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Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov (Jewish Studies)

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Jun 13th, 2018
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  1.  
  2. Introduction
  3. Among the most significant developments in 20th-century Orthodoxy was the establishment in the interwar period of formal educational systems for Orthodox girls. These school systems were halakhically problematic, given the prohibition (or warning) against teaching women Torah. Nevertheless, halakhic warrant was found for formally teaching girls Torah, given the dire “needs of the hour,” which is to say, the crisis of young women’s defection from Orthodoxy in turn-of-the-20th-century eastern Europe. While Bais Yaakov (also Beit Ya’akov, Beth Jacob, etc.) was not the first such system (that distinction belongs to the Havatzelet schools established in Warsaw in 1916), it was the most widespread and successful of these schools, with perhaps 200 schools and 38,000 students in interwar Poland. The school system was founded in Kraków in 1917 by Sarah Schenirer, a seamstress with little formal education in either Jewish or secular subjects and no teaching credentials. In 1923 administration and financial support of the system was taken over by the Agudath Israel, the political arm of world Orthodoxy. The system included afternoon supplemental Jewish schools for pupils in public schools; a few full-day elementary and high schools in the larger cities; three teachers’ seminaries in Kraków, Vienna, and Czernowitz; vocational training schools and programs; and the affiliated youth movements of Bnos Agudath Israel and Basya. In the postwar period, Bais Yaakov flourished in the new Jewish centers of North America and Israel, with schools found in many other countries as well. In the postwar period, there was no longer a single central office. Other school systems for Orthodox girls (for instance, those aimed at students from different Hasidic groups) also arose, often patterned after Bais Yaakov.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6. The field still lacks a comprehensive academic introduction to the Bais Yaakov movement from its origins to the present day. There are a number of essays and dissertations that address Bais Yaakov in the interwar period. Atkin 1959, a dissertation, provides a general history, rich with statistical detail. Weissman 1976 is a brief history, with an argument for the feminist uses of the movement; Weissman 1977, another dissertation, provides a sociological analysis of the movement within the framework of a modernizing traditionalist ideology. Friedenson 1957 is a good introduction, with some illuminating anecdotes, by an insider to the movement. Scharfer 2010 is an accessible and brief introduction. Soraski 1967, by an Orthodox historian, sets the movement within the larger history of Orthodox education, and provides material about its activities in the Land of Israel missing from other sources. Weissman and Granite 2009 provides an accessible introduction to the movement in an encyclopedia entry.
  7.  
  8. Atkin, Abraham. “The Beth Jacob Movement in Poland (1917–1939).” PhD diss., Yeshiva University, 1959.
  9.  
  10. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11.  
  12. Comprehensive history of the movement in interwar Poland, with a particular focus on the growth of the movement, legal and administrative challenges, and the curriculum in the supplemental schools and seminaries.
  13.  
  14. Find this resource:
  15.  
  16. Friedenson, Joseph. “Batei sefer levanot Beit Yaakov befolin.” In Haḥinukh vehatarbut ha’ivrit be’eropah ben shete milḥamot ha’olam. Edited by Zevi Scharfstein, 61–82. New York: Ogen, 1957.
  17.  
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  19.  
  20. An overview of the school system that includes many eyewitness descriptions by the Agudah activist and journalist Joseph Friedenson, the son of the editor-in-chief of the Bais Yaakov Journal. In Hebrew.
  21.  
  22. Find this resource:
  23.  
  24. Łagodzińska, Anna. “Powstanie i rozwój ruchu Bajs Jakow na przykładzie wybranych ośrodków w latach 1917–1939.” Kwartalnik Historii Żydów 1 (2012): 39–51.
  25.  
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  27.  
  28. Brief introduction to the school system with special attention to the full-day high schools in Łódź and Warsaw, including the new types of trade and business schools that opened in those cities.
  29.  
  30. Find this resource:
  31.  
  32. Scharfer, Caroline. “Sarah Schenirer: Founder of the Beit Ya’akov Movement: Her Vision and Her Legacy.” Polin 23 (2010): 269–275.
  33.  
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  35.  
  36. Brief introduction to the major developments of the movement in the interwar period, by a student and colleague of Judith Rosenbaum Grunfeld, an early instructor in the teacher training courses and Kraków seminary.
  37.  
  38. Find this resource:
  39.  
  40. Soraski, Aharon. Toldot haḥinukh hatorati betkufah haḥadashah. Bnei Brak, Israel: Or Haḥayyim, 1967.
  41.  
  42. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  43.  
