Talmud Torah School.
Grindelhof 3020146 Hamburg
Talmud Torah School:
The Study of the Torah and the TalmudStudy is of crucial significance in Judaism. The study of the Holy Scriptures, the Torah and the Talmud, is the worship of God.
Talmud Torah (Study of the Law): This is the term for the Jewish elementary school, (in some cases also middle school) which, in contsast to the Cheder, is maintained by the congregation.
Cheder Room: This is the term for the classroom or study room, i.e. the traditional eastern Jewish elementary school for boys.
Subjects studied: Bible and Talmud.
Attendance: From the age of four or five until the bar mitzvah. Instruction is non-methodical and given by a private, unqualified tutor.
Since man has recorded time this type of study has been equated with the worship of God in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is writen in the fifth book of Moses, Chapter 11, Verse 19, "You shall teach them".
Learning mainly took place by reading out loud and learning by heart. Each teacher had about 25 students. Boys aged between five and seven learned to read the Torah and other canonical scriptures, ten to thirteen year-olds learned the Mishnah, the religious laws which form the basis of the Talmud. In this way religious learning was passed on to succeeding generations.
Young boys were accepted into the adult community at the age of thirteen by way of the bar mitzvah. However, they were still obliged to study the Holy scriptures.
Pre 1805
When the first Jewish families migrated to Altona and Hamburg they brought their own
"educational system" with them. Private tutors taught the boys. Girls learnt all they needed
to know about prayers and dietary laws by word of mouth from their mothers and grandmothers;
only a few were taught to read and write.
As soon as the Jewish communities had become established, they turned to the religious instruction of poor children. This was financed from dues to the community and from charitable donations; for example, the collections at the feasts of circumcision were traditionally awarded to the Talmud Torah commissions, which were responsible for education.
Talmud Torah Religious School 1805-1821
The Talmud Torah School for the Poor was founded in 1805 at the instigation of Menachem Mendel
Frankfurter (1743-1823), a businessman and scholar. The school was located at 122 Elbstraße. It
was established by charitable donation from three gentlemen who became members of the
school's board of governers.
The board showed great commitment in its governing of the school. It prepared and implemented curricula and supervised the regular examinations. The board also hired teachers and dealt with the schools finances and administration. Finance for the school came mainly from the German-Jewish community.
The school's goal was to provide the (orthodox) religious education that poor boys needed and
also essential "civic" knowledge, so as the assist their professional development to merchants
after leaving school.
The subjects taught were reading and writing Hebrew, "Yiddish writing", i.e. German using
Hebraic script, and arithmetic.
From the very beginning the aim was to establish a level which would inspire the better-off members of the community to pay for their sons to attend the school.
Daughters continued to receive their tuition at home.
Boys stayed at school all day every day from the age of five until completion of their thirteenth year of life. At lunch-time they received a warm meal. Although there were no vacations the afternoons before Sabbath and festivals were free.
Exceptionally gifted pupils received scholarships as an incentive to stay on at school longer. This was intended to train Talmud scholars for the community.
Political events soon put a stop to the school's promising development. The Napoleonic Wars brought economic decline to Hamburg and Altona. The ensuing impoverishment of the population brought in its wake a constant rise in the number of pupils and was accompanied by a fall in the school's income.
Talmud Torah Volksschule 1821-1849 - The Inclusion of Secular Subjects
After a period of over ten years with no chief rabbi, the post was taken up by Isaac Bernays
(1791-1849) on 30. October 1821. Reform of the Talmud Torah School for the Poor became one of
his tasks.
Not only was he highly educated in the Talmud but he had also attended university. Under his direction the Talmud Torah Religious School became the Talmud Torah Volksschule, a type of elementary and secondary school.
The school now aimed to bring up boys as Jews and good citizens. German lessons were introduced as tuition in the mother tongue, and humanities and natural sciences were also included: nature studies, geography and history. By 1827 the curriculum had been completely reformed. Hebrew lessons now placed more emphasis on understanding the texts than on mindless translation.
Since it was not possible to find a Jew who was able to teach German, the humanities and the natural sciences, a Christian, a young theologian, was employed at Bernay's suggestion. In 1837 art was added to the curriculum. In 1841 a school library was established.
