More on the Importance of Fluency in Hebrew

“In Israel, the language of the Siddur, the language of the Chumash, the language of the Tanach is the lingua franca and the most secular Israeli can read Chumash with a little bit of work better than a kid who has gone to day school here [in Canada] for whatever years. A little bit of work just to get the syntax, etc. But Hebrew is – I believe this strongly –  Hebrew is the key to almost everything in Judaism from a skill set perspective. If you have Hebrew – many of us grew up in an Ivrit b'Ivrit generation and that is not the case now, there's a sense of oh if I teach in Hebrew I won't be able to teach as much Gemara, I won't be able to teach the Ramban and the Rashi the same way. To me it seems like once a person has the real skills in Hebrew they'll get the other thing. It was a wrong educational turn [moving away from instruction in Hebrew], but there are reasons for that.”

Professor Adam Ferziger, “Between East and West Israeli Religious Zionism and American Modern Orthodoxy,” 9:06, Audio lecture at Torah In Motion.

Interview with R' Yaakov Weinberg on the Importance of Skill in Hebrew

Question: Should yeshivos have a curriculum to teach lashon hakodesh in an organized manner or is it enough to depend on teitch, reading and translating? And should dikduk be taught?

Rav Weinberg: One time everyone knew that you had to learn dikduk. But I'm not sure that today it would be a good idea because you need an extraordinarily good teacher to teach a proper and helpful dikduk. The dikduk taught today may not be all that helpful.

But there is one thing everyone should know. The most important thing that any school that hopes their children will go on to learn in a high school must give them -- more important than Chumash, halachah, Gemara, and hashkafah -- is to be able to read and translate. If they are able to read and translate they will have a future in which they can, for example, learn the Mesilas Yesharim quickly. You know that to learn Mesilas Yesharim properly you have to run through it a few times to know its totality before you can learn it slowly. But a bachur today cannot learn it that way because he is struggling with each sentence to figure out what the words mean. Therefore there is no such thing as learning through the Mesilas Yesharim or the Sha'arei Teshuvah. Baruch Hashem, today we have Artscroll and other translations. Now he can forget about reading the Sha'arei Teshuvah and learn the English, The Gates of Repentance. Beautiful! But would it not have been nice if he could learn it inside?

What will this bachur read? If he knows how to read Hebrew, there are midrashim, sefarim, and histories. If he cannot read Hebrew, he has to read English. So what is he going to read -- a Western, a mystery? You are closing doors on him.

The most important thing that any school can do for its children is to enable them to read lashon hakodesh. Then, when they are in the ninth grade, they will go through the Chumash and read Mishnah and be able to make a leining on Gemara, and their whole future and existence will be different. So instead you are going to learn another parashah Chumash and take away their whole future? Think -- make a cheshbon. There is no more important thing that a school to give the children than the ability to read lashon hakodesh because it opens a whole world to him. But if he cannot read Hebrew, it is closed! Baruch Hashem, ArtScroll makes a lot things accessible than they used to be, but, gevalt, is that the answer?

Question: But is tieitching enough for that?

Rav Weinberg:  What can I tell you? I don't know. You must understand that I have no experience in the classroom. I can tell you my best understanding of what the halachos of chinuch say -- halachos that I learned and struggled over, that I take out of the Gemara, Rambam, and Shulchan Aruch -- but you have to tell me what happens in a classroom. I do not know which is the most effective way to teach the Hebrew. For that I have to listen and learn from you.

"Rav Yaakov Weinberg talks about chinuch," 36a and 36b, Targum Press

TIDE Society Organizes Translation of Toldos Yaakov

The Torah Im Derech Eretz Society is organizing the translation of a biography on the great German gaon R' Koppel Charif Reich. The biography was written in Hebrew by Dr. Charles Duschinsky a century ago. The translation will bring more awareness of this great scholar to the English reading public.

For more information on R' Reich, please see the hesped written about him by the Chasom Sofer in Toras Moshe, parshas vayichi.

The Dutch Language

The Dutch Language

by Langfocus

Who Are the German Jews?

When people ask, are you a yekke (and I get asked this often enough) they generally mean, I believe, do your parents or grandparents come from Germany? And I suppose the strict definition of a yekke is a Jew from Germany or a Jew with traceable lineage to Germany as parents from places like England, South Africa, the USA, Holland, or Switzerland (countries to which German Jews immigrated over the last 100 years) with known ancestors from Germany, Prussia, or Austria also seem to qualify. The term yekke is of uncertain origin. It might be a reference to short coats or Jacke in German as German Jews of the last few centuries tended to wear shorter jackets than their brothers out East. 