  44. A history of Orthodox education, with the last section (pp. 420–462) devoted to the Bais Yaakov schools, which are praised for rescuing Orthodoxy at a moment of great peril. Focuses in particular on the development of the movement in the Land of Israel and on its activities during the Holocaust.
  45.  
  46. Find this resource:
  47.  
  48. Weissman, Deborah. “Bais Yaakov: A Historical Model for Jewish Feminists.” In The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives. Edited by Elizabeth Koltun, 139–143. New York: Schocken, 1976.
  49.  
  50. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  51.  
  52. A brief description of the emergence of the movement, with a focus on its methods of legitimating Torah study for girls. Suggests that such efforts might serve as a model for contemporary feminists struggling with halakhic barriers to their intellectual and spiritual growth.
  53.  
  54. Find this resource:
  55.  
  56. Weissman, Deborah. “Bais Ya’akov, a Women’s Educational Movement in the Polish Jewish Community: A Case Study in Tradition and Modernity.” MA diss., New York University, 1977.
  57.  
  58. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59.  
  60. The most comprehensive history of the movement we possess, with sociological analysis of the interplay between tradition and modernity in Bais Yaakov. Suggests that the movement was effective in part because Bais Yaakov was a “total institution,” functioning as far more than a school system in the interwar period.
  61.  
  62. Find this resource:
  63.  
  64. Weissman, Deborah, and Lauren B. Granite. “Bais Ya’akov Schools.” In Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Paula E. Hyman and Dalia Ofer. Brookline, MA: Jewish Women’s Archive, 2009.
  65.  
  66. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67.  
  68. An encyclopedia article detailing the establishment and rapid growth of the movement, and suggesting that the movement was “proto-feminist,” although these tendencies were cut short by the Holocaust.
  69.  
  70. Find this resource:
  71.  
  72. Girls’ Education before Bais Yaakov
  73. While Bais Yaakov literature regularly describes the system as the first organized girls’ school system in eastern Europe, there were in fact precedents for its activities. Greenbaum provides a statistical survey of traditional girls’ heders (alt. ḥadorim, private schools), in eastern Europe, in the period before the First World War. Adler 2011 surveys the landscape of girls’ schools in 19th-century Russia, describing the developments that led to more ambitious efforts like Bais Yaakov. Stampfer 2010 focuses more particularly on girls’ and women’s education in less formal settings.
  74.  
  75. Adler, Eliyana R. In Her Hands: The Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2011.
  76.  
  77. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  78.  
  79. An analysis of the more than a hundred private Jewish schools for girls in 19th-century Tsarist Russia that argues against the idea that girls lacked formal Jewish education and makes the case that the gendered “benefits of marginality” included the freedom to experiment with educational innovations.
  80.  
  81. Find this resource:
  82.  
  83. Greenbaum, Abraham. “Traditional Education of East European Jewish Women: The Generations before the First World War.” Cambridge, MA: American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies.
  84.  
  85. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  86.  
  87. This ten-page survey of how Jewish girls were educated in traditional circles before the First World War details both girls’ heders (one-room private schools, generally in the teacher’s home) and mixed-sex heders, which ranged in quality.
  88.  
  89. Find this resource:
  90.  
  91. Stampfer, Shaul. Families, Rabbis and Education: Traditional Jewish Society in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe. Oxford and Portland, OR: Littman Library, 2010.
  92.  
  93. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  94.  
  95. In a chapter devoted to the changing trends in the education of Jewish women (pp. 167–189), Stampfer combats the notion that girls and women received a poor Jewish education (although this education was often informal). Stampfer demonstrates that the differences between boys’ and girls’ education “were more perceived than real.”
  96.  
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  98.  
  99. Historical Context
  100. Bais Yaakov arose as a response to the crisis of girls from Hasidic or Orthodox backgrounds, particularly in Kraków, running away from home or abandoning their families and communities. Despite the widespread reporting on the crisis, and the discussion of educational solutions to girls’ lack of commitment to Orthodox observance, the Orthodox culture of the period rendered it difficult to find consensus and effect change. Landau 1904 provides a participant’s account of the 1903 Rabbinical Conference in Kraków, at which the question of women’s education came up, and a proposal to establish girls’ schools was defeated; Bacon 2009 analyzes the conference and its failure. Manekin 2004 and Manekin 2005 focus particularly on the question of the defection of Orthodox girls, the educational patterns that led to the crisis, and the failure to establish a solution despite the gravity of the crisis and the acknowledgment that Jewish education was needed.
