American System Urged for Jewish Education at Conference in Atlantic City

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

New buildings either begun or completed in the course of the past twelve months in the larger Jewish communities of America represent an outlay of upwards of $2,000,000. More than $7,000,000 were spent by the Jewish Communities of America for the purpose of carrying out their educational programs. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and other cities where the communities are organized there is an awakened interest in the problem of Jewish education.

These were some of the outstanding facts brought out at the opening session of the National Council for Jewish Education held Sunday night at the Jewish Community Centre of Atlantic City. Several hundred educators as well as laymen interested in the problem of Jewish education are present. The sessions are being held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

In his review of the progress of Jewish education during the past year, Dr. Leo Homer, president of the council, pointed to the growing sense of community responsibility that has manifested itself throughout the country with regard to the problem of Jewish Education.

Mr. Ben. Rosen, educational director of the Associated Talmud Torahs of Philadelphia, was the presiding officer at the opening session.

Defining the scope of the National Council for Jewish Education Mr. Rosen said: “The National Council for Jewish Education was organized last year in Cleveland. It’s purpose was to bring about an exchange of opinion and experiences among those in executive and supervisory positions in the field of Jewish education in the various communities.

Figures gathered by Jewish educators place the number of Jewish children in this country of school age at 800,000 Of these only 30 per cent are receiving Jewish education. The Jews of America are spending approximately $1,000,000 a year for Jewish education.

A plea for a more American system of Jewish education was made by Dr. Samson Benderly, director of the Bureau of Jewish Education in New York.

It is the task of the Jewish educator to provide a program of religious educatin for the Jewish youth of America that shall be in the fullest harmony with the American conditions and environment, Dr. Benderly said.

“With the stoppage of Jewish immigration into the United States,” he said, “Jewish education must meet the new situation. It will not be possible in the future to make use of the same schedule of attendance as we did in the past. American Jewish children cannot be expected to attend Hebrew schools until S P. M., nor can they be expected to come five times a week. Furthermore most of the text books that have been used by the more progressive schools during the last decade and which are based on Jewish life in vogue in Eastern Europe will have to be replaced by books that will reckon more with the changed condition of Jewish life in America. Similarly, Jewish education must face the issue of an American Jewish teaching personnel. We hardly have enough good teachers to meet the needs of the twenty-five percent of children of school age who attend our schools at present. Where will we get teachers for the vast army that is unschooled?

“Because of the complexity of the problem of the adjustment of Jewish life to the American environment, we must have teachers who are fired with great zeal and who are very hopeful about the possibilities of American Jewish education. Mere job holders will not suffice. Similarly, the new situation demands greater communal responsibility for Jewish education. Jewish education cannot be left to the happhazard doings of this or that individual. It will be necessary not only to arouse the leadership of American Jewry to the great danger which hovers over the perpetuation of Judaism in America because of the great majority of Jewish children who do not receive any Jewish education whatsoever, but also we must center their attention on the great difficulties that contront us in the work which is being done with the children who do attend Jewish schools. In short, the next decade will constitute a very critical period in Jewish education. The solution of the question confronting American Jewry of to be or not to be will greatly depend upon the seriousness and the comprehensiveties wit which we will approach this problem of all problems confronting us in this country.”

Tobey Meyer, formerly of Rochester, died Friday at Hotel Bretton Hall in New York in his eighty-first year, Mr. Meyer lived in Rochester, N. Y. for sixty years and was a pioneer in the clothing manufacturing industry.

Mr. Meyer was for many years a director of the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society of Denver.