"Remeberings" by Pauline Wengeroff: Jewish Enlightenment in Russia.

In Pauline Wengeroff's memoir, Rememberings, we see the effects of the Jewish Enlightenment on Russian culture. In each region that was a home to Jews in the early nineteenth century, Enlightenment took hold amongst portions of the Jewish population. One of the goals of the Enlightenment was to make Jews more cultured and to be more like their neighbors. Although many Christian habits were adopted, the root of these activities came from each specific local …

…two short generations later the chain had been broken. Wengeroff was forced to adapt to a changed time. Her Jewish values might have been compromised but her dedication to education would not. Her actions in starting a school and her efforts to educate her children illustrated this respect. If the Jewish people would no longer be a nation that obeyed the law-of-Moses and studied the Talmud, they would still be a nation rooted in knowledge