  101.  
  102. Bacon, Gershon. “The Rabbinical Conference in Kraków (1903) and the Beginnings of Organized Orthodox Jewry.” In “Let the Old Make Way for the New”: Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Eastern European Jewry Presented to Immanuel Etkes. Vol. 2. Edited by David Assaf and Ada Rapoport Albert, 199–225. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2009.
  103.  
  104. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  105.  
  106. An analysis of the 1903 Rabbinical Conference as a forerunner of political Orthodoxy, despite its failure to establish an international organization. Discusses “the most sensitive issue” that came up at the conference, of Jewish education; a proposal to establish schools for girls was defeated at the conference.
  107.  
  108. Find this resource:
  109.  
  110. Landau, Mendel. Mekits nirdamim. Piotrków, Poland: Trybunalski, 1904.
  111.  
  112. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  113.  
  114. A book-length account of the 1903 Rabbinical Congress in Kraków, recounting the discussion about girls’ education among the participants. Letters 11 and 12 (pp. 51–59) describe the controversy at the Congress and provide the halakhic sources to allow women to study Torah. Available online through Hathi Trust.
  115.  
  116. Find this resource:
  117.  
  118. Manekin, Rachel. “‘Mashehu ḥadash legamrei: Hitpatḥuto shel ra’ayon haḥinukh hadati levanot be’et haḥadasha.” Masekhet 2 (2004): 63–85.
  119.  
  120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121.  
  122. Sets the background for the emergence of Bais Yaakov in 1917 by detailing the laws that made education compulsory in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the defection of Orthodox girls in turn-of-the-century Kraków, efforts of various Orthodox leaders to suggest solutions, and the dysfunction in the Orthodox community that led to the frustration of these efforts. In Hebrew.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126. Manekin, Rachel. “The Lost Generation: Education and Female Conversion in Fin-de-Siècle Kraków.” Polin 18 (2005): 189–219.
  127.  
  128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  129.  
  130. A description of the conversion to Christianity of large numbers of young women from Orthodox and Hasidic background in fin-de-siècle Kraków, focusing on the role played by girls’ education in public or convent schools.
  131.  
  132. Find this resource:
  133.  
  134. Women and Torah Study
  135. Those interested in educating girls in Jewish sources came up against what was understood to be a prohibition (or warning) against teaching girls Torah, according to Rabbi Eliezer’s Mishnaic dictum, “Whoever teaches his daughter Torah [it is as if he] teaches her tiflut [triviality or obscenity].” The broader halakhic issue plays itself out in later legal discussions; exceptions were carved out for “practical study” and for the study of the Written Torah (the Bible) rather than the Oral Torah (Talmud). The teaching of girls Torah in Bais Yaakov was legitimated through these exceptions as well as the doctrine of “the needs of the hour,” in which urgent conditions require overturning even a clear directive. For a basic introduction to the halakhic issues, see Biale 1984. Zolty 1993 and Fuchs 2014 add historical details and document the rise of Jewish women’s religious education; Fuchs also analyzes the opposition to educating women, and Berger 1924 is a primary source on this opposition. Brown 2007 shows how and why the Chofetz Chayim (Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, 1839–1933), the leading sage of his generation, came to embrace the idea of women studying Torah.
  136.  
  137. Berger, Benjamin. Amirah levat ya’akov: Devarim ahadim le’avot ve’imahot al hinukh habanot. Budapest: Katzberg, 1924.
  138.  
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  140.  
  141. A Hebrew manifesto, by a leader of the ultra-Orthodox Hungarian community, forbidding the teaching of Torah to girls and advocating for parents to find means to educate daughters themselves, keeping them indoors. The Satmar Hasidic community published the Yiddish translation in 1969.
  142.  
  143. Find this resource:
  144.  
  145. Biale, Rachel. Women and Jewish Law: An Exploration of Women’s Issues in Halakhic Sources. New York: Schocken, 1984.
  146.  
  147. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  148.  
  149. Biale’s pioneering study includes a clear overview of the question of whether women should be permitted to study Torah, exploring both rabbinic and post-rabbinic sources on this issue.
  150.  
  151. Find this resource:
  152.  
  153. Brown, Benjamin. “Erekh Talmud Torah bemishnat ha-ḥofetz ḥayim ufsikato be’inyan Talmud Torah lenashim.” Diné Israel: Studies in Halakhah and Jewish Law 24 (2007): 79–118.
  154.  
  155. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  156.  
