Menachem Mendel Lefin (also Menahem Mendel Levin) (1749–1826) was an early leader of the Haskalah movement.

Biography

He was born in Sataniv, Podolia, where he had a traditional Jewish education supplemented by studies in science, mathematics, and medieval philosophy. In the early 1780s he lived in Berlin, where he met Moses Mendelssohn and other Haskalah leaders. He was later introduced to Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, and became a tutor to Czartoryski's children in Podolia. He spent most of his life living in Galicia, and had great influence on Nachman Krochmal and Joseph Perl. He is widely regarded as the "father of the Galician Haskalah." He campaigned in favor of adding general education to the standard curriculum in Jewish schools, and he was a fierce opponent of Hasidic Judaism and Kabbalah, which he viewed as "nonsense." In 1791, he published a French-language pamphlet advocating for Jewish reform, criticizing the Hasidic movement for opposing integration. Among his influential works is a Musar text titled Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh (Moral Accounting), which was published in 1808, based in part on the ethical program described in the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Levin died in Tarnopol in 1826. Among his writings are: