Jewish Education, Past and Present: Israel Friedlaender Re-Visited

ABSTRACT

A century ago, Israel Friedlaender—scholar, communal activist, and educator—played a key role in such educational institutions as the Teachers Institute of JTS, the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Menorah Society, Young Israel, and Young Judea. A JTS professor and prolific writer, Friedlaender has been described as “the teacher of the Jewish youth of that generation.” Yet, scant attention has been devoted to exploring his educational thought and action agenda. This retrospective focuses on Friedlaender’s activities and impact in advancing Jewish education and considers the relationship of his legacy to current directions in the field.

Keywords:

• American
• education
• Jewish

Notes

¹ Though far beyond the scope of this article, the impact of alumni of the Rabbinerseminar on developments in American Judaism is a topic that has yet to be fully explored. Among the Berlin Seminary’s alumni—not all of whom received ordination from the Rabbinerseminar—who made their mark in the United States were: Alexander Altmann, Eliezer Berkovits, Leo Jung, Max Kapustin, Jacob Lauterbach, Alexander Marx, David de Sola Pool, Schepschel Schaffer, Joseph Soloveitchik, Leo Trepp and Isaiah Wohlgemuth. Alexander Marx, as Friedlaender, was recruited by Solomon Schechter to serve on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Other alumni served in teaching and leadership positions at (other) rabbinical seminaries, universities, synagogues, and Jewish schools.

² Goldstein was later to found the Institutional Synagogue and serve in national leadership roles as an Orthodox congregational rabbi and instructor in homiletics at Yeshiva University.

³ Israel Chipkin (1891–1955), who became an accomplished Jewish educator, was, after Friedlaender’s death, to direct the Israel Friedlaender classes. These JTS Teachers Institute-sponsored classes met at various locations in the New York area and were designed for the education of Sunday school teachers and Jewish club leaders.

⁴ While not designed as such, Jonathan Sarna notes that “teachers’ colleges were the crucible of the Jewish feminist movement” (Sarna, 2005, p. 215). In reflecting on Jewish education in America, Friedlaender observed that while, in Russia, “practically no provision was made for the religious instruction of the girls … it is conceded by all that in this country the Jewish woman is destined to play an important role in Jewish religious life” (Friedlaender, 1913, p. 300).

⁵ Though an enthusiastic supporter of Benderly’s educational initiatives, Friedlaender—in his role as a BJE trustee—recognized the need for fiscal responsibility. Zevi Scharfstein, a long-time BJE staff member, records that, at a meeting, Israel Friedlaender asked that Benderly balance income and expense. To this, Benderly replied: “You are one of the trustees of the bureau. Do you know what your job is? To listen to me. I am the master of the bureau” (Scharfstein, 1956, p. 173). Friedlaender eventually resigned.

⁶ An ardent Zionist, Friedlaender was, in 1918, invited by the Executive Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee to serve as the Jewish representative on a Red Cross mission to Palestine. As he prepared to depart, some prominent Zionist leaders—in a wartime, anti-German environment—publicly raised the matter of Friedlaender’s previous ties to Germany. Friedlaender resigned from the commission, feeling greatly betrayed by the organized, American Zionist movement (Shargel, 1985, pp. 24–31). He remained passionately dedicated to the Zionist cause. Writing to Judge Julian Mack, a trusted colleague in his Zionist activities from Warsaw, in June 1920, Friedlaender noted that “My stay in the centers of Eastern European Jewry has deepened my attachment to Zionism… . A visit to the Holy Land will, probably, show me where I can prove myself useful, particularly along the lines of Jewish Arabic understanding, the importance of which is now patent to all of us” (Mack, 1920, p. 47).

⁷ Friedlaender was a legatee of the “Sephardic mystique” prevalent in 19th century German Jewish thought (Schorsch, 1994).

⁸ In a chapter exploring the intellectual biography of Simon Rawidowicz (1897–1957), David N. Myers observes of Rawidowicz, whose writings warrant closer attention than they have received, that “his distinctive version of Jewish nationalism was an ongoing—indeed, life-long—effort to negotiate between two inspirations and ideological foils, Ahad Ha-Am and Simon Dubnow” (Myers, 2008, pp. 56–57).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gil Graff

Gil Graff, PhD, serves as Executive Director of Builders of Jewish Education (BJE) in Los Angeles.