The First Jewish Intellectual

While the Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century, known as the Haskalah, is most associated with Moses Mendelssohn, its real central figure was Naftali Herz Wessely (or Weisel), a poet, pamphleteer, educational reformer, and Bible commentator. To Shmuel Feiner, a great scholar of the Haskalah, Wessely was also something else: the first Jewish intellectual. Feiner, in conversation with J.J. Kimche, explains this remarkable figure’s life, vision, and fight with contemporary rabbis—which revolved around questions that still trouble the Jewish world today—and his role in paving the way for Zionism. (Audio, 70 minutes.)