Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T07:52:16.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some Uses of Justification in Jewish Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Walter I. Ackerman
Walter I. Ackerman
Affiliation:
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Get access

Extract

The justification of plans and programs is a necessary condition of the relationship between systems of education, both obligatory and voluntary, and the publics they serve. Those who are responsible for the conduct of the educational enterprise in general and the schooling of the young in particular must provide those who support the system, financially and otherwise, with acceptable and defensible reasons for the efforts and activities of the schools. The idea of justification in education rests on the assumption that the process of schooling, whatever its form and content, is subject to rational control and that the authority for the conduct of schools is derived from the principles inherent in the justification offered. A proferred justification is most effective and likely of acceptance when the positions it generates on educational issues fit the general fabric of ideals and aspirations of the society to which it is addressed. If, as we believe, justification is a necessary part of the rhetoric which surrounds legislatively determined and state maintained school systems—i.e., systems whose right to existence is not subject to question or doubt in any modern society and where attendance is required by law—then it follows that it is of even greater significance for voluntary school systems which lack the coercive power of their governmental counterparts—i.e., Jewish education.

Type
Research Article
Information
AJS Review , Volume 2 , April 1977 , pp. 1 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. For a more detailed discussion of the uses of justification in American education, see Elizabeth, Vallance, “Hiding the Hidden Curriculum,” Curriculum Theory Network 4, no. 1 (1973–74): 5–21.Google Scholar

2. Bernard, Bailyn, Education in the Forming of American Society Needs and Opportunities for Study (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1960), pp. 15–21.Google Scholar

3. David, Tyack, Turning Points in American Educational History (Waltham, Mass., 1967), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

4. Ibid p. 93.

5. Alexis de, Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Garden City, N.Y., 1969), pp. 304–5.Google Scholar

6. Calvin, Stowe, Transactions of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers (1836) as cited in Tyack, Turning Points, pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

7. David, Friedlander in a letter to Maier Agor in Zeitschrift fur die Geschichle der Juden in Deutschland 5 (1792): 266–67.Google Scholar

8. Lloyd, Gartner, Jewish Education in the US A Documentary History (New York, 1969), p. 42.Google Scholar

9. On the religion of the public schools, see Timothy L.Smith, “Parochial Education and American Culture” and David, Tyack, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” in Paul Nash, History and Education (New York, 1970), pp. 192–255.Google Scholar

10. See Lloyd, Gartner, “Temples of Liberty Unpolluted American Jews and Public Schools, 1840–1875,” in Bertram, Korn, ed., A Bicentennial Festschrift for Jacob Rader Marcus(Waltham, Mass, and New York, 1976), pp. 157–89.Google Scholar

11. As cited in Tyack, Turning Points, p. 218.

12. Israelite 1, no. 25 (December 29, 1854): 197–98.Google Scholar

13. Israelite I, no. 24 (December 22, 1854): 188–89.Google Scholar

14. Israelite 1, no. 25 (December 29, 1854): 197–98.Google Scholar

15. Isaac, Leeser, Catechism for Jewish Children (Philadelphia, 1839), p. viii.Google Scholar

16. Occident 1, no. 8 (November 1843).

17. Occident 2, no. 8 (November 844).

18. Occident 3, no. 7 (October 1845).

19. Leeser, , Catechism for Jewish Children, p. 87.Google Scholar

20. Ibid

21. David, Tyack, The One Best System A History of American Urban Education(Cambridge, Mass., 1974), pp. 50–54.Google Scholar

22. Leeser, , Catechism for Jewish Children, p. 66.Google Scholar

23. Occident 9, no. 2 (May 1851).

24. Occident 2, no. 9 (December 1867).

25. Occident 22, no. 9 (December 1867).

26. Ibid

27. Occident 12, no. 2 (May 1855).

28. Occident 9, no. 2 (May 1851).

29. Occident 4, no. 2 (May 1846).

30. Occident 1, no. 9 (December 1843).

31. Occident 4, no. 3 (June 1846).

32. Occident 19, no. 10 (January 1857).

33. Occident 4, no. 3 (June 1846).

34. Israelite 17, no. 38 (March 17, 1871). Wise repeatedly returned to this theme: “The Jew must be Americanized…. The Jew must become an American in order to gain the proud selfconsciousness of the freeborn man…. We must be not only American citizens but become Americans through and through outside the synagogue”(Isaac, Wise, Reminiscences [Cincinnati and New York, 1901], p. 331).Google Scholar

35. A Plan of Instruction in the Jewish Sabbath School presented to the President and Members of the CCAR in Session in Rochester (New York, n.d.).

