The Journals of the Haskalah 1820 to 1845

The Journals of the Haskalah from 1820 to 1845 includes monographs and annotated indices to eight Hebrew periodicals in Holland, Galicia, Germany and Lithuania, published in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The monographs analyze the phenomena of the Hebrew Haskalah press, addressing major developments in the history of the Haskalah, such as the emergence of ‘Hochmat Israel’ (The scholarly study of Judaism) in Hebrew, and the emerging centers of Haskalah in Holland, Galicia, and Lithuania.

The monographs study the journals and their editors, contributing authors, and the subject matters included in them, and examine their scholarly and literary output.

Some of the luminary scholars of the Haskalah contributed to these journals: Shmuel David Luzzatto, Shlomo Yehuda Rapoport, Nachman Krochmal, and Marcus Jost, as well as authors and poets, such as Yitzhak Erter, Shmuel Mulder, Meir Halevi Letteris and Adam Hacohen Lebenson.

‘Hevrat To’elet’ (To’elet Society), established in 1815, published three of the journals: Bikurei To’elet (First Fruits of To’elet, 1820), Pri To’elet (Fruit of To’elet, 1825), both edited by Shmuel Mulder, and Bikurei Hashanah (First Fruits of the Year, 1844), edited by Gabriel Pollak. in 1823/4, the author and editor Meir Halevi Letteris issued the journal Hatzfirah (Dawn).

In the early 1840s, two scholars of the German school of the Study of Judaism, Marcus Jost and Michael Creizenach, launched a Hebrew monthly publication in Frankfurt titled Zion (1841–1842). In 1842 and 1844, two Vilna Maskilim, Shmuel Yoseph Fünn and Eliezer Lipman Horowitz, published the journal Pirhei Tzafon (The Northern Flowers).

In 1844, Mendel Stern published one issue of Sefer Bikurei Ha’itim (The Book of The First Fruits of the Times), and a year later, in 1845/6, Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio and Israel Busch issued a one-time periodical titled Bikurei Ha’itim Hahadashim (The New First Fruits of the Times).

This book is the fourth volume in the series of monographs and annotated indices of Hebrew Haskalah periodicals. It follows the publication of the monographs and annotated indices on Kerem Hemed, titled Kerem Hemed: ‘Hochmat Israel’ [The Scholarly Study of Judaism] As the ‘New Yavneh,’ the Hebrew Journal of the Haskalah in Galicia and Italy (1833–1856), in 2009, and previously on Bikurei Ha’itim, titled Bikurei Ha’itim – Bikurei Hahaskalah [The First Fruits of Haskalah], the Hebrew Journal of the Haskalah in Galicia (in 2005), and the publication of Hame’asef Index and monograph – Sha’ar Lahaskalah [The Gate to Haskalah]: An Annotated Index to Hame’asef, the First Hebrew Periodical (1783–1811), in 2000, by Magnes Press.

The annotated indices should serve as a reliable reference tool for viewing and reviewing the major topics and issues that occupied the minds of the editors and the writers of these journals. Readers may now examine the scope and the character of the material published in these eight journals. Likewise, it is now convenient to assess the contribution of participating scholars, authors, and poets, to the Haskalah literature, and to explore their ideological stand on various scholarly or Haskalah-related matters.

Association of Jewish Libraries’ Judaica Bibliography Award 2014