Educators Organize to Combat Minimum Influence on Jewish Education

Plans for the establishment of a Greater New York Council for Jewish education were laid at a conference of principals of Hebrew Schools and Talmud Torahs, functioning in various parts of New York, held this week at the Yeshiva College.

The present conditions in the field of Jewish education in New York were the subject of a discussion which took place under the chairmanship of Dr. P. Churgin, principal of the Teachers’ Institute of the Yeshiva, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Principals of fifteen of the largest Talmud Torahs in New York were present. A disturbing factor for the future development of Jewish education was seen in the tendency of the so-called “minimalists,” i.e., those communal leaders and educators who advocate the adherence to a minimum of Jewish education in the Hebrew schools and Talmud Torahs. It was asserted that this tendency is gaining ground in certain quarters and that it endangers the scope and effect of a traditional Jewish development. Those present declared themselves in favor of a maximum program of Jewish education.

The contemplated Greater New York Council for Jewish education will have for its purpose to study the problem of Jewish education in New York, to strengthen the educational institutions adhering to the maximum program and to combat the trend of the “minimalists.”