of Russian Jewish life, the ideal of religious knowledge or scholarship, involved the downfall of all those institutions which had served it. Hence the beth hamidrash and the veshibah were doomed from the beginning, and, though attempts at reproducing them have been made, they did not yield any tangible results. Even the advanced heder, which had for its purpose the difficult study of the Talmud, had no place in the new surroundings, in which the best energy of the growing generation was requisitioned either for general education or for the economic struggle. As a result only the elementary heder and the Talmud torah, the two institutions which limited themselves to imparting the fundamentals of Judaism came to the forefront, and these institutions became the more important, since, on account of the economic struggle and other causes, the Jewish home which had always been the power house of the Jewish religion lost much of its influence as an educational factor among the Jewish people.

We now understand the reason why the heder became, and indeed has remained, a favorite institution among the Russian Jewish immigrants. According to recent calculations there are about 1,000 heders in this country, with an annual budget of about $600,000; half of them are in New York City. Yet, no one, not even among the most optimistic or most orthodox, doubts that the heder is a complete failure in this country. Its inherent defects, which in the atmosphere of Russian Jewish life were already noticeable but bearable, are a terrible anomaly in the new environment. The long hours of study which were an indispensable condition of their success in Russia are impossible in this country in which the public school claims the best time and energy of the child. The unhygienic and even repulsive external condition of the heder, which was scarcely felt in Russia, has had the inevitable result to make the instruction imparted in it repulsive to the American child, who judges it by the standards of the public school. From these facts alone, not to speak of other numerous causes, it is obvious and is indeed admitted on all hands that the heder has no chance whatsoever and does not even offer the possibility of improvement.

An unexpected development was in store for the last type of Russian Jewish educational agencies-the Talmud torah. This institution which occupied the lowest rung in the educational ladder is gradually climbing to the top. The success of the Talmud torah is mainly due to the fact that it is a large school and as such is better fitted to cope with the large numbers in the congested Jewish centers, and is at least potentially able to adopt and adapt the methods and externalities of the American public school. The first Talmud torah in New York City was founded in the early eighties, but with all its potentialities this type of school has not yet fully worked out. The Talmud torah in this country was originally designed, as had

been the case in Russia, to accommodate the poor children who can not pay, and it has not yet fully emancipated itself from this objectionable character as a charitable institution. Demanding, as they do, a large budget, which can only be obtained by organized effort, they are far from meeting the educational situation, not to speak of the numerous internal evils to which reference will be made later. It is enough to point out the dry fact that of the 200,000 Jewish school children at present in New York, only 11,000 are taught in Talmud torahs.

After what was said of the position of woman in Jewish education. in Russia it will scarcely be necessary to add that until very recently practically no provision was made for the religious instruction of the girls, although it is conceded by all that in this country the Jewish woman is destined to play an important rôle in Jewish religious life.

JEWISH EDUCATION NOW A COMPLICATED PROBLEM.

The above facts clearly show that, in spite of all educational endeavors, which in view of the extraordinary difficulties confronting them rather deserve our praise than our criticism, the problem of Jewish education which has been enormously complicated by the third and largest Jewish immigration to America is further from its solution than it had ever been before. A few figures will illustrate the magnitude of the problem. The last census of Jewish institutions was made in 1908, and was presented in the "American Jewish Year Book" for that year. Analyzing the data bearing on Jewish education, Dr. S. Benderly, of whom more will be said hereafter, arrived at the following figures which, of course, will have to be modified according to the steady increase in the numbers of the Jewish population.' Counting the Jewish population of the United States as 1,800,000, he estimated at 360,000 the number of Jewish school children in 1908. Of these, 26,560 received instruction in 235 Sunday schools with one session weekly; 9,551 were taught in 92 congregational schools with two, very seldom three, sessions weekly; and 26,216 attended 236 daily schools (Talmud torahs). The number of boys taught in heders (for which no data were available), including those who received private instruction at home, was computed roughly by Dr. Benderly to be 40,000. The total number of children, then, who in 1908 received Jewish religious instruction, amounted altogether to about 100,000; so that fully 260,000, among them probably 170,000 girls, were left without any religious instruction whatsoever. Taking into consideration that none of these types of schools admittedly came up to the educational standards, even as

1 See his article "Jewish Education in America," in the Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia), January 17 1908.

modified in this country, the terrible significance of these figures from the religious point of view becomes apparent.

But not only from the religious point of view. The lack of all religious instruction and consequently of all religious idealism, the inevitable weakening of moral self-restraint which threatens to result from it, the terrible cleavage between parents and children, and the consequent loss of parental authority which has thus been brought about, the materialization of Jewish life, which is in crying contrast to all Jewish traditions and is particularly dangerous in an environment with a highly developed industrial life, all these facts, added to the natural solicitude for the preservation of Judaism, could not fail to arrest the attention of all those who were seriously interested in the welfare of the Jewish community in America.

Numerous symptoms heralded this awakening of American Jews to one of the prime necessities of Jewish life. For the first time, in several large cities systematic endeavors were made to collect educational statistics as the first step to cope with the problem. A number of new Talmud torahs were established. At the graduation exercises of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1905, its president, Prof. Solomon Shechter, emphasized the fact that, while several higher institutions of learning had been provided for the education of the few (for one out of one thousand), no adequate provision was made for the nine hundred and ninety-nine remaining; and the same point was dwelt upon on the same occasion by Dr. Cyrus Adler. Shortly afterwards, through the munificence of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, the Teachers' Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a similar institution, under the auspices of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, were established. In New York City the various Talmud torahs, among which there had been no cooperation whatsoever, made an attempt, though it remained a platonic one, to organize a central board of Talmud torahs.

