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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 19:1 (2007) ► pp.69–83

Haskalah scientific knowledge in Hebrew garment

A general statement and two examples

| Tel Aviv University

Scientific texts for Jewish children and youth were produced within the German-Jewish culture from the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century. The intention was to fill in the gap in the Judaic literature in Hebrew vis-à-vis the German-Christian literary and educational systems as part of modernization processes. Two case studies of German-Hebrew scientific translations (in natural history and astronomy) are described in an attempt to illustrate the strategies applied by the Jewish translators, which in their turn reflect the cultural constraints they faced and the creative ways they chose to deal with them, taking into account the models already available to the target system and the types of target audience the translated texts were intended for.

Keywords: Haskalah [Jewish Enlightenment], history of education, Hebrew culture, Hebrew literature, popular sciences, translation strategies, textbooks and children’s literature
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Writing texts on science: System constraints and translation strategies
  • 3.First case: Zoological knowledge in Hebrew
  • 4.Second case: A German-Hebrew bilingual text in astronomy
  • 5.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2007
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19.1.05kog
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