Sarah Schenirer

Sarah Schenirer (Polish: Sara Szenirer; Yiddish: שרה שנירר‎; July 15, 1883[1] - March 1, 1935 (yartzeit 26 Adar I 5695)) was a Polish-Jewish schoolteacher who became a pioneer of Jewish education for girls.

Sarah Schenirer
Sarah Schenirer
BornJuly 15, 1883 (1883-07-15)
Kraków, Poland
DiedMarch 1, 1935 (1935-04) (aged 51)
Kraków, Poland
Resting placeKraków
Other namesSoroh Shenirer
OccupationFounder and director of Bais Yaakov movement
Known forFounder of Bais Yaakov school network in Poland

Although Shimshon Raphael Hirsch's 1853-established Realschule provided girls with "rigorous elementary and secondary school education," and "thousands of girls in Russia attended female-only cheders in the 1890s,"[2] Schenirer's accomplishment was to begin a change in the way women were perceived in Orthodox Judaism.[3] In 1917, she founded the Bais Yaakov (lit., "House of Jacob") school network in Poland, with worldwide lasting effect.[2]

Early life

Sarah Schenirer was born to Bezalel Schenirer (of Tarnów) and Reizel in Krakow, Poland.[3] Her parents were both scions of influential rabbinic families.[1] Her father provided her with religious texts that he had translated into Yiddish. In her memoirs, she describes herself as the unassuming and withdrawn daughter of Belzer Hasidic parents. She was intelligent and had a strong desire to learn, and was envious of her brothers' opportunity to learn and interpret the Torah.[3]

Schenirer would write later in life:

"And as we pass through the days before the High Holy Days ... fathers and sons travel, and thus, they are drawn to Ger, to Belz, to Alexander, to Bobov, to all those places that had been made citadels of conceited religious life, dominated by the figure of the rebbe's personality. And we stay at home, the wives, daughters, and the little ones. We have an empty festival. It is bare of Jewish intellectual content. The women have never learned anything about the spiritual meaning that is concentrated within a Jewish festival. The mother goes to the synagogue, but the services echo faintly into the fenced and boarded-off women's galleries. There is much crying by elderly women. The young girls look at them as though they belong to a different century. Youth and the desire to live a full life shoot up violently in the strong-willed young personalities. Outside the synagogues, the young girls stay chattering; they walk away from the synagogue, where their mothers pour out their vague and heavy feelings. They leave behind them the wailing of the older generation, and follow the urge for freedom and self-expression. Further and further from the synagogue they go, further away, to the dancing, tempting light of a fleeting joy.[4]

Her friends teased her for her desire to learn the Torah, and called her "the little pious one". [3] She attended elementary school for eight years.[3] She then became a seamstress.[5]

Vienna

During World War I, Schenirer and her family fled from Poland to Vienna. [6] While there, she became influenced by Rabbi Dr. Moshe Flesch,[3] a disciple of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Modern Orthodox Judaism. [7] [8] His sermons emphasized the role of women throughout Jewish history, which inspired Schenirer.[3]

Schenirer occasionally attended lectures at the university, where she befriended young Jews who were in a campus program called Ruth, where she observed them lighting candles on Shabbat (Saturday), in violation of halakha (Jewish law). She perceived from this the need for better Jewish education.[4]

Bais Yaakov schools

Schenirer returned to Kraków in 1917, where the inspiration she received in Vienna led her to seek to establish a school for girls. She initially approached her brother, who suggested that the idea wouldn't catch on.[9] However, he agreed to take her to see the Belzer Rebbe in Marienbad, who gave her his blessing in two words: "Mazel uBrocha."[4] In Schenirer's own description of the meeting, she stated that she wanted to "lead Jewish girls in the path of Judaism", without specifying that she planned to open a school and teach Torah;[10] and he in fact refused to encourage the girls of his Hasidim to go to Bais Yaakov.[11]

"People are such perfectionists when it comes to clothing their bodies. Are they so particular when they address themselves to the seeds of the soul?"

