THE IMPACT OF THE HASKALAH MOVEMENT ON THE ROMANIAN JEWRY DURING THE 19TH CENTURY
THE IMPACT OF THE HASKALAH MOVEMENT ON THE ROMANIAN JEWRY DURING THE 19TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The Haskalah was an attempt to prevent the disintegration of Jewish life under the pressure of the new realities and a less radical alternative for the new generation of intellectuals troubled by the anxieties and uncertainties of modernity. This new type of intellectual, the maskil, lived simultaneously in two worlds: he would attempt to integrate in the Romanian culture but without breaking ties with his mother tongue. This permanent oscillation between two worlds grounded on different values brought the Jews in a condition from which they could hardly escape. It is the author's argument that the fundamental problem of the Haskalah and the reason of its failure was that it did not manage to respond to the one big question: why does emancipation inevitably lead to alienaion?

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