Gesellschaft der Jungen Hebraeer
GESELLSCHAFT DER JUNGEN HEBRAEER
GESELLSCHAFT DER JUNGEN HEBRAEER (Ger. "Society of Young Hebrews"), society founded in Prague at the beginning of the 19th century by two young enlightened Jews, Judah and Ignaz *Jeiteles. Unlike the Gesellschaft der Freunde in Berlin, on which it was modeled, the society's aim was not only to provide mutual aid for its members, but also to propagate the ideas of the Haskalah among the working youth and uneducated members of Jewish society in Prague. Thus their Yidish Daytshe Monatshrift, of which six numbers appeared in 1802, was published neither in Hebrew nor in German but in Vayber-Daytsh ("Women's German," i.e., the Yiddish language of Ẓe'enah u-Re'enah printed in the Hebrew alphabet). Both the society and its periodical were forerunners of the particular Bohemian brand of Haskalah that was influenced by rising Czech nationalism, Jewish consciousness, and loyalty to the house of Hapsburg.
bibliography:
R. Kestenberg-Gladstein, in: Molad, 23 (1965), 221 33; idem, Neuere Geschichte der Juden in den boehmischen Laendern, 1 (1969), 191–253.
[Meir Lamed]