Introduction to Judaism - Jewish Education

A Jewish father teaching a child in 19th-century Podolia (Ukraine)

On What Authority?

We Are Commanded To Teach and To Learn

Education As a Communal Responsibility

Teaching and Study as a Personal Responsibility

Modern Jewish Education

The "Day School"

The phenomenon of the Jewish 'day school' is of relatively common origin. Originally, boys were taught at home by their fathers. Those growing up in towns large enough to have one attended the cheder (literally "room," since it was in the synagogue) or Talmud Torah (a separate institution) where they were taught by a Melamed tinokos (children's teacher). In some cases, the melamed would teach out of the front room of his own home. Of course, this was before Jewish children were allowed to attend regional schools in Germany and Eastern Europe

This type of education was only available for boys. In 1918, Sarah Schenirer, the granddaughter of two prominent Polish rabbis, opened a girls' school in her tiny seamstress studio in Krakow. She called it Beis Yaakov. Schenirer's philosophy was that girls needed to be educated in Torah in order to live it, and in order to teach it to their children. There are still Beis Yaakov schools all over the world, as well as other girls' educational programs based on this model.

The first Jewish day schools developed in Germany, largely in response to the higher emphasis in general on secular studies. In the past, an apprenticeship was sufficient to learn a profession, or alternatively several years in a gymnasium could prepare one adequately for university. Rabbi Shimson Raphael Hirsch opened a day school he called Realschule in Frankfurt in the 1850s. This school was innovative because it combined religious and secular studies. It offered studies of Torah, in Hebrew and Yiddish, for half of the school day, and secular studies taught in German the other half of the day. The Realschule became a model for other Jewish schools that sought to both fit students for advanced secular studies and careers but also give them a thorough grounding in religious studies.

Today, there are over 750 day schools in the United States, corresponding to all denominations, both single-sex and co-educational. Over 200,000 K-12 students attend Jewish day school across the country.

The Jewish Secondary School

(adapted from myjewishlearning.com)

You may have heard of Jewish children attending some sort of supplementary educational program after school and/or on weekends. These programs, generally run by synagogues or Jewish Community Centers, are called by a few different names, including religious school, Sunday school, Shabbat school, or Hebrew school. Students attending these programs receive instruction in Hebrew, Torah, Jewish holidays, Jewish values, and any number of other Jewish religious, cultural, and historical topics. Some students begin their studies as early as kindergarten; others join in elementary school.

While there is no formal “graduation” from supplementary studies, for most students, the culmination of the most intense part of their Jewish education occurs at the bar or bat mitzvah at age twelve or thirteen. Many students continue their studies in post-b’nai mitzvah education, including Confirmation. In the past, supplementary students would attend instruction almost every day after school; in the 1940s and 1950s, students attended three days a week – two weekdays and either Saturday or Sunday. Today, many synagogues offer a two-day per week program; others offer one-day programs, and still others offer “alternative” programs that do not require regular attendance at the synagogue school.

In the United States, the first official school under Jewish auspices was established at Shearith Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue) in 1731 in New York City. Focusing on Hebrew studies, the school (although attached to the syna­gogue) operated as a separate entity with its own fees. In 1755, Shearith Israel expanded to include secular subjects, such as English composition. After closing during the Revolutionary War, the school reopened and functioned as a day school until 1821, receiving state funds as part of New York’s newly created com­mon school system that enabled poor Jewish children to receive an education. Overall, few 18th-cen­tury congregations established lasting institutions. There was a general belief that Jewish education was part-time and secondary. Secular and religious studies were seen as separate activities.

In the mid-19th century, the new German Jewish immigrants — dissatisfied with the content and quality of Jewish studies — began to establish congrega­tional day schools that combined secular and religious education. B’nai Jeshurun, New York City’s first Ashkenazic synagogue, became the first to organize a day school in 1842. A few years later, Issac Mayer Wise [a luminary of the American Reform movement] founded the Talmud Yeladim in Cincinnati and, in 1851, the Hebrew Educational Society was established in Philadelphia. Despite tremendous initial enthusi­asm, these schools did not last beyond the Civil War era.

By the late 19th century a growing number of German Jews began to believe that Jewish day schools would create an unhealthy division between Jewish and gentile communities at a time when Central European immigrants and their children were themselves becoming part of the American mainstream. Ameri­can culture and integrated schooling were embraced as a tool of socialization.

At the same time as Jews became more integrated into general, public education, synagogues began de­veloping supplementary Jewish schooling for reli­gious instruction. Rebecca Gratz established the first Sunday school in Philadelphia in 1838, and other synagogues began full-day Sabbath and afternoon programs. That model continues to this day.

