The Problem of Jewish Education in New York City

When we say that we want to remain Jews, and raise our children as Jews, we run the risk of being befogged by one of those meaningless phrases in which the Jews of this generation are particularly rich. What do we mean when we say that we want to remain Jews and raise our children as Jews? We can mean only that the life we want to live is to be distinct, at least in some things, from the life of the non-Jew of this country. Unless we mean such distinction we at once place ourselves among those who believe in absolute assimilation, and for whom, as we have seen, there is no problem of Jewish education. The distinction may manifest itself in a particular belief in God and in our view of the problem of life. In other words, we may have a distinct Lebensanschauung. What this Lebensanschauung is, is immaterial at present. It is sufficient that it exists and manifests itself through a desire for separate existence as Jews. A peculiar Lebensanschauung would, of course, color our interpretation of our own past, and present, and our prognostications for the future. The interpretation, in turn, would indicate what we may do and what we may not do as Jews. Jewish education is nothing more or less than an understanding of this interpretation and a love for it, based on a knowledge of the facts, plus sufficient practice in the actions indicated by the interpretation.

As it is not my duty to invent Judaism, I trust to be forgiven for not making the attempt. A careful study of Jewish history, Jewish literature, and the Jewish people will reveal to us what Judaism is. This, naturally, cannot be attained in the course of a lecture, but only through systematic instruction in the school, and practice in the home, and through a particular interest in all the problems concerning Jews as Jews. [ . . . ]

Now, as the aim of Jewish education is an understanding of the Jewish interpretation of Judaism and a love for it, based on a knowledge of the facts plus sufficient practice in the actions indicated by such an interpretation, what means have we at our disposal to reach the given aim? [ . . . ]

The success of a school system depends upon its teachers. Good plans of organization, modern school buildings, and attractive text-books and methods are important, but the good teacher is indispensable. By good Jewish teachers we mean those who, in addition to their intellectual and pedagogic equipment, possess a knowledge of our American Jewish youth, are imbued with American ideals, and know and love the Jewish people, in whose future they believe. Such teachers are not to be found in the open market. They are extremely rare: their price is more precious than pearls, and seeing that we need at least a staff of about 2,500 of them for our Jewish school system, it is imperative that we should apply ourselves without delay to the gigantic task of training and producing them. [ . . . ]

The third factor of importance is the synagogue. He who can picture to himself Judaism during the past two thousand years without a synagogue, suffers from a distorted vision, to say the least. Take away the synagogue, and you have taken away one of the main props of Jewish life. But as an efficient school system means an efficient staff of teachers, so a synagogue to-day must have as its central figure an able, sincere and courageous rabbi. The intelligent layman despises commercialism and platitudes in his rabbi. Of the first he has enough in his daily routine, and of the second he finds an abundant supply in the Sunday newspapers. The layman wants a rabbi to lead and not to follow. To lay the entire blame for the present disintegration of the synagogue at the door of those rabbis who are inefficient and insincere, would be manifestly unfair. The blame is not all theirs. The Jewish home and the Jewish religious school must form the foundation of the synagogue. It is not to be wondered at that synagogue Judaism, pure and simple, bereft of the support of the home and the school has proved an empty shell.

The fourth educational factor is Jewish literature. We need a clean and efficient Jewish press in this country, a press that would be instrumental in creating and keeping alive a healthy intelligent Jewish public opinion, which would prove the ballast of our Jewish life. It would furthermore be the province of an efficient press to keep us informed of the joys and sorrows of Israel among the nations, and to stimulate us to plan and execute co-operative and co-ordinated movements which are of interest to the Jewish people as a whole. A real Jewish literature would reflect what is best and ennobling in the Jewish home, in the Hebrew school, in the synagogue, and in public life.

The fifth educational factor is Jewish communal life. Every Jew must be taught that in addition to the part he takes naturally in the life of the general community, he must assume a particular responsibility toward Jewish communal problems. Thereby the individual Jew not only enriches his own life, but he contributes to Jewish public life that factor which vivifies—which indeed renders possible—the school, the synagogue, and every other enterprise undertaken by a Jewish community.

