Haskalah

Alternative Spellings

Haskolah, Haskola, Haskala

Definitions

• 19th century Jewish Enlightenment, in which modern philosophy and literature entered Jewish consciousness

Example Sentences

• With the Haskalah, Eastern European Jews finally saw the introduction of humanistic ideals.

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew

Etymology

השכלה haskalá, Yiddish/Ashkenazi pronunciation haskóle/haskúle 'lit., education, knowledge; with definite article, the Jewish Englightenment movement'

Who Uses This

Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)
Academics

Dictionaries

The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001)

Notes

Some pronounce it the Israeli/Sephardi way, with stress on the last syllable, and others the Yiddish/Ashkenazi way, with stress on the penultimate syllable.