Abstract
When modern Jewish day schools were created in the early twentieth century, two rationales were often advanced by their supporters: The first centered on heritage transmission and the inadequacy of the supplementary school to fulfill this function due to limitations on time and the disposition of its students, who were often exhausted and restless after a full day of public school. The second focused on the Christian character of the public schools and its corrosive impact on Jewish identification and self-respect. This was decades before the 1960s, when the Warren Court outlawed Bible reading and prayer in public schools.
But the modern Jewish day school was historically grounded on an implicit bargain between the parents and the schools, that intensive Jewish education would not carry a social or economic penalty. This is why the earliest schools, like the Yeshivah of Flatbush and the Yeshivah of Crown Heights, stressed the quality of their secular education departments in their publicity materials and insisted that Jewish schools were not “parochial schools.” In implicitly drawing a contrast with Catholic education, Jews were proclaiming that modern day schools were neither narrow in their outlook and opposed to American-Jewish integration.
However, the day school’s commitment to socio-economic mobility went far beyond matching public and independent schools’ curricular offerings. My paper will argue that these schools’ commitment to integration was indicative of a pervasive school culture that affirmed and inculcated conventional middle class values, gender roles, and lifestyle choices alongside their commitment to Jewish literacy and religious observance. While these attitudes and dispositions were embedded into the official curriculum, they were also conveyed through a hidden curriculum, i.e., socialization by way of school publications, teacher-student interactions, and academic expectations. My paper will draw upon a wealth of primary sources, including school brochures, advertisements, building plans, student newspapers, yearbooks, and graduation speeches, as well as curriculum and textbooks.