Samson Benderly (1876–1944) was a major figure in promoting Jewish education in the United States. He was born in Safed, Palestine, and he later emigrated to Baltimore, MD arriving on 23 September 1898. He studied medicine and became a doctor, but he abandoned medicine when Jewish education became his all-absorbing passion.
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Theories About Jewish Education
Benderly saw variety of forms of Jewish education, “a hodgepodge of congregational schools, khayders, community Talmud Torahs, and private tutors.” He found that the Talmud Torah system would be the easiest to reform. This was because "despite their precarious finances and historical association with the impoverished, the schools enjoyed community support. They were generally governed by local boards of directors and supported through a combination of donations, charity benefits, and tuition collections.”
Benderly was inspired by the writings of Johann Pestalozzi, Herbert Spencer, and John Dewey, and the concept of cultural Zionism. His goal was to modernize Jewish education by making it more professional and “creating an immigrant-based, progressive supplementary school model, and spreading the mantra of community responsibility for Jewish education.” Unlike some branches of traditional Jewish education, Benderly stressed cognitive learning and “continued to view as core knowledge Hebrew and Judaism’s classical texts.”
He developed a model of education that has also been called the "Protestant Model," because it followed the typical schooling model of Protestants in the United States, which separated general education and religious education. It is described as "a philosophical belief that state-funded schools should teach patriotism, civics, and critical skills while separate denominational-sponsored supplementary school should teach religious doctrine and practice."
Career
In 1910, he began the Bureau of Jewish Education in New York. “He was the American organizer of Ivrit be-Ivrit pedagogy – the use of Hebrew as the language of instruction.” This "teaching Jewish content in Modern Hebrew... reconceptualized Hebrew education not only as a form of language acquisition, but as a means of defining and giving shape to American Judaism for the Jewish immigrant community at that time." He also supported the founding of the Jewish Teachers Association, seen as “a counterweight to the immigrant dominated Agudath Ha-Morim Ha-Ivrim, the Hebrew Teachers Union of New York.”
A cadre of young men that he encouraged, mentored, and taught went on to be leaders of Jewish education in the USA and became known as the “Benderly Boys.” This group included Alexander Dushkin, Isaac Berkson, Emanuel Gamoran, and Barnett Brickner. There were also a few women considered "Benderly Girls," including Rebecca Aaronson Brickner and Libbie Suchoff Berkson, although, as women, they had fewer opportunities for leadership.