Bürgerschule 1849-1869 - Further Expansion
A Bürgerschule (civic school) slowly developed from the Volksschule. English was introduced as
an optional subject, and the syllabus in geography, nature studies and history was expanded.
In the autumn of 1851 the new Chief Rabbi Ascher Anschel Stern (1820-1888) took up his office. The school-roll grew and the building gradually became too small for the 230 pupils it now had to accommodate.
At the end of 1855 the plot of land at "Kohlhöfen 20" was acquired and the new building was opened in October 1857. English became a compulsory subject. French, physics and chemistry were added as optional subjects. In 1860 physical education became an optional subject.
The number of pupils continued to increaseas as, for many, the Talmud Torah School was the only opportunity to obtain religious instruction as well as a secular and vocational education. By this time, more and more sons of well-to-do parents were also attending the school. There were no standard tuition fees, parents contributed according to their income.
Talmud Torah Realschule 1892 - 1869-1911 - State Recognition
Hamburg introduced general conscription and, in connection with this, the "one-year volunteers'
examination". This meant that pupils who had taken this examination were entitled to volunteer for
only one year's military service (instead of the usual two) and to go without earnings for only
one year.
In April 1869 the Talmud Torah School introduced the new curriculum. Subject teachers were employed.
The school was now organized as a three-year elementary school and a six-year secondary school. In the final school year, called Selekta, German, French, English, Mathematics, History and Geography were studied in greater depth. In March 1870 the Talmud Torah School was granted temporary permission to hold school-leaving examinations which were then supervised centrally by the education authority.
Easter 1871 saw the first school-leaving examination for Talmud Torah School pupils. The "one-year volunteers' examination" did not establish itself until the mid-seventies and from then on was held in the schools themselves.
Once again shortage of space plagued the school. When the building was first occupied there were 230 pupils; now there were 400. In 1871 the plot of land opposite the school at "Kohlhöfen 19" was acquired and by the end of 1872 an additional building was opened.
Following the death of Chief Rabbi Stern the conditions of headmastership and administration of the school were altered. Up until this time the post of headmaster had been a part-time appointment. In 1889 Dr. Joseph Goldschmidt became the first person to occupy the post full time.
The curriculum increasingly came to resemble that of the state schools. Physical education and music became compulsory. Summer vacations were introduced.
From 1892 the school was known as the Talmud Torah Realschule.
Dr. Joseph Goldschmidt (1842-1925)
Upon completion of his undergraduate and postgraduate studies, from 1867-1876, Joseph Goldschmidt was a teacher at the Talmud Torah School at the "Kohlhöfen 20" premises. He was one of the first Jewish subject teachers to hold a doctorate. In 1876 he moved to the strictly orthodox secondary school of the Jewish religious community in Frankfurt. From there he was invited in 1889 to become headmaster of the Talmud Torah School.
He was a very conscientious headmaster, with orthodox and patriotic views. He sought to bring up Germans of the Jewish faith with a sense of national pride. He rejected the developing Zionism.
Talmud Torah Realschule - The Building at No.30 Grindelhof
In 1909 the Warburg family foundation and numerous donations from members of the German-Israelite community enabled the purchase of the plot of land at No.30 Grindelhof, directly next to the synagogue, for the sum of 130,000 RM. Additional building capital was raised by the sale of the land at "Kohlhöfen" with its two school buildings.
Government Architect Ernst Friedheim was given the contract to build the school. The neighbouring synagogue, which had been built in the early Romantic style and furnished with a cupola visible from afar, led the architect to choose a contrasting style for the school: the Reform style, which was popular in Hamburg at that time. Fuctionality, simplicity and clarity are its most prominant features.
Nevertheless, both buildings optically constituted a single architectural unit, achieved by the choice of the same colour tiles for the façades and the rooves. So as not to detract from the place of worship the school building was kept significantly lower.
The building consists of four floors and a one-story wing extending into the courtyard, which was used as gymnasium and assembly hall. The hall was fitted with a gallery for the choir and spectators, as well as a spacious equipment store and two cloakrooms. The store for the gymnastics apparatus no longer exists. The basement with its windows above ground level was where the janitor lived.