  157. Argues that the Chofetz Chayim’s gradual acceptance of the necessity for Jewish women studying Torah was not a function of his “liberalism,” but rather of a piece with his larger view of Torah study as a value for all segments of Jewish society in his time. In Hebrew.
  158.  
  159. Find this resource:
  160.  
  161. Fuchs, Ilan. Jewish Women’s Torah Study: Orthodox Religious Education and Modernity. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.
  162.  
  163. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  164.  
  165. Beginning with a discussion of the halakhic issue of women’s Torah study, Fuch’s sophisticated and comprehensive overview surveys the historical and ideological currents that shaped the discussion of this issue in interwar Poland and post-Holocaust Jewish centers. Includes discussions of both modern Orthodox feminist developments and ultra-Orthodox opposition.
  166.  
  167. Find this resource:
  168.  
  169. Golinkin, David. “The Participation of Jewish Women in Public Rituals and Torah Study 1845–2010.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues 21 (2011): 46–66.
  170.  
  171. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  172.  
  173. Argues that the changes to women’s Torah study (and participation in public rituals) dates not from second-wave feminism but rather from the mid-19th century, when women’s exclusion began to be lifted in many different spheres of Jewish life (including Orthodoxy).
  174.  
  175. Find this resource:
  176.  
  177. Zolty, Shoshana Pantel. “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned”: Women and the Study of Torah in Jewish Law and History. Northvale, NJ, and Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 1993.
  178.  
  179. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  180.  
  181. A halakhic exploration of the issue of educating women in Torah, and a historical survey of the ways in which this issue played itself out at different times and in different societies. The last chapter is devoted to the Bais Yaakov movement, with a special focus on curriculum.
  182.  
  183. Find this resource:
  184.  
  185. Sarah Schenirer
  186. The basic outlines of Schenirer’s life are well known, and are repeated in many publications. But details of her personal life remain remarkably elusive (for instance, her marital history and family relationships). Friedenson 1936 is useful primarily for the legends that accumulated around Schenirer. Seidman 1936 presents the familiar story, as it was known at an early stage. Grunfeld-Rosenbaum 1953 provides a firsthand account of what Schenirer was like by an early collaborator and colleague. Weissman 2009 provides the basic details of Schenirer’s life in a nonhagiographical encyclopedia entry.
  187.  
  188. Friedenson, Eliezer Gershon. Di mames tsavo’e: zamlbukh far kinder un yugnt. Lodz, Poland: Bais Yaakov, 1936.
  189.  
  190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191.  
  192. A Yiddish biography of and collection of tales about Schenirer directed toward children, with the flavor of legend or Hasidic hagiography.
  193.  
  194. Find this resource:
  195.  
  196. Grunfeld-Rosenbaum, Judith. “Sara Schenierer.” In Jewish Leaders (1750–1940). Edited by Leo Jung, 405–432. New York: Bloch, 1953.
  197.  
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199.  
  200. First-person account of Schenirer by a German neo-Orthodox young woman who was sent to Poland in the 1920s to aid her in training teachers. Describes the “simple seamstress” whose charisma and dedication attracted scores of girls willing to live in “happy privation” to participate in her mission.
  201.  
  202. Find this resource:
  203.  
  204. Seidman, Hilel. Renesans Religijny Kobiety Żydowskiej: Sara Szenirer—Człowiek I Dzieło. Lodz, Poland: Bnos, 1936.
  205.  
  206. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207.  
  208. An early biographical essay on Schenirer and description of the movement she established. Records the statements endorsing Bais Yaakov by many Orthodox and other Jewish leaders of the time. In Polish.
  209.  
  210. Find this resource:
  211.  
  212. Weissman, Deborah. “Sarah Schenirer.” In Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Paula E. Hyman and Dalia Ofer. Brookline, MA: Jewish Women’s Archive, 2009.
  213.  
  214. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215.  
  216. Brief encyclopedia entry on Schenirer, the founder of Bais Yaakov, describing both the major turning points of her career and recent events to commemorate her life in Poland, Israel, and the United States.
  217.  
  218. Find this resource:
  219.  
  220. Primary Sources
  221. During the interwar period, Bais Yaakov produced an abundance of material, including a lively and informative periodical, the Bais Yaakov Zhurnal, the collected writings of its founder (Schenirer 1933), and a history and survey of the movement (Deutschländer 1933). After the Holocaust, Schenirer’s writings were translated into Hebrew (but not into English) to form the basis for two collections, Rottenberg 1955–1960 and Bauminger 1983. The interwar journal was revived, for a time, both in the United States and Israel in the Beth Jacob Monthly and Beit Ya’akov. Szaranski 2004 is a memorial volume recounting the founding of Bais Yaakov in 104 towns and cities throughout eastern Europe.
