The Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (Hebrew: Hevra Mefitsei Haskalah; Russian: Obshchestvo dlia rasprostraneniia prosveshcheniia mezhdu evreiami v Rossii, or OPE; sometimes translated into English as "Society for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia") was an educational and civic association that promoted the acculturation of Russian Jews and their integration in the wider Russian society; founded in 1863, it remained active until 1926 or 1929.
[1][2] It was founded as a learned society in December 1863, in Saint Petersburg, at that time the capital city of the Russian Empire, by prominent Russian Jews, including Joseph Yozel Günzburg, who became president; his son Horace Günzburg, first vice-president; Rabbi A. Neumann, second vice-president; Leon Rosenthal, treasurer; Abraham Brodski; and I. Brodski.
The anti-Jewish riots, on the one hand, and the restrictions imposed by the government, on the other, impelled Russian Jews to trust to self-help and to take thenceforth more interest in their own institutions.
In the next year (1880) the society inaugurated a branch, with a special fund, for the promotion of agriculture and industry among Russian Jews.
At the same time, a greater interest in Hebrew literature began to manifest itself among the members, and a special fund for its promotion was voted in 1884.