Moritz Steinschneider

Bohemian Jewish scholar who coined the term "antisemitic" in 1860

Moritz Steinschneider
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Born	Template:Birth date Prostejov, Moravia (then Austrian Empire)
Died	Template:Death date and age Berlin, German Empire
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Occupation	Scholar, bibliographer, orientalist
Known for	Coining the term "antisemitic" (1860); pioneering Hebrew bibliography; early Zionist activity
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Moritz Steinschneider (30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Bohemian-born Jewish scholar, bibliographer, and orientalist, widely regarded as the founder of modern Hebrew bibliography. He is credited with the first published use of the term "antisemitic" (antisemitische Vorurteile) in 1860 while critiquing the racial theories of Ernest Renan. Unlike Renan, Steinschneider explicitly included Ashkenazi (Yiddish-speaking) Jews as direct biological descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews within the Semitic category. He had early proto-Zionist links through the secret student society Die Einheit and later worked on educational projects commissioned by the Sassoon family; his close collaborators were instrumental in founding major Zionist organisations in England.

Early Zionist involvement

In 1838, while a student in Prague, Steinschneider co-founded the secret society Die Einheit with Albert Löwy and Abraham Benisch. The group’s objective was to promote Jewish welfare through the colonisation of Palestine by Austrian Jews. The society was kept secret to avoid government suppression; England was viewed as a natural ally.

Many of his collaborators became central figures in organised Zionism. Löwy and Benisch played leading roles in the foundation of the Anglo-Jewish Association and related Palestine committees. As Sokolow records, these men “raised themselves to the height of a national and Zionist conception” and were active in the Palestine committees of the late 19th century.

Steinschneider himself withdrew completely in 1842, viewing the scheme as impractical compared with his scholarly pursuits. He later developed a strongly negative attitude toward political Zionism.

Work for the Sassoon family

Steinschneider was commissioned by the Sassoon family to write several educational books for Jews in English. This work formed part of the Sassoons’ broader philanthropic and cultural efforts within the Jewish community.

What ever his private convictions, Sassoon must have been well aware that the appearance of loyalty and patriotism paid dividends. During the boom that accompanied the American Civil War, the Bartle Frere administration pushed merchants to fund civic proj ects. En glish and vernacular schools sprung up across the Bombay Presidency, including the Benevolent Institution, sponsored by David Sassoon to serve the Jews of Bombay. The school provided education in both Hebrew and English, employing the latest scientific approach and Western priorities: without vernacular instruction, the children of poor migrants would be “half educated or even quite ignorant” and hence unemployable. Sassoon commissioned Moritz Steinschneider to produce several lavishly illustrated textbooks for the school. Although Sassoon chose a noted German scholar for the task, the books were unabashedly En glish in tone and object, containing the national anthem, prayers for the government and Queen Victoria, and the Decalogue and Shema in English translation. This emphasis on modern pedagogy squared with Victorian notions of scientific charity: Sassoon also sponsored a bevy of institutions dedicated to self- improvement.

Coining of "antisemitic" (1860)

In 1860 Steinschneider first used the term "antisemitic" while attacking Renan’s claims of inherent Semitic racial inferiority. He wrote of Renan’s arguments as “antisemitische Vorurteile” (anti-Semitic prejudices). Steinschneider accepted Renan’s racial-linguistic frame—Semites included Hebrews/Jews (with Ashkenazim as direct biological descendants of ancient Palestinian Hebrews) as well as Arabs—but rejected only the hierarchy of inferiority. He did not deny the biological connection between Ashkenazim and ancient Palestine.

Views on Ashkenazim

Steinschneider treated Ashkenazi Jews as biological descendants of ancient Palestinian Hebrews/Semites. He argued, however, that they had lost much of their original "Semitic character" through centuries of assimilation into European civilisation. The full passage reads: "[T]he primordial influence of race, as immense a part that it plays in the dynamics of human affairs, is offset by a crowd of other influences, which sometimes seem to overcome or even smother [étouffer] entirely that of blood. How many Israelites today, who are descended directly from the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, have nothing of the Semitic character, and are only modern men, swept along and assimilated by this great force superior to race that we call civilisation!"

He spoke Yiddish natively but held it in contempt, describing it as “zhargon” (jargon).

Later disengagement from Zionism

Steinschneider withdrew from Die Einheit in 1842 and thereafter held a strongly negative attitude toward political Zionism, viewing it as unrealistic. He never discussed later proto-Zionist figures such as Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, Yehuda Alkalai, Moses Montefiore, Moses Hess, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda or the Rothschilds in relation to his 1860 critique of Renan. His focus remained strictly scholarly.