Next door were rooms for storage and heating, a dairy, a washroom, a bicycle store and two showers. Today some of the rooms are used by the General Students' Intramural Committee of the Fachhochschule. On the ground floor there were five spacious, well-lit classrooms, the headmaster's office, a meeting room and a map storage room. The first floor housed a further five classrooms, a large art room, the physics and chemistry laboratories, a study room for physics and for conferences, and a teachers room. The attic housed the library, a reserve classroom and storage rooms.
In 1911, when the building was first occupied, 21 teachers taught 540 pupils. In 1933 the number of pupils had risen to 620. In addition to elementary and secondary education, the school now offered prepation for college and adult education. There were also remedial classes foe students with learning difficulties. In 1937 there were 33 teachers and 800 pupils.
In 1929 the neighbouring building at No.38 Grindelhof was purchased. This housed the library and four classrooms. The attic and basement at No.30 Grindelhof were converted to gain more space for additional classrooms, craft workshops and a medical room.
The four-storey building at No.30 Grindelhof has been preserved to the present day. Only the ridge
turret with its clock, set above the main entrance, no longer exists. Today the clock lies in
in the attic. The stained-glass windows in the main staircase, which were constructed from designs
made by the art teacher Kallmann Rothschild, have also been destroyed.
Of the original garden and schoolyard, which were laid out with mature trees and saplings, only two
trees remain.
German Nationalism and the First World War - 1911-1921
At the official opening of the Tamud Torah School in 1911 the headmaster, Dr. Joseph Goldschmidt,
outlined three educational ideals: firstly to grow up in the Jewish faith; secondly, through the
study of German history and literature, to cherish, love and uphold the special charaterists of
German culture; and thirdly to develop a sense of belonging and gratitude to the hometown of Hamburg.
These three ideals were summed up by his motto and appeal to the pupils to "Become good Jews, good
Germans, and good citizens of Hamburg!".
German nationalism also marked the attitude that the school adopted to the First World War. Pupils of all ages lived "in the uninterrupted grip of the war". Maps were hung in the classrooms where flags, repositioned every morning, charted the course of the war. Considerable sums of money were collected for war loans; patriotic essays were set by the teachers.
However, it was not long before the first despatches of teachers killed in action arrived. For the first time in the history of the school two female teachers had to be employed, along with numerous only partly qualified teachers. In 1916 the initial enthusiasm for the war vanished for good. The Prussian War Minister carried out a survey of the number of Jewish soldiers, the so-called Judenstatistik (Jewish Statists); Jews were disillusioned and felt themselves to be second-class soldiers.
Food and heating supplies became more and more scarce. Pupils in the higher classes had to take part in "defence exercises" and go on marches with full field pack. Hardly any family escaped without at least losing one of its members in the war.
At first lessons had to be cut because of the coal shortage, and then cancelled for longer periods of time. In autumn 1918 all Hamburg schools had to close for several weeks because of a flu epedemic.
In the spring of 1921, to mark his retirement and also by way of a legacy, the then 78-year-old headmaster, Dr. Goldschmidt, had a plaque unveiled on the main stairwell, opposite the main entrance, between the ground and first floors. The plaque bore the names of the five teachers and 122 former pupils of the school who had been killed in the war. This plaque was destroyed during the time of the Second World War. In 1981 a plaque carrying the same inscription was hung in replacement in the former position.
Educational Reform - 1921-1933
In 1921 Rabbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach took charge of the school. Under his direction numerous
educational reforms were incorporated. The school also took on a more pronounced Jewish character.
In the elementary classes the traditional teaching arrangement, with the pupils facing the teacher at the front, had already been broken up and the pupils were seated around small tables to allow for group work. Rooms for physics and chemistry were fitted out so that pupils could conduct the experiments themselves. Both innovations strengthened the pupils' sense of independence and responsibility within the learning process. In addition to natural science subjects greater emphasis was also placed upon sport and artistic subjects, without sacrificing the religious character of the school. Modern teaching methods, such as project work, and special remedial classes for pupils with learning difficulties were introduced. Field trips, class outings and school drama productions were also added. The distance between pupils and teachers became less strict. "Instead of strict authority", wrote Miriam Gillis-Carlebach, one of Joseph Carlebach's daughters, a type of "educational friendship" was the aim.
