In Her Hands: The Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia

7. Who Can Find a Woman of Valor? Jewish Women’s Education in Public Discourse

115 7 Who Can Find a Woman of Valor? Jewish Women’s Education in Public Discourse 115 The wife, brought up in infernal terror, so to speak, sees in every more or less free act of the husband—a great transgression, from which will imminently follow horrible consequences. . . . This hostile attitude of the father toward the mother and of the husband toward the wife has a pernicious influence on the raising of children. The father, with all his might trying to give to the children some amount of decent instruction, must often give in to the tears and entreaties of his fanatical wife and her tribe, and in catering to their old-fashioned understanding must sacrifice the happiness of his children. —D. Lazarev As more Jewish men received a western education and became enlightened, the consequences of women’s lack of access to these same opportunities became increasingly troubling. Here D. Lazarev used vibrant language to paint a picture of the Jewish family in chaos.1 The Jewish woman, with only the rudiments of a practical religious education, is utterly unable to understand the moderately modern improvements made by her husband. She reacts by retreating into her faith and family, thereby harming her children and her marriage. And Lazarev was not the only Jewish man to focus his criticism of the traditional system of education on its effects on the institution of marriage. M. G. Gershfel’d, writing for Russkii evrei in 1880, pointed out that women, much more than men, had “maintained an entire series of absurd prejudices and superstitions.”2 He went so far as to blame the high divorce rate among Jews on this particular imbalance. 116 c H A P T E R 7 In addition to decrying the outmoded educational status quo, writers for the progressive Jewish press in the final decades of the nineteenth century also noted some of the changes going on in Jewish communities and provided their visions for further improvements. This chapter traces the reception of the new private schools for Jewish girls among the liberal Jewish intelligentsia as well as among the increasingly vocal traditionalists. Announcing the Schools While writers argued over the nature of the educational ills perpetrated on Jewish women and how best to heal the resultant societal wounds, enterprising educators across the Pale of Settlement were actively changing the status quo by opening private schools for Jewish girls. As the new schools spread, writers for the Jewish press could hardly fail to notice them. Indeed, in local reports, the press celebrated the new schools. A common feature of many of the Hebrew- and Russian-language Jewish periodicals of this era was a section providing news from around the Jewish world. In some cases correspondents living in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, or other major Jewish communities provided regular updates. Other papers simply printed letters from individuals reporting from far and near. Reports from abroad included major international news, as well as news from within particular Jewish communities. Given the tenor of the papers, local reports often focused on the status of the Haskalah in a given community . It was in these letters that many new schools for Jewish girls were announced. A thematically typical yet idiosyncratically written example came from Grodno to the Hebrew journal Ha-Karmel in 1866. The author opened with a somewhat messianic portrayal of the coming of the Haskalah: Through all the generations which have come and gone, and the innumerable ages through which the eternal people have passed, from generation to generation knowledge grows, from day to day wisdom [haskel] is multiplied, and at the passing of the generation the wisdom [haskalah] goes on, there will arise a new generation which will also invigorate and add strength, because there is no end of understanding, and no limits to knowledge . . . . How pleasant for the soul and sweet to see the light of the Haskalah arriving. And how dear to pronounce that it dawns also in the windows of our city.3 117 Jewish Women’s Education in Public Discourse After describing the general improvement, the author went on to catalogue specific changes to support his claim, including the school for Jewish girls, in its eleventh year of existence. The author marveled at its success: “Who would not rejoice to see his young daughter of seven or eight years standing for exams in the Russian language, and would not express wonder when young...