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.[1]
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.[1]
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.
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!"[2]
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.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nahum Sokolow, History of Zionism 1600–1918, vol. II (London, 1919), pp. xxxix, 319–320.
- ↑ James Renton and Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe: A Shared Story? (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), p. 105 (citing Ernest Renan, Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1855), pp. vii–viii, as referenced in Steinschneider’s 1860 critique).