Rabbis as Educators.— The influence of Jewish education became very conspicuous when at the time of the Renaissance the revival of learning took place. Then the Jews were the only ones through whom the Hebrew Bible could be rediscovered for the Christian world. As once Origen and Jerome, so now the reli gious Reformers learned to read and interpret the Hebrew Scriptures from the Jews, and Luther in •his commentaries is altogether de pendent on Nicholas de Lyra, who in his turn had appropriated the commentary of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes 1040 1105), which was familiar to every Jewish child. So the Italian Jews especially became the teach ers of nearly all Hebraists among the Human ists. Wherever the Jews found a refuge dur ing the persecutions in Germany, and when ex pelled from England and France. Spain, Por tugal and Sicily, they carried their educational ideals with them and it was their first concern to establish elementary schools and schools for higher education. Especially praised by con temporaries on account of its excellent syste matic arrangement was the school at Amster dam. where Spinoza received his primary edu cation.
In Modern Times.— Less systematic were the educational establishments in Germany and Austria in consequence of the centuries of op pression to which the Jews were subjected and their total deprivation of all civil rights in those countries. But even there they did the best pos sible under their arduous condition, and at no time were men distinguished by scholarship lacking among them. The system was finally improved in Germany by the influence of Moses Mendelssohn and his followers, and in Austria through the initiative of Hartwig Wessely who stirred up the Jews to improve their schools in accordance with the suggestions of the Em peror Joseph II. So at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries a number of Jewish schools were founded on the old Jewish principles combined with the most modern pedagogic developments. The Jewish Free School was founded in Berlin in 1778, the Wil helm School of Breslau in 1791, the Franz School of Dessau in 1799, the Jacobson School at Seesen in the Harz in 1801, the Philanthro pin at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1804, the Sam son School at Wolfenbiittel in 1807. At the
latter school Leopold Zunz received his educa tion and imbibed that love of learning which made him the founder of the scientific treat ment of Jewish religion, literature and history. These schools were so excellent that most of them were patronized by Christians also. They set an example for schools with similar ambi tions in every Jewish congregation in western Europe. Immediately the necessity was felt for competent teachers at such schools and for rabbis systematically trained and endowed with general education. The first teachers' seminary was founded at Cassel in 1809. Others followed in rapid succession. For the education of rab bis many institutions sprang up which have won deserved distinction in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, England and America.
The New Education.— Guided by the con viction that education would be the best means of improving the wretched condition of the Jews in Rumania and Turkey, the Alliance Israelite Univerelle (see article ALLIANCE ISRAELITE UNIVERELLE) has opened in those countries many schools for the teaching of ele mentary branches, languages and manual train ing, their high standard being so well recog nized that in Turkey they are largely patronized by Mohammedans and Christians also. Trade schools and schools for technical training have been founded by Jews. Those established in America for the benefit of Jewish immigrants and their children, in New York city the Edu cational Alliance by the Baron Hirsch Fund and in Chicago the Jewish Manual Training School deserve special mention on account of the magnificent work they are doing.
Bibliography.— Abrahams, Life of the Middle Ages;' Berliner, A., (Aus dem Le ben der deutschen Juden im Mittelalter) ; Guedeman, M., juedischc Unterrichtswe sen); Leipziger, H. M., (The Education of the Jews ; Hamburger, (Real Encyclopedic' ; Simon, Joseph, (L'education et l'instruction des enfants chez les anciens juifs) ; The Jewish Encyclopedia,' (Vol. V, article ((Education").