The Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary was a controversial

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

state-sponsored institution to train

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish teachers and rabbis, located in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. The school opened in 1847 with two divisions: a

rabbinical school A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are stud ...

and a teachers' seminary. The Rabbinical School was closed in 1873 and the Teachers' Seminary closed in 1914. The school taught secular studies, unlike the traditional

cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...

s and

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

s. This new curriculum, as well as the government control, made the school "unpopular."

Curriculum

The school taught

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. T ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

, world history, Russian history, Russian language, geography, and handwriting and drawing.

History

Rabbi

Yisroel Salanter Yisrael ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, also known as "Israel Salanter" or "Yisroel Salanter" (November 3, 1809, Zhagory – February 2, 1883, Königsberg), was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist. ...

, a major figure of the

Mussar movement The Musar movement (also Mussar movement) is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term (), is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1: ...

who then lived in Vilna, was pressured to lead the seminary. Rather than accept the position, Salanter fled to

Kovno Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

, even though Rabbi

Yitzhak of Volozhin Yitzhak of Volozhin (also known as Rabbi Yitzhak ben Chaim of Volozhin, Rabbi Itsele Volozhiner, and HagRIts; 1780 – 16 June 1849) was a rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva. Biography Yitzhak was born in 1780 in Volozhin, Polish–Lithuania ...

encouraged him to take the position. In 1872, a secret

Narodnik The Narodniks (russian: народники, ) were a politically conscious movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, ...

study group was formed by Aaron Zundelevich.

Vladimir Jochelson Vladimir Ilyich Jochelson (russian: Владимир Ильич Иохельсон) (January 14 ( N.S. January 26), 1855, Vilnius - November 2, 1937, New York City) was a Russian ethnographer and researcher of the indigenous peoples of the Russian ...

was a member of this group.

Faculty and students

Many prominent

maskilim The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

studied or taught in the school. Notable faculty included: * Leibele Antokolier (a.k.a. Arieh-Leib b. Akiba Luria, "The Keidan Genius") * Shmuel Yosef Feunn (author, maskil, and educator) * Aaron Samuel Liebermann * Solomon Salkind (1806 – March 14, 1868), author of Shirim li-Shelomoh, Kol Shelomoh, and Shema Shelomoh. Notable students included: *

, Russian

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Weblinks

Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary 1847-187
''The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections'' Original documents (Russian) on vilnacollections.yivo.org

References

External links

The Jews of Vilna at the Beginning of the 20th Century
on the

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

website {{Judaism-org-stub Jewish seminaries Orthodox Jewish educational institutions Haskalah Judaism-related controversies Jews and Judaism in the Russian Empire Judaism in Vilnius Educational institutions established in 1847 Educational institutions disestablished in 1914 1847 establishments in the Russian Empire