ME'ASSEF

(Hebrew: Collector), first Hebrew publication of the Haskala cultural movement within central and eastern European Jewry in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Founded in Knigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), by pupils of Moses Mendelssohn, it appeared as a quarterly from 1784 to the end of the century. Devoted to increased use of the Hebrew language and the preparation of Jews for emancipation from ghetto life, Me'assef became the prototype for later organs of the Haskala.