The sixth educational factor is the belief in the unity of Israel. It can hardly be called a separate factor. It is the breath and the life of the Jewish home, of the school, of the synagogue, of our literature, of every manifestation of the Jewish spirit. It is in short the sine qua non of Jewish life. Whether there are dogmas in Judaism or not, the belief in the unity of Israel must be accepted with dogmatic absoluteness. The Jews, no matter where they are, or whence they hail, are one people, with one future, based on a common past. [ . . . ]

The Jewish home is our first and best asset, but present conditions forbid us to rely too much upon Jewish home life. Jewish home life among many of our native and Americanized Jews has lost much of its color and fragrance, and among the immigrant Jews—what a tragedy! A wide gulf separates the parents from the children in many a home. This gulf will be bridged only when the Jewish school will bring the children nearer to the parents and the Americanization of the adult immigrant will bring the parents closer to the children. For the present we are deprived of this most efficacious factor.

Let us then turn to our second asset, the Jewish religious school. According to the statistics gathered by the Kehillah, out of the 170,000 Jewish children of school age that were in New York city two years ago, 41,404 children received some kind of religious instruction, and about 129,000 received none whatsoever. [ . . . ]

From the way I have summed up our school assets you have inferred that the problem before us is how to provide religious instruction for the 149,000 Jewish children who receive none at present. But the inference would be incorrect. It is for the whole of the 190,000¹ Jewish children of school age that instruction must be provided, for the instruction which the 41,000 children are receiving is not altogether of the kind that will enable them to hold their own in our environment. [ . . . ]

The picture which I have drawn is dark and sad. Are you completely discouraged? I am not. There is cause not for despair but for action. The mere fact that some of us know the naked truth and are not willing to deceive ourselves or to throw sand in the eyes of the people is a sign of better times. The understanding of a problem is half of its solution. Let us understand the problem thoroughly and we shall be enabled to take the first step towards its solution without floundering and groping in the dark as in the past.

This is the first time in the history of the Jews since the dispersion that such a large number of us are gathered in a God-blessed land like America. Not for 2000 years have we enjoyed so great an opportunity as now to build up a healthy and progressive Judaism in a free land. The task is so great and so worthy that the failure of the last fifty years need not discourage us in the least. On the contrary, it will teach us what to avoid in the future. The structure of Jewish life that we must build up here is not only indispensable to us as Jews, but will also prove of benefit to the great American nation of the future. For the ideals that are truly American are also Jewish. A people that produced, more than 2500 years ago, a spokesman of justice and righteousness like Isaiah, can be of material assistance in the upbuilding of the great republic, on the basis of justice and righteousness. Let us therefore take heart. Let us discover the line of least resistance and follow it. If the school presents the line of least resistance as I believe it does, let those of us who are awake rouse our slumbering brethren to the task of Jewish education. They must rally to our help in standardizing existing Jewish schools, in arousing the people at large to the need of more schools which they themselves must support, and in maintaining a normal school that can give us an adequate number of efficient teachers without whom the whole educational undertaking is a mere dream.

It may be asked whether the Jews in New York City are sufficiently homogeneous to undertake so gigantic a task? Do they not differ too much among themselves in their interpretation of Judaism, and can they unite in a work of this kind? I believe that we have been troubled by party cries long enough. If they ever answered a purpose it is time now to throw them to the winds. The danger which confronts us here is common to all of us. The question is, “to be, or not to be.” The line must only be drawn distinctly between those Jews who want to remain Jews, and raise their children as Jews, and those Jews who are assimilators in disguise. To the latter we must say what Zerubbabel said to the Samaritans:

לא לכם ולנו לבנות בית לאלהינו

“It is not for you and us to build a house unto our God.” But all the other Jews, no matter what their interpretation of Judaism may be, are brethren.

כל הכופר בע״ז כאלו מודה בכל התורה כלה

He who is not an assimilator is a Jew. It is not difference of opinion but indifference to opinion that we must fear. The future of Judaism in this country does not lie with any one party. The Judaism of the future will be a resultant of all our present tendencies and it is this gigantic task of education—a task for generations—which will itself bring about greater homogeneity among the heterogeneous elements that make up New York Jewry of to-day.

In conclusion I wish to emphasize one point. The successful upbuilding in this country of a sound and progressive Judaism will depend upon three things: Patience, forbearance and co-operation.