Doros Acharonim
We learn Historiah to learn from the mistakes of the past generations.
Sara Schnerier
America, around 50 years ago, was practically void of Torah. Now Torah is greater, but so is assimilation (50%). The large amount of Torah is thanks to the Roshei Yeshiva in America. However, without Sara Schnerier, they wouldn’t have been successful. The students of the Roshei Yeshiva had to marry girls who would appreciate their learning Torah.
Story: There was a gathering of great Rabbis and each Rabbi said that his teacher had the most influence on Torah in America. One Rabbi said that Sara Schnerier really did, and they all agreed.
Sara Schnerier lived in Krakow, Poland and died in the year 1935. Most Jews in
Poland were Chasidish. Poland was near Lithuania, a state that had been separated from
Russia. The Haskala, Enlightenment, reached Poland and Russia in the 1800’s. In the early 1900’s the men had connections with their Rebeim and were mostly frum. However, girls didn’t have any formal schooling and were affected by the remaining ideas from the
Enlightenment. The end of WWI, in 1918, left a great feeling of freedom. Girls started going to gymnasia, public school, when Polish law mandated it. The girls were living euphoric, post-war lives and the boys were living the same as they always had. Girls from the best Polish families started straying from Judaism.
Sara Schnerier was a Chasidish girl, who left Poland to Vienna with her family, and returned after the war. She felt responsible for the Jews. Sara Schnerier became a dressmaker and she got to know her clients. She knew that girls were straying because of ignorance. Sara was drawn to Jewish studies on her own and she knew that if these young girls learned Jewish studies they wouldn’t stray. She started teaching teenagers, but it didn’t work. She then taught young girls who were not yet influenced by outside ideas. Parents saw a difference in their girls and more people wanted Sara Schnerier to teach their daughters. She eventually sent her students to teach other young girls. The idea of a teachers’ seminary developed. She formed a seminary in Krakow with her partner, Rebetzin Krupfeld. The girls who went to this seminary were only the ones who would commit themselves to becoming teachers. They had to be very selective and only teach the future generation’s role models. No one went to seminary to grow in their personal Ruchnius. The teachers left their homes in pairs to teach in other towns. Many of the students of the seminary died in WWII, but the ones who survived mostly went to America, Sweden, South America, and Israel.
Rebetzin Kaplan came to America before the war. Girls went to public school in America, which was a spiritual desert. She started the first Bais Yaakov in Williamsburg in her dining room. They eventually moved to a building and the Bais Yaakov grew tremendously. Girls came from all over America and when they graduated they returned to their hometowns and taught there. Rebetzin Bender married an American learning in the Mir. When the war was approaching, the Benders left Poland on August 31, 1939, the day before the war broke out. There were missionaries on the boat to America. They arrived on Erev Yom Kippur. After Yom Kippur Rebetzin Kaplan called Rebetzin Bender and they taught together. As more students of Sara Schnerier came to America they all taught the next generation of teachers.
When Sara Schnerier started there was great opposition. Girls had never learned the way she suggested before, and some people didn’t want to start now. This was a valid reason to worry because as Jews we never change our customs. There were always a few girls who learned with private tutors, but girls had never learned before in a group.
Women didn’t learn, but they knew the Halachos of keeping a Jewish and Kosher home. We know that the generations are getting lower and lower in level, so we learn the way we do to grow in our Yiras Shamayim, but they probably had more Yiras Shamayim than we do without even learning what we do. These “uneducated” women raised such great ohehsm that we don’t have today. Rav Yishmael ben Chananya’s mother took him to vchah before he was born. Sara Schnerier knew it was never done before and that it was nevertheless needed then. She wasn’t looking for women’s rights; she saw the problem and wanted to fix it. She knew that people would fight with her so she got permission from great Rabbis, such as the Chofetz Chaim and the Gerrer Rebbe, which would have been enough because they were the greatest in the non-Chasidish and Chasidish worlds, respectively. She also got permission from Rebbe Meir Shapiro and the Belze Rebbe. There was a fear that if girls learned they’d abandon their roles as the caretaker in the home. Sara Schnerier looked forward to the day that the home would be so rich that you won’t have to leave to learn.
Booklet: The Mother of Generations
Rabbi Plesh spoke in such a moving way and really affected Sara Schnerier. Each Motzei Shabos she wrote down his speeches to bring back to Krakow.
