No pupil, male or female, ever under the care of the Talmud Torahs in San Francisco has ever been referred to a corrective institution of any kind. In the 77 years since the writing of the brochure for the forerunner of the Bureau of Jewish Education, American Jewry has witnessed the horror of the Holocaust and the joy of creating a homeland. Meanwhile, crime, unemployment and drugs plague the Jewish community along with the secular world. Today, the status of Jewish education is not raising the alarmist hue and cry resounded in 1924. But community institutions concerned about the future of American Jewry acknowlege that education is the best antidote to assimilation and indifference.
Education is a vital and self-renewing community.
George Karonsky and Arthur Zimmerman, former BJE presidents, were among its students. I was a lousy student. Friday nights and Saturday mornings the students led prayer services at the Talmud Torah's Congregation Knesseth Israel. Sunday mornings, they attended classes. Rabbi David Stolper, director and principal, is credited with creating the junior congregation.