This book explores the role of science and technology literature on Jewish education and identity in the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on Hebrew texts for children and youth. It examines how Jewish science popularizers, primarily from the Haskalah movement, incorporated scientific knowledge within a Hebrew cultural context, bridging tradition and modernity across fields such as optics, cosmology, geography, and zoology. Through an analysis of key figures and texts, the book reveals how the popularization of science and technology served as a tool for cultural renewal, national transformation, and the modernization of Jewish society.
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
1 Sciences for Jewish Children and Youth in the Modern Era
1The Popularization of the Sciences in Modern Culture
2Popular Science Literature and Science Textbooks in the Modern Era
3Acquisition of Scientific and Technological Knowledge among Ashkenazic
Jewish Children and Youth
4Popular Science Texts in Hebrew: A Core Means for Teaching Science to
Jewish Children and Youth
5The Emergence of Science Literature in Hebrew Aimed at Children and Youth
2 The Sciences in Jewish Culture: From Ancient Traditions to Modern Science
Education and Popular Science Literature in Hebrew
1The Sciences in the Jewish World from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era
2The Linguistic Medium for Writing about Science
3 Scientific Knowledge Dressed as Judaism
1Bridges between Old and NewScience, Morality and Religion in Texts for
the Young Audience
2Nature as a Religious Textbook: Physico-Theology for Jewish Children
3The Jewish Point: Making Science Relevant to the Identity of Jewish
Youth
4 From Zoology to Animal Stories: Exoticism, Morality, and Human-Animal
Relations in Texts for Jewish Children
1Study and Entertainment Together: Animals in Texts for Jewish Children
2Combining Scientific Knowledge with Literary Models
3Anthropocentrism, Utilitarianism, and the Appearance of Empathetic
Messages towards Animals in Childrens Texts
4Educational Messages in the Field of Human-Animal RelationsThe Dog as a
Test Case
5 Science and Technology in Texts for Jewish Children in the Second Half of
the 19th Century
1Reveal this sublime and wonderful wisdom to the ears of the children of
IsraelChildren as the Target Audience for Education about Technology
2Science, Technology, and Literary Discussion
3Science, Technology, and Literary Discussion in Hebrew Childrens
Literature
4Admiration of Science and Technology and Longing for the Old World
6 Hayyim Selig Slonimski: A Prototype of a Promoter of Science and Technology
among Jewish Youth
1From Traditional Scholar to Modern Researcher: Changes in Slonimskis
Discourse
2Science and Technology as Media of Modernization
3Torah Will Come Forth from Edisons Factory in America, and the Word of
God from the College de FranceSlonimskis Pedagogic Approach
4Slonimskis Connections with Jewish Youth
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Tal Kogman, Ph.D., is affiliated with the Unit of Culture Research at the School of Cultural Studies, Tel Aviv University. Her research centers on Jewish children and youth, as well as the modernization and secularization of Jewish education within Ashkenazi culture during the 18th and 19th centuries, with a particular focus on the Haskalah movement. She has published extensively on these topics, including her book The Maskilim in the Sciences: Jewish Scientific Education in the German-Speaking Sphere in Modern Times (Magnes Press, 2013 [ Hebrew]).
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