So you might wonder then what is an Ashkenazi Jew as you certainly know of Ashkenazi Jews from places like the Ukraine and Poland. The name derives from the biblical figure Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, the eldest son of Japeth, a son of Noah. For reasons which are much debated, this name became attached to the mass of Jews who made their way through Italy and into Central Europe in the centuries after the destruction of the second Temple. Another set of Jews, which we now call Sephardim, made their way to Babylon and then North Africa and eventually Spain. In the words of the Jewish Virtual Library, "The name Ashkenaz was applied in the Middle Ages to Jews living along the Rhine River in northern France and western Germany."  Many of these people migrated East and by the 16th century, the center of Ashkenazi Jewry was located in Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia and Moravia and soon after in Russia, the Ukraine, and the Baltic states. They all are Ashkenazim, decendents of the Jews who lived along the Rhine River. Their shared lineage is evidenced in the language Yiddish which is an offshoot of German. As R' Shlomo Hamburger, an expert on German Jewish customs, points out, the Yiddish word for translate - titsche - comes from the word Deutsch or German. So imagine a conversation where two people are chatting away in Italian and you can't follow it. You want them to switch to English so you shout "English!" Centuries ago one of your ancestors, if you are Ashkenazi, might have shouted, "Deutsch!" or "German!"

So you might ask, are they yekkes too? Well it gets complicated due to the rise of the Chassidic movement in the 18th century as a large portion of Ashkenazic Jewry took on a new set of customs, called Sefard, some of which developed under the new conditions of Eastern Europe and some of which were taken from Sephardic liturgy and kabbalah. Technically, these people are Ashkenazim, but we wouldn't call them German Jews or yekkes, even though originally their ancestors were from Germany. There also are Eastern European Jews such as those from Lithuania, who didn't take on nusach Sefard, yet don't call them German either. They are Litvacks and their practice is much closer to that of German Jews with many significant differences.

So it seems that ancestry alone is not the determining factor as custom and even outlook plays a large role in group identification. This is why I, all by my lonesome, have determined that there exists a new variety of German Jew and that is the American yekke. My reasoning is that the USA is largely a Germanic country and many of the people raised in the USA, depending where one is raised, have Germanic sensibilities that fit in best with the German Jewish style. Since originally their families were from Germany, ie they are Ashkenazim, the original German practices are part of their heritage and while their ancestors in Eastern Europe were not raised in a Germanic culture, they were. See my article "American Yekkes" for a more lengthy explanation on all this. This applies in particular to baalei teshuva, particularly those over the age of 40 who were raised in the suburbs, and even more so those raised or educated in the Midwest. Again, see my article for more on that.

Interestingly, the USA currently is home to more Ashkenazi Jews than any other country in the world. Here's a chart from Wikipedia:

Total population
10[1]–11.2[2] million
Regions with significant populations
United States	5–6 million[3]
State of Israel	2.8 million[4][5]
Russia	194,000–500,000
Argentina	300,000
United Kingdom	~ 260,000
Canada	~ 240,000
France	200,000
Germany	200,000
Ukraine	150,000
Australia	120,000
South Africa	80,000
Belarus	80,000
Hungary	75,000
Chile	70,000
Brazil	30,000
Netherlands	30,000
Moldova	30,000
Poland	25,000
Mexico	18,500
Sweden	18,000
Latvia	10,000
Romania	10,000
Austria	9,000
New Zealand	5,000
Azerbaijan	4,300
Lithuania	4,000
Czech Republic	3,000
Slovakia	3,000
Estonia	1,000

So that's what I'll say for now about the German Jews. Torah Im Derech Eretz came out of Germany. It's the work of Rabbi Hirsch but he designed it for Germany utilizing the traditions from his German Jewish rebbes. A person need not take on German Jewish custom or identity to gain from Torah Im Derech Eretz as the philosophy is useful to the modern, western dominated world in general.

