Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau - Original Departments

Original Departments

The institution had at the beginning three divisions, namely: the regular rabbinical department, which admitted only such students as were entitled to enter the university; the preparatory department, receiving students who possessed the knowledge required for entrance to the "Secunda" of a Prussian gymnasium; and a training-school for religious teachers. For a teacher's diploma a three-year course of study was required, while the rabbinical course required seven years. The teachers' seminary, which in the beginning was very well attended, soon declined, and in 1867 was closed on account of lack of students. The preparatory department, originally necessary because the students of the seminary came largely from yeshivot and had no secular training, became superfluous with the increase of students having regular gymnasium education, and was closed in 1887; so that to-day the seminary has only one department, and provides for theological training only.

The administrators of the Fränckel estate inaugurated the seminary with a capital of 100,000 thalers ($72,000) apart from the building and the library; for a teachers' pension fund the sum of 3,000 thalers was set aside; and a stipendiary fund for students was started with 5,000 thalers. The last-named fund received many additions in later years, and special foundations were created for graduates who had not obtained positions, e.g., the Director Frankel Stiftung, founded on the occasion of Zacharias Frankel's seventieth birthday (1861), and a similar foundation on the occasion of Graetz's seventieth birthday (1887); two prizes, one founded by Joseph Lehmann (1855) with a capital of 1,800 marks, and one by David Kaufmann (1895), in memory of David Rosin, with a capital of 4,000 kronen.