Jewish Education Gains Strength in America

New UHS Program is Exected
To Fill Gaps in Ranks of Educators

Jewish Families Urged to Provide
Religious Schooling for Daughters

By BERNARD ISAACS

By ALBERT ELAZAR

Associate Superintendent, The United Hebrew Schools

Superintendent, The United Hebrew Schools

A problem with which Jewish communities have been confronted for
sometime is the fact that we are losing our Jewish pedagogues. There is a
great shortage of teachers, principals, education youth workers and directors
in the Jewish schools, centers and youth organizations. In previous years
many of our pedagogues came from abroad and now that that source has
been completely closed for our educational needs, little has been done
to develop native sources as a feeding ground for Jewish education.
Our American Jewish young people have not entered into this field for
various reasons, among them, the economic status of the Jewish educator.
The Jewish community has not made provisions to insure professional
advancement, tenure and good working conditions in this field.

Considerable progress has been Made during the last two decades in the
field of Jewish education in America. Many an obstacle has been overcome,
many a prejudice has been fought and conquered, many a problem has been
grappled with and much headway has been made by the modern Hebrew
school.
There is, however, one obstacle, or rather, one prejudice, which must
be overcome, or it will retard the advancement of Jewish education. I refer
to the comparatively small number of girls in the Hebrew schools. Ten, 20
years ago, the ratio in most Hebrew schools was 40 girls to 60 boys. This
proportion has been constantly decreasing.
It is true that this prejudice against giving girls a Jewish education is

As long as such conditions prevail, there will be no hope for the Jewish
education profession in this country. Some communities have already reverted to
the practices of accepting into the field of Jewish education untrained, inexperi-
enced and unsuccessful personnel. Many communities are already beginning to
suffer the consequences of this lack of foresight.
• Realizing that such conditions will endanger the future of American Jewry,
leaders throughout the country are giving serious thought as to how to attract
capable young men and women to the field of Jewish education.
In line with this need, a special;
committee was appointed by Abe
Kasle, president of the United
Hebrew Schools, to study this
matter carefully. This commit-
tee has devoted time and thought
to our local needs and .has made Its Purposes:
various recommendations which • To afford an opportunity to graduates of a
were adopted by the board.
Hebrew secondary school to continue their
Among these are:
Jewish Studies in order to obtain an under-
The adoption of a salary scale
standing and appreciation of the life, litera-
and code of practice to insure
ture, and institutions of the Jewish people
professional advancement, tenure
through the study of the sources of Judiasm.
and good working conditions for
the teachers.
• To provide professional training to young
The establishment of a Mid-
men and women who wish to prepare for
rasha, College of .Jewish Studies.
Hebrew teaching as a vocation.
MidraSha Opens Nov. 4
• To afford an opportunity to those who feel
Nov. 4 m ark e d a milestone
an understanding and appreciation of Jewish
in the history of the United He-
life to continue with their Jewish Studies.
brew Schools. On that date, the
Midrasha, the College of Jewish
Studies was opened. On that Requirements for Admission
day, a new era in the life of the
• Admission to the Midrasha will be granted to
schools began.
persons who are graduates of a Hebrew High
The college will provide pro-
School of recognized standing (or its equiVa-
feSsional training to young men
lent) and holding a certificate of graduation
and women who wish to prepare
from a secular High School.
for Hebrew teaching as a voca-
tion. It is also hoped that the • Students who have completed their Hebrew
College of Jewish Studies will be
High School studies but have not graduated
the medium through which grad-
from the Public High School, may enroll as
uates of a Hebrew secondary
special students by special permission from
school will be able to continue
the director.
their Jewish studies to obtain a
better understanding and appre- • Students who are not candidates for a diploma
may register for one or more courses in each
ciation of the life, literature and
quarter in accordance with their interests.
institutions of the Jewish people.
The college also hopes to be in
a position to offer courses to any
group which may be interested Courses of Study
A diploma is awarded to students of the
in furthering its Jewish educa-
tion.
Hebrew Teachers Training Department complet-
Study Jewish Community
ing 65 units of work, each unit representing one
In addition to the basic sub- hour of study for one quarter. These units shall
jects such as Bible, literature, be distributed as follows:
Talmud, history, philosophy and
Bible, 12; Hebrew Literature, 12; Hebrew
education, courses on the organ-
Grammar, 2; History, 3; Shulchan Aruch, 1;
ization and activities of the AMer-
Talmud, 5; Education, 6; Jewish Music, Art
ican Jewish community — with
and Drama, 2; Philosophy, 1; Sociology, 2;
special stress on religious, social,
economic and educational life in
Israel, 2; Electives, 15.
America—will be offered. Courses
will be conducted on principles
and methods of club work; meth- Curriculum
ods of organizing and 'conducting BIBLE—A study of the Hebrew text with the aid
holiday-- projects; Keren Ami; of medieval and modern commentaries with spe-
children's services, school clubs cial stress upon literary, historic and religious
and assemblies.
significance.
The American Jewish com- Bible 1: MINOR PROPHETS: Amos, Joel,
munity has, in the past few years,
Hosea, Obadia, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
shown a decided reawakening to
Habakuk, Zechariah, Haggai, Zefaniah,
the need of Jewish education. In
Malachi.
addition to the accepted Hebrew
school,. communities have estab- Bible 2: ISAIAH.
lished Jewish nursery schools, Bible 3: JEREMIAH AND EZEKIAL.
day schools, adult institutes, spe- Bible 4: PSALMS: A study of the text, supple-
cial summer programs and camps.
mented by a study of the developments
This entire structure threatens
of the related religious ideas and of the
to collapse unless the weakest
characteristics of the psalms as a literary
link is strengthened—the train-
form.
ing of personnel.
Although the special emphasis Bible 5: Shir ha-Shirim, Ruth, Eicha, Megilath
Esther, Selections from Kohelet and
of our Midrasha is the training of
Mishle.
teachers, we hope that its pro-
grams will inspire capable young HEBREW LITERATURE
men and women to dedicate Literature 1: THE NATIONALIST PERIOD—
themselves to the service of the
Novel and short story: A study of
Jewish community.