Minhag Ashkenaz Minyan Forming in Beit Shemesh Aleph

Starting with Friday nights only, to be held likely on Nachal Refaim. If interested please write to tide@outlook.co.il

Population Figures of Frankfurt

10,000 Jews in Frankfurt around 1860
35,000 in 1933
Hirsch community 2,000 in 1920s, the general community had around 30,000
Generally, Hirsch's community was around 10% of the general.

data from Dr. Rachel Heuberger in TorahInMotion.org

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch and Contemporary Orthodoxy- A Panel Discussion with all the Speakers

Let us bring these figures as objections to comments by R' Dessler and other Eastern Europeans about the ability of Torah Im Derech Eretz to produce as many gadolim as they did in EE. Eastern Europe had millions of people. Even in 1920, Frankfurt had only 30,000. In 1933, Eastern Europe had more than 6 million Jews.

The majority of Jews in prewar Europe resided in eastern Europe. The largest Jewish communities in this area were in Poland, with about 3,000,000 Jews (9.5%); the European part of the Soviet Union, with 2,525,000 (3.4%); and Romania, with 756,000 (4.2%). The Jewish population in the three Baltic states totaled 255,000: 95,600 in Latvia, 155,000 in Lithuania, and 4,560 in Estonia. Here, Jews comprised 4.9%, 7.6%, and 0.4% of each country's population, respectively, and 5% of the region's total population. (Holocaust Museum)

So let's do some math. 30,000 Jews in Frankfurt, 3,000 of them in Hirsch's community. 6 million Jews in Eastern Europe. The Jewish population of all of Frankfurt was a 1/2 of a percent of that of Eastern Europe. And the population of Hirsch's community was less than a 1000th of Eastern Europe. So what are we comparing?

Nessun Dorma Luciano Pavarotti Turandot Puccini subtítulos en español

Nessun Dorma Luciano Pavarotti Turandot Puccini subtítulos en español

Hard to believe this is a live performance. Count the hours on that last note. Well actually 18.2 seconds. Try it sometime. It will feel like hours.

Order and punctuality as Jewish virtues

According to Rabbi Avigdor Miller, the idea of order and punctuality as Jewish virtues traces back to the great generation of Har Sinai as depicted in the Chumash:

"But before Moshe, the Am Yisroel were so good that even Bilaam, al corchei had to praise them. Now it states, Vayisa Bilaam es einav. Bilaam lifted up his eyes. Now he wasn't looking for good things in the Am Yisroel. You have to know that. If Bilaam could have found faults, he would have pounced on it like a fly pounces on a speck on the rotten apple. He was looking for faults. Vayar es Yisroel shochain l'shvatim. He saw Yisroel dwelling according to their shevatim. Now this I'll say in passing although it's not our subject. He saw that they were orderly. That they didn't mix. Everything was done with a seder. Now that's off the subject. Someday I'll talk about the importance of the orderliness of the ancient Jewish people. The ancient Jewish people were punctual in time. It's a mistake when you say Jewish time. It's a big lashon hara. There's a zman krias Shema and that's the time. You got to be punctual. No fooling around with that time. And other things in Halacha. Oh no, Jewish time is the most punctual, precise time. They were baalei seder."

Rabbi Avigdor Miller, “True Modesty,” tape 412, 42:27.

New Simi Lerner Talk: Hirsch on the Community as a Means

I was in a community recently where I felt an enormous conformity and sense of people trying to simultaneously fit in and out do each other religiously. It was disturbing. And then via Divine providence came this recording of Simi Lerner in his wonderful series of lectures on the Hirsch Chumash. In parshas Noach on the events of the Tower of Babel, Rav Hirsch points out how the community is supposed to be a means for the individual to connect to God. But when the community becomes the end, the goal, the thing to serve, then you have real problems. See the talk and Hirsch on Genesis 11:4.

The Inside of the Old Telz Building

You have seen photos of the outside of the old yeshiva in Telz. Want to see the inside as it looks today? This Telz Footage takes you inside of one of the most interesting yeshivos of the 19th century, a place that responded to the needs of the time with its theme based classes, different class levels, and other innovations.

Plus Rabbi Schwab studied there.

Source: Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer הרב יוסף גבריאל בקהופר

Linked Post from Daas Torah blog: Torah Revolutionaries by Professor Cyril Domb F.R.S.

Torah Revolutionaries by Professor Cyril Domb F.R.S.

