The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies (2011)
Runner-up for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

Samson Benderly inaugurated the first Bureau of Jewish Education in 1910 amid a hodgepodge of congregational schools, khayders, community Talmud Torahs, and private tutors. Drawing on the theories of Johann Pestalozzi, Herbert Spencer, and John Dewey, and deriving inspiration from cultural Zionism, Benderly sought to modernize Jewish educati…