Our Schools' Evolutionary Processes Unified System Advocated Through Central Agencies By FRANK SIMONS The creation of the state of Israel served as an impetus to world Jewry to take stock of its religion. Everywhere, both in Jewish and in non-Jewish circles, a new interest in Jewish rituals and traditions sprang up prac- tically overnight. Here, in the United States, there was a rebirth of devotion to Judaism. Adults, who were perhaps little aware of Jewish tra- ditions, of Jewish heritage, of the beauty and sanctity of the Talmud and Torah and of the Hebrew language, desired their chil- dren to learn about the Judaism they had missed or had lonp, forgotten. This rebirth of enthusiasm for Jewish ed- cation is illustrated in the 1951 "Jewish Ed- ucation Register and Directory." It is the first book of its kind, and was made available through the research and efforts of the Ameri- can Association for Jewish Education (AAJE). Established in 1939 as a central agency for the coordination and promotion of American Jewish education, AAJE represents the lay lead- ership and local community agencies in Jewish education throughout the U. S. and Canada. Through this marvelous history of Jewish education, AAJE has performed. a great service to educators and educational authorities who are interested in the betterment of the collec- tive school system in the nation. Briefly outlining the school system at the beginning of the 20th century, the Directory points out that the Heders of the old country— the private schools—were quick to drop off. In its place rose the Talmud Torah, or school for poorer elements, which was sponsored by the community and which gradually developed into the backbone of the Jewish educational system. ; The Talmud Torah in its heyday produced the Hebrew scholars, teachers and rabbis. But Jewish parents were quick to discover the ad- vantages of the public school system, and chil- dren were sent to public schools. The Talmud Torah, the former all-day school became rele- gated to an afternoon school. With the Americanization of Jewish folkways and the interest of Jewish youngsters centered about the public school, the Talmud Torah aft- ernoon school, which met five days a week, was gradually giving way. There came a lessening of school hours, and new institutions sprang up. Four-day, three:day and even two-day a week afternoon schools were coming into vogue. Nowadays, while there has been an increase in the enrollment in the Jewish education sys- tem, it is mainly because of the Sunday school —the one-day-a-week course of study. The Directory cites 1950 figures to indicate that Jewish enrollment is now at 266,609 as compared to 45,000 in 1900. Withstanding the increase in Jewish population, there has been almost a 200 percent increase in the enroll- ment in Jewish schools. However, almost 50 percent of the students covered in the 1950 figure, are educated in Sunday schools. Almost 131,000 students now receive an average of only two hours instruc- tion per week. Previously, a minimum of 10 hours had been low, with the early Talmud Torah having an average of 20 hours of week- ly instruction. The educational picture, however, is far from aiscouraging. The Jewish community through ARTHUR H. V ANDENBERGE IN MEMORIAM 60—THE JEWISH NEWS Friday, April 20, 1951 Tribute to a Great Statesman By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Arthur H. Vandenburg was one of the outstanding personali- ties of our time. Scholarly, well-informed, an excellent speaker, a brilliant organizer, he was held in high regard even by his severest critics. Few men in the United States Senate measured up to him in stature in. the last 25 years. It is no wonder that as late as November 1948 President Tru- man was quoted as stating that he regarded him as the ablest Republican in the Senate. From his background as a newspaper editor and publisher —a position to which he rose from the coveted beginning as a good reporter for his Grand Rapids paper—he acquired a passion for information on every subject with which he was deep- ly concerned. As a result, he never committed himself on any issue unless he possessed all available facts in order to be in position to speak with a meas- ure of authority. He was a vol- uminous corresp-ondent. He nev- er failed to respond to commu- nications—whether they were from critics or supporters. Arthur H. Vandenberg More than one biography could be written of his life: Every issue he was involved in offers material for a study of his attitudes, his character, his ability to cope with situations. In most cases he rose to great heights in dealing with situations affecting our country. This Commentator knew him intimately and is in position to say that a full-length biography could be written to describe Senator Vandenberg's relationships with Jews and Jewish issues, with particular reference to Zionism, Palestine and Israel. Our first acquaintance with him was at a meeting of the Men's Club of Temple Beth El at which he captured the hearts of his Detroit audience with his eloquence and forthright expressions on matters of state. It was in the late 1920s. A friendship began in 1930' when we first interested him in the Zionist cause. At that time the Pro- Palestine Federation of America was the active Christian philo- Zionist movement _ in this country which functioned under the brilliant leadership of the eminent Socialist, the late Charles EdWard • Russell. Out of the friendship for Zionism grew Senator Vandenberg's the years and more so in the past few years, has become more aware of its obligation to Jewish interest in other. matters—his anti-Nazi stand, his aid in efforts education. Through central welfare agencies— to liberalize legislation for the admission of displaced persons, the usually the Jewish Welfare Federations— more leading role he played in securing the ratification of the appoint- ment of David Lilienthal as head of the Atomic Energy Commis- aid is forthcoming for educational purposes. sion in opposition to forces which he believed were anti-Semitic, In Detroit, as late as 1940, $44,485 (or 10 his help in individual cases involving people who sought refuge percent) was allocated to education. That in this country, his sponsorship of a resolution in support of Jewish figure has been rising steadily, and in 1949, from a local agencies' budget of $1,143,860, aspirations in Palestine. • In its entirety, the Vandenburg Story vis-a-vis Zionism and - over 14 percent, or $162,244., was expended for Israel was 4ot always rosy. There were times when we were local educational