Moses Mendelssohn (1729 CE – 1786 CE), Prussian Jewish scholar, popular philosopher, and man of letters, emerges as a beacon for the Haskalah (Enlightenment) Movement.
He calls for greater integration of secular sciences, arts and literature into Jewish education. Pro–Hebrew, wary of Yiddish.
The resonant Haskalah Movement was a pandora’s box, as far as classic old–line Orthodox was concerned.
The maskilim (adherents of Haskalah) impacted, among other movements, the embryonic Reform Movement, the Mussar Movement, Torah im Derech Eretz (Torah Ethics Movement), Zionism to come later, and Modern Orthodoxy (Yeshiva University, etc.).