The Reception of Modern Jewish Thought in Russian-Jewish Intellectual Traditions: The Study of the Reception of Spinoza and of Mendelssohn as Comparative Cases

I’m planning to study the reception of Spinoza’s philosophy and philosophical projects of Mendelssohn and the Haskalah Jewish thinkers of XVIII-XIX c. in works of Russian-Jewish authors of XIX-XX c.
The first stage of reception of Spinoza`s and Mendelssohn`s philosophies in Russian-Jewish
authors was related to the Russian-Jewish version of the Haskalah and also to attempts of introducing the reformed, “Modern” (in the Haskalah’s meaning) Jewish practices and education amongst the Russian Jewry. The central elements of this maskilim reading of Spinoza formed a political interpretation of his thought – Spinoza was taken as a defender of tolerance, civil society and the liberal political tradition.
The second period (1860-1885) was rather voluminous, both in texts and in authors (Saul Kovner, Valentin Korzh, Jakov Rombro, Haim Fleksner et al.) They were interested primarily in the Haskalah`s image of Spinoza’s biography, in which they saw an example of the Jewish emancipation under features of the Modern European culture. Another aim of their studies was the Spinoza’s approach to religion. They considered his approach as a revealing of the “pure, or true Judaism”.
The last period (1890-1920) included various works of Russian-Jewish authors (Shimon / Simeon Bernfeld, M. Basilevsky, Josef Klauzner, Shimon Dubnov et al.), both in Russian and Yiddish. The authors intended
to seek new models to interpret Spinoza’s thought within the history of philosophy by appealing to Spinoza’s links with the medieval Jewish philosophy. They also devoted certain place to Spinoza in histories of the Jewish people as example of the secular Jewish position towards Jewish
self-understanding.