Cheder metukan Hebrew: חדר מתוקן ("improved cheder", sometimes interpreted as "revised cheder", "progressive cheder" or "reformed cheder"[a] and sometimes transliterated as cheder methukan) was a type of elementary education schools for young Jewish children introduced by the Zionist movement at the break of the 19th and 20th centuries in the Russian Empire (which at that time incorporated considerable parts of Poland and Lithuania[b]) to address the problems of the outdated and inefficient system of traditional cheders. The curricula of the cheder metukan differed depending on the organizer, but the major distinctive features were introduction of the elements of secular education (such as history of the Jews and geography of Eretz Yisrael), "Hebrew through Hebrew" / "Ivrit veIvrit" way of teaching (using Hebrew as the sole medium of teaching), and education for girls. The conservative circles saw this as a threat to their status in the system of education and in the Jewish society, and ardently opposed the introduction of these schools.[1][2]
Hebrew through Hebrew
This method was based on the following principle:[3]
- In the development of oral speech, the native language ("mame-loshn", i.e., Yiddish) must be completely excluded and the Hebrew words must be associated directly with things or concepts rather that with the words in native language. The grammar must be acquired intuitively, the way as it is acquired in the mother tongue.
- The acquisition of material should occur on the basis of imitation and analogy; the meaning of words and grammatical phenomena should be revealed with the help of visual aids (objects, actions, pictures), i.e., without explanations in the mother tongue.
Opposition
Opponents angrily quipped that they were not cheder mehtukan (חדר מתוקן), but cheder mesukan (חדר מסוכן, "dangerous cheder").[4][5][6]
In the autobiography, Chaim Weizmann described the situation as follows:[7]
Notable persons
- Avraham Cholodenko founded the first cheder metukan in Kyiv
- Chaim Weizmann was an active supporter of cheder metukan movement[7]
- David Zakai taught in cheder metukan in the Mogilev Governorate
- Pinchas Perelmn (פנחס געלמאן) (1880-1921), non-Chasidic rabbi of Yekaterinoslav, founded there a cheder metukan (where young Menachem Mendel Schneerson did not go).[8]
- Simon Rawidowicz was a teacher in a cheder metukan in his young years
Notes
- ^ "Reformed cheder", "progressive cheder": the adjectives "reformed/progressive" here have no association with the Reform/Progressive Judaism
- ^ And this tradition continued after the breakup of the Russian Empire after the Russian Revolution of 1917, so it is common to speak about "cheder metukan in Eastern Europe".
References
- ^ хедер, THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA IN RUSSIAN ON THE WEB Based on the Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia, 1976-2005
- ^ Yossi Goldstein, החדר המתוקן" ברוסיה כבסיס למערכת החינוך הציונית" ("Cheder Metukan in Russia as the Basis for the Zionist Education System")
- ^ Прогрессивный хедер в Слуцке ("Progressive Cheder in Slutsk"), a memoir of a teacher
- ^ Авраам Моисеевич Белов-Элинсон, Рыцари иврита в бывшем Советском Союзе, 1998pp.48,49
- ^ Ten Days in Germany
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel, vol. 6, pp 2510- 2511, article about Chaim David Rosenstein
- ^ Trial and Error: The Autobiography of Chaim Weizmann: Book One, p. 41
- ^ Chaim Miller, Turning Judaism Outward: A Biography of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, p, 12
Further reading
- Sbornik materīalov ob ėkonomicheskom polozhenīi evreev v Rossīi, Volumes 1-2, 1904, Section "Reorganization of the Cheder", pp. 309-312