ictra3ha

Alumni Association

Calls All Graduates

All United Hebrew Schools
graduates who have not been
receiving mail from the Alumni
Association of the United He-
brew Schools of Detroit are re-
quested to contact Bernard
Isaacs at TO. 8-0063.

THE JEWISH NEWS—I I

Friday, November 5, 1948

representative works of Bialik,
Frishman, Peretz, Berdichewsky
and Steinberg .
Literature 2: THE NATIONALIST PERIOD—
Poetry: A study of poetic writings
of Bialik, Tchernikowsky, Shneur
and Jacob Cohen.
Literature 3: THE NATIONALIST PERIOD— ,
Prose: A study of representative
works in prose with special refer-
ence to works of Mapu and Smolen-
skin.
Literature 4: THE NATIONALIST PERIOD—
Essay. A study of representative
essays of Ahad-Ha-Ain, Bedchew-
sky and Bialik.

deep-rooted. It takes its cue from the standpoint of Rabbi Eliezer, who said that
he who teaches his daughter Torah teaches her vanity. Unfortunately, this state-
ment has become very popular.
A good deal haS been written to prove that "certain definite and unique cir-
cumstances have been • the cause of public opinion being led at that time to accept
the view of Rabbi Eliezer, who thought it inadvisable to permit women to study
the law." This interpretation is made by the late Prof. Solomon Schechter in his
essay, "Woman in Temple and Synagogue." Prof Schechter lamented the popular-
: ity of this maxim, and he con-
eluded by saying: "But justified
as the advice of Rabbi Eliezer
Detroit's First Major Institution
may have been in his own time,
Of Higher Jewish Learning
it was rather unfortunate that
Literature 5: THE NEW PALESTINE — Prose. later generations continued to
take it as a guiding principle."
A study of representative works of
`To Teach His Daughter'
modern Palestinian writers.
It is remarkable that the opin-
Literature 6: THE NEW PALESTINE—Poetry. ion of Ben Azzai, who states that
Shiminowitz, Lamdan, Greenberg, it is incumbent upon every -father
Shlonsky an Fichman.
to teach his daughter Torah, has
Literature 7: THE NEW PALESTINE — Essay. not become public knowledge.
A. D. Gordon, Yehezkel, Kaufman
In Eastern European ghettos,
where the Jewish daughter found
and Joseph Klausner.
Literature 8: PERIODICAL LITERATURE: A herself constantly in a Jewish at-
survey of contemporary Hebrew mosphere, in an atmosphere of
periodical literature in America, Jewish learning and Jewish liv-
ing, we could perhaps have af-
Palestine and Europe.
forded to follow the dictum of
Literature 9: MEDIEVAL LITERATURE — Rabbi Eliezer. But in America,
Poetry. The development of sacred where our daughters, as well as
and secular poetry.
our sons, live in an atmosphere
Literature 10: HEBREW LITERATURE IN devoid of Jewish learning, to
neglect the Jewish daughter is to
AMMICA.
HEBREW LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 1 say the least, very deplorable.
It is interesting to note that
AND 2—An intensive study of the elements of even when the Jewish people
Hebrew grammar and composition.
lived in small towns of eastern
HISTORY (English)
Europe and led a full Jewish
History 1: THE TALMUDIC AND GAONIC life, many a writer criticized
most poignantly the neglect of
PERIOD.
History 2: THE SECOND COMMONWEALTH. the education of the Jewish
daughter. What then shall we say
History 3: THE JEWS OF EUROPE.
History 4: FROM THE FRENCH REVOLU- when the girl is given the same
secular educational opportunities