  222.  
  223. Bais Yaakov Zhurnal. 1923–1939.
  224.  
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  226.  
  227. This journal, which generally appeared monthly and was edited by Eliezer Gershon Friedenson in Lodz, served as the primary organ of the movement, publishing writings by Schenirer and other leaders of Bais Yaakov as well as articles of interest to girls and women.
  228.  
  229. Find this resource:
  230.  
  231. Bauminger, Aryeh, ed. Em beyisraʼel: Sefer zikaron lesarah shnirer. Bnei Brak, Israel: Netzaḥ, 1983.
  232.  
  233. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  234.  
  235. Revised, abridged, and updated single-volume collection of memorial essays by graduates of Bais Yaakov, and historical descriptions of Schenirer and Bais Yaakov.
  236.  
  237. Find this resource:
  238.  
  239. Beth Jacob Monthly.
  240.  
  241. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  242.  
  243. The Bais Yaakov journal of the interwar period was revived for a time in the United States, publishing articles in both Hebrew and English on the growing Bais Yaakov movement in North America and on other topics of interest to girls and women.
  244.  
  245. Find this resource:
  246.  
  247. Beit Ya’akov.
  248.  
  249. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  250.  
  251. A monthly Hebrew-language journal dedicated to the movement was established in 1959, publishing articles on Bais Yaakov in Israel and other topics of interest to girls and women.
  252.  
  253. Find this resource:
  254.  
  255. Deutschländer, Leo. History of the Beth Jacob Schools. Vienna: Beth Jacob Centre, 1933.
  256.  
  257. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  258.  
  259. A multilingual collection of historical and other documents on the movement, including a valuable list of schools established and a map of schools of various types in existence and in the planning stages.
  260.  
  261. Find this resource:
  262.  
  263. Rottenberg, Yeḥezkel, ed. Em beyisraʼel: Kitve sarah shnirer, toldot ḥayeha, maʼamarim, sipurim umaḥazot. Tel Aviv: Netzaḥ, 1955–1960.
  264.  
  265. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  266.  
  267. A four-volume anthology that includes Hebrew translations of Schenirer’s autobiography, plays and short stories, and other writings (including selections from an otherwise unknown Polish diary), as well as memorial essays and poetry by admirers and former students.
  268.  
  269. Find this resource:
  270.  
  271. Schenirer, Sarah. Gezamelte Shriften. Lodz, Poland: Bais Yaakov, 1933.
  272.  
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  274.  
  275. Schenirer’s collected writings include an autobiographical essay, writings about the schools and the affiliated youth movement of Bnos Agudath Israel, articles on Jewish holidays and practices, and letters to young Bais Yaakov pupils. The second edition (1955) adds some valuable historical documentation on Bais Yaakov after Schenirer’s death.
  276.  
  277. Find this resource:
  278.  
  279. Szaranski, Benjamin, ed. Zekhor: Mifal hantsaḥah litenu’at ‘bet ya’akov’ be’eropah. Tel Aviv: Project for Memorializing the Bais Yaakov Movement in Europe, 2004.
  280.  
  281. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  282.  
  283. A memorial volume that provides generally brief descriptions of the Bais Yaakov schools in 104 towns and cities, mostly in Poland, during the interwar period. Lists school boards and directors and describes how the schools were founded.
  284.  
  285. Find this resource:
  286.  
  287. Memoirs and Popular History
  288. Most of the available literature about Bais Yaakov in the interwar period is in the form of popular memoirs and history, which tend toward the hagiographical, often lack dates and other historical markers, or obscure details about Schenirer and the movement (Schenirer’s unmarried status, defections from the movement, the sometimes prohibitive cost of a Bais Yaakov education, etc.). Nevertheless, they are often full of illuminating anecdotes, as with Rubin 1988, which collects interviews and memoirs of twelve participants in the interwar movement. Benisch 2003 is the fullest and best known of these popular histories. Dansky 1994 focuses on the figure of Judith Rosenbaum Grunfeld, an important early teacher in the movement. Sternbuch and Kranzler 2005 is a remarkably candid memoir of the movement by a woman who was a student, teacher, and seminarian, describing the writer’s skepticism about its ideology and the difficulties of setting up a school in a small town. “Schandler 2002,” an essay submitted to the YIVO autobiography contest in 1939, provides a uniquely frank exploration of the movement from the perspective of a student, Bnos member, and (failed) teacher who was often at odds with the movement.
