General information
Jewish community before 1989 – Education
Polska / małopolskie
As there was no Jewish public school in Wadowice, children received private lessons in cheders. We know that in 1900 there were two cheders[1.1] in Wadowice, in 1910–1914 a teacher by the name of Redner conducted lessons here, and for some time after his death there was no person that could take over the responsibility of teaching the youngest Jews. There were also two yeshivas in the town. The first one, Eic Chaim, belonged to the Bobowa Chasidim and was a branch of a yeshiva located in Bobowa. The cleverest students arrived in Wadowice to conduct examinations among the local students taught by teachers from Myślenice. Radom Rabbi Henoch Szlomo Rabinowicz established the other yeshiva – Keter Torah. Girls received education from only one woman named Bubele[1.2] whose real name was Silberochuetz. She taught reading and writing in Hebrew and all young Jewesses in Wadowice had these abilities. Due to a private initiative, a religious school for girls Beit Yakkov was set up in 1938 and its goal was to complete the knowledge acquired by the students in the public school with information on Jewish history and culture. The students from this school delivered plays in Yiddish, too. The headquarters of the school was the Has’s hotel. In the school, there was also a kindergarten for girls from religious homes. A kindergarten for all Jewish children was situated on 3 Maja Street and its pupils performed plays which gained a lot of popularity.
Together with their Christian peers Jewish children attended all Wadowice elementary schools, a junior secondary school and an industrial school. For obvious reasons, they were only missing in the schools run by Catholic orders. As early as 1888/89, approximately 16 of 253 students in the Wadowice junior secondary school were Jewish[1.3]. A number of Jews attended the M. Wadowita Boy’s Elementary School – in 1893/94, out of a total of 400 students, 86 were Jewish, in 1906/07 – 55 of 333, and at the turn of the centuries 25% of the students from the girl’s school were Jewish, too[1.4]. Until the end of the 19th century, no religious instruction was provided in public schools. Every six months students had examinations checked by the kehilla representative who sent the results to the school. Religious instruction was introduced in 1900. Dr. Chaim Reiter was the longest-teaching teacher who taught in almost all Wadowice schools between the years 1906–1939. Dr. Ozjasz Frost taught in an elementary girl’s school. According to the regulations that were in force in contemporary education, Jewish students were exempted from lessons on Sundays, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, Lag Ba-Omer and Shavuot[1.5].
There were two Jewish kehilla’s foundations from the years 1873 and 1875 and both were intended for scholarships for Wadowice junior secondary school’s students, irrespective of religion[1.6].
In the period of intensified tensions in the political arena, anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the Wadowita School. There were cases of beating and assaults not only on fellow students but also on other members of the Jewish community. In 1932–1939, the Teachers’ Council often reduced conduct grades as the result of “anti-Semitic fights”. In other schools, and especially in the junior secondary school such problems did not exist[1.7].
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[1.1] Michalewicz, Jerzy. Żydowskie okręgi metrykalne i żydowskie gminy wyznaniowe w Galicji, Kraków 1995, p. 177.
[1.2] According to the memories of Malka Weiner [in:] Księga pamiątkowa gmin żydowskich Wadowic, Andrychowa, Kalwarii i Myślenic, red. D. Jakubowicz, Tel Aviv 1968, p. 31
[1.3] Data qtd. in: Sprawozdanie dyrekcyi c.k. gimnazjum w Wadowicach za rok szkolny 1889 (Report of the principals board of the imperial and royal Gimnazyum (junior secondary school) in Wadowice for the school year 1889), p. 62.
[1.4] Stadnicki, Gustaw. Z dziejów oświaty i szkolnictwa w Wadowicach do roku 1939 [in:] Wadowice. Studia z dziejów miasta, Wadowice 1997, p. 184.
[1.5] Michalewicz, Jerzy. Żydowskie okręgi metrykalne i żydowskie gminy wyznaniowe w Galicji, Kraków 1995, p.59.
[1.6] Michalewicz, Jerzy.Żydowskie okręgi metrykalne..., p.187.
[1.7] Stadnicki, Gustaw. [in:] Wadowice. Studia z dziejów miasta, Wadowice 1997, p. 184.
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