36. Israelite 3, no. 42 (April 24, 1857).

37. Israelite 1, no. 2 (July 21, 1854).

38. Wise, Isaac M., Judaism Its Doctrines and Duties (Cincinnati, 1872), p. 4.Google Scholar

39. Israelite 1, no. 2 (July 21, 1854).

40. Israelite 1, no. 12 (September 29, 1854).

41. Israelite 1, no. 2 (July 21, 1854).

42. Israelite 2, no. 25 (December 28, 1855).

43. Israel, Knox, Rabbi in America The Story of Isaac M Wise (Boston, 1957), p. 62.Google Scholar

44. As quoted in Heller, James G., Isaac M Wise His Life Work and Thought (New York, 1965), p. 536.Google Scholar

45. Ibid p. 537.

46. Israelite 31, no. 2 (July 11, 1884).

47. Israelite 3, no. 42 (April 24, 1857).

48. Ibid

49. Israelite 12, no. 10 (November 10, 1865).

50. Israel, Konwitz, “Be-Reshit ha-Hinnukh ha-'Ivri be-'Ameriqah,” in Zevi, Scharfstein, ed., Sefer ha- Yovel shel 'Agudat ha-Morim ha-'Ivriyyim bi-Neyu Yorq u-Sevivoteha (New York, 1944), p. 117.Google Scholar

51. Alexander, Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City (New York, 1918), p. 155.Google Scholar

52. Ibid p. 417.

53. Elazar, Goelman, “Some Aspects of the Development of Ivrit B'lvrit in America,” Gratz College Anniversary Volume (Philadelphia, 1971), pp. 73–82.Google Scholar

54. From the Statutes of Bnei Mosheh, 1890.

55. Asher, Ginzberg, “Dr. Pinsqer u-Mahbarto,”Kol Kitvei 'Ahadha-'Am (Tel Aviv, 1947), p. 46.Google Scholar

56. Idem, “Shalosh Madregot,” Kol Kitvei. … p. 153.

57. Idem, “Dr. Pinsqer u-Mahbarto,” Kol Kitvei…, pp. 43–48.

58. Idem, “Ha-Hinnukh ha-Le'ummi,” Kol Kitvei…, p. 413.

59. Ibid

60. Ginzberg, , “Shinnui ha-'Arakhim,” Kol Kitvei…, pp. 154–59.Google Scholar

61. Ginzberg, , “Shinnui ha-'Arakhim,” Kol Kitvei…, pp.154–59.Google Scholar

62. Idem, “Ha-Hinnukh ha-Le'ummi,” Kol Kitvei…, p. 412.

63. Idem, “Ha-Gimnasyah ha-'Ivrit be-Yafo,” Kol Kitvei… p. 416.

64. Leon, Simon, Ahad Ha'am (Philadelphia, 1960), p. 281.Google Scholar

65. Hertzberg, Arthur, The Zionist Idea (New York and Philadelphia, 1960), p. 55.Google Scholar

66. Ginzberg, '“Emet me-'Ere? Yisra'el,” Kol Kitvei…, p. 33.

67. Idem, “Ha-Hinnukh ha-Le'ummi,” Kol Kitvei…, p. 411.

68. Although written many years later and describing another generation of Jewish teachers, the following excerpt applies equally well to the men we are discussing here: “The Seminary College was theoretically committed to what Jewish tradition calls Torah lishma, learning for its own sake, but in actual fact its purposes were very far from being disinterestedly academic. The literal meaning of Torah lishma may be 'learning for its own sake,' but the true, the theological meaning of the idea is ''studying the revealed word of God for the sake of heaven.' The Seminary College did not, I think, consider that it was teaching the revealed word of God for the sake of heaven; it did, however, consider that it was teaching the heritage of the Jewish people as a way of ensuring the survival of that people (my father knew what he was doing when he sent me there). This is not to imply that there was anything covert or devious going on; on the contrary, most professors of the Seminary simply and frankly took it for granted that their business was to deepen the Jewish commitment of their students by making them more fully aware of the glories of the Jewish heritage. They were not training minds or sensibilities; they were training Jews!”(Norman, Podhoretz, Making It [New York, 1967], pp. 43–44).Google Scholar

69. Miriam, Eisenstein, Jewish Schools in Poland 1919–1939 (New York, 1950), p. 19.Google Scholar

70. Ibid pp. 35, 37.

71. Chaim, Zhitlowsky, “The Jewish Factor in My Socialism,” as cited in Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition (Boston, 1967), pp. 421–22.Google Scholar

72. Naye shule, December 1921.

73. Rubin, I.. “Di oyfgaben fun der nayer shule,” Nave shule, June 15, 1921, pp. 28–32.Google Scholar

74. Nayer dor, no. 3 (January 1916): 7, as quoted in Krug, Mark, “The Yiddish Schools in Chicago,” Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science 9 (1954): 281.Google Scholar