  289.  
  290. Benisch, Pearl. Carry Me in Your Heart: The Life and Legacy of Sarah Schenirer, Founder and Visionary of the Bais Yaakov Movement. Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim, 2003.
  291.  
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  293.  
  294. The best-known popular biography of Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov and Bnos movements, by Schenirer’s neighbor (and a Bnos member). Includes descriptions of Bais Yaakov activities during the Holocaust and in the immediate aftermath.
  295.  
  296. Find this resource:
  297.  
  298. Dansky, Miriam. Rebbetzin Grunfeld: The Life of Judith Grunfeld, Courageous Pioneer of the Bais Yaakov movement and Jewish Rebirth. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1994.
  299.  
  300. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  301.  
  302. Follows the life and career of Dr. Judith Rosenbaum (later Grunfeld), a German-educated neo-Orthodox young woman who was sent to Poland to assist Schenirer in training teachers. Describes the first meeting of the two women, Rosenbaum-Grunfeld’s contribution to “professionalizing” Bais Yaakov, and her life after leaving Bais Yaakov.
  303.  
  304. Find this resource:
  305.  
  306. Schandler, Jeffrey. “Esther.” In Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust. By Jeffrey Schandler, 321–343. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
  307.  
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  309.  
  310. “Esther” (a pseudonym) describes her journey as a Bais Yaakov student and member of the affiliated Bnos Agudath Israel movement, at first as an enthusiastic participant and later with growing doubts and rebellious impulses. Includes a detailed description of her failed attempt to start a Bais Yaakov school in a small Polish town.
  311.  
  312. Find this resource:
  313.  
  314. Rubin, Devorah, ed. Daughters of Destiny: Women Who Revolutionized Jewish Life and Torah Education. New York: Artscroll, 1988.
  315.  
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  317.  
  318. A collection of lively and colorful interviews with and essays by a dozen Bais Yaakov teachers and students in the interwar period, initiated as a senior project by students in the Bais Yaakov Academy High School in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
  319.  
  320. Find this resource:
  321.  
  322. Sternbuch, Gutta, and David Kranzler. Gutta: Memories of a Vanished World. New York and Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2005.
  323.  
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  325.  
  326. Sternbuch chronicles her childhood and young adulthood in Warsaw and at the Kraków Seminary, which she attended in the mid- to late 1930s. Provides an honest account of an Orthodox young woman who attended the seminary under parental pressure, only to fall under the sway of the charismatic director, Yehudah Leib Orlean.
  327.  
  328. Find this resource:
  329.  
  330. Bais Yaakov in the Interwar Period
  331. Bais Yaakov emerged in the interwar period along with a number of other school systems associated with a range of ideological positions. Eisenstein 1950 surveys Orthodox schools, including Bais Yaakov, alongside the CYSHO (Yiddishist), Tarbut (Zionist-Hebraist), and other school systems, providing data on students and schools as well as details on ideological foundations, curriculum, and relations with governmental organizations. Kazdan 1947 covers much of this ground at greater length and with many illuminating anecdotes. Bacon 1996 is the authoritative history of the Agudat Yisrael, the political arm of Polish Orthodoxy that supported and administered Bais Yaakov. Seidman 1937 focuses on the legal, administrative, and bureaucratic challenges faced by the Agudat Yisrael’s educational initiatives. Klepfisz 1994 is a pioneering essay that highlights the feminist and Yiddishist character of Bais Yaakov. Lisek 2013 explores the Orthodox Yiddishism of Bais Yaakov, while Oleszak 2010 reads the movement through its negotiations of central and eastern European Orthodox Jewish culture. Siegelman 1971 provides a glimpse into one town’s experience with a Bais Yaakov teacher.
  332.  
  333. Bacon, Gershon. The Politics of Tradition: Agudat Yisrael in Poland, 1916–1039. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1996.
  334.  
  335. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  336.  
  337. Rich overview of the Agudath Israel, the political organization of world Orthodoxy, with a chapter on the Agudah’s educational activities, which Bacon calls its “quiet revolution” (pp. 142–177), and a special section on Bais Yaakov, “a more drastic step” in transforming Orthodox society than the reform of boys’ schools.
  338.  
  339. Find this resource:
  340.  
  341. Eisenstein, Miriam. Jewish Schools in Poland, 1919–39: Their Philosophy and Development. New York: King’s Crown/Columbia University Press, 1950.
  342.  