Despite the fact that compared to his predecessors Carlebach's period of office was relatively short he brought about the greatest number of educational reforms.
On 1. January 1926 Arthur Spier took over headmastership of what was the oldest Jewish orthodox school in Germany. Carlebach's ideal candidate continued the reforms that were already in process. In 1929 he organized classes in crafts, which later gave rise to the development of a vocational branch of the school.
By extending the number of classes and school years the school was able to gain approval as an Oberrealschule (College Preparatory School) from the State Education Authority. 1932 saw the first year of examinations for the Oberprima (comparable to the upper-sixth form in the UK or to the 13th grade in the US). Spier's exceptional personality and dedication to the school became particularly apparent during the era when pupils, parents and teachers faced persecution.
Dr. Joseph Carlebach - 1883-1942
Joseph Carlebach, son of a Lübeck rabbinical family, studied physics, astronomy, mathematics and the history of art in Berlin. After completing his thesis in 1909, he devoted himself to the intensive study of the Talmud at Dr. Esriel Hildesheimer's orthodox rabbinical seminary in Berlin.
His activities as a teacher at the school of the "German Jews Support Association" in Jerusalem (1905-1907), and as a reformer of the Jewish school system in Lithuania during his military service made him well qualified for the post of headmaster of the Tamud Torah School, which he took up in 1921.
In 1926 Joseph Carlebach was appointed Chief Rabbi of the High German Jewish congregation in Altona, and in 1936 Chief Rabbi of the German Jewish congregation in Hamburg.
During the Nazi period Joseph Carlebach was one of the Jewish orthodox authorities in Germany. He was murdered in 1942 in the Jungfernhof Concentration Camp, situated near Riga, together with his wife, Lotte née Preuss, and three of his nine children.
The square next to the Talmud Torah School where formerly the Central Synagogue of the German-Israelite community stood, at Bornplatz, is now named Joseph-Carlebach-Platz, after the former Chief Rabbi of Altona and Hamburg (1883-1942).
Arthur Spier - 1898-1985
In 1924, having studied mathematics, physics and philosophy, Arthur Spier began his professional career as a grammar school teacher (Studienassessor) at the Realschule of the Jewish religious community in Frankfurt-on Main.
During the time of the Weimar Republic, Arthur Spier continued the reforms instigated by his predecessor Dr. Joseph Carlebach.
It was mainly due to his ability in dealing with state institutions that he succeeded in keeping the school operating during the period of Nazi rule, despite all the state restrictions that were imposed.
During the years 1938/39 Arthur Spier was involved in the organization of children's transports to England. Preparatory discussions took him abroad with the consent of the state authorities on a number of occasions. In March 1940, having been sent on a mission by the head of the Gestapo's "Jew Department" in Hamburg, he seized the opportunity to flee. He had been instructed to approach the Warburg family in New York in conection with providing money for the planned "Jew Reservation in Poland".
Spier's successor as headmaster of what was the last Jewish school in Hamburg was Dr. Alberto Jonas (1889-1942). He had been the director of the Israelite Girls' School at 35 Karolinenstraße from 1924 until its closure in April 1939.
National Socialist Tyranny - Destruction of the Jewish School System - 1933-1942
During the Nazi era the persecution of Jews in Germany encompassed all areas of life. This
persecution was grounded upon more than 2,000 juridical measures and directives directed against
Jewish people that were passed between 1933 and 1945.
Part of this comprehensive special law affected the German school system and hence also influenced school life within the Talmud Torah School.
The "Civil Service Restoration Act" of April 1933 was used not only for the purpose of dismissing Jewish officials from public service, but also for the dismissal of most Jewish teachers. Among the latter were Dr. Walter Bacher and Dr. Ernst Loewenberg who went on to teach at the Talmud Torah School.
Together with the waves of emigration, during which many teachers left Germany, the special law caused considerable fluctuation in the teaching staff of the school.
