Education




The history of Jewish education in Odessa is almost as old as that of the community itself. The first Talmud Torah in the city opened as early as the late 18^th century, and by the outbreak of World War I, Odessa had become one of the major centers of Jewish education in Russia. Through the efforts of scholars, educators, religious and public figures, writers and philanthropists, a complete network of Jewish education was created. It consisted of some 300 religious, general and vocational educational schools of various types and levels for boys and girls, including a yeshiva, Talmud Torahs, religious schools, general schools, vocational and commercial schools, including schools for commerce and dentistry, music, accounting, calligraphy and shorthand.

The First Jewish College (Corner of Richelevskaya and Troitskaya Streets) Signatures of Odessa Jews under the application for Establishing the College By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, Odessa had a Jewish population of about 7,000 people who worked as rabbis, scholars, teachers, merchants, tradesmen, clerks, artisans and laborers. The most far-sighted among them understood the importance of reforming the entire system of Jewish education to ensure a fully-fledged Jewish life in such a European-oriented city as Odessa. Though religious schools prevailed, the more enlightened among the population knew that Jewish religious law did not forbid the study of foreign languages or general subjects, and their combined efforts led to the opening of the Jewish Public School in November 1826. The school taught traditional Jewish subjects as well as Russian, German, French, mathematics, biology, history, geography, penmanship and accounting. The school existed for 26 years during which time more than 2,500 pupils passed through its portals,, many of whom went on to become doctors, lawyers, merchants, bankers, teachers, accountants and clerks. Among the pupils was Leon Pinsker, the famous Zionist writer and philosopher who was a leader of the return to Palestine movement and author of the Zionist classic, "Auto-Emancipation". A remarkable role in the formation and development of the school was played by Simha Pinsker, Leon Pinsker's father, a scholar and honorary citizen of Odessa, and by the principal of the school, Bezalel Stern. The school is distinguished within the history of Jewish education as the first of its type in Russia. On this Place there was the College

Odessa Yeshiva (35, Bazarnaya St.) The Building of Odessa Yeshiva This building housed a school for advanced Jewish studies that became known as the Odessa Yeshiva. A remarkable role in its creation in 1866 was played by Alexander Zederbaum, the founder of the first Hebrew-language newspaper in Russia, Ha-Melitz. The yeshiva became the center of Jewish religious education in Odessa, and its curriculum included mathematics, geography and German, in addition to traditional Jewish subjects. The yeshiva reached its pinnacle of achievement in the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, when the rabbi, scholar and writer Haim Chernovitz served as its director. The writers Ahad Ha'Am, Mendele Mocher Sfarim and Yehoshua Ravnitsky ensured that the subjects taught were up to date, and the famed poet Chaim Nachman Bialik taught Hebrew. Among graduates who brought fame to the yeshiva were the writer Zvi Voislavsky, the historian, Bible researcher and sociologist Yehezkel Kaufman, the journalist and translator Baruch Krupnik and the historian and literary critic, Yosef Klausner who later taught at the yeshiva. Today the building houses a nursery school and private apartments. Ahad Ha'Am Mendele Moiher-Sforim I. Ravnitsky I. Klausner I. Kaufman H-N. Bialik

Craftsman School "Trud" (17, Bazarnaya St.) The leading role in the promotion of technical knowledge among the Jews of Odessa was played by the Labor Society and its industrial school, which opened in 1864 with the active support of the city's rabbi, Dr. Schwarbacher, and the financial support of leading industrialists and entrepreneurs, who funded the construction of a special building. The building housed classrooms and various workshops, including a joinery and furniture-maker's shop, a metal workshop and a cast-iron foundry, which was considered the best in Odessa. It was there, in the late 19th century, that four iron bowls were cast, free of charge, to receive jets of water falling from the fountains of a monument built to honor the great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. The Monument to Pushkin The Building of Craftsman School "Trud" The Labor Society's industrial schools for boys and for girls had a combined student population of more than 300. The Society also held evening classes for adults, where draftsmanship, basic mathematics, geometry, physics and the basics of technology were taught. The school survived the communist revolution and was only closed after the outbreak of World War II. The building now belongs to a machine-tool plant.

Stoliarsky Musical School (1, Sabaneev Bridge) Pinhas Stoliarsky David Oystrah Stoliarsky Musical School Fate willed that the fame of Shlomo Stolyarsky, a music teacher, should reach far beyond Jewish Odessa, the city in general, and the entire country. At the start of his career, Stolyarsky offered private violin lessons, which later became the Professor Stolyarsky Special Music School of Odessa. His method of teaching music to children from an early age was proven with the training of such world-famous performers as the violinist David Oistrakh and the pianist Emil Hillels. The violinist Nathan Milstein, who later moved to the USA, was also one of Stolyarsky's pupils. The foundations of musical education laid down by Stolyarsky are to this day zealously guarded by his disciples and followers. In the 1950-1970s, after the professor's death, the Stolyarsky school gave a start in life to a new generation of brilliant musicians, among them Boris Bloch, Mikhail Vaiman, Evgeny Mogilevsky and Dora Schwarzberg. Music is still heard today in the Stolyarsky School, where the child prodigies of today are trained to be the virtuosi of tomorrow.

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Copyright © 1999-2000, Center of Jewish Self-Education "Moria"