"No one interested in the spread of Torah Judaism could fail to be impressed by the record of positive achievement of German Orthodoxy. Hence we find that, after an initial period of trial, Rabbi Hirsch was treated with respect and even admiration in the Torah centers of Eastern Europe. But the philosophy of Torah im Derech Eretz  as interpreted by Hirsch was always regarded as relevant only to Germany, since the large Jewish masses of Eastern Europe had not been significantly affected by European culture."

The article has much to say about Rav Hirsch and also Sarah Schnirer:

"But as the movement grew, she became aware that something more sophisticated would be needed. At this time a curious incident occurred which had very positive consequences. She had planned to travel for a few days to Hamburg in North Germany, for which she needed to change at Breslau. But she made a wrong connection and got on the train to Frankfurt in South Germany. The inspector pointed out her error when he came along the train to check her ticket, and suggested that she change at the next station. But she decided that the error was min haShamayim and that she should carry on to Frankfurt where she had a number of contacts. She spent ten days in Frankfurt looking at girls' schools and other educational institutions."

Linked Article: NOVEMBER 13, 2016 BY SARA LEVINE

This is a really remarkable revelation, songwriting legend Leonard Cohen was a practicing Jew. That's what you want to hear about the man who wrote the following lyric:

"I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"

or this:

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

Leonard Cohen’s Orthodox Jewish Upbringing and Shabbos Observance

NOVEMBER 13, 2016 BY SARA LEVINE

"Beloved singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died last week at the age of 82. Most famous for penning the hauntingly poignant ballad “Hallelujah” among other songs in the past 40 years, as well as poetry and novels, not many people were aware that Cohen was born and raised Orthodox, spent some time involved in Buddhism then returned to his own form of Jewish observance in the 1980s. He was a practicing Jew until his death."

continue

Floorplan of IRG in Frankfurt

Judaism is also universal

“Judaism is a national religion in that it is the religion which God has given to Israel. According to the Torah, He has chosen us as His peculiar people, 'to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' But Judaism is also universal, for that very choice implies that, as a priest to his congregation, the whole nation should be an example unto the gentile world of a life lived with God – upright, just, and kind. Our rabbis tell us that Judaism is the way of salvation for the Jew, but the righteous men of other religions will also partake of eternal salvation.”  Rabbi Leo Jung, Between Man and Man, p. 150.

Population Survey on Orthodox Day Schools - Linked Post

by Dr. Marvin Schick

(Excerpted from “A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States, 2013-2015”) in Torah Musings

"Schools under Orthodox auspices have always been dominant in the Jewish day school world. For many years, these were the only day schools. Even with the enthusiastic establishment of Solomon Schechters in the post-Holocaust period and then expanded non-Orthodox interest in day schools in the aftermath of the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, Orthodox schools have remained by a great margin the largest component of the day school world. If only because of the contraction in non-Orthodox sectors already touched on, the proportion of students in Orthodox schools has grown. This growth is fueled even more strongly by high Orthodox fertility, especially in the Chassidic sector but also in the Yeshiva World sector. As noted, the latest census shows 70,000 more day schoolers than there were 15 years ago and almost all of this increase is attributable to enrollment in Orthodox schools."

cont.

Brahms Plays His Hungarian Dance No.1 (Excerpt), 1889

Brahms Plays His Hungarian Dance No.1 (Excerpt), 1889

Sound is atrocious but to experience the man in his lifetime, incredible. Here's some of his more famous material:

The best of Brahms

Kristallnacht, Continued Through Nov. 10

Linked Article - Huffington Post: Kristallnacht Photos Recall Horror Night Of November 9, 1938

"On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, gangs of Nazis attacked Jewish businesses and religious sites around Germany, destroying thousands of stores and synagogues. The violence would continue for nearly two days, and the Nazis chose to name it Kristallnacht or crystal night — symbolizing the final shattering of Jewish existence in Germany."

cont.

And here's some film footage of the events.

Linked Post - CrownHeights.info: Kristallnacht Survivor’s Firsthand Account

------
"To commemorate the coming 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht (November 9,1938), we present to our readers a first-person account of Kristallnacht, written by Mrs. Hanna Tennenhaus, OBM, whose Shloshim was just marked by her descendants. This account was published in the Canadian Jewish News in November, 1998:

"That fateful night, Nov. 9, 1938, I studied late. After finishing my homework, I took a piece of paper from a notebook, wrote Ich hasse Hitler (I hate Hitler), then quickly burned it in the dying embers remaining in the red tiled stove and went to bed.

