Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
The Pittsburgh Council on Jewish Education was a centralized agency intended to raise the standard of religious education for Jewish youth in Pittsburgh.
The United Jewish Fund formed the Council on Jewish Education in 1951 to implement the recommendations of the Self-Study on Jewish Education. It initially consisted of 56 delegates from Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Beth El Congregation, Congregation Beth Shalom, B’nai B’rith, B’nai B’rith Women, B’nai Emunoh Congregation, B’nai Israel Congregation, Hapoel Mizrachi, the Hebrew Institute, the Hebrew Teachers Association, Hillel Academy, Pioneer Women, Shaare Torah Congregation, Temple Sinai, Tree of Life Congregation, Yeshiva Achei T’mimim, the YM&WHA, and the Pittsburgh District of the Zionist Organization of America. The council also included 25 at-large representatives from the wider Jewish community and 19 ex-officio rabbis and school principals. Judge Benajmin Lencher was appointed president, and Dr. Aharon Kessler of the American Association for Jewish Education was hired as executive director.
Over the next two years, Kessler met monthly with educators from the three largest Jewish movements at the time, formed a Principal’s Council and a United Parent-Teacher Association, arranged a series of seminars for local educators, and formed an employment bureau to help hire teachers for area religious schools. The United PTA also published a current events newsletter for children called “Window on the World.”
The Council on Jewish Education was ultimately unable to transcend the divisions with the local community. In December 1953, it sponsored the College of Jewish Studies, which evolved over the next 15 years into the School of Advanced Jewish Studies.
Bibliography
Rauh Jewish Archives
Collections
- School of Advanced Jewish Studies Records [MFF 2040] (catalog record).
- Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Records [MSS 287] (catalog record).
University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections
Oral histories
- Aharon Kessler oral history, 1983, from National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section Records [AIS1664.40] (online).
Exhibit History
- Author: Eric Lidji
- Created: May 16, 2024
- Current: May 16, 2024