-Sarah Schenirer[4]

Schenirer opened a kindergarten for twenty-five children [3] in her seamstress studio,[6] where she emphasized love of Torah and mitzvos. Schenirer also began to set up lectures and a library for Jewish women.[7] She was admired for her sensitivity and care for others.[5]

After work, Schenirer stayed up late to study the weekly Torah portion and Tanakh:

I enjoyed it tremendously", she wrote, "as it enriched my understanding of the Jewish heritage, and its beauty and depth of thought. But I also took a great interest in secular knowledge: education, history, literature. I especially admired the classical works of Polish and German writers. I loved reading them.[4]

The lessons were a blend of Lithuanian-style study of the Hebrew texts, together with Hasidic-style character development. Schenirer succeeded in overcoming initial resistance against this new type of school, receiving the approval of the leading rabbis of the time, such as the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, and Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (known as "the Chofetz Chaim"). Within 5 years, Schenirer's lessons grew into 7 schools, with 1,040 students. By 1933, there were 265 schools in Poland alone, with almost 38,000 students.[4]

The main goal of the schools was to

train Jewish daughters so that they will serve the Lord with all their might and with all their hearts; so that they will fulfill the commandments of the Torah with sincere enthusiasm, and will know that they are the children of a people whose existence does not depend upon a territory of its own, as do other nations of the world whose existence is predicated upon a territory and similar racial background.[12]

In 1933, Schenirer stepped down as the official head of the movement, but remained very much involved until her death in 1935.[3]

Teacher's Seminary

In 1923, Schenirer set up a teachers' seminary, to train staff for her rapidly expanding network of schools. This, likewise, became the model for numerous post-high school institutions, referred to still as "seminaries" (סמינר). The program today typically comprises two or three years of advanced Torah study, alongside a certificate - sometimes a degree - in Education. For discussion, see under Midrasha: #Seminaries, #History and #Certifications; for further context, see also Telshe Yeshiva #Yavneh.

Personal life

Sarah Schenirer was raised in a Belzer Hasidic family. She launched her movement only after receiving a blessing from the Belzer Rebbe. [13] She married young, but was divorced from her first husband - either because he wasn't religious enough, or because the couple was childless. Schenirer married again later in life. Although she remained childless, her students would speak of themselves as being her children. They are considered the legacy of Frau Schenirer.[4]

A review of Sara Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement noted that Schenirer was "a prolific writer: her essays, plays, memoir and textbook on Judaism played a major role in establishing Bais Yaakov's culture at the outset."[2]

On March 1, 1935, Schenirer died from cancer, at the age of fifty-one.

Legacy
Commemorative plaque on first Bais Yaakov school building, Krakow
Sarah Schenirer memorial matzevah (tombstone), Podgorze new Jewish cemetery (Kraków, Poland)

By 1939, there were about 250 schools established, and over 40,000 students in Bais Yaakov schools.[7] One of her students was Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan, founder of the first Bais Yaakov high school and teachers' seminary in America. In her will, she wrote: "My dear girls, you are going out into the great world. Your task is to plant the holy seed in the souls of pure children. In a sense, the destiny of Israel of old is in your hands."[14] The admiration was mutual, and the girls within the movement called her "Sarah Imeinu", which translates to "Our Mother Sarah". She had no children of her own; so, the girls of the movement filled that void for her.[3]

On the 70th anniversary of Schenirer's death in 2005, an "archival repository" was installed in Jerusalem in her honor. In the same year, some of her women supporters set out on a mission to restore her tombstone. Her original tombstone was destroyed when the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp was built. Her tombstone was restored in 2005. Upon the restoration, the director of the Central Bais Yaakov gave a eulogy for Schenirer, and closed it by saying, "Frau Schenirer, we are not merely placing a memorial on your grave site. We are placing it upon our hearts: for us, and for all the generations who will come after us."[3]

Today, there are many Bais Yaakov schools that carry Schenirer's name, including an institute in New York that caters to religious Jewish women and girls, allowing them to complete their under-graduate and graduate studies in a religious environment, offering courses in Social Work, Social Sciences, Education, Graphic design, and more.