"At 2 a.m. there was a great commotion in the street. “Juden raus, Juden raus” (Jews out, Jews out) went the awful shouts. Our bell rang incessantly. My mother, in a long white nightgown, went from room to room in great agitation, while my father prayed silently."
------

cont.

Compare Caruso to Pavarotti

Enrico Caruso - La Donna e Mobile

Pavarotti La Donna e Mobile Moscow 1964

Sounds similar to me, but I'm not exactly a music critic. Maybe Pavarotti has a fuller voice but the Caruso recording is old, old, old technology.

What's the Easiest Language to Learn?

Not TIDE per se, but since we have been watching these excellent videos on language, here's one that addresses a question that many college students have asked over the years. What are the easiest languages to learn for a person that only speaks English. They are:

What's the Easiest Language to Learn? by Langfocus

Rachmaninoff plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Rachmaninoff plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

This version of this impossible piece is sublime.

Torah Im Derech Eretz at Maimonides?

Yesterday I talked about the educational curriculum at the SAR Academy in the Bronx, NY, about how they have an actual methodology that approaches subjects rather than just grinding through texts with minimal explanation as is done in so many schools.

So it seems that the Maimonides School in Brookline, Boston works the same way.

Here's fifth grade Hebrew:

In fifth grade we continue the Chaverim Bivrit curriculum that we began in fourth grade. Depending on the level, students learn between 2-3 books in Chaverim Bivrit curriculum. In fifth grade, Ivrit is taught for four periods weekly. Students are asked to write paragraphs of greater complexity and length than in previous years, compose songs and poems, read and write newspaper “advertisements” and, of course, speak only in Hebrew. As in previous years, students read at home on a daily basis in order to practice their reading skills. Students have discussions about food and nutrition, hear stories about food and restaurants, and prepare menus for their class restaurant. In the restaurant, students actually order and serve foods as well as dine in the restaurant (all in Hebrew). This is an enjoyable activity that is remembered by Maimonides students for years. It leaves a joyful and satisfying “taste” of Hebrew language with them.

A living language just like in Horeb.

"We may therefore tabulate the general subjects of instruction for Jewish youth as follows:(I) Hebrew language.
(2)Vernacular.
Concurrently and as living languages at an early age along with general knowledge and development of the mind.
(3) Torah, Nevi'im and Kethuvim....."  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb 552


Here's grade 5 Talmud at Maimonides:

...This curriculum includes an introduction to the ”Chain of Tradition” with great emphasis on the historical background of each of the periods leading up to and including the Talmudic period. Teachers explain key foundational concepts in Talmud study. Students learn and memorize selected mishnayot, and analyze them in terms of the historical elements and content. Students use the “Bonayich” website to further enhance their knowledge of the mishnayot and the historical background.

I'm still waiting for my introduction to the "Chain of Tradition." I have done my best to pick it up from books such as those of Rav Hirsch and Rabbi Miller. It was never explained to me in yeshiva. In my mind, such explanation is a necessity to working productively with the Talmud. What is Horeb if not an explanation of the Torah using text but arranged by subject. That is what young people need today. 

So hats off to you too Maimonides. 

Torah Im Derech Eretz at SAR Academy?

You think I'm joking. And in a way I am. But in a way I am not. Look at this educational curriculum.

Highlights:

Hebrew

Building vocabulary

Conjugating verbs in present and past tense

Writing expanded sentences that incorporate adjectives

Speaking with new grammar skills and vocabulary

It's first on the list, just like in Horeb. Imagine Jewish kids being taught the language of the Torah. What a concept. Doesn't happen in so many schools.

Chumash

In Chumash, we help students build their skills for independent Torah study. This year, we learn Sefer Shemot, perakim 1 - 20. By mid-year, students learn daily with a chevruta. With the definitions of the most difficult words, students answer guiding questions as they learn each perek. One particular highlight of our Chumash curriculum is the unit in which the students learn the entire section of the makkot, the ten plagues, independently, with their study partners. This is a wonderful experience and is supplemented by review sessions in which the teachers point out relevant patterns and ideas they may have missed.

Skills:

Answering comprehension questions in Hebrew sentences orally and in writing

Identifying shorashim and the speaker within each pasuk

Differentiating between peshat and drash explanations of textual difficulties

Using Rashi to understand textual difficulties

Compares this to schools where the rebbe grinds through chapter after chapter, no chavrusos, no review sessions with patterns, no identifying speakers or differentiation between  peshot and drash, just trucking on to the next page - daf yomi for children.

