Abraham ben Naphtali Tang-A Precursor of the Anglo-Jewish Haskalah*

The term Haskalah is assigned to the cultural movement which affected European Jewry from about the middle of the eighteenth century until well into the nineteenth century. Essentially, it reflected the desire among certain sections of Jewry to break away from the exclusiveness of ghetto life, to acquire Western culture, and to become like their neighbours in language, dress, and habits. Regarded in terms of general European history the Has? kalah was, in fact, the Jewish aspect of a wider movement which historians have desig? nated the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, and Haskalah can only be fully appreciated if it is viewed from the perspective of the European Enlightenment.

Effects in England

By the beginning of the nineteenth century Haskalah in Holland and Germany had achieved more than a fair measure of success, as, indeed, had the Maskilim (followers of Haskalah) in Italy and France. Could

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Written by

Rabbi S. B. Leperer

Published in

Other articles within the volume

• Norman Bentwich, 1883-1971*
• Jewish Colonies in Cyprus ? Further Information
• More Letters of Hazan de Sola
• The Selection of Jewish Children’s Names- Some Emendations
• Jews and the English Stage, 1667-1850
• The Community of the Resettlement, 1656-1684: A Social Survey*
• Joseph Gortissos and the War of the Spanish Succession*
• The Literary Career of Joseph Jacobs, 1876-1900*
• The British Press and Zionism in Herzl’s Time (1895-1904)*
• Abraham ben Naphtali Tang-A Precursor of the Anglo-Jewish Haskalah*
• On David Ricardo (1772-1823)*
• Naturalisation of Jews in England
• Foreign Trade of London Jews in the Seventeenth Century*
• Jewry of South-West England and some of its Australian Connections*
• The Letters of Israel Abrahams from Egypt and Palestine in 1898*
• Preface