History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)Dubnow, Simon
Religion
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 2 [of 3]: From the Death of Alexander I until the Death of Alexander III (1825-1894)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
In both groups one can discern the gradual ripening of the social Jewish
consciousness, the advance from elementary and often naive notions to
more complex ideas. The two Hebrew weeklies founded in 1860,
_ha-Karmel_, "The Carmel," in Vilna, and _ha-Melitz_, "The Interpreter,"
in Odessa, the former edited by Fuenn and the latter by Zederbaum, [1]
were at first adapted to the mental level of grown-up children,
expatiating upon the benefits of secular education and the "favors" of
the Government consequent upon it. _Ha-Karmel_ expired in 1870, while
yet in its infancy, though it continued to appear at irregular intervals
in the form of booklets dealing with scientific and literary subjects.
_Ha-Melitz_ was more successful. It soon grew to be a live and
courageous organ which hurled its shafts at Hasidism and Tzaddikism, and
occasionally even ventured to raise its hand against rabbinical Judaism.
The Yiddish weekly _Kol Mebasser_, [2] which was published during
1862-1871 as a supplement to _ha-Melitz_ and spoke directly to the
masses in their own language, attacked the dark sides of the old order
of things in publicistic essays and humoristic stories.
[Footnote 1: Before that time, the only weekly in Hebrew was
_ha-Maggid_, "The Herald," a paper of no particular literary
distinction, published since 1856 in the Prussian border-town Lyck,
though addressing itself primarily to the Jews of Russia.]
[Footnote 2: "A voice Announcing Good Tidings."]
Another step forward was the publication of the Hebrew monthly
_ha-Shahar_, "The Dawn," which was founded by Perez Smolenskin in 1869.
This periodical, which appeared in Vienna but was read principally in
Russia, pursued a two-fold aim: to fight against the fanaticism of the
benighted masses, on the one hand, and combat the indifference to
Judaism of the intellectuals, on the other. _Ha-Shahar_ exerted a
tremendous influence upon the mental development of the young generation
which had been trained in the heders and yeshibahs. Here they found a
response to the thoughts that agitated them; here they learned to think
logically and critically and to distinguish between the essential
elements in Judaism and its mere accretions. _Ha-Shahar_ was the staff
of life for the generation of that period of transition, which stood on
the border-line dividing the old Judaism from the new.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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