From the ghetto to modern culture: the autobiographies of Salomon Maimon and Jakob Fromer

Maimon was born in 1754 in Lithuania. He underwent a Talmudic education and studied philosophy. He published philosophical works including a Hebrew commentary on Maimonides'"Guide to the Perplexed". It was in honour of Maimonides that he changed his name from Shlomo ben Yehoshua to Salomon Maimon. Fromer was born in February 1865 at Baluty, a suburb of Lodz. Both writers describe visits to the courts of Hasidic rabbis. Maimon's narrative provides a glimpse of the early days of Hasidism by someone who was not in sympathy with the movement. Fromer protrays himself as susceptible to the spell of Hasidism, but nevertheless condems it as superstitious