  343. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  344.  
  345. A well-organized survey of the panorama of ideologically affiliated school systems in interwar Poland, from the Bundist-Yiddishist CYSHO system to the Zionist Tarbut schools and other systems, including Bais Yaakov. Puts these systems in their ideological contexts and provides data on development, budgets, growth, and so on.
  346.  
  347. Find this resource:
  348.  
  349. Kazdan, Chaim Szloma. Di geshikhte fun yidishn shulvesn in umophengikn Poyln. Mexico City: ‘Kultur und Hilf’, 1947.
  350.  
  351. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  352.  
  353. An expansive exploration of the Polish school systems, providing some of the same data as Eisenstein 1950 but with detailed descriptions of the historical background, development of these systems, and rivalries among them. Bais Yaakov discussed on pp. 479–501.
  354.  
  355. Find this resource:
  356.  
  357. Klepfisz, Irena. “Di Mames, Dos Loshn/The Mothers, the Language: Feminism, Yidishkayt, and the Politics of Memory.” Bridges 4 (Winter/Spring 1994): 12–47.
  358.  
  359. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  360.  
  361. This pioneering essay brought Schenirer and Bais Yaakov to the attention of American feminists (and Yiddishists) as forerunners of their concerns.
  362.  
  363. Find this resource:
  364.  
  365. Lisek, Johanna. “Orthodox Yiddishism in Beys Yakov Magazine.” In Sprach- und Kulturkontakte in Europas Mitte. Vol. 2, Ashkenazim and Sephardim: A European Perspective. Edited by Andrzej Katny, Izabela Olszewska, and Aleksandra Twardowska, 127–154. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2013.
  366.  
  367. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  368.  
  369. An insightful analysis of what Lisek calls the “Orthodox Yiddishism” of Bais Yaakov, an ideological position adopted in 1929 that included a distinctive orthography. Lisek traces the growth of this Yiddishism in the pages of the movement’s journal, and its reception among secular Yiddishists.
  370.  
  371. Find this resource:
  372.  
  373. Oleszak, Agnieszka M. “The Beit Ya’akov School in Kraków as an Encounter between East and West.” Polin 23 (2010): 277–290.
  374.  
  375. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  376.  
  377. A sharp reading of Bais Yaakov as representing a negotiation between the respective Orthodoxies of Poland and central Europe, in which German “doctor-rabbis” saw their role as providing professionalism and “hygiene” to the movement.
  378.  
  379. Find this resource:
  380.  
  381. Seidman, Hilel. Dos yidishe religyeze shul-vesn in di ramen fun der poylisher gezetzgebung. Warsaw, Poland: Ḥorev, 1937.
  382.  
  383. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  384.  
  385. A detailed exploration of the ways that the Agudat Yisrael attempted to fulfill or combat the changing legal rulings and ordinances of the Ministry of Education and other governmental bodies in its educational activities, including its administration of Bais Yaakov, by an Agudah activist who was involved in these dealings.
  386.  
  387. Find this resource:
  388.  
  389. Siegelman, Aharon. “Agudat Yisrael veha’Beit Ya’akov’ be-Forisov.” In Sefer Porisov. Edited by Yehiel Granatstein, 62–65. Parysów Memorial Book. Tel Aviv: Irgun Yotsʼe Porisov be-Yiśraʼel, 1971.
  390.  
  391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392.  
  393. Relates the fascinating story of Chana Baila Holshtok, a Bais Yaakov teacher with Communist sympathies who shook up Orthodox life in the small town of Parysów. Text available online.
  394.  
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397. Bais Yaakov during the Holocaust
  398. Bais Yaakov culture sometimes continued to operate under the conditions of the ghettoes and camps, and Soraski 1967 collects reports on such acts. Benisch 1991 is a personal memoir of the experiences of a group of Bais Yaakov girls in Auschwitz and after the war. Baumel and Schacter 1992 explores the document known as “The Last Will and Testament of the Ninety-Three Bais Yaakov Girls” within the context of Jewish martyrological literature.
  399.  
  400. Baumel, Judith Tydor, and Jacob J. Schacter. “The Ninety-Three Bais Yaakov Girls of Cracow: History of Typology.” In Reverence, Righteousness, and Rahamanut: Essays in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung. Edited by Jacob J. Schacter, 93–130. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1992.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. Detailed reading of the letter by the ninety-three Bais Yaakov girls in the Kraków ghetto who committed suicide rather than be taken as prostitutes for the German army within the larger context of Jewish martyrological literature. Acknowledging that most historians consider the letter a fiction, the authors nevertheless conclude that the events described might have happened.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408. Benisch, Pearl. To Vanquish the Dragon. 2d ed. Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim, 1991.