facilities. - Jewish education is making advances, but, impatient about his attitudes. Tense situations arose from time to according to AAJE, improvement must be made time. Most of the time his hesitancy in acting in our behalf, as in two all-important facets — teacher training member (later chairman) of the Senate Foreign Relations Corn- and establishment of local central agencies to mitti3e, were due to pressure from the White House, the State and coordinate and direct the aims of the Jewish War Departments. When President Truman gave speedy recogni- tion to the Jewish State, he was the first to commend it as the school system. "logical and proper" step - to take. Of the importance of teacher training little It would take volumes to describe our experiences with the should have to be said; however, -there is much great Michigan Senator. For more than 15 years it was our duty, to be desired from teachers - today. This depress- at time on an hour's notice, to go to Washington to consult him ing fact .eminates from two sources—the disre- on Zionist matters. It became necessary for this Commentator to gard or lack of - interest on the part of parents keep in touch with him on the Palestinian issue at San Fran- and the community and the meager salaries paid cisco, in 1945, during the formative stages of the international Jewish teachers. world organization whose charter he helped frame; to keep in In the United States there are but 10 schools expressly designed to produce Hebrew and Jewish school teachers. Nearly all are lo- cated in the East. The small communities have their teachers, but they are lacking in knowledge, not only of their subject matter, but in their ability to main- tain interest and in proper methods of teaching. Graduates of seven of the ten teacher. train- ing schools are automatically licensed by AAJE. A license means that they have been taught exact methods of pedagogy, know their subject matter, are qualified to teach youngsters and have a common background in Jewish lore and tradition from which to teach. A central agency for Jewish education, to which all licensed teachers would belong, is ad- vocated by Leo L. Honor, professor of education at Dropsie College, in a special article in the Directory. Such an agency would insure a coor- dinated local program. Although there exist to- day schools of various delineations — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Yiddish — they can 'still be brought together under a unified system. A sample program which might be adopted would include education on a consistently high plane, inter-group relations, improving educa- tional goals through the betterment of curricu- la, experimentation, organization and techniques and the implementation of extra curricular craft, social and cultural activities. AAJE has accomplished much toward stand- ardization of Jewish education wherever given the opportunity. It might be pointed out that Detroit has no such central agency in its edu- cation setup. The closest Detroit comes to having such an agency is in an association of schools which the Directory lists as the six branches of the United Hebrew Schools. Its functions as de- scribed in the Directory are to conduct a high school and teacher-training courses and pro- vide intensive supervision of all affiliated schools. In addition to Detroit the following 15 com- munities in MiChigan with functioning school systems are listed in the Directory: Alpena, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Bay City, Benton Harbor, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Lansing, Mt. Clemens, Muskegon, Pontiac, Port Huron, Sagi- naw, and Wyandotte. touch with him when he represented the United States in Paris, at the sessions of the United Nations, in January of 1946, and constantly to keep him informed about the Jewish position in matters involving the future of our harassed people in Europe and in Arabic countries and the development of the State of Israel. The historian will be amazed at the mass of information that came to us from his desks—wherever he may have been—in Wash- ington,- in San Francisco, in Paris, in Grand Rapids. There is an especially interesting note describing his conference, at his Wash-. ington office, with David Ben-Gurion, on Nov. 21, 1946. Even Ben- . Gurion was wrong in an important matter involving the Arabs at that time. There are messages describing his reactions to Zion- ist leaders. And there are reports about the progress of his efforts in behalf of a Jewish Palestine in the United States Senate. A wire dated Dec. 12, 1945, informed us that "Foreign Relations Com- mittee this morning ordered favorable report on Palestine reso- lution which seems to be in satisfactory form," to which was ap- pended the information that "only opposing vote was that of Chairman Connally." Since it is impossible, in one column, even to scratch the sur- face in commenting upon the brilliant career of Senator Vanden- berg, with special reference to his Jewish attitudes, your Commen- tator desires to make note of only one other matter—involving a local item: Less . than two years ago, the Morris Schavers, desiring to bring to this country the sole survivor of an entire family, five- year-old Itzhak who now is their adopted son, met with obstacles. Itzhak could have been considered Polish-born. In that case he would have to wait 12 years to be admitted to this country from Canada where he was brought by the Schavers. Senator Van- denberg promptly introduced a bill to declare Itzhak of French origin. Congressman John D. Dingell introduced a similar meas- ure in the House of Representatives. Both bills were adopted by the two Houses of Congress and were signed by President Tru- man. That act is on record to the credit of Senator Vandenberg and Congressman Dingell, as an indication of their humani- tarian interests. The good acts of Senator Vandenberg were multiplied a thou- sand times - by his kindly intercessions. He was, indeed, a Sonsera- tive Republican—especially from the Democrats' point of view. But when he was faced with issues that called for human considera- tions he rose above party politics. In all the y e a r s that we conferred with him, he never—not once—showed the slightest interest in this Commentator's political preferences. We were concerned with grave matters involving the security of the Jewish people, and we stuck to this point. On this score he was unselfish and always honorable. If only for this reason alone—which is one of many—we honor his memory as we honored and respected him in his lifetime.