Prayer against the Hasidim

Born in Satanów (Satanov), Podolia, Menachem Mendel Lefin was an important Haskalah figure. Raised and educated traditionally, he lived in Berlin in the 1780s, where he met maskilim as well as Moses Mendelssohn. Unlike many other East European–born maskilim who were attracted to Berlin, he returned to Eastern Europe, adapting Enlightenment features to local conditions. He fiercely opposed Hasidism, advocated the teachings of Maimonides (whose Guide for the Perplexed he translated), and promoted the addition of secular subjects to the Jewish school curriculum. Under the patronage of the Polish prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, Lefin published works and received a stipend. Living in Galicia for the last part of his life, he influenced later maskilim such as Joseph Perl.