The influential twentieth-century Hebrew-language educator and publisher Zevi Scharfstein profiled Schenirer in his 1964 work Great Hebrew Educators (גדולי חינון בעמנו, Rubin Mass Publishers, Jerusalem, 1964).[15]

Literary references

In her novel Peleh Laylah, Israeli author Esther Ettinger, who studied at a Bais Yaakov school as a girl, weaves in passages from Sarah Schenirer's writings.[16]

Her student Pearl Benisch wrote a book about Sarah Schenirer called Carry Me in Your Heart.[17]

See also

References
  1. The State Archive of Krakow: "Jewish Civil Registry of Krakow", Town: Krakow, Date (Julian Calendar): 3 July (15 July on the Gregorian Calendar), 1883, Akta (record) #: 403, Record Type: birth, Surname: Schenirer, Given Name: Sara, Father: Zalel, Mother: Roza Lack (daughter of Abraham and Chaja)
  2. Devorah Goldman, reviewed by (Summer 2020). "Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition, by Naomi Seidman". Jewish Action (OU). pp. 96–97.
  3. "Sarah Schenirer | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  4. Chizhik-Goldschmidt, Avital (October 22, 2013) "The Ultra-Orthodox Seamstress Who Determined the Fate of Jewish Women", Haaretz
  5. "Yivo Encyclopedia: Sarah Schenirer". yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  6. Seidman, Naomi. "Legitimizing the Revolution: Sarah Schenirer and Orthodox Girls Education". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "Bais Ya'akov Schools | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  8. M. Chevroni (2005). "The Unacknowledged Heritage: The Contribution of German Chareidim to the New Yishuv", Deiah veDibbur
  9. Gutta: Memories of a Vanished World: A Bais Yaakov Teacher's Poignant Account of the War Years with a Historical Overview, Gutta Sternbuch and David Kranzler
  10. Finkelman, Dr. Yoel. "What Do We Know About The Establishment of Beit Ya'akov?". Retrieved 11 October 2017. Realizing that she was unlikely to succeed without some measure of rabbinic backing, and under the guidance of her brother, a Belzer Hasid, she turned very early on to the Belzer Rebbe for support, and his words "berakhah vehatzlahah" ("blessings and success") were encouraging and helped her to gain support. However, as Manekin notes, in Schneirer's own description of the meeting, she earned the rabbi's blessing by explaining that she wanted to "lead Jewish girls in the path of Judaism", without specifying that she planned to open a school and teach Torah.
  11. Kranzler, David. "AN ORTHODOX REVOLUTION: THE CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BETH JACOB SEMINARY FOR GIRLS" (PDF). yadvashem.org. Retrieved 11 October 2017. She succeeded in obtaining the endorsement of two outstanding Orthodox leaders: Rabbi Abraham Mordechai Alter (1866-1948), the Admor of Gur, the largest Hasidic group in Poland; and Rabbi Israel Meir Ha Kohen [Kagan] (1838-1933) (better known in the Jewish world by the name of one of his works, Hafetz Hayyim), the foremost non-Hasidic spiritual leader. Shenirer's own rebbe, Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeach (1854-1927), the Admor of Belz, supported her personally, but did not encourage members of his community to go to Beth Jacob.
  12. "Beth Jacob chronology" (PDF). www1.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  13. Seidman 2018, pp. 359.
  14. Martin Gilbert, The Jews in the Twentieth Century (New York: Schocken Books, 2001), 118-19.
  15. Rin, Svi (April 1966). "גדולי הינוך בעמנו Book Review". Jewish Social Studies. 28: 127-128.
  16. Journal Summer 06
  17. Benisch, P. (2003). Carry Me in Your Heart: The Life and Legacy of Sarah Schenirer, Founder and Visionary of the Bais Yaakov Movement. Feldheim Publishers. ISBN 9781583305768. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
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