Samson Benderly

Samson Benderly (1876–1944) was a major figure in promoting Jewish education in the United States.[1][2] He was born in Safed, Palestine, and he later emigrated to Baltimore, MD arriving on 23 September 1898. He studied medicine and became a doctor, but he abandoned medicine when Jewish education became his all-absorbing passion.

Theories About Jewish Education

Benderly saw variety of forms of Jewish education, “a hodgepodge of congregational schools, khayders, community Talmud Torahs, and private tutors.”[3] He found that the Talmud Torah system would be the easiest to reform. This was because "despite their precarious finances and historical association with the impoverished, the schools enjoyed community support. They were generally governed by local boards of directors and supported through a combination of donations, charity benefits, and tuition collections.”[4]

Benderly was inspired by the writings of Johann Pestalozzi, Herbert Spencer, and John Dewey, and the concept of cultural Zionism. His goal was to modernize Jewish education by making it more professional and “creating an immigrant-based, progressive supplementary school model, and spreading the mantra of community responsibility for Jewish education.”[3] Unlike some branches of traditional Jewish education, Benderly stressed cognitive learning and “continued to view as core knowledge Hebrew and Judaism’s classical texts.”[5]

He developed a model of education that has also been called the "Protestant Model," because it followed the typical schooling model of Protestants in the United States, which separated general education and religious education.[6] It is described as "a philosophical belief that state-funded schools should teach patriotism, civics, and critical skills while separate denominational-sponsored supplementary school should teach religious doctrine and practice."[7]

Career

In 1910, he began the Bureau of Jewish Education in New York.[8] “He was the American organizer of Ivrit be-Ivrit pedagogy – the use of Hebrew as the language of instruction.”[9] This "teaching Jewish content in Modern Hebrew... reconceptualized Hebrew education not only as a form of language acquisition, but as a means of defining and giving shape to American Judaism for the Jewish immigrant community at that time."[10] He also supported the founding of the Jewish Teachers Association, seen as “a counterweight to the immigrant dominated Agudath Ha-Morim Ha-Ivrim, the Hebrew Teachers Union of New York.”[11]

A cadre of young men that he encouraged, mentored, and taught went on to be leaders of Jewish education in the USA and became known as the “Benderly Boys.”[3] This group included Alexander Dushkin, Isaac Berkson, Emanuel Gamoran, and Barnett Brickner. There were also a few women considered "Benderly Girls," including Rebecca Aaronson Brickner and Libbie Suchoff Berkson, although, as women, they had fewer opportunities for leadership.[1] The Bureau was also a professional home for other Hebraists in the USA, including Zevi Scharfstein, although Scharfstein, an immigrant, believed Benderly favored American-born recruits with weak Hebrew abilities and credentials over better qualified immigrants because he had greater influence over his local recruits.[12]

Morris Waldman, executive secretary of the American Jewish Committee from 1928 to 1945, wrote of Benderly in his autobiography Nor by Power: "If a future Jewish historian were some day to write the biographies of, say, the ten most decisive Jews in American history, Benderly would have to be one."[13]

References
  1. Holtz, Barry. "How One Man Shaped American Jewish Education". Forward. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  2. Shargel, Baila. "Reinventing Jewish Education for the Twentieth Century: Samson Benderly and His "Boys"". H-Net. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  3. Krasner, Jonathan. 2011. Introduction. The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Brandeis.
  4. p. 91. Krasner, Jonathan. 2011. The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Brandeis.
  5. p. 191. Krasner, Jonathan. 2011. The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Brandeis.
  6. Sarna, Jonathan. 1998. American Jewish education in historical perspective. Journal of Jewish Education 64(1-2):8-21.
  7. p. 125. Avni, Sharon. 2016. Hebrew learning ideologies and the reconceptualization of American Judaism: Language debates in American Jewish schooling in the early 20th century. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 237: 119–137.
  8. David Kaufman (January 1999). Shul with a Pool: The "synagogue-center" in American Jewish History. UPNE. pp. 148–9. ISBN 978-0-87451-893-1.
  9. Jewish Encyclopedia article
  10. p. 119. Avni, Sharon. 2016. Hebrew learning ideologies and the reconceptualization of American Judaism: Language debates in American Jewish schooling in the early 20th century. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 237: 119–137.
  11. p. 213. Krasner, Jonathan. 2011. The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Brandeis.
  12. Goren, Arthur A. (1 June 1969). "Review: "Jewish Education in a Pluralist Society: Samson Benderly and Jewish Education in the United States"". American Jewish Historical Quarterly. 58 (4): 515–520. JSTOR 23876029. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  13. Waldman, Morris (January 1, 1953). Nor by Power (First ed.). New York City: International Universities Press. p. 397. ISBN 9781125205006.

Relevant literature
  • Chipkin, Israel S. Dr. Samson Benderly, Reminiscences and Reflections. Jewish Education Volume 20, Issue 3: 21-52.
  • Dushkin, Alexander. 1949, The Personality of Samson Benderly — His Life and Influence. Jewish Education Volume 20, Issue 3: 6-15.
  • Ingall, Carol. 2010. The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910-1965. Brandeis University Press.
  • Krasner, Jonathan. 2011. The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Brandeis University Press.
  • Winter, Nathan. 1966. Jewish Education in a Pluralist Society. New York University Press.
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