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Not long ago I sent out an email about the establishment of TIDE schools
in Lithuania during WW I. I learned about this from reading the book Ish
Yehudi, a biography of Rav Joseph Tzvi Carlebach, written by his son Rav
Shlomo Carlebach, former mashgiach of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. I
posted the section of the book that deals with this topic at <br><br>
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/carlebach/tide_lita.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/carlebach/tide_lita.pdf</a><br>
<br>
The December 2008 issue of the Jewish Observer contains a review of Ish
Yehudi written by Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer. The Editor of the
JO wrote an "introduction" to this review. In part he
wrote<br><br>
<font size=3>"This essay extracts from the book under review details
of the manner </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>in
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>which educational
methodologies of the great German school of <i>Torah im Derech Eretz were
</i>being introduced to be employed in the Lithuanian Yavneh and the
Polish Bais Yaakov school networks to combat the problems of the day.
This review has been reviewed by <i>gedolei Torah </i>and <i>roshei
yeshivos, </i>who confirmed the picture drawn by Rabbi Carlebach in
his new work, and who encouraged us to put his "new" historical
insights before our readership."<br><br>
The article describes how Rav Carlebach set up TIDE schools in certain
parts of Lithuania. <br><br>
"</font>The Yavneh system [these were TIDE schools - YL] was the
main Orthodox school system in the shortlived independent republic of
Lithuania.<sup> </sup>In the milieu created by this modern state, the
old-fashioned <font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>cheder </i>became
extinct." <br><br>
The footnote to this sentence says:<br><br>
</font>Heard from Reb Zalman Alpert, shlita, in the name of Rabbi
Tuvia Lasdun. <font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Reb Zalman also related to me
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>in
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>the name of his own rebbi,
Rabbi Shimon Romm, that the vibrant young Orthodoxy that flourished in
independent Lithuania between the wars was known as "Kovno
Orthodoxy" (A similar Orthodoxy existed in Latvia.)
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>It
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>was anchored by the yeshivos
of Slabodka, Telshe, Kelm and Ponovezh and the <i>gedolei Torah </i>that
the yeshivas produced, but in the larger community outside the yeshivos
it was dominated by <i>ba'alei battim </i>and movements such as the
Agudah. The rav of Kovno, Rabbi Avrohom Dovber Kahana-Shapira was
recognized as the leader of this Lithuanian Orthodoxy. By contrast, in
the part of Lithuania (Minsk, Slutzk, Bobruisk and east) that was annexed
by the USSR, religion was banned. Only Chabad managed to maintain
limited, underground Jewish education. The part of Lithuania (ViIna,
Lomza, Bialystok, and Brisk) that was annexed by Poland was also not as
affected by the <i>Torah im Derech Eretz </i>influence. By the outbreak
of the Second World War, with the exception of the <i>talmidim </i>of the
great yeshivos (and a relatively nascent network of schools founded by
<i>talmidim </i>of Novaradok), the youth of this region had been lost to
Orthodoxy. Only the Chassidim of the region - Chabad, Slonim and
Karlin-Stolin - fared somewhat better. Indicative of this trend is the
fact that in 1936, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Mon Shach took a position as
<i>rosh yeshiva </i>in the Karliner yeshiva in Luninets. <br><br>
The article also says:<br><br>
"With the approval of <i>gedolei Torah, </i>Rabbi Carlebach founded
a <i>Gymnasium </i>(the European term for an academic high school), based
on the German <i>Torah im Derech Eretz </i>model. Rabbi Carlebach brought
in highly qualified teachers from Germany to assist in the venture. Among
them was Dr. Leo Deutschlander, who later became famous for his enormous
contribution to the Bais Yaakov school system. The school became known
popularly as the Carlebach Gymnasium. By its third year of existence, it
enrolled one thousand boys and girls in separate schools. Its remarkable
accomplishments made a deep impression on the <i>gedolim </i>in
Lithuania, particularly on the <i>Rosh Hayeshiva </i>of the great yeshiva
of Telshe, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch. Rabbi Bloch invited Dr. Deutschlander,
in collaboration with Rabbi Carlebach, to found the network of similar
schools that came to be known as 'Yavneh.'<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>"</font>T<font size=3>he
network included separate teachers' seminaries for men and women in
Kovno, </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Gymnasiums </i>in
Kovno, Telshe, and Ponovezh, and approximately one hundred elementary
schools - all of which brought the <i>chinuch </i>methodology of 'Western
Europe to Eastern Europe. Yavneh was intertwined with Zeirei Agudas
Yisroel, and it was mostly the idealistic Agudist young men and women who
served as the leaders and teachers of the Yavneh system. <br><br>
</font>"Leafing through the extraordinarily impressive pages of
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Hane'eman </i>also impresses upon
one the extent to which the Lithuanian yeshiva world embraced elements of
the German Jewish <i>derech."<br><br>
</i>All of this flies in the face of what I have been told, namely, that
Lithuanian gedolim were opposed to the study of virtually all secular
subjects, period. It is indeed true that in almost all of the yeshiva
gedolos there were no formal secular subjects taught. However, during
this period both Lithuanian boys and girls attended elementary and high
schools that included both limudei kodesh and limudei chol, just as most
of our youth do today!<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<i>Yitzchok Levine</font></i></body>
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