A lecture jointly hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) and the Department of Theology & Religious Studies, King’s College London.

The Eighteenth Century was the first modern century in Jewish history. The deep changes that took place in its course shaped the following generations, and many of its voices still reverberate today. 

The twisting and fascinating biography of the eighteenth century from the viewpoint of the Jews of Europe emerges from paying attention to individual life stories, to bright and dark experiences, to voices of protest, and to aspirations for reform and personal and general happiness. The lecture will highlight one particular year: 1782. We will listen to optimistic and skeptical voices. Moses Mendelssohn, for example, a sensitive seismograph of the year 1782, went over a period of several months from feelings of enthusiasm and hope to the anguished fear that it would be impossible to overcome “barbarism”. If we look at the history of modern Jewish culture as a chessboard, then in 1782 most of the pieces were already laid out on the board. Trends that had emerged decades earlier now matured and developed. Thus, Jews in London experienced acculturation and secularization, the main trends of Jewish modernization, and they acutely felt the rift between the “new world” and the “old world” that divided the English community. In 1782 the various labels, the boundaries between the different groups and the topics that ignited controversy and struggles were already fixated with increasing clarity.

Shmuel Feiner is Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History at Bar Ilan University, Israel. He is Chairman of the Historical Society of Israel, a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and editor of Zion: A Quarterly for Research in Jewish History. His lecture will be based on his recent “European biography” of the Eighteenth Century in two volumes: The Jewish Eighteenth Century: A European Biography, 1700-1750 (English: Indiana University Press, 2020) and The Jewish Eighteenth Century: A European Biography, 1750-1800 (English: Indiana University Press, 2023). - Among Professor Feiner’s numerous further publications are Haskalah and History: The Emergence of a Modern Jewish Historical Consciousness (English: Littman Library, 2002); The Jewish Enlightenment (English: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), Moses Mendelssohn (English: Yale University Press, 2010) and The Origins of Jewish Secularization in Eighteenth Century Europe (English: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). In previous years, Professor Feiner served as the Chairman of the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem (2007–2019); Vice President of the International Leo Baeck Institute; and as Visiting Professor at Yale University (2011) and Goethe University Frankfurt (2012).

The lecture, ending at 7.15pm, will be followed by a reception.