Sarah Schenirer: The Woman Who Revolutionized Jewish Girls’ Education

In response to the religious crisis facing her generation, Sarah Schenirer founded the Bais Yaakov movement in the early 1900s, and her legacy is both the path she took and the outcome of her efforts. Her novel approach, undeterred perseverance, and strong Torah values enabled her to reinvigorate Orthodox Jewry by generating more excitement among local girls about their faith, and helped defy assimilation. 

Born into a prestigious Belz Chassidic family in Krakow, Poland, Schenirer (1883-1935) was one of nine children, ranging from completely secular to very religious¹. It was not unusual to leave the folds of Orthodox Jewry at that time, especially as many girls, Schenirer included, attended local public schools that exposed them to ideas foreign to their Torah lifestyle. After completing eighth grade, her family’s poverty forced Schenirer to leave school and become a seamstress. Yet she continued to build her knowledge by reading and attending non-Jewish lectures and shows on literature and the arts, while teaching herself Torah, including Chumash, Navi, and Mishna².  It is this broad and expansive education, one of her most unique attributes, which lay the foundation for her to initiate a dual-curriculum education in a structured, formal setting for Orthodox Jewish girls.   

By the turn of the twentieth century, most Jewish girls in Poland were receiving a minimal religious education from relatives or private tutors. With destitution in their homes and limited knowledge of Torah and halacha, they were not equipped to withstand the winds of change in Poland. Manufacturing, capitalism, urbanization, nationalism, antisemitism, socialism, and disparity between social classes were growing. Schenirer watched with helpless trepidation as Orthodox girls were enticed to leave their Torah lifestyles, increasingly assimilating and even marrying out of their faith or converting to Christianity for social or economic benefits³.

She realized that the lethargic approach by these girls to confront and overcome societal challenges in their faith was entrenched in their lack of practical, emotional, and intellectual tools. Schenirer observed that despite the opening of several all-girls, non-Jewish schools in the late 1800s⁴, none existed in the Jewish community. Schenirer’s appreciation for her self-taught education that balanced secular and Jewish studies was solidified when she visited Vienna in 1914; there she learned of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s approach to use education to strengthen Orthodox Judaism in an emancipated world. 

She was also encouraged to advance her educational vision when she heard Rabbi Moshe David Flesch, a follower of Hirsch, explain how Yehudit, a Jewish heroine in the Greek era, convinced Rabbinic leaders to let her courageously try to save the Jewish people⁵. Schenirer returned to Krakow and decided in her intent to convince Rabbinic leaders to allow her to transform education through female leadership as a means to save Polish Jewry. 

Schenirer understood that it was critical not just to teach, but also excite Jewish girls, about their religion. After her first attempts to work with older girls and women failed⁶, she focused on younger girls who were less influenced by their surrounding secular society. In 1917, she opened a kindergarten with children of her sewing clients, and her timing was providential. Shortly thereafter, Poland gained its independence from Russia, Polish women obtained a greater sense of freedom with their newly-established right to vote, and the government reorganized education with mandatory schooling for all children from ages 7 to 14⁷. As education for all girls moved to Poland’s center stage, Sarah Schenirer harnessed the opportunity to expand education for Jewish girls too.

While Yavneh, a school system for girls there already existed in Lithuania, Schenirer was determined that in Poland’s Orthodox communities, and particularly among the Chassidic one, her new Bais Yaakov school would innovatively focus on more than just imparting information. Growing up, Schenirer maintained her devout religious practices while being exposed to independent ideas beyond her insular community, and she believed such an educational approach could prepare Jewish girls to independently think, explore, and grow without compromising their religious beliefs. 

Schenirer was a divorced woman in an era when divorce was rare, had not mothered or raised children, had not attended high school or college, and had no training or experience as an educator. Yet Sarah Schenirer refused to be discouraged because she understood what the girls needed and persevered. More importantly, she believed in what she was doing

Unabashedly wanting her students to succeed in the broader world, her schools supplemented secular and Torah teachings with job skills training to ensure that the students had greater economic opportunities and self-confidence as Orthodox girls in secular society. She also opened a teacher’s training school to create role models for the girls, filling the void in Orthodox female leadership⁸. But most important, during educational and social activities, from the classroom to summer camps, she used her own behavior and practices to imbue her love for Hashem and enthusiasm for Torah Judaism on the students, and impart the joy, not the burden, that it truly was.

