I often hear that the maskilim of the 18th and 19th centuries were, without exception, secularists and religious reformers. Is this true or were some/most of them actually religious individuals who happened to have modern/radical ideas about secular culture, like some interpretations of מה”ר Hirsch ז”ל?
asked Nov 2, 2014 at 15:46
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3Define "maskilim".– Double AA ♦Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 15:50
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1Per Wikipedia: "is an identifier for individuals and ideas of the Haskalah movement, the European Jewish enlightenment between the 1770s and 1880s…" Many were grammarians and even some of the mainstream religious figures of the time, such as R' Wolf Heidenheim, were occasionally identified as such.– Noach MiFrankfurtCommented Nov 2, 2014 at 15:52
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4Well, if you define "Maskil" to include some individuals who were actually religious, then the answer is one way, and if you define "Maskil" to exclude all those individuals, then the answer is the other way. What I don't get is how playing out that analytic tautology in q&a format is useful to anyone.– Double AA ♦Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 16:42
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1Notable religious maskilim include Maharats Hajes, Shir, Shadal, and R. D. Z. Hoffman.– mevaqeshCommented Sep 8, 2016 at 4:05
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The yeshiva in Volozhin was a hot-bed of maskilic sentiment, and many of the students went on to study in university. They were all religiously observant.– Shimon bMCommented Dec 7, 2016 at 5:09
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2 Answers
You can read Rebbetzin Brurya Hutner-David's thesis on Maharatz Chajes. She calls him a Maskil but definitely religious.
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1I didn't downvote but I didn't upvote either.....reason being that this doesn't really address the question fully (see also meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/q/2187/5323)– MTLCommented Nov 2, 2014 at 16:31
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3@Shokhet But i wrote that her thesis states he was a Maskil and that he was religious. It wasn't a see here with no information.– user6591Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 16:40
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More accurately, to summarize the whole dissertation, she paints a false dichotomy between maskil and religious traditionalist, and claims that Chajes was internally conflicted between the two.– mevaqeshCommented Aug 9, 2016 at 2:34
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2@mevaqesh I am in no way agreeing with what you said, at all. It's almost as if you've never heard of the maskilim smoking on shabbos while learning a blatt of gemara. However I have heard that this was her own personal turmoil boiling to the surface. Apparently both her and her father took an extreme turn towards the right fringe after being held hostage. This work shows the depth of which she studied the authors works and then turns on him. The theory makes sense.– user6591Commented Aug 9, 2016 at 2:58
There are two who come to mind,Chaim Zelig Slonimski,and Mordechai Aron Guenzburg. They were both religious . There are more but dont remember their names off hand.
Side note: Moses Mendalshonn was orthodox but his children converted except for one I beileve.