75. Chaim, Zhitlowsky, “Yid un mentsh,”Ale verk (New York, 1945), 1:85, 88Google Scholar

76. Ibid p. 133.

77. Ibid p. 103.

78. Chaim, Zhitlowsky, “Zoln mir do boyen unzer kultur in english?,” Ale verk, 1:155–58.Google Scholar

79. Ibid

80. Niger, Shmuel, In kamffar a nayer derlsiung (New York, 1940), pp. 46, 64–65.Google Scholar

81. Forver'ts, April 19, 1919, as quoted in Krug, “The Yiddish Schools in Chicago,”p. 289

82. “Unzere kinder,” Forverts, July 10, 1910

83. From the constitution of the Mahziqei Yeshivat 'Es Hayyim as cited in Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City, p. 480.

84. Ibid p. 483

85. Ibid p. 73.

86. As cited in Klaperman, Gilbert, The Story of Yeshiva University (New York, 1969), p. 137.Google Scholar

87. Ibid p. 97.

88. From the Register of the Rabbinical College of America, 1917, as cited in Klaperman, The Story of Yeshiva University, p. 257.

89. As quoted in Aaron, Rothkoff, Bernard Revel: Builder of American Orthodoxy(Philadelphia, 1972), p. 48.Google Scholar

90. For examples of traditional attitudes toward secular studies, see Boruch, Leibowitz, Birkat Shemu'el (New York, 1947), 1:38–42 andGoogle ScholarWasserman, Elhanan B, Qoves He'arot (New York, 1952), pp. 146–48.Google Scholar

91. Hirsch, Samson R., Judaism Eternal, trans, and ed. Isidor, Grunfeld (London, 1956) 2:223.Google Scholar

92. Idem, Chapters of the Fathers (New York, 1963), p. 60 (Commentary to Avot 4:1).

93. Idem, Horeb, trans, and ed. Isidor Grunfeld (London,1962), 2:327.

94. Ibid p. 411.

95. Ibid p. 410.

96. Aviezri, Wolf and Shalom, Poshinski, trans, and eds., Yesodot ha-Hinmtkh (Tel Aviv, 1947), 1:50–52.Google Scholar

97. As quoted in Klaperman, , The Story of Yeshiva University, p. 150.Google Scholar

98. As quoted in Rothkoff, , Bernard Revel, p. 259.Google Scholar

99. Hirsch, , Horeb, pp. 411–12.Google Scholar

100. Rothkoff, , Bernard Revel, p. 72.Google Scholar

101. Alexander, Dushkin and Uriah Engelman, Jewish Education in the United States(New York, 1959), p. 87.Google Scholar

102. Smith, Timothy, “Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education, 1880–1930,” in Michael, Katz, ed., Education in American History (New York, 1937), pp. 236–50.Google Scholar

103. Julia, Richman, “The Immigrant Child,” NEA Addresses and Proceedings, 44th Annual Meeting, Asbury Park, N.J., 1905, p. 119, as cited in Tyack, The One Best System, p. 237.Google Scholar

104. Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City, p. 157. According to the census conducted by Dushkin in 1917,76.5 percent of the Jewish children of elementary school age in New York City were not enrolled in any kind of Jewish school.

105. For an analysis of the work of Benderly and his associates, see my “The Americanization of Jewish Education,” Judaism 24 (1975): 416–35.

106. Isaac, Berkson, Theories of Americanization (New York, 1920).Google Scholar

107. Ibid p. 31.

108. Ibid p. 36.

109. Ibid p. 118.

110. Ibid p. 122.

111. Ibid p. 126.

112. Ibid p. 127.

113. Ibid p. 109.

114. Ibid pp. 101–2.

115. Ibid pp. 195–202.

116. Ibid p. 202.

117. Ibid pp. 128–40.

118. Kurt, Lewin, “When Facing Danger,” Resolving Social Conflicts (New York, 1948), P. 174.Google Scholar

119. Ibid p. 164.

120. Ibid p. 163.

121. Ibid

122. Lewin, , “Bringing Up the Jewish Child,” Resolving Social Conflicts, p. 183.Google Scholar

123. Ibid p. 185.

124. Lewin, “Jewish Self-Hatred,” Resolving Social Conflicts, p. 200.

125. Idem, “When Facing Danger,”p. 166.

126. Idem, “Jewish Self-Hatred,”p. 198.

127. Ibid p. 199.

128. Ibid

129. Ibid p. 191.

130. For an elaboration of this point, see my “The Present Moment in Jewish Education,” Midstream 18, no. 12 (December 1972): 3 –24.

131. James, Sleeper, “Authenticity and Responsiveness in Jewish Education,” The New Jews (New York, 1971), p. 124.Google Scholar

132. Ibid p. 125.

133. Ibid