With the aid of the law against overcrowding in German schools and universities, also passed in April 1933, the proportion of "non-Aryan" admissions to higher education was limited to 1·5 percent. The proportion of Jewish pupils was not permitted to exceed 5 percent in any type of school. In November 1938 Jewish children were prohibited from attending any state school. These two laws led to an increase in pupils atttending the Tamud Torah School between the years 1933 and 1938 despite the fact that during this period, along with the many teachers, a large number of the school's pupils emigrated from Germany.
After the pogrom of the night of 9/10 November 1938 ("Kristallnacht"), the number of Jewish pupils sank from approximately 1,200 to 600 in May 1939. From 1933 to 1939 the number of Jewish pupils throughout the Reich fell from 66,000 to below 40,000.
This increase in the number of pupils between 1933 and 1938 required an increase in funds to finance the school. In the school years 1933/34 and 1934/35 , when for the first time no state subsidies were available, the school was particularly dependent upon grants from Jewish aid organizations.
In 1935 the Hamburg Senat passed a resolution reintroducing state support so as not to hinder Jewish pupils transfering from state-supported schools to Jewish private schools. However, only a few years later the school was ultimately deprived of its economic base.
The real estate taxes for the school property at 30 Grindelhof were raised from 734 RM (Reichsmarks) to 12,348 RM. In July 1939 state support for Jewish schools was finally abolished and the "National Asssociation of Jews in Germany", under whose jurisdiction the school had been placed, was forced to sell the land and buildings to the state.
Restrictions brought on by the special legislation and its effects on the running of the school left little possibility of any independent development of new educational ideas during the Nazi period. Any reforms that took place in the school after 1933 largely came about as a reaction to the persecution of Jews inside and outside the school system.
The introduction of co-education into the final classes of the school in the year 1933 aimed at giving Jewish girls the opportunity to take their school-leaving examination in a Jewish school, free from the repression they were exposed to in the state schools.
Alongside "Ancient Hebrew", necessary in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, modern Hebrew was introduced into the curriculum, as it had become the language of the Jewish settlers in Palestine. As additional aids to emigration the school also incorporated courses in languages and commerce, and facilities were provided for the learning of a variety of trades and for domestic science.
From 1938 on, in order to avoid conflict with families who were foreign to religious Judaism, with those who had been baptized as Christians or with those who did not belong to any church, pupils could be excused from religious instruction. Both the governing board and the teachers made every effort to create a "free zone" within the school where, undisturbed by the state's anti-Jewish measures, Jewish children, adolescents and even adults could acquire a general school education as well as knowledge that might be useful if they came to emigrate.
According to the curriculum of 1937, "The growing child should be able to develop a healthy awareness of his/her Jewishness, despite all the accompanying deprivations".
By the spring of 1939 it had become necessary to move the Israelite Secondary School for Girls in with the Talmud Torah School at No.30 Grindelhof. In the summer of 1939 the closure and transfer of the Talmud Torah School, due to the abolishing of state support, had been decided. It was sold for its rateable value. In the middle of September the school building had to be abandoned and the pupils and teachers moved into No.35 Karolinenstraße, which had formerly housed the Israelite Secondary School for Girls.
This newly founded and last Jewish school in Hamburg had to adopt the title of "Volks- und Oberschule fur Juden" in September, follwed by "Volks- und Höhere Schule für Juden" in December 1939. With effect from June 1941 the Jewish boys and girls attending the school were only granted a basic education and the school was given the name "Jewish School in Hamburg". On 15. May 1942 the school building at No.35 Karolinenstraße had also to be evacuated.
The 76 pupils and 11 teachers who remained after the deportations in the autumn of 1941 found shelter in the building of the Jewish boys' orphanage at No.3 Papendamm.
On 30. June 1942 the "Jewish School in Hamburg", along with all Jewish schools in Germany, was closed by ministerial decree.
Of the 343 children and adolescents who were still attending the "Jewish School in Hamburg" in October 1941 only a few survived the Nazi era. Of the 28 teachers remaining at the school in October 1941 only 3 survived.
Dr. Alberto Jonas (1889-1942)
Dr. Alberto Jonas was born in Dortmund on 19. February 1889 and grew up in Breslau. He was qualified
to teach Hebrew, Latin and Greek. After holding teaching posts at the Israelite high schools in
Halberstadt and Leipzig, he joined the Talmud Torah School in Hamburg in 1922.
