This series is sponsored by Ari and Danielle Schwartz in memory of Danielle’s grandfather, Mr. Baruch Mappa, Baruch Ben Asher Zelig HaLevi.In this edition of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein—an expert on the history of Orthodox girls’ education—about the value of education for all people.With the founding of the Bais Yaakov movement, Sarah Schenirer sought to create a culture of education that was inclusive to the marginalized. Over a century later, we encounter a related but simultaneously new set of challenges. In this episode we discuss:
- What made the early Bais Yaakov movement both controversial and revolutionary?
- What would Sarah Schenirer think of the state of Jewish education in the 21st century?
- Are graduating adults still in need of education and youth programming?
Tune in to hear a conversation about the indispensability of Jewish education from the early 20th century to today.Interview begins at 29:30.Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein is the Academic Dean of Women's Institute of Torah Seminary & College, an Orthodox Jewish college for women. A scholar and author, Dr. Klein speaks on Jewish history, Tanach, leadership and communication skills across the United States and internationally. Dr. Ginsparg Klein received her Ph.D. from New York University, where she researched the history of Orthodox girls’ education in America and the Bais Yaakov Movement.
References:18Forty Podcast: “
Yitzchak Breitowitz: Navigating Controversy”
18Forty Podcast: “
Yisroel Kaminetsky: The Goal of Jewish Education”
Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition by Naomi Seidman
Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society by Iris Parush
In Her Hands: The Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia by Eliyana R. Adler
Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920 by Melissa R. Klapper
Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein on Bais Yaakov Education and Culture Across North America, at Harvard Law School