In the second half of the 19th century, a religious renewal movement emerged in Lithuania under the leadership of the Orthodox Rabbi Israel Salanter. His aim was to place the development of one’s morality (Hebr. musar) at the center of traditional Jewish life, emphasizing in particular the importance of godliness, piety, charity, and virtue. He saw these moral values threatened by the work of the Haskalah and secularism, but also by th…