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David Caro (Amittai ben Avida Ahizedek), Hebrew Haskalah writer. The work, strongly critical of the state of the contemporary rabbinate, was the first open attack by a Haskalah writer upon the rabbinate of his time. This edition was published under the pseudonym of Uriah mi-Mishpahat ha-Falaquera.
Born in Fordon, Poland, Caro was attracted to the Haskalah movement at an early age and in 1800 moved to Posen where he joined the local group of maskilim and took a special interest in problems of education. His article "Giddul Banim" ("Bringing up Children," Ha-Me'assef, 9 and 10, 1810–11) is one of the best articles about education in the Hebrew literature of the period. In 1815, he founded the first Jewish school in Posen where German was the language of instruction and where general subjects comprised most of the curriculum. He conducted the school according to the pedagogic innovations of his time, especially those of Pestalozzi, the Swiss educational reformer.
During the controversy over the Hamburg Reform Temple, Caro published a book called Berit Emet (Dessau, 1820) using the pseudonym "Amittai ben Avida Ahizedek" and with the false imprint "Constantina" (Constantinople). Berit ha-Kehunnah, or Tekhunat ha-Rabbanim, is the second more important part. Caro also published poems and essays in Bikkurei ha-Ittim (11, 1830).
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