Sulamith

Sulamith: eine Zeitschrift zur Beförderung der Cultur und Humanität unter den Israeliten, edited by David Fraenkel. Leipzig/Dessau 1806-1848. German | Call Number: HM 24: Af 783| Digital copy via Compact Memory as part of Frankfurt's Digital Judaica Collections.

Sulamith, founded in 1806, was the first Jewish periodical printed in German. Its editors David Fraenkel (1779-1856) and Joseph Wolf (1762-1826) were well connected with the second generation of Maskilim, of whom many published in Sulamith. There is an ongoing discussion on how representative Sulamith was for German Jewry, but it is unquestionably representative of the second generation of German-speaking Maskilim. Sulamith replaced the periodical Ha-Me'assef, which closed in 1797, but its format was sufficiently different to reflect the changes that had transpired in German Jewry. The issues contained excerpts and quotations in Hebrew, however its main language was German. Thus, Sulamith embraced the "Ideology of emancipation" aimed to achieve both, to address and engage with the Jewish and non-Jewish societies respectively and facilitate  an open exchange between the two. The editors expressed their vision of seeing the Jews as an integrated component of the modern centralized state. Sulamith published 17 issues until 1848.