Moses Hirschel and enlightenment Breslau : a city and its Jews in the late eighteenth century

Breslau has been almost entirely forgotten in the Anglophone sphere as a place of Enlightenment. Moreover, in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment, Breslau has never been discussed as a place of intercultural exchange between German-speaking Jewish, Protestant and Catholic intellectuals. An intellectual biography of Moses Hirschel offers an excellent case-study to investigate the complex reciprocal relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish enlighteners in a prosperous and influential Central European city at the turn of the 18th century. Acknowledgements 5 Contents 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 9 Chapter 2: Jewish Historiography 12 Why Is Typical European Jewish Historiography Problematic? 12 The Structural Problem 18 The Epistemological Problem 21 “Essentialist” Jewish Identity Versus Plurality in Jewish Communities in the Eighteenth Century 24 Jews and Their Identities 29 The Concept of Hybrid Identity 29 Jewish Identity in Central Europe 30 Hybridised Individuals and Agency 32 Theory of Agency 33 Moses Hirschel: Agency, Identity and Influence 35 Chapter 3: Socio-Ethnic History of Breslau 42 History of Breslau, 1740–1818 42 Breslau (1740–1786) 43 Breslau (1787–1818) 48 Breslau’s History and the Historiographical Problem 52 Chapter 4: Moses Hirschel: A Critical Biography 56 Hirschel’s Early Life 57 Hirschel’s Partnership with Joseph Kausch 59 Popular Enlightenment 62 Hirschel’s Popular Enlightenment Works 64 Hirschel on Chess 64 Early Marriage 66 Kuh Biography 67 Hirschel and Patriotism 70 Hirschel and Catholicism in Silesia 72 Hirschel’s Personal and Professional Life 74 Chapter 5: Hirschel and the Orthodoxy 82 Hirschel and the Class Question 85 The Connexion Between Religious Authority and Corporate Power 86 Rabbinic Abuse of Financial Authority in Breslau 91 The Rabbinical Elite and Jewish Emancipation 94 Despotic Discipline 96 Heterogeneity and Diaspora 101 The Ashkenazi Orthodoxy and Jewish Traditions 105 The Early Burial Controversies in Prussia 112 The Early Burial Controversy in Breslau 117 Halacha, Minhag and Jurisprudence 122 Chapter 6: Jewish Rights, Human Rights and Anti-Semitism 128 Anti-Semitism in Prussia 128 The 1790 Jewish Regulations for Breslau and Their Contexts 133 The Authors of the Regulations 133 The 1790s Regulations in Detail: The Preamble 136 “Corrupt Jews” and Their Moral Transformation: The New Regulations 140 Cultural Imposition or Beneficent Transformation? 142 Innovative Aspects of the 1790s Legislation in the Context of General Prussian Reform 145 Jews, Day Labourers and the Prussian Vagabond Crisis 145 The Transformation of Jews by Means of Occupational Transformation 150 Hirschel’s Response to Contemporary Anti-Semitism 153 Preface and Introduction 156 Hirschel and Human Rights 158 Chapter 7: Haskalah and Enlightenment in Silesia 160 Enlightenment in Central Europe 160 What Is Enlightenment? 162 How Did Enlightenment Work? 164 What Was the German Enlightenment? 166 The “Late Enlightenment” in the German-Speaking Lands 169 The Translated Enlightenment Becomes the German Enlightenment 172 What Is Haskalah and Who Were Maskilim? 175 Enlightenment as Modernisation or Secularisation for Jews? 183 Breslau: On the Periphery of Enlightenment but a Centre of Haskalah? 186 Enlightenment in Breslau 188 Enlightenment Institutions and Personalities in Breslau 188 School Reform in Silesia 199 Catholic School Reform in Silesia and Prussia 200 Jews and Protestants: The Maskilim and School Reform 201 The Jewish Wilhelm-Schule in Breslau 206 The Industrial School for Girls in Breslau 212 The Gesellschaft der Brüder 214 Jewish and “Christian” Maskilim in Breslau 216 Other Jewish Enlighteners 217 Chapter 8: Final Remarks 225 Bibliography 228 Archives 228 Berlin 228 Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin – GStA PK 228 Breslau 229 Biblioteka Uniwersytecka we Wroclawiu 229 Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu 229 Warsaw 229 Central Jewish Library 229 Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie 229 Weimar 230 Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, GSA 230 Moses Hirschel’s Works 230 General Works 231 Index 264 Breslau has been almost entirely forgotten in the Anglophone sphere as a place of Enlightenment. Moreover, in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment, Breslau has never been discussed as a place of intercultural exchange between German-speaking Jewish, Protestant and Catholic intellectuals. The story of Moses Hirschel offers us an excellent case-study to investigate the complex reciprocal relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish enlighteners in a prosperous and influential Central European city on the cusp of the 18th century