Haskalah

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Pronunciations

Haskalah (hahs-kah-LAH) listen

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Definitions

  • n. 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.

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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

      Regions

      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

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

      Alternative Spellings

      Haskolah, Haskola, Haskala

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.

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