State Jewish Schools — government-run schools for Jewish children in the Russian Empire (1847–73; in the Kingdom of Poland — from 1817; in the Baltic provinces — until 1917).
The first task set before the Committee for the Determination of Measures for the Fundamental Transformation of the Jews in Russia (1840–63) was the establishment of Jewish schools “in a spirit contrary to present-day Talmudic teaching”. This idea formed part of the so-called enlightenment policy of Nicholas I’s government in the second quarter of the 19th century towards the Jews, and was the principal instrument of their compulsory education.
The organisation of State Jewish Schools was in part inspired by the opening, at the initiative of *maskilim (following the example of German Haskalah figures), of Jewish schools with both religious and secular studies in Uman (1822 and 1835), Odessa (1826), Vilna (1830), Kishinev and Riga (both in 1838). The leaders of these schools petitioned for official recognition and for the introduction of a special tax on Jewish communities for their support.
After the approval in February 1841 of the “Regulations on Jewish Schools” proposed by the Minister of Public Education S. Uvarov, the task of drafting their statutes was entrusted to Dr M. Lilienthal, head of the Jewish school in Riga. His work encountered open hostility from the majority of the Jewish population, who perceived in the government’s intentions an attack upon Jewish religious foundations. This was confirmed by Uvarov’s confidential memorandum to Nicholas I, in which he stated that the purpose of the State Jewish Schools was the “purification of the Jews’ religious notions”, and that education therein was to be compulsory, indeed coercive. Lilienthal found support only in some southern Russian communities and among a small group of maskilim.
By decree of 13 November 1844, the State Jewish Schools were divided into first-rank schools with a two-year course of elementary education (equivalent to parish schools), and second-rank schools (equivalent to district schools) with a more practical orientation. They were subordinated to the Ministry of Public Education; inspectors (contrary to earlier recommendations) and teachers of general subjects were Christians, while only Jewish subjects could be taught by Jewish teachers, who were to be trained in two newly established rabbinical seminaries. Tuition in State Jewish Schools was free, but they were to be financed by the Jews themselves, from candle-tax revenues, from proceeds of the lease of two Jewish printing houses, and from duties on Jewish books imported from abroad.
The first schools were opened in 1847 in Vilna and Zhitomir, later in other towns. Second-rank schools spread far less widely (only 13 by the early 1860s). The establishment of State Jewish Schools, in which the teaching of the Talmud was preserved only temporarily, was accompanied by police persecution of *cheders and their teachers (melamdim). Parallel anti-Jewish government measures (the tax on traditional Jewish dress — 1844, the tax on skullcaps — 1848, the ban on Jewish dress — 1850) only reinforced the mistrust of the Jewish masses toward the schools. Their opening was met with fasts and public prayers, and the government’s educational policy became known as the “school persecutions”.
The unpopularity of compulsory attendance in State Jewish Schools led many Jews to attempt to evade it through bribery of officials, by hiring poor children to attend, and the like. Most of the lists of pupils submitted by local authorities to the Ministry of Education were fictitious (in some schools up to two-thirds of the pupils were absent). Nevertheless, in later years graduates of the schools were among the first Jews to master the Russian language and culture.
Under Alexander II, in 1859 measures were taken to improve teacher qualifications, and Jewish merchants and honorary citizens were required (though in practice not compelled) to send their children to the schools. Each school was also to have an “honorary trustee” from among the influential members of the community. In November 1861, Jewish teachers in the schools were exempted from taxes and other obligations. From 1862 Christian inspectors were gradually replaced by Jews.
The limited success of the schools in *assimilating the Jews, coupled with the increasing influx of Jewish pupils into Russian schools during the era of the “Great Reforms”, led to discussions in government circles of their reorganisation or abolition. On the other hand, the resistance of orthodox Jewish circles and the extreme unpopularity of the schools produced petitions for their closure (for example, the memorandum of twelve St Petersburg merchants of the First Guild headed by Baron E. Gintsburg in 1858). In 1861 most second-rank schools were closed, only five remaining in all of Russia. In the Kingdom of Poland, where by 1862 there were ten such schools, their development proceeded independently of the system in the fifteen provinces of the Pale of Settlement.
From 1852, of 24 weekly hours in State Jewish Schools, 13.5 were devoted to Jewish subjects (half of that time to the prayer book, the Bible, the Mishnah, the rudiments of Halakhah and Jewish ethics). Most of these subjects were taught in German, using textbooks by L. Mandelstam (over 200,000 roubles from candle-tax revenues were spent on their publication). In the early 1860s, as Jewish subjects were reduced, German was replaced by Russian (finally in 1864). In the Mogilev and Vitebsk schools, for example, Jewish subjects and German were abolished, and the teaching of “Russian literacy” strengthened. For the same purpose, in 1865 M. Murav’ev, Governor-General of the North-Western Territory, introduced free compulsory “schools of literacy” for Jews.
By the academic year 1866–67, the State Jewish Schools had in effect become Russian state schools for Jews. This was formalised by the reform of 1873, when the second-rank schools were abolished and the first-rank schools retained only where Russian schools were lacking. From 1873 the first-rank schools were transformed into “Jewish elementary schools”, and the literacy schools renamed “Jewish people’s schools”.