Pointing with alarm to the growing number of Chedarim, religious schools, in the small towns of Soviet Russia, the Communist Yiddish daily, “Emes,” presents a plan of campaign against the Melamdim, religious teachers, whom it partly blames for the tremendous increase in religious education, which has reached the point where it is competing with the education of the Soviet schools. Neglect of the fight against the Chedarim is a contributing cause to their flourishing, it states, but the main reason is the economic condition of the Melamdim, who continue the instruction because they seek this means of livelihood to maintain their existence, conducting a house to house canvass for pupils for the Chedar.
No administrative repressions should be practiced against the Melamdim, says the “Emes” in outlining its plan. Most of the Melamdim, it says, are teaching religion and the Hebrew language because they have no other profession. Therefore, the paper urges, Melamdim should be divided into three categories; first, those who should be helped to productive labor; second, those who are too old for work but whose family members can be given work, thus avoiding their dependence on the teacher; and, third, those who are conscientiously devoted to religious training. These should be legally prosecuted, the paper declares.
Lillian Garrick is the only Jewish girl entered in the Wrigley swimming marathon staged in Toronto, Canada.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