In 1924 he became director of the Israelite Secondary School for Girls, the school for girls of the German-Israelite community in Hamburg. During the years thereafter the school was placed on an equal footing with the Talmud Torah School by means of internal and external reforms.
From 1933 on Dr. Jonas had to run the school under the most difficult of conditions. He rejected emigration as he was not willing to abandon his school. In 1938 and 1939 he accompanied children's transports to England and did everything in his power to help as many children as possible to escape. As Arthur Spier's successor he was appointed headmaster of the "Volks- und Höhere Schule für Juden" in 1940. This appointment was tantamount to his death sentence, as the Gestapo prohibited Dr. Jonas and his family from carrying out their emigration plans. After the closure of the last Jewish schools in Germany, Dr. Jonas and his wife, Dr. Marie-Anna Jonas, who was employed as a school doctor, and his daughter Esther were deported to Theresienstadt. There, on 29. August 1942, Dr. Jonas died from a severe illness. Dr. Marie-Anna Jonas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Only Esther survived.
Misappropriation and Suppression - From 1939 Onwards
The devastation of the synagogue in Bornplatz during the centrally organized pogrom on the night of
9/10 November 1938 (Kristallnacht) also marked the beginning of the end for the Talmud Torah School.
Directly after the enforced sale of the school, ordered by the Nazis, the building was assigned to
the Hamburg university administration for the purpose of training teachers. The purchase price was
laid down as 221,600 RM but at no time was there any intention of paying this amount. According to
the draft purchase contract this amount was to be "used and set off against" benefits accrued from
the State Welfare Department.
In 1944 and 1945 the Talmud Torah School was used as an assembly point for deportations. From here the Gestapo carried off more than 270 people to Theresienstadt. Among these 270 were 80 boys from the school.
After the end of the war sections of the British army of occupation moved into the building, until it was allocated, to the Pedagogical Institute, once more for the use of training teachers. During this time adult education classes were also held here.
The demands of the Jewish Trust Corporation to have the building returned to the Jewish Community were unsuccesssful. These demands were rejected in 1952 with the specious argument that the land and building were "needed for public purposes". This totally ignored the fact that the property had been acquired by the state in 1939 by a compulsory purchase order issued by a tyranical system. In 1953 a modest compensation was paid as part of the lump sum paid as compensation for all Jewish property under the "Compensation Act".
In 1960 Hamburg Education Authority took over the administration of the building and installed the Institute of Social Work, the Social Workers' Study Group, the Engineering School for Automobile Technology, and the School of Library Science, which at that time was responsible for training within the public library system. In 1966 the training schemes for academic and public librarians were combined under one roof at No.30 Grindelhof. Prior to this there had been separate courses and sites for the two disciplines. The refectory, which had formerly been the gymnasium, was converted into a lecture theatre. The garden had to give way to a car park.
During the seventies there were plans to pull down the Talmud Torah School building and build a high rise university complex as soon as alternative premises could be found for the departments of Library Science and Social Work.
At this time practically no one was aware of the history of the building, nor was anyone keen to be reminded of it. The current economic recession i.e. the Oil Crisis, and an increased consciousness of history and politics, realized in the student movements of the time, prevented the planned demolition. In 1981 the former Talmud Torah School was placed under a conservation order. At the same time the inscription i.e. 1911-1939 Talmud-Torah-Realschule, was restored above the main entrance and a commemorative plaque placed on the wall left of the entrance.
The former plaque, commemorating
the pupils and teachers who had lost their lives in the First World War, installed on the main
stairwell, opposite the main entrance, between the ground and first floors,
and destroyed by the Nazis in the Second World War, was replaced by a new one.
There is a visitors' book.
A commemorative plaque dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust has yet to be installed.
German text:
Sylvia Basse, Susanne Feldkötter, Doris Gerlach, Nicola Hamburger, Martina Krippner, Peter Kröning, Christine Lensch, Hans-Joachim Meyer, Thomas Möller, Kirstin Seemann, Michael Volk and Andreas Wollenberg.
Special advisor: Dr. Ursula Randt.
English translation: Professor Gerhard Falk, Buffalo, NY, a former pupil of the Talmud Torah School.