DIFFICULTIES PECULIAR TO NEW YORK CITY,

It goes without saying that difficult and extensive as the problem of Jewish education was throughout the country, it was nowhere more difficult and more extensive than in New York City. For New York City contains almost a half of American Jewry and forms the port of entry where the immigrant comes face to face with the conditions of the new environment. The Jewry of New York, indeed, presents, on account of its vast and congested population, unique problems of religious organization. The religious and educational chacs which, as was indicated above, was the inevitable result of a chaotic immigration, was greater here than elsewhere. It was, there fore, natural that the first attempt to cope with this situation should be made in New York. In 1909 a large number of Jewish organiza

tions formed the Jewish community (Kehillah) of New York City for the purpose of religious organization, under the chairmanship of Dr. J. L. Magnes. It is a significant fact that one of the very first steps of the new organization was to investigate the status of religious education in New York City. Already at the first convention of the community (February 26 and 27, 1910) Prof. Mordecai M. Kaplan, the then chairman of the committee on education, presented a report of this investigation, which made a deep impression. He showed that, out of a computed Jewish school population of 170,000 (in 1909), only 41,404 were taught in some kind of Jewish educational institution-of these almost a third (13,532) went to hederswhile, even if we make allowance for those taught privately at home, two-thirds were left without a knowledge of Judaism and its religious institutions. Prof. Kaplan summed up his report in the following discouraging sentences:

1. The demand for Jewish education is comparatively small. 2. Small as the demand is, the means and equipment which we possess at present are far too inadequate to meet it. 3. Wherever that demand is met, there is a lack of system or of content.

MEANS FOR IMPROVEMENT.

Fortunately this educational inquiry aroused more than fruitless apprehensions. At the same convention of the Jewish community the chairman, Dr. J. L. Magnes, was able to announce that Mr. Jacob H. Schiff had donated the sum of $50,000 to be distributed over five years for the purpose of improving and promoting Jewish religious primary education in New York City; and soon afterwards a sum of $25,000 was added by the New York Foundation for the same purpose.

Having obtained these gifts, Dr. Magnes addressed himself to Dr. S. Benderly, a Jewish pedagogue in Baltimore, for an expression of opinion as to the best use of these funds.

The inquiry of Dr. Magnes was answered by Dr. Benderly in a statement which subsequently appeared as Bulletin No. I of the Jewish Community of New York City. Since the ideas contained in this statement became afterwards the guiding principles of the Jewish Bureau of Education, the following sentences may be quoted as illustrating the attitude of this organization toward the problem from the very beginning:

Never before in Jewish history has so large a Jewish community as we form in this country had both the opportunity and the responsibility of proving that the essentials of Judaism, so far from being in contradiction to the

This is no doubt explained by the fact that the Jewish population had no confidence in the hitherto established educational institutions.

The New York Foundation is made up of a legacy of the late Mr. Heinsheimer for educational and social purposes.

cardinal elements of modern civilization, are complementary to them, the two sides being mutually indispensable to each other. Constituting an integral part of the Republic, we are under obligation to demonstrate that the principles for which Israel fought and bled over two thousand years are perfectly compatible with and essential to the fundamental principles upon which the American nation is building a wonderful structure of human liberty and happiness. Our obligation is twofold. On the one hand, we must Americanize, in the higher sense, every Jew in this country, infusing into him the spirit of self-reliance, fair play, and social cooperation; and. on the other hand, we must build up the structure of Jewish life, so as not only to enable ourselves to hold our own, Jewishly speaking, but also to become an indispensable element in the progress of the country.

As the great public school system is the rock bottom upon which this country is rearing its institutions, so we Jews must evolve here a system of Jewish education that shall be complementary to and harmonious with the public system.

Speaking of the practical difficulties of the problem, Dr. Benderly continues:

First looms up what I would call the hygienic phase of Jewish religious education. We have to deal with children that spend practically the entire day in the public schools, and come to the Hebrew school fatigued both in body and mind. This is the fact that has given birth to the Jewish Sunday school, and now the more serious students and well-wishers of the Sunday school system realize that, because of the limited time at its disposal, it has no future. On the other hand, the Talmud torahs and chadarim [heders] confine weary children for two hours or more daily, which is undoubtedly detrimental to the health of the children: and the Jews living in congested areas, in New York in particular, can ill afford to invite a curtailing of vitality. The question at once arises: Is it possible to work out a course of religious instruction that shall enable us to reduce the number of hours needed for Hebrew instruction by half, and that shall at the same time be exhilarating enough to evoke a response from tired children?

Discussing the financial phase of the problem, Dr. Benderly pointed out that to provide school buildings for the Jewish school population of New York would demand an investment of $16,000,000, an annual expenditure of $3,000,000 for teaching, an army of 3,000 teachers, not to speak of the annual increase of 8,000 children, who would demand an additional annual investment in school buildings of $640.000, an additional annual outlay of $120,000 for teaching, and an additional annual supply of 200 teachers. The mere magnitude of this phase of the educational problem makes it clear that our hope lies with the people themselves, and that the parents must support the schools. Dr. Benderly, therefore, suggested that the fund placed at the disposal of the Jewish community should not be spent in propping up certain existing institutions, but should be used as a lever for the study and improvement of primary Jewish education in New

1 The figures in the following are slightly amended in accordance with later computations. See the writer's report on the Bureau of Education submitted to the third annual convention of the Jewish community of New York City (New York, 1912), p. 24.