Sara Schnerier spoke about tznius a lot because it is the foundation of Jewish women.
When Sara Schnerier died, almost 15 years after she started the Bais Yaakov movement, there were close to 300 Bais Yaakov schools in Poland and many in other countries.
Chinuch Atzmai, independent study, is the name of a type of school in Israel that is not connected to the Israeli public school system. In the 1950’s the Israeli government formed “Operation Magic Carpet” to bring many Yemenite Jews to Israel. There was turmoil in Yemen and Israel needed people so it was a win-win situation. However, the Israelis wanted the Yemenites to be secular Israelis and the Yemenites did not. They were placed in anti-religious Moshavs, Kibutzim, and absorption centers. All religious articles were confiscated. A huge campaign was started to keep these Jews religious. Rav Aharon Kutler headed the project in America. Sara Schnerier’s students, and their students, were the first teachers in Chinuch Atzmai schools.
Booklet: One Vision, Parallel Lives
The Agudas Yisroel was formed to join all Orthodox Jewry under one umbrella.
At the first meeting, Rav Moshe Shapiro suggested Daf Yomi. The first words he said in his inaugural speech as a Rav in Piotrkow were about his mother and her influence on his
Torah learning.
Chofetz Chaim
The Chofetz Chaim’s full name was Rav Yisroel Meir Kaigen. He died in 1933. He lived in Radin, Lithuania. His name is associated with shemiras halashon, which is much more common today. He lived for 95 years, an unusually long life in those days. There was no Halacha Safer on the things in Orech Chaim, and there was a need for one, so the Chofetz Chaim wrote the Mishah Brurah, which took him from 20 to 25 years to write. There were some who were cynical about the Chofetz Chaim writing about shemiras halashon if the Gemara says that it’s such a common sin that we’ll most likely do it. They said the less they know about it, then they could claim that their sin was by accident. The safer was universally accepted, most probably because of the Chofetz Chaim himself, who represented exactly what he wrote about. He also wrote Ahavta Chesed because he said that if people thought better of others they wouldn’t say anything bad about them and Chesed causes them to like each other.
We learn Historiah to learn from the mistakes of the past generations.
Sara Schnerier
America, around 50 years ago, was practically void of Torah. Now Torah is greater, but so is assimilation (50%). The large amount of Torah is thanks to the Roshei Yeshiva in America. However, without Sara Schnerier, they wouldn’t have been successful. The students of the Roshei Yeshiva had to marry girls who would appreciate their learning Torah.
Story: There was a gathering of great Rabbis and each Rabbi said that his teacher had the most influence on Torah in America. One Rabbi said that Sara Schnerier really did, and they all agreed.
Sara Schnerier lived in Krakow, Poland and died in the year 1935. Most Jews in
Poland were Chasidish. Poland was near Lithuania, a state that had been separated from
Russia. The Haskala, Enlightenment, reached Poland and Russia in the 1800’s. In the early 1900’s the men had connections with their Rebeim and were mostly frum. However, girls didn’t have any formal schooling and were affected by the remaining ideas from the
Enlightenment. The end of WWI, in 1918, left a great feeling of freedom. Girls started going to gymnasia, public school, when Polish law mandated it. The girls were living euphoric, post-war lives and the boys were living the same as they always had. Girls from the best Polish families started straying from Judaism.
Sara Schnerier was a Chasidish girl, who left Poland to Vienna with her family, and returned after the war. She felt responsible for the Jews. Sara Schnerier became a dressmaker and she got to know her clients. She knew that girls were straying because of ignorance. Sara was drawn to Jewish studies on her own and she knew that if these young girls learned Jewish studies they wouldn’t stray. She started teaching teenagers, but it didn’t work. She then taught young girls who were not yet influenced by outside ideas. Parents saw a difference in their girls and more people wanted Sara Schnerier to teach their daughters. She eventually sent her students to teach other young girls. The idea of a teachers’ seminary developed. She formed a seminary in Krakow with her partner, Rebetzin Krupfeld. The girls who went to this seminary were only the ones who would commit themselves to becoming teachers. They had to be very selective and only teach the future generation’s role models. No one went to seminary to grow in their personal Ruchnius. The teachers left their homes in pairs to teach in other towns. Many of the students of the seminary died in WWII, but the ones who survived mostly went to America, Sweden, South America, and Israel.
