New-York tribune., 1906-04-01

There are according 70 q list OF them which
Dr. Blaustein, Of the Educational Alliance,
showed e Tribune reporter the other day. be-
tween three hundred and four hundred Jewish
schools in New York City. Some are little pri-
Vate Etfairs down in the heart Of the Ghetto.
and the parents pay from few cents TO a dol
lar week. as their means permit, 10 have their
rnen-children taught the language Of Israel Of
old, so that when they. the parents, depart this
earth, the sons may be able to say the kadish,
that wonderful Jewish prayer for the dead, in
the original tongue. Three times a day for
eleven months after the death OF parent and
always after that the anniversary Of the
death, is the Sadish repeated in the orthodox
Jewish home, and if there is no son 10 perform
the ceremony, then a man from outside is paid
70 come IL and do it. Praying IS a masculine
function with these people, and the Jewish girls
are not taught Hebrew rule
The smaller Jewish schools are called cheder,
which means room, "a room 10 study in" One
finds them all through the Ghetto. in all kinds Of
Places from a synagogue 10 a cellar. Down on
East Broadway the reporter stumbled on one
that was IN cellar under little shop To
reach Il one had 10 traverse a pitch dark pas
sage. which seemed 70 be a storehouse for junk
Inside the dim room bearded Hebrew, with his
hat on, stood reading short Hebraic sentences
from a big book, and the school repeated the
sentences after him IN concert There We're
about thirty small boys, also with their hats on
AL varieties Of headgear they wore, from a
faded wooilen cap 10 a mans old derby.
The teacher was hospitabe. You see" he
said, spreading his hands apart, when the re-
porter explained his wish TO see a Jewish
school you hear! They learn the Command
nlenrs," he added, indicating the boys, the Com
mandments the Lord did gif US"
SEVERE TAX ON HEALTH.
Every one OF those boys had been al public
school al day, and they would Gt then
about O'Clock in the afternoon) sit in that Gel
lar for TWO or three hours. learning the Ten
Commandments and portions Of the Scriptures
IN Hebrew. Fancy an American boy submitting
10 a thing Ike that.
The teacher said that he did not know much
English But / 60 TO a night school" he ex-
planned: I learn more He was an affable
man, but greasy, and the air in that room, Of
which the windows were nailed shut, was a
compound odor Of damp earth, fried fish, old
clothes and human Derspiration. But. insani-
tary and wrong from the health side it all
was the spirit underneath the Jewish schools
from those little ones Up 10 the yeshiba, or col
lege. is the spirit which has kept Israel nation
through centuries Of wandering and persecution.
Some Jews say that an outsider cannot under
stand that spirit. TEL you about Jewish
schoois!" exclaimed Rabbi Joseph Silverman, Of
Temple Emanu-El, when tie reporter made the
request OF him. 1t is impossible. ] could not
make clear to you the feeling that keeps them
alive; and you cannot learn about them by
visiting them. The school janitors will talk TO
you perhaps bUt"-and the rabbi shrugged his
shoulders-'it is just as II is when Christian
goes into a Jewish home. He may sit at the
table, break bread with them. converse, but he
is not admitted 10 the sanctum sanctorum Of
that home.