The Haskalah (Hebrew: ‘enlightenment’) is the Jewish intellectual movement that sought to bring Enlightenment values — reason, secular education, civic participation — into Jewish life. Launched by Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) in Berlin, the Haskalah argued that Jews could and should participate fully in European civic and cultural life while maintaining Jewish identity. Its program: secular education alongside Torah, Hebrew revival as a literary language (not just a sacred one), translation of the Bible into vernacular languages, and reform of Jewish communal institutions. The Haskalah is the direct intellectual parent of Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Zionism, and the Bund (Jewish socialist labor movement). It is the most transformative intellectual event in modern Jewish history.