  409.  
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411.  
  412. A memoir by a Holocaust survivor of her experiences, together with a group of ten young women also associated with Bais Yaakov and Bnos (the Zehnerschaft), who supported each other and risked their lives to help others and maintain Jewish observance in Auschwitz and elsewhere.
  413.  
  414. Find this resource:
  415.  
  416. Soraski, Aharon. Toldot haḥinukh hatorati betkufah haḥadashah. Bnei Brak, Israel: Or Haḥayyim, 1967.
  417.  
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419.  
  420. Soraski devotes a section of his chapter on Bais Yaakov to its activities during the Holocaust, listing administrators, teachers, and students who continued to work and study in the ghettoes and describing the revival of the system after the war.
  421.  
  422. Find this resource:
  423.  
  424. Bais Yaakov in the Post-Holocaust Period
  425. While a number of Bais Yaakov schools were founded in New York and the Land of Israel during the interwar period, the greatest growth of these two centers came after the war, with the rebuilding of Orthodox life in North America and Israel, as well as a few other centers around the world. Bais Yaakov played an outsized role, according to some scholars, in this process. Friedman 1988 argues that Bais Yaakov enabled the unprecedented construction of a “society of (male) scholars” in Israel. Bechhofer 2004 analyzes the ideological transformations of Bais Yaakov on American soil, while Ginsparg Klein 2016 emphasizes the creative agency of Bais Yaakov students even in increasingly strict cultural environments. Leibovitz and Gliksman 2016 provides a biography of Vichna Kaplan, a student of Schenirer who established the first Bais Yaakov high school in the United States in 1938, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
  426.  
  427. Bechhofer, Shoshana M. “Ongoing Constitution of Identity and Educational Mission of Bais Yaakov Schools: The Structuration of an Organizational Field as the Unfolding of Discursive Logics.” PhD diss., Northwestern University, 2004.
  428.  
  429. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  430.  
  431. A fascinating exploration of the ideological components of Bais Yaakov identity, focusing on the question of girls’ Torah study in the North American Bais Yaakov movement. Analyzes the ideological uses made of the story of Schenirer within the movement.
  432.  
  433. Find this resource:
  434.  
  435. El-Or, Tamar. “Are They Like Their Grandmothers?’ A Paradox of Literacy in the Life of Ultraorthodox Jewish Women.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 24.1 (1993): 61–81.
  436.  
  437. DOI: 10.1525/aeq.1993.24.1.05x1738vSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  438.  
  439. An anthropological analysis of the continuing education of Bais Yaakov graduates in the Gur Hasidic community, arguing that such education produces “educated but ignorant” woman, who are taught to take on the ordained female role of textual ignorance—the paradox of the title.
  440.  
  441. Find this resource:
  442.  
  443. Friedman, Menachem. Ha’ishah haḥaredit. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for the Study of Israel, 1988.
  444.  
  445. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  446.  
  447. The eminent Israeli sociologist of Orthodox society argues that Bais Yaakov, as it developed in the newly founded State of Israel, made possible the development of a “society of scholars,” in which unprecedented percentages of Orthodox young men learn Talmud after marriage, supported by their wives—graduates of Bais Yaakov and often Bais Yaakov teachers, too. In Hebrew.
  448.  
  449. Find this resource:
  450.  
  451. Ginsparg Klein, Leslie. “No Candy Store, No Pizza Shops, No Maxi-Skirts, No Makeup’: Socializing Orthodox Jewish Girls through Schooling.” Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 9.1 (2016): 140–158.
  452.  
  453. DOI: 10.1353/hcy.2016.0012Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454.  
  455. Documents the increasing stringencies in American Bais Yaakov schools from the 1970s through the present, especially around modest dress, but argues as well that administrators are often perhaps surprisingly flexible and that attempts at control do not entirely stop young girls expressing themselves or otherwise navigating what seems like strict supervision over their lives.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459. Leibovitz, Danielle S., and Devora Gliksman. Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan: The Founder of the Bais Yaakov Movement in America. Nanuet, NY: Feldheim, 2016.
  460.  
  461. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  462.  
  463. A biography of Kaplan, Schenirer’s student and founder of Bais Yaakov in America, that provides both historical background and a rich description of Kaplan’s journey from eastern Europe to New York, where she became (along with her husband) one of Schenirer’s most important heirs.
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