Rebetzin Kaplan came to America before the war. Girls went to public school in America, which was a spiritual desert. She started the first Bais Yaakov in Williamsburg in her dining room. They eventually moved to a building and the Bais Yaakov grew tremendously. Girls came from all over America and when they graduated they returned to their hometowns and taught there. Rebetzin Bender married an American learning in the Mir. When the war was approaching, the Benders left Poland on August 31, 1939, the day before the war broke out. There were missionaries on the boat to America. They arrived on Erev Yom Kippur. After Yom Kippur Rebetzin Kaplan called Rebetzin Bender and they taught together. As more students of Sara Schnerier came to America they all taught the next generation of teachers.
When Sara Schnerier started there was great opposition. Girls had never learned the way she suggested before, and some people didn’t want to start now. This was a valid reason to worry because as Jews we never change our customs. There were always a few girls who learned with private tutors, but girls had never learned before in a group.
Women didn’t learn, but they knew the Halachos of keeping a Jewish and Kosher home. We know that the generations are getting lower and lower in level, so we learn the way we do to grow in our Yiras Shamayim, but they probably had more Yiras Shamayim than we do without even learning what we do. These “uneducated” women raised such great ohehsm that we don’t have today. Rav Yishmael ben Chananya’s mother took him to vchah before he was born. Sara Schnerier knew it was never done before and that it was nevertheless needed then. She wasn’t looking for women’s rights; she saw the problem and wanted to fix it. She knew that people would fight with her so she got permission from great Rabbis, such as the Chofetz Chaim and the Gerrer Rebbe, which would have been enough because they were the greatest in the non-Chasidish and Chasidish worlds, respectively. She also got permission from Rebbe Meir Shapiro and the Belze Rebbe. There was a fear that if girls learned they’d abandon their roles as the caretaker in the home. Sara Schnerier looked forward to the day that the home would be so rich that you won’t have to leave to learn.
Booklet: The Mother of Generations
Rabbi Plesh spoke in such a moving way and really affected Sara Schnerier. Each Motzei Shabos she wrote down his speeches to bring back to Krakow.
Sara Schnerier spoke about tznius a lot because it is the foundation of Jewish women.
When Sara Schnerier died, almost 15 years after she started the Bais Yaakov movement, there were close to 300 Bais Yaakov schools in Poland and many in other countries.
Chinuch Atzmai, independent study, is the name of a type of school in Israel that is not connected to the Israeli public school system. In the 1950’s the Israeli government formed “Operation Magic Carpet” to bring many Yemenite Jews to Israel. There was turmoil in Yemen and Israel needed people so it was a win-win situation. However, the Israelis wanted the Yemenites to be secular Israelis and the Yemenites did not. They were placed in anti-religious Moshavs, Kibutzim, and absorption centers. All religious articles were confiscated. A huge campaign was started to keep these Jews religious. Rav Aharon Kutler headed the project in America. Sara Schnerier’s students, and their students, were the first teachers in Chinuch Atzmai schools.
Booklet: One Vision, Parallel Lives
The Agudas Yisroel was formed to join all Orthodox Jewry under one umbrella.
At the first meeting, Rav Moshe Shapiro suggested Daf Yomi. The first words he said in his inaugural speech as a Rav in Piotrkow were about his mother and her influence on his
Torah learning.
Chofetz Chaim
The Chofetz Chaim’s full name was Rav Yisroel Meir Kaigen. He died in 1933. He lived in Radin, Lithuania. His name is associated with shemiras halashon, which is much more common today. He lived for 95 years, an unusually long life in those days. There was no Halacha Safer on the things in Orech Chaim, and there was a need for one, so the Chofetz Chaim wrote the Mishah Brurah, which took him from 20 to 25 years to write. There were some who were cynical about the Chofetz Chaim writing about shemiras halashon if the Gemara says that it’s such a common sin that we’ll most likely do it. They said the less they know about it, then they could claim that their sin was by accident. The safer was universally accepted, most probably because of the Chofetz Chaim himself, who represented exactly what he wrote about. He also wrote Ahavta Chesed because he said that if people thought better of others they wouldn’t say anything bad about them and Chesed causes them to like each other.
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