto novel. This deals with the life of the Jews in the era of transition from their isolation to modern culture. This literature began in Germany and its best known representatives are Aaron Bernstein (1812-1884), Leopold Kompert (1822-1886), Karl Emil Franzos (1848-1904), and, among Christians who view the life of the Eastern Jews with sympathy, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1835-1895) and Eliza de Orzeska (1842-1910). Sketches from the life of the Alsatian Jews were presented in French by Alexander Weill (1811-1898) and in Danish by Meier Aaron Goldschmidt (1819-1887). In the English language, Israel Zangwill, born 1864, wrote novels dealing with the life of the foreign Jews in England. Among his works “The Children of the Ghetto” has obtained a place in the world’s best literature. The English stories of Martha Wolfenstein (1869-1906) deal with the life of European Jews.
A place in modern Jewish literature belongs to the Jewish press as it has developed in the nineteenth century. The first Jewish periodical that had more than an ephemeral existence was “Meassef,” published in Hebrew with some parts in German. It began to appear in 1784, and with some interruptions was kept up until 1810. The oldest periodical still in existence is the “Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums,” begun by Ludwig Philippson, rabbi in Magdeburg, in 1837. It was followed by the “Archives Israélites” in 1840 in Paris, and by the “Jewish Chronicle” in 1841 in London. Of the numerous periodicals published in the United States, the oldest still existing is the “American Israelite,” founded by Isaac M. Wise in Cincinnati in 1854.
The first Hebrew weekly, which dealt not only with Jewish affairs, was the “Hamaggid,” founded by Lazarus Silbermann in Lyck, East Prussia, in 1858. The first Hebrew daily paper was the “Hazefirah,” published first as a weekly in 1862 and afterwards as a daily from 1886. Quite a number of valuable magazines dealing with Jewish history and literature have been published since the middle of the nineteenth century in Hebrew and in various modern languages. “Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift fuer Juedische Theologie” (1835-1840) and “Juedische Zeitschrift fuer Wissenschaft und Leben” (1862-1875) were both edited by Abraham Geiger; the “Monatsschrift fuer Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums,” begun by Zechariah Frankel in 1854, was discontinued in 1887 and has been republished since 1891. “Revue des Etudes Juives” dates from 1881; “Jewish Quarterly Review” appeared from 1888 to 1908. Of the Hebrew magazines there are “Kerem Hemed,” of which nine volumes were published from 1833 to 1856, Bikure Ha-ittim (1820-1831), and “Haschiloach” since 1896.
Rabbinic literature of the older type, dealing with the law and Talmudic dialecticism, has also a great number of representatives during this period. Among the foremost may be named Moses Schreiber (Sofer), born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1762, died as rabbi of Presburg in 1839, and Akiba Eger (1761-1837). In Western Europe this literature shows a steady decline. Of the authors whose life belongs entirely to the nineteenth century may be mentioned Jacob Ettlinger, rabbi of Altona (1798-1871), and Seligman Bär Bamberger, rabbi of Wuerzburg (1807-1878). Very numerous, however, are the Rabbinic authors of Eastern Europe and the Orient, among whom Isaac Elhanan Spector, rabbi of Kovno (1810-1896), Hayim David Hazan, rabbi of Jerusalem (1790-1868), Hayim Palaggi, rabbi of Smyrna (1784-1868), and Hayim Hezekiah Medini (1834-1904), may be mentioned.
Already before Mendelssohn’s time individual Jews in Germany and Austria distinguished themselves in literature and science. But the education of the masses was almost entirely confined to Bible and Talmud. With the popularization of secular knowledge the necessity for schools arose and the first institution of this kind was founded in Berlin as the “Jewish Free School” in 1778. The efforts of Emperor Joseph II to promote secular culture among the Jews of Austria led to the establishment of a primary school in Prague in 1782. Others followed in different cities: the Wilhelm Schule of Breslau was founded in 1791; the Herzog Franz-Schule in Dessau in 1799. Higher schools were the Jacobson Schule in Seesen in 1801, the Samson Schule in Wolfenbuettel in 1803, and the Philanthropin in Frankfort-on-the-Main in the next year. Even in Eastern Europe, where religious fanaticism was bitterly opposed to secular education, such schools came into existence like the one founded in Tarnopol by Joseph Perls in 1815. The Alliance Israélite Universelle, founded in 1860, made it one of its principal objects to establish schools for secular education in the Orient, and it now has a great number of schools which it maintains in Turkey, Northern Africa and Asia, extending from Palestine and Asia Minor to Persia and Mesopotamia.
