The term maskilah (Hebr., pl. maskilot) refers to an educated Jewish woman who participated in the Jewish Enlightenment movement (Haskalah). From the mid-19th century onward, Enlightenment thinkers (Maskilim) from the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe promoted not only secular education for girls but also training in traditional values and, especially, in the Hebrew language. This linguistic knowledge enabled Jewish girls and women to begin to partic…