Mishna

This is the year when our students are exposed for the first time to the treasures of the oral tradition, the Torah Shebe'al Peh. Since the interplay between the written and oral laws is key to any later study of Torah, our curriculum begins with an introduction to the whole concept of the oral law and to Mishnah in particular. Students then study the first five perakim of Masechet Brachot which focus on the Shema and Shemoneh Esrei.

Skills:

Locating a perek in the Mishna

Identifying different opinions and themes in Mishna

Analyzing repeating structure of individual mishnayot

Supporting analysis of mishnayot with proofs from various opinions in the Mishna

This is my favorite. Imagine preparing children for Mishnah with an introduction to Oral Torah. How radical. What I have seen in school after school is Mishnah with no introduction. Just open up Mesechta Shabbos and start learning that two are really four and that the tailor can't go out without his needle and then find out that one can't light with moss that grows on ceders. As one kid told me, it's just a list of everything I can't do. Without an introduction, the Mishnah sounds like lunacy. One needs to be taught how the Oral Torah works with the Written, that the Mishnah was written in code, and that it was written down after thousands of years of oral transmission. (One also needs to be taught a philosophy of mitzvos and the moral purpose of restrictions, but I'll leave that to other material that also is not taught in many schools.) How much ground do they cover - 5 chapters with particular focus on two everyday practices. I know a school in Israel that has covered in one month 10 chapters of Mesechta Shabbos, most of it with material like "one may not light with pitch, tar, or castor oil." I'm not knocking the Mishnah. I'm must saying children need to be introduced to it in the right way.

It's hard to propose that a Torah Im Derech Eretz family send a child to SAR with its mixed gender classes, knee length skirts, Zionism, and feminism. But looking at this curriculum, one is tempted. There is an actual curriculum here, some teaching methodology, some sense of how a child's mind is stimulated, something other than grinding through texts that were meant to be taught orally with explanation. The "better" schools are big on the warmth of the rebbe. They attempt to replace educational methodology with warmth but this doesn't really work for intellectually inclined children of which they are many in the Jewish world. Hats off to you SAR.

R' Moshe Dovid Flesch

R' Moshe Dovid Flesch (1879-1944)

Born in Rajka, Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Hungary. Died in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany.

Son of Shmuel Flesch and Ester Flesch
Husband of Paula Flesch
Father of Sidy Loewenthal; Shmu (Genie)

A student of R' Shlomo Breuer, R' Flesch introduced Sarah Schneirer to the works of R' Samson Raphael Hirsch. D. Sofer's Yated Neeman bio on Rav Hirsch describes the momentous events as follows:

"On Shabbos Chanuka of 1915, a young Polish woman who was residing in Vienna attended a drasha delivered by Rav Moshe Dovid Flesch, a student of Rav Shamshon Raphael’s son-in-law and successor, Rav Shlomo Breuer. In that drasha, Rav Flesch quoted extensively from Rav Shamshon Raphael. After Shabbos, the young woman, who was profoundly impressed by Rav Shamshon Raphael’s ideas, secured copies of The Nineteen Letters and Chorev, and read them with relish. That young woman was Sara Schneirer, who later said on a number of occasions that these two works had inspired her to found the Bais Yaakov Movement."

Rabbi Dr. Leo (Shmuel) Deutschlander

Rabbi Dr. Leo (Shmuel) Deutschlander (1888-1935)
Father of the Bais Yaakov Movement

Jewish Observer Article

Bais Ya'akov Schools

Almost Heaven, West of Broadway

I once attended a motzei Shabbos gathering at Breuer's, can't recall if it was a kollel dinner or something else, where I marveled at what I saw, and this is what I saw:

A very mentchlick buffet table with serving forks and just very clean looking neat food. Not lavish, but not cheap. Tables were likewise set up with napkins forks. Higher grade metallic looking plastic stuff. So tasteful but not lavish.

All about the room were men in suits and hats, and modest women in short sheitls. There was a table of rabbanim.

It was like a yeshivish gathering with better table manners and more friendly people. And then I saw out of the corner of my eye, a man playing music on a piano. Classical music.

I thought to myself - am I in heaven? Why did I have to search for 25 years to find this.

Here's an invitation to an upcoming senior outing at Lincoln Center.