With the growing number of schools the need for special training schools for Jewish teachers arose. The first of these was founded in Berlin in 1825. More important was the need for training schools for rabbis. The old method of education by which every young man who devoted himself to study was a Talmudic scholar was discontinued in Western Europe. On the other hand, it became necessary to give the rabbis a more systematic training. The first modern school of this kind was established in Padua, then under Austrian rule, in 1829. Later the Yeshibah of Metz was transformed into a Rabbinic seminary and subsequently transferred to Paris. In 1854 the Rabbinic seminary of Breslau was founded and this was followed by the establishment of similar institutions in European countries. In 1875 the first Rabbinic seminary in America, the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, was opened. In New York the Jewish Theological Seminary was established in 1886. Various educational institutions devoted to special needs, such as the school for the deaf-mutes opened in Nikolsburg in 1845, and later transferred to Vienna, and the first Jewish institute for the blind established in the latter city in 1872, deserve to be mentioned in this connection.
The removal of the disabilities which kept the Jews from agriculture and mechanical trades, and the desire of the Jews to direct the young generation into such pursuits gave rise to quite a number of institutions all over the world devoted to these purposes. Several of these are located in the Orient and were founded or subventioned by the Alliance Israélite. It established the first agricultural school near Jaffa in Palestine in 1871. The Hebrew Technical Institute of New York, founded in 1884, the agricultural schools at Ahlem, founded 1893, at Woodbine, N. J., 1891, and at Doylestown, Pa., 1896, may be mentioned.
With the emancipation from Rabbinic studies a new development in Jewish learning took place. This showed itself in what is called the “Science of Judaism,” and may be defined as a systematic study of Jewish history and literature. The pioneer in this work was Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) who wrote books on the history of Jewish homiletics, on the synagogal poetry and various minor essays on all phases of Jewish literature. He found numerous followers, not merely in western Europe, but also in the East, and thus contributed largely to the intellectual elevation of the Jews.
In Eastern countries the first who wrote on these topics in Hebrew were Nahman Krochmal (1785-1840) and Solomon Loew Rapoport (1790-1867). The latter, inspired by the works of Zunz, was the author of biographies of prominent mediæval rabbis. In Italy we have Isaac Samuel Reggio (1784-1855) and Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), who used the excellent collections of old Hebrew prints and manuscripts for the elucidation of the history of Jewish literature. The external side of the literature was presented in erudite form by the great bibliographer Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907). History in more readable form was written first by Isaac Marcus Jost (1795-1860), and then by Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891), the latter’s work having gone through various editions and been translated into French, English, Hebrew and Yiddish. Numerous authors worked at the elucidation of portions of Jewish history and carefully edited old manuscripts. Thus they shed light on obscure parts of the Jewish past and showed the many-sided activity of the Jews during the long period of their history and their influence on all human activities.
In this connection the participation of the Jews in spiritual activity ought to be mentioned. We find them as authors, artists, inventors and scholars in all lines. Only the most prominent can be named. Ludwig Boerne, formerly Loeb Baruch (1784-1837), is one of the classic essayists of German literature. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is one of the greatest of lyric poets. Both Heine and Boerne became converted to Christianity. A classic author of village idyls is Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882). Among the greatest tragedians of the world are Eliza Rachel Felix (1821-1858), in her days the foremost actress on the French stage, and Adolf von Sonnenthal (1832-1909) considered the most prominent German actor of his time. Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) is one of the world’s best known composers. Moritz Oppenheimer (1800-1881) was a prominent painter, and his scenes from Jewish life possess, besides their value as works of art, great worth as historic scenes. Marcus Antokolsky (1842-1902) is one of the most famous sculptors, and Joseph Israels (born 1824) and Max Liebermann (born 1849) are among the greatest painters of our age. In the lines of science and scholarly work the names of prominent Jews are too numerous to mention.
