Vocational Training for Jewish Youth Develops in Transylvania

The idea of “productivizing” education of the Jewish youth of Eastern Europe, which is now largely occupying the attention of students and workers not only of child welfare matters but also of general economic problems, is penetrating even to such sequestered and traditionally rooted places as the Jewish towns of Transylvania, according to a report received by the headquarters of the United Jewish Campaign from Dr. Bernard Kahn, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee. Dr. Kahn submitted the results of a recent inspection of the committee’s work, made by a J. D. C. representative sent to Transylvania for the purpose.

Following the initiative of the trade school and occupational training work instituted by the Joint Distribution Committee in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Roumania, Czecho-Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Greece, in which 15,000 boys and girls are being trained, the Central Orphans’ Committee of Transylvania, which was organized from the local Jewish leadership to function like the central orphan care committee of Poland, is concentrating its work on the professional education of the children in its charge. The work of the committee in general has developed considerably within the last two years, and it has now a thousand children in its charge.

One of the undertakings of the committee is a vocational bureau, through which it is aimed to guide the children in its care in the selection of suitable professions. The committee has likewise established a summer colony for its wards in Tihuta, and is about to open an apprentice home for girls in Clausenburg.

Dr. Kahn points out as specially noteworthy that the Orphans’ Committee has succeeded in obtaining the support of the orthodox Jews, who are now very much interested in the establishment of workshops.

The workshops established through the J. D. C. work in Transylvania show splendid development, Dr. Kahn states. Some of them are not only self-supporting, but even show considerable profit from the work of their shops. The apprentice home and the workshops in Marmarosch-Sighet, which is expected to form a basis for the permanent work of the central committee, has already graduated about 110 children, many of whom are now at work in the town, while the others have found employment in various villages of the district. The shops are already deriving profits from their products which form a comparatively large part of the total income of the central committee. These proceeds are used for the maintenance of the apprentice home. Two apprentice homes newly opened in Crade-Mare and Satu-Mare are largely supported by the local population and are reported to be in the best of order. It is expected chat they will later be maintained entirely by the local communities. In the establishment of the sew girls’ apprentice home in Clauseburg, the Association of Jewish Women of Clausenburg is working together with the Central Orphans’ Committee.

The report describes the development of the trade training work for Jewish children in the Sub-Carpathian district of Czecho-Slocakia, where the communities are extremely poor and isolated. A number of children who have left the J. D. C. workshops after completion of a long training are now working in their homes, and arning about 20 Czech crowns a day.

In making public Dr. Kahn’s report, David A. Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign reiterates his plea that American Jewry. whose generosity made possible this vital work, must find funds for its unhampered continuance by all means possible.

“The work of trade school education and ‘productivizing’ of Jewish children, which we have so successfully berun.” Dr. Kahn declares, “must not, and shall not, cease prematurely.”