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

8. New Birds, New Wings: Educational Developments in the Jewish Community

123 8 New Birds, New Wings Educational Developments in the Jewish community Writing after the cataclysm of the Second World War, in an effort to memorialize the recent past, a native of Horodets (Grodno province) chose to describe girls’ education in his city of origin not as static traditionalism, but as a dynamic process. Girls, he said, had once learned only to read Yiddish and to pray, but times had changed: “Apparently, the above-mentioned curriculum didn’t satisfy the younger generation. New birds, new wings. When the demand that girls be taught how to write addresses in Russian became widespread, a man who was a bit more modern and knew a little Russian was needed.” Soon, however, even this was not enough: “Yet the march of progress continued; new winds began to blow, and they found their way to Horodets as well. No longer were the girls satisfied with just an address in Russian and the Yiddish alphabet; they wanted to be able to read books in Russian, and some of them wanted to learn the holy tongue as well.”1 Indeed, just as new developments inside and outside the Jewish community led to the creation and spread of private schools for Jewish girls, further transformation would lead to the schools changing over time, and eventually giving way to other educational institutions. This chapter traces some of these changes and shows that the private schools for Jewish girls held a unique niche in the Jewish community and that they actively contributed to developments around them. In particular, the private Jewish girls’ schools provided a forum for educational experimentation that enabled later developments in educating the poor, reforming the heder, and expanding educational opportunities for Jew- 124 c H A P T E R 8 ish children. The turn-of-the-century schools that employed these innovations have often been viewed as radical and representing a break with the past. This chapter shows that they sprouted from the fertile soil provided by their predecessors. Educating the Poor The first private schools for Jewish girls were designed for daughters of the wealthy and middle classes. Yet, as it became clear that Jews from across the socioeconomic spectrum wished to educate their daughters, principals adapted in both practical and pedagogical ways. Practically speaking, some schools increased fees for services demanded by the wealthy while decreasing fees for standard educational services. Others simply accepted a set number of students free of charge. In pedagogic terms, educators expanded their curricula to include more academic offerings. Obviously principals of private schools needed robust enrollment as evidence of success for both the community and the authorities, and many highlighted their rising enrollment figures when corresponding with the MNP regarding yearly stipends. Encouraging poorer students was not only a matter of financial self-interest, however, and many educators devoted themselves to teaching out of a combination of practical and ideological goals. Some of the founding principals wrote with great passion of their commitment to raising the level of enlightenment in the Jewish population. For such individuals, economic standing was immaterial. In addition to the self-serving and ideological reasons for encouraging broader enrollment, there were altruistic motivations. In Russia as a whole, the era of the Great Reforms opened up the public discussion of societal problems. Whereas the education of the peasantry had been largely ignored under previous administrations, Tsar Alexander II’s 1864 statutes on education and the zemstra local self-government led to direct results in the countryside .2 The necessity and content of education for the masses became issues of public discourse. For Jews also, there was a growing awareness of the plight of the poor. Educators like Iosef and Anna Khones, who opened a private school for Jewish girls in Kherson in 1854, were proud to state that six of their thirty-six slots were to be set aside for those unable to pay tuition.3 An 1856 letter submitted in support of Markus and Anna Gurovich’s school for Jewish girls in Odessa made specific mention of their generosity in accepting poor pupils.4 In some locales, what began as inclusion of poor girls in the educational process led to schools specifically for needy Jewish girls. David Shtern 125 Educational Developments in the Jewish Community opened his school for poor Jewish girls in Mogilev (Podolin province) in 1858.5 In the case of the Bermans in St. Petersburg, it was...