The Bar/Bat Mitzvah

What is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

(adapted from reformjudaism.org)

Bar and bat mitzvah mean, literally, "son and daughter of the commandment." Bat mitzvah is Hebrew, while bar mitzvah, historically a much earlier ceremony, is Aramaic. The word bar is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew ben (son of). While bar and bat mitzvah are often used to refer to the ceremony, the terms also refer to the child. Thus, a boy if referred to as a "bar mitzvah" and a girl as a "bat mitzvah."

Historically, first bar mitzvah and later bat mitzvah represented a ceremonial recognition that a young person had reached the age when he or she was no longer a minor according to Jewish law and thereby took on new religious privileges and responsibilities of an adult. For boys, this age was 13, for girls, 12. Therefore, a bar or bat mitzvah is not something one has , it is something one becomes.

Starting in the second or third century C.E., Jewish girls at age 12 took on legal responsibility for the performance of the mitzvot. As with age 13 for boys, 12 probably corresponded with their onset of puberty. However, girls were subject to far fewer commandments than boys. Today, liberal Jews affirm the total equality of women in terms of religious privileges and responsibilities. In the 1800s, Reform Judaism abolished bar mitzvah in favor of confirmation for both boys and girls (bat mitzvah was not considered an option at that time).

The first-known bat mitzvah in North America was that of Judith Kaplan, the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, in 1921. Reform Judaism (which had by this time reintroduced bar mitzvah) and then Conservative congregations quickly adopted bat mitzvah, though in slightly different forms - while Reform Jews allowed girls to read from the Torah, this did not become regular procedure for many Conservative congregations until the 1990s. Until then, girls having a bat mitzvah might lead part of the service, read from the Haftarah, and/or give a speech, but did not read from Torah.

In Reform synagogues, girls and boys mark symbolic entry into Jewish adulthood at age thirteen. The bar or bar mitzvah is usually celebrated on the Shabbat closest to the child's thirteenth birthday. Congregations usually schedule these dates a couple of years in advance, giving the family plenty of time to plan for the day.

Depending on the congregation, boys and girls may conduct all or part of the service, read or chant the b'rachot [blessings] over the Torah (an aliyah), read a section from the Torah portion for that week, read or chant the b'rachot for the haftarah [selection from the Book of Prophets] read a section from the haftarah, and deliver a d'var Torah [speech about the Torah portion].

For bar/bat mitzvah to be both a meaningful and substantive Jewish moment, it is essential that it be based on more than a crash course of study. Several years in the religious/Hebrew school of a synagogue prior to bar/bat mitzvah is recommended as a minimum of requisite Jewish education. In addition to Jewish history, observance, and the study of Torah, children learn how to participate in and lead worship. As part of the preparation to become a bar or bat mitzvah, most synagogues ask boys and girls to participate in a "mitzvah project" [social action project]. In doing so, they apply their Jewish learning to help make the world a better place.

After the bar or bat mitzvah, the child is seen as an adult member of the Jewish community - s/he counts as a member of the minyan, the quorum of ten required to say certain prayers in a religious service, and are expected to observe other commandments as well.

Words From Our Teachers

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Everything depends on the person who stands in front of the classroom. The teacher is not an automatic fountain from which intellectual beverages may be obtained. He is either a witness or a stranger. To guide a pupil into a promised land, he must have been there himself. When asking himself: Do I stand for what I teach? He must be able to answer in the affirmative. What we need more than anything else is not textbooks, but textpeople.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Schools are the beating pulse of Jewish life. Other civilizations prided themselves on their castles and cathedrals. We cared less about buildings than about builders: Call them not (said the sages) ‘your children’ but ‘your builders’. Universal education – which Jews created eighteen centuries before Britain – was the first priority of any Jewish community. In the darkest days of persecution in Spain, Jews built schools. When the Thirty Years War that devastated Europe between 1618 and 1648 came to an end, the first thing Jews did was to reconstruct the educational system. When R. Samson Raphael Hirsch was appointed Rabbi in Frankfurt, his community wanted to build a new synagogue. First, he said, build a Jewish school. Only then may you build a synagogue.

Final Thoughts

Equal Access To Education

The Torah commands us to teach our children about the Exodus from Egypt. The Passover haggadah (the book used to guide the seder) speaks of four children, each of whom responds to the teaching in a different way. The wise child asks a thoughtful question; the wicked child asks a rude one. The simple child asks a general, wondering question; the child who is too young to ask looks on but says nothing. The haggadah outlines specific responses to each of these four children. While the concept of a "wicked child" or even the idea that all children must be placed into one of these four categories is troubling, there is still something very inspiring underlying this section of our Passover seder - we are instructed to teach all of these children and not to ignore them, rebuke them, or silenc. By this we learn that no matter the motives of the student, no matter the question, we should still seek to answer.