TION TO MODERN TIMES.
as the boy, but is deprived of her
EDUCATION
own Jewish heritage.
Future Mothers in Israel
Education 1: The course includes treatment of
And she is the future mother of
general principles of classroom
management and discipline with Israel—the mother who is ex-
special application to the Jewish pected to make Jewish life.. beau-
tiful, interesting and ;inspiring;
School.
who will raise and guide • her
Education 2: Methods of teaching the Hebrew children in the spirit of Jewish
language.
tradition.
Education 3: Methods of teaching Jewish history
These are the ideals set for the
and current events.
Jewish girls—the girls for whom
We don't even provide an oppor-
Education 4: Methods of teaching Bible.
Education 5: Methods of teaching prayers and tunity to become acquainted with
the basic elements of Jewish
customs and ceremonies.
learning. This is the woman we
Education 6: Co-curricular activities.
expect to build the future Jew-
MUSIC—An examination of Jewish religious and ish
home.
secular songs and an analysis of their appro-
This problem should be of
priateness for use in the classroom, and the great concern to everybody, to
technique involved in the teaching of Jewish the leading educators, to the
music.
teachers and the lay leaders. It
ARTS—Special practice in the use of sand table, ought to be studied in all its de-
construction of maps, charts and graphs, clay tails if this prejudice against
teaching the woman must be
modelling, paper cut-outs, etc.
overcome. Let us remember the
DRAMATICS—Methods and techniques to be words of Ben Azzai who said in
used in planning plays and dramatic programs' , unmistakable terms: "It is incum-
in the school.
bent upon everyone to teach his
SOCIOLOGY 1 and 2—A sociological study of daughter Torah."

,

the activities of American Jews with special
stress on the religious, social, economic and ,
educational programs of contemporary Jewish
life in America.
PHILOSOPHY—A study of Jewish philosophy;
a consideration of Jewish conception of God,
man and the universe; Jewish philosophy in
our days.
RABBINICS—Shulhan Arukh: Selections from
the Shulhan Arukh.
Talmud 1:
Talmud 2: BABA KAMA.
Talmud 3: BABA METZEA.
PALESTINE—A STUDY OF THE GEOGRA-
PHY OF PALESTINE: A brief survey of his-
tory from the early time outlining its various
civilizations. A discussion of its social, eco-
nomic and political problems.
ZIONISM—A survey of the history and the
development from the end of the 19th century
until today.
YIDDISH
Yiddish I: Reading, writing, translation, com-
p.)sition and grammar.
Yiddish 2: ke ,,ailing of simple prose and poetry
avid of Awitten composirion.

Hebrew Revived
As Living Tongue

By JOSEPH KATZ

President, Kviitzah Ivrith
Side by side with the miracle
of the revival of our land, there
is the equal miracle of the re-.
vival of a spoken Hebrew lan-
guage.
It is significant that the re-
vival of Hebrew .as the living
tongue in Palestine runs parallel
to the achievements of the Cha-
lutizm on the land.
Kvutzah Ivrith, the Hebrew
cultural group of Detroit, con-
tributes its share to the develop-
ment of the Hebrew language
and its literature through activ-
ities such as assemblies at which
Hebrew is spoken and financial
support to various Hebrew publi-
cations. 'The Kvutzah also is ac-
tive in distributing Hebrew liter-
ature throughout the •cortiMunity.