Her success is more pronounced when considering the great opposition Schenirer faced. The Rabbinic leaders wanted girls to focus on acquiring skills to raise and support their families and also deemed girls’ education forbidden from a religious perspective, as seen in a 1903 local Rabbinical decision that banned formal girls education⁹ and citings of Talmudic sources including Rabbi Eliezer’s opposition to teaching Torah to girls¹⁰. Moreover, Schenirer was a divorced woman in an era when divorce was rare, had not mothered or raised children, had not attended high school or college, and had no training or experience as an educator. Yet Sarah Schenirer refused to be discouraged because she understood what the girls needed and persevered.

More importantly, she believed in what she was doing. However, intuitive to her community’s protocols, she understood that change from internal efforts can be more effective, and she refused to launch a school without the approval of at least one Torah leader. Schenirer’s brother wrote a note to the Belzer Rebbe¹¹ requesting a blessing for her plan to “educate Jewish daughters in the Jewish way.” With his response of “be blessed and successful”, she launched a school; however, it is speculated that the Rebbe did not understand the vagueness of the note as he prohibited his followers from enrolling¹². She worked hard and slowly gained support around Europe, although it took several years of high assimilation rates until other Orthodox Rabbinic leaders endorsed her schools, including Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1928), the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Meir Alter of Gur (1929), the Chafetz Chaim, Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohain (1933), and the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1934)¹³.

Sarah Schenirer overcame many obstacles to stop girls from religious homes from disconnecting from their faith. Her approach of providing the education methods needed in a specific era has been successfully applied over the generations, with the expansion of Orthodox girls’ schools to various directions that address the needs of diverse communities and changing times. She taught that it can be appropriate to fuse perspectives and ideas from different sectors to offer the best response for contemporary needs of Jewish girls. 

She also demonstrated that working from within is better than working from beyond, and even in the face of opposition it is better to persist and obtain the support of Torah leadership rather than circumvent it. Finally, she illustrated that you can step beyond outdated educational practices without abandoning personal religious beliefs, but it is the injection of excitement for Judaism that will connect girls to their faith. Her love for Hashem, Judaism, and her fellow Jewish people was demonstrated in her speech, behavior, and actions, inspiring not only her own generation but every generation since. With her unique approach, committed faith, and uncompromised determination, Sarah Schenirer transformed education for girls and pioneered change to save Orthodox Jewry.

¹ “Sarah Schenirer.” The Bais Yaakov Project, 2023, thebaisyaakovproject.religion.utoronto.ca/person/sarah-schenirer-2/.

² Weissman, Deborah and Naomi Seidman. “Sarah Schenirer.” Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 23 June 2021. Jewish Women’s Archive.

³ Ginsparg-Klein, Leslie. “A Traditional Revolutionary: Sarah Schenirer’s Legacy Revisited.” Jewish Action, Orthodox Union, 27 July 2020.

⁴ “Poland – History Background.” StateUniversity.Com, 2023, education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1209/Poland-History-Background.html#ixzz8DJc28ixY.

⁵ Seidman, Naomi. “Legitimizing the Revolution: Sarah Schenirer and the Rhetoric of Torah Study for Girls.” New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands, edited by Antony Polonsky et al., Academic Studies Press, 2018, pp. 356–65. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv7xbrh4.36.

⁶ Weissman, Deborah, and Naomi Seidman. “Sarah Schenirer.” Jewish Women’s Archive, June 2021, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/schenirer-sarah.

⁷ “Poland – History Background.”

⁸ Ginsparg-Klein, 2020.

⁹ Seidman, 2018.

¹⁰ Talmud, Sotah 20a.

¹¹ Rav Issacher Dov of Belz, 1854–1927.

¹² Weissman & Seidman, 2021.

¹³ Ginsparg-Klein, Leslie. “Sarah Schenirer and Innovative Change: The Myths and Facts – the Lehrhaus.” 12 Nov. 2019.