Abstract
The Jewish Enlightenment in Russia has been studied as an independent phenomenon since the end of the nineteenth century. However, the historical research has focused primarily on the latter half of the nineteenth century, when the phenomenon was of a more radical dimension. In contrast, this article concentrates on the first half of the nineteenth century, and is concerned with the evolution of the educational system that has received only limited attention. Much of the previous research into this area focused on the state-run schools for Jews, established in Russia in the 1840s as an outgrowth of the Official Enlightenment Plan. This article argues that already at the end of the eighteenth century, innovative Maskilic educational initiatives emerged which consisted of attempts to establish a network of schools and seminaries for teachers alongside the traditional educational system, that is, the 'Cheder' and the 'Yeshiva'. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a group of Polish intellectuals from the university of Vilna, with the assistance of Count A. Czartoryski, established a state-run seminar for Jewish teachers. This institute became very popular among the local Jews, and served as a catalyst for a wide range of private Maskilic schools, established by Maskilim in a large number of cities and towns, which included: Odessa in the south, Uman, Kishinev, Cherson, Grodno, Minsk, Mitau and Riga in the northern Baltic region. These schools, designed for both girls and boys, included both a vocational and a non-vocational curriculum, and operated on either a daily or a weekly basis. This new educational system had two specific purposes: firstly, to spread Maskilic ideas among large circles of the Jewish population, and secondly, to train young Jews to cope with the social and cultural contexts they would encounter. A social Maskilic circle formed the basis upon which this diverse and multifaceted educational network developed. The educational institutions with which the Russian Maskilim were involved in at the time developed side by side with the emergence of a social group of individuals, who actively supported these new ventures. These individuals were consumers of what can be clearly identified as Maskilic culture, modern Hebrew literature and journalism. Both the Maskilic circles and the group of supporters became a focus of social attention, engaging public interest, and contributed impressively to the spread of Enlightenment ideas and values. What emerges from this new reconstruction is that of a cultural phenomenon, which although it developed slowly, was nevertheless widely spread and constant. The argument and evidence put forward in this article is based mainly on previously untapped archival material from three main sources — The State and National Lithuanian Archive, located in Vilna; the archive of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, and the collections in the department of archives and manuscripts in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. Two of these collections, the Ginsburg Collection and the Schwadron Collection, contain many revealing letters written by contemporary Maskilim.
Translated title of the contribution | Trends in the Development of Jewish Enlightenment Education in the Russian Empire at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century |
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Original language | Hebrew |
Pages (from-to) | 133-171 |
Number of pages | 39 |
Journal | ציון: רבעון לחקר תולדות ישראל |
Volume | ס"ב |
Issue number | ב' |
State | Published - 1997 |