Rabbi Gedaliah Silverstone's Sermon Against Family Pews in Adas Israel

Rabbi Gedaliah Silverstone was a leader of the Orthodox Jewish community of Washington, DC in the first half of the 20