Usage: usually capitalized, often attributive
Etymology: New Hebrew haśkālāh, literally, intellect, enlightenment
: an intellectual enlightenment movement among Jews of eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries that attempted to acquaint the masses with European and Hebrew languages and secular education and culture to supplement talmudic studies — see maskil
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/hah'skeuh lah"/; Ashk. Heb. /hah skaw"leuh/; Seph. Heb. /hah skah lah"/, n.
an 18th-19th-century movement among central and eastern European Jews, begun in Germany under the leadership of Moses Mendelssohn, designed to make Jews and Judaism more cosmopolitan in character by promoting knowledge of and contributions to the secular arts and sciences and encouraging adoption of the dress, customs, and language of the general population.
[ < Heb haskalah enlightenment]
Useful english dictionary. 2012.