Simon Szántó, Nineteenth Century Viennese Writer and Educator: A Study on Integration, Particularism, and the Ideal of Bildung

Simon Szántó is known as one of the founders of the Jewish press in Vienna, the editor and main author of the Jewish periodical Die Neuzeit, and an influential educator during the high point of Austrian liberalism between the 1860s and the early 1880s. His enormously rich literary legacy covers issues such as the integration of Jews into the Austrian-Hungarian society, religious reform, gender roles, and particularly education. Szántó’s writings offer a unique opportunity to look at the Viennese liberal period of the second half of the nineteenth century and its challenges through the eyes of a mostly overlooked, but highly significant and influential actor of the time. This article will first introduce Simon Szántó’s cultural and educational background that impacted his ideals and his activities, and go on to discuss one of his main concerns, namely Jewish education. Religious education, confessional schooling, and Jewish upbringing at home bore the burden of responsibility for shaping Austrian Jewish women and men. These Jews were to be integrated in an Austrian culture, while at the same time to retain a strong Jewish particularity. Szántó aimed to unite this dichotomous reality through the realization of his ideals of Jewish Bildung.

Advancing the Learning Agenda in Jewish Education

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Biblical Education and the Power of Conversation

This chapter covers the role of Bible translation in Mendelssohn’s endeavor to effect a reformation Jewish society by reimagining Jewish education. It explores Mendelssohn’s childhood education and his critique of the prevailing system of German Jewish education for males. Mendelssohn’s conception of the goal of education, his view of Yiddish, his understanding of biblical aesthetics, and his account of the roles of the Bible and rabbinic teachings in Jewish education is analyzed. The place of gender and class in Mendelssohn’s approach to Jewish education is investigated. The connection between Mendelssohn’s efforts to reform Jewish education, his attempt to restructure the hierarchy of German Jewish society and his argument for Jewish civil rights are explored. It is argued that Mendelssohn uses Protestantism and Catholicism as conceptual categories to elaborate his enlightened, bourgeois concept of Judaism.

Bible translation and the centrality of the synagogue

This chapter analyzes Zunz’s Bible translation, situating it within the context of Zunz’s critique of the traditional Ashkenazic system of Jewish education that he experienced personally. Zunz’s assessment of Moses Mendelssohn and his vision for Jewish education that steers a middle path between the “sham Enlightenment“ of Jewish youth and the “blind faith” of older Jewish traditionalists are presented. The role of gender in Jewish education and the centrality of the synagogue in Zunz’s Bible translation project are explored. Zunz’s Bible translation is set in relation to that of his teacher, the Bible critic Wilhelm De Wette as a way of comparing liberal German Protestantism and liberal German Judaism in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. It is shown how Zunz uses Protestantism and Catholicism as exemplary categories aligning his vision of Judaism with Protestantism while rejecting forms of Judaism that he deems “Catholic.”

A Man of No Party

This chapter covers the role of Bible translation in Hirsch’s youthful Nineteen Letters on Judaism. Hirsch was educated in the tradition of Mendelssohn’s moderate Haskalah, and he came to see his mission as defending Judaism on a new basis. Hirsch developed a new vision of Judaism by engaging with four central German Jewish ideologies of his day: Haskalah, Wissenschaft des Judentums, Reform, and Jewish traditionalism. Hirsch criticized elements of these ideologies while weaving other elements into a new account of Judaism that would unite German Jews. In the Nineteen Letters he used Bible translation to elaborate this new vision. This chapter also explores Hirsch’s concept of Jewish education and gender.

Memorization in DSS, NT, Talmud and Patristic Documents

The history of civilization has its own uniqueness. There is an era in which all forms of knowledge must be memorized. However, after the advent of the printing press, many books circulated that could be a source of knowledge. And after this post-modern era arrives, all knowledge is available at hand via smart-phone at any time.According to historical records, education in the Jewish tradition is very strict. From an early age, a human child has been accustomed to remember what has been learned as part of life. There are four records in history to understand the practice of learning in understanding God's Law carefully and memorizing it. These sources from different eras testify simultaneously that memorization is a must for Jewish education context both at home, public school and synagogue. The sectarian, in Qumran, maintained their own strict interpretation of the Law. Family was still the chief institution and primary context for the dispensation of elementary instruction; although the scribes, Pharisees and learned rabbis played a major role in Jewish education during the NT era. Talmud is more specific about the age of studying and the sign of mastering. Origen also was trained since his childhood by his father, Leonides, to memorize Scripture daily and recite them every day.