The great change in the life of the Jews and their education brought about the necessity of harmonizing their religious practices with their new life. Thus the reform movement began. The forces which promoted it were æsthetic, political and dogmatic. In the first class may be reckoned the efforts of Israel Jacobson (1769-1828). Although not a professional scholar he was a man of considerable Jewish learning, and his object was to make the services of the synagogue more attractive to the younger generation. The synagogue established by him in connection with the school which he founded in Seesen in 1810 was the first that introduced some of the reforms which since have been generally accepted, namely, a sermon in the vernacular and decorum and modern music.
In 1818 the first reform congregation was established in Hamburg. It was followed in 1824 by a similar organization in Charleston, S. C.; this, however, was soon dissolved. These synagogues introduced a ritual different from the one which had up to this time been generally in use. The most important changes were those which eliminated the belief in the return of the Jews to Palestine and consequently also in the restoration of the sacrificial cult. These were followed by an attempt to present systematically the teachings of modern Judaism and to apply the principles of the modern critical school to the whole of Jewish life, particularly the observance of the dietary and marriage laws.
The desire to work in harmony led to the convocation of Rabbinic assemblies, the first of which was held in Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1844. As the exponent of the most radical views Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860) is to be mentioned. It was his idea that Judaism had lost all its former national significance. On this basis the reform congregation of Berlin, whose first rabbi Holdheim was, was established in 1845, introducing for the first time solemn services on Sunday.
The most prominent scientific exponent of the reform idea was Abraham Geiger (1810-1874), one of the most prominent workers in scientific Jewish literature. He stood for a more historic conception of the reform principle, although as a Bible critic his position was advanced. His views were shared by two of the leading rabbis of America, David Einhorn (1809-1879) and Samuel Hirsch (1815-1889). They, together with Samuel Adler (1809-1891), represented the progressive ideas of German theology in America.
In 1842 reform was definitely introduced in the synagogue of Charleston, S. C., following the example set by the foundation of the West London Synagogue of British Jews the year previously. In America, however, reform took strongest hold and soon was accepted by the leading congregations composed of the native and the naturalized element. The most prominent figure in the popularization of this movement in America was Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900).
A more conservative view, usually spoken of as that of historic Judaism, was represented by Zechariah Frankel (1801-1875). He stood for freedom of thought in theoretical matters but advocated conservatism in worship and practice. Another division was formed by those who stood uncompromisingly for the preservation of the traditional Jewish life based on a strict belief in the divine origin of the Bible and the authenticity of Rabbinic interpretation, differing from the old school only in so far as they admitted secular education. The chief exponent of this thought was Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888). In America his views were represented by Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) and Sabato Morais (1823-1897), while a compromising attitude was taken by Benjamin Szold (1829-1902) and Marcus Jastrow (1829-1903). The traditional view of Judaism in the sense in which it had generally existed until the latter half of the eighteenth century, was restricted to the Orient and Eastern Europe and to congregations formed by recent immigrants from these countries in Western Europe and America. As a literary champion of this uncompromising attitude Hillel Lichtenstein (1815-1891) deserves mention.
One of the features of modern Jewish development is the communal organization rendered possible by the freedom of movement in religious, charitable and political activities. The Alliance Israélite Universelle deserves for this the first place. It was founded for the purpose of defending the interests of the Jews in countries of oppression and promoting their economic and moral as well as their intellectual status. This organization was followed by others with similar objects, the Israelitische Allianz of Vienna, started in 1873, the Anglo-Jewish Association, founded in 1871, and the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, in 1901.
Of the many organizations confined to particular countries the Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeinde-Bund, founded in 1869, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, established in 1873, deserve special mention. Very numerous are the societies created for the promotion of the welfare of the Jews, and aside from the local institutions, like hospitals, homes for the aged, orphan asylums and sanitariums, the societies for the promotion of mechanical trades and agriculture are distinctly a product of the Jewish conditions of the nineteenth century.
Of organizations having a wider scope, the Jewish Colonization Association founded by Baron Moritz de Hirsch in 1891, has the greatest capital. These schemes of colonization, to which the work done by the Zionist organizations and that contemplated by the Jewish Territorial Organization founded in 1905, have to be added, are as yet only in their infancy. In general, however, since the French Revolution there has been a steady progress of Jewish life in all directions.