Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement

Naomi Seidman is the Chancellor Jackman Professor in the Arts at the University of Toronto. She was previously the Koret Professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016. Her previous books include Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation (2006) and The Marriage Plot; or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature (2016).

• IntroductionPART ONE. Reading Bais Yaakov1. ‘In a Place Where There Are No Men’: Before Bais Yaakov2. ‘A New Thing that Our Ancestors Never Imagined’: Beginnings (1917–1924)3. ‘Building Bais Yaakov’: Institution and Charisma4. ‘So Shall You Say to the House of Jacob’: Forging the Discourse of Bais Yaakov5. ‘A New Kind of Woman’: Bais Yaakov as Traditionalist Revolution‘Bais Yaakov, Let Us Walk in the Light of the Lord’: Destruction and RebirthPART TWO. Collected Writings of Sarah SchenirerI. Pages from My LifeII. Bais Yaakov and Bnos Agudath IsraelIII. The Jewish YearIV. Jewish Women’s Lives: The Sacred Obligations of the Jewish WomanV. Ten Letters to Jewish ChildrenVI. A Letter from Mrs Schenirer, May Peace Be Upon HerVII. With Perseverance and Faith: From Kraków to New YorkAppendicesA. Sarah Schenirer’s DiaryB. Sarah Schenirer’s Family TreeC. Map of Sarah Schenirer’s KrakówD. Maps of Bais Yaakov Schools, 1935E. The Bnos Agudath Israel AnthemBibliographyIndex

'Naomi Seidman is uniquely qualified to write the definitive biography of Sarah Schenirer... Seidman portrays Schenirer as a learned, charismatic educator, worthy of being taken seriously in the field of modern Jewish thought... I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Jewish women’s education or allied fields.'Debbie Weissman, Nashim