History of Jewish Education in The United States Before The 20th Century - Technical Schools

Technical Schools

The whole trend of this educational work was toward the unification of the community and the broadening of the interests of the individual members, with a tendency to overcome the narrowness of the congregational life that had prevailed, wherein Religious schools and Sabbath-schools have been organized in connection with individual congregations. Particular stress is laid upon them by the congregations, which derive from them much of their communal strength. While many of the Hebrew education societies and schools continue in existence, they do not develop or flourish as might be expected; in fact, since 1882 they have largely taken upon themselves an entirely new function. With the sudden arrival in the United States of a large number of Russian Jews having no knowledge of the English language, and in many cases without any particular handicraft, there devolved upon the American Jewish community the necessity of providing

• day- and night-schools for teaching English to the new arrivals, and
• manual-training and technical schools.

These have been established in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities, more or less with the aid of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. The most noteworthy of these educational institutions called into existence since the Russian immigration began is the Educational Alliance of New York.