The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-01-22
From the New york Sun.

l0 in New Yorks Jewish quarter
which are not included in the
report of the department of education
schools where the teachers are long beard
ed men whose tearing and scholarship in
ancient lore is deep and profound, but
who cannot transact the simplest business
in the English tongue. The eheder or
TaImud Torah or Jewish schools they
are called. At the age Of s. or there
abouts, the little Jewish boys are taken
to one of these queer little schools, where
they are destined to spend many hours
wrestling with language they will soon
forget and studying a creed from which
many will break away
The efforts of educational and social
workers in that section of the city are as
frequently devoted to a maintenance of
the old ties as they are to providing
Americanizing influences The cheder is
one of the strongest and one of the most
natural influences for instilling into the
minds of the young boys the spirit of their
fathers. But even it is becoming import
ent
1t is an experience which a Gentle Will
remember-his first visit to cheder. At
ter climbing long dark stairs, as one ap-
proaches the landing where the school is
In session one is struck by the droning
of a dozen young voices muttering the les
sons of the hour. Within the room he
sees an ancient melamud, who sits at one
end of the table with a rod in his hand
and a book of the Talmud open before
him, vainly endeavoring to arouse the In
terest of these youngsters in the stories
and teachings that the book contain. But
these small boys have been to the regular
school all day. They are tired. They
don't enjoy this form of discipline when
so many of their fellows are at play in
the streets.
In Russia the Jewish children spend
most of their days from early morning till
nightfall in the cheder, but In Aferica
that of course is impossible, owing to the
regulations of our public school system
They are poor enough, the melamudim
who ard the teachers in the cheder In
Europe they were. rabbis perhaps; here
thew are merely submerged scholars lv-
ing from hand to mouth, but proud Of
their scholarship.
In Russia these institutions are main
tanned by the endowments of the rich,
whose children, however, are not sent
to them, but to private schools or che
dorim Thus in measure the Talmud
Torah becomes a charitable or religious
institution In New York, however, all
the children whose parents believe in the
cheder are sent together for the same
instructions. In Russia most Jewish
children devote themselves for consider
able part of the day to the study of He
brew, the Talmud and everything per-
tanning to the Jewish religion In Ameri-
ca, however. the time given to this study
is so short that at best the Jewish boy
can only obtain a smattering of Hebrew
and little of the Bible and the Talmud-
Originally the Talmud was taken up in
the Talmud Torah by the children at an
early age, and the subject continued for
many years. Thus it happens in many
of the cheders that the boys must have an
English translation of the Hebrew to
assist them. To the parents and mela-
mudim this seems almost a sacrilege.
There are no legal holidays observed by
the Talmud Torah and the boys who are
serving their time as it were, in these
schools must sit through days when all
the city is merrymaking. Even the Fourth
of July is no exception. But foreign
children are notably patriotic. and it must
be confessed that on legal holidays the
little Jewish boys are apt to run away
One custom which the cheder maintains
in some places is typical. When the little
boy is first taken to the Talmud Torah,
wrapped in his talith or praying shawl /
the melamud initiates him by giving him
a taste of honey and telling him that
sweet as it the honey to his mouth so
shall be the study of the holy lore to his
mind And when he has learned the first
lesson we'll coin is dropped from above
him. and the boy is told that an angel
has dropped it from heaven as reward
for learning well his nrst lesson. First