The Haskalah Movement in Russia

Rabbi, Jacob Salmon Raisin (1878 or 1877 - 1946) was the author of two works: The Haskalah Movement in Russia (1913) and Set, Creed and Custom in Judaism. Haskalah ("enlightenment," "education" from sekhel "intellect," "mind"), the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew, and Jewish history. Haskalah in this sense marked the beginning of the wider engagement of European Jews with the secular world, resulting, ultimately, in the first Jewish political movements and the struggle for Jewish emancipation. The division of Ashkenazi Jewry into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and anglophone countries, began historically as a reaction to Haskalah.