The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments Upon reading my 2002 doctoral dissertation, which examines the representation of insiders and outsiders in American Jewish textbooks, Dr. Phyllis Deutsch, my editor at University Press of New England, wanted to know more about the people who had inspired, written, and published those books. Your analyses are interesting , she told me, but can’t you tell us a little more about the environment in which these books were written? Seven years later, this volume is my extended answer to her question. During that time, Phyllis was extraordinarily patient as my original intention to revise my dissertation metamorphosed into an entirely new project. She and her attentive sta√, including Lys Weiss, Amanda Dupuis, and Lori Miller, earned my gratitude and respect. Thank you, as well, to my copy editor, Will Hively, and book indexer, Harvey Gable. Along the way, others have been equally helpful in setting my path. When my colleague at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Los Angeles, Dr. Michael Zeldin, became editor of the Journal of Jewish Education in 2004, he asked me to write a history of the journal, which was dominated in its first half century by the Benderly boys. Wading through the issues of Jewish Education and its sister journal, Shevilei Ha-Hinukh, provided an incomparable introduction to the issues and challenges confronting the Zionist educators who had predominated in the central agencies and supplementary schools through much of the twentieth century. This entire project was conceived and written while I was at HUC-JIR. The college generously provided me with sabbaticals in spring 2006, which facilitated the bulk of my Jerusalem-based research, and fall 2009, which allowed me to complete my writing. My colleagues and students have made HUC a warm and nurturing environment, conducive to scholarship and academic discourse. Much of the credit belongs to our president, Rabbi David Ellenson, and recently retired provost, Dr. Norman Cohen. I have learned a lot from my History Department colleagues in Cincinnati and New York. Likewise, my School of Education colleagues across the three campuses have been invaluable mentors and friends. Researching this book involved countless hours in numerous archives and libraries and would not have been possible without the assistance of dedicated x Acknowledgments archivists and librarians who were always eager to help. My colleagues and friends at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, in particular, have continually gone well beyond the call of duty. Dr. Gary P. Zola is the consummate mensch and a trusted friend and colleague. The knowledgeable Kevin Pro≈tt is always willing to give his time and services. Thank you, as well, to Dr. Dorothy Smith, Dr. Fred Krome, Camille Servizzi, Elise Nienaber, Phil Reekers, Dr. Dana Herman, and Lisa Frankel. Dr. David Gilner and his sta√ at the Klau Library were always accommodating, particularly Laurel Wolfson and Marilyn Krider in Cincinnati , and Phil Miller and Tina Weiss in New York. Susan Woodland at the Hadassah Archives, housed at the American Jewish Historical Society, and Ellen Kastel at the Ratner Center of the Jewish Theological Seminary helped me bring the Central Jewish Institute and interwar Cejwin Camps back to life through rare photographs and rich documentary materials. Thank you, as well, to Hadassah Assouline at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People; Sean Martin at the Case Western Reserve Historical Society; Jonathan Roscoe and Rachel Kassman at the Jewish Museum of Maryland; Claire Pingel at the National Museum of American Jewish History; Kim Tieger at the Eisenstein Reconstructionist Archives of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Don Davis at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center; Fruma Mohrer and Gunnar Burg at YIVO; Daniel Margolis at the defunct Bureau of Jewish Education, in Boston; Meaghan Dwyer at Temple Israel in Boston; Kenneth Rochlin at the Ramaz School; and Harvey Sukenic and Mimi Mazor at the Boston Hebrew College library. A number of foundations and institutions helped make this book possible with their generous funding. My gratitude to the Wexner Foundation, led by Larry Moses, is eternal. A special thank-you to the past president of the foundation, Rabbi Maurice Corson, for his encouragement and the personal interest that he has taken in my career. I am grateful that this book was the recipient of a Koret Foundation Publication Grant, which was an important vote of confidence in my scholarship. I also extend my gratitude to the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, which provided a grant to help subsidize the publication...