Search results for: Finkelman Yoel

The establishment of formal Torah education for women across the Orthodox spectrum certainly qualifies as one of the most significant changes in Jewish education in recent memory. Today, the notion that Orthodox girls and young women receive a school-based Torah education is completely commonplace. Less than one hundred years ago, it was virtually nonexistent. Much of this is related to the creation and growth of the Beit Ya’akov school system in Poland in the years between the two World Wars. Beit Ya’akov’s influence is most obvious in today’s Haredi sector, which identifies itself as heirs to that legacy, but the movement’s impact on the Modern Orthodox sector is no less profound. Despite the importance of Beit Ya’akov in the history of Orthodoxy and Jewish education, there is much that we do not know about its founding, growth, and development.