The Haskala occurred during the mid-18th to 19th century. It was known as the  Jewish Enlightenment and the leaders were called Maskilim. The Haskala originated from Germany and spread to Eastern Europe and was both a form of rebellion against legalism and tyranny and a struggle for emancipation and modernization.

The Haskala began with the use of Hebrew, “the sacred language” to reach the intellectuals. Newspapers and magazines were printed in Hebrew.Young scholars in the yeshivas were eager to learn about secular matters. Many of them dropped their yeshiva studies entirely or studied at the yeshiva during the day and and secretly met with others to continue their secular studies at night. These yeshivas boys were tutored by the boys in the gymnasia in subjects such as physics, Latin and algebra. The yeshiva boys were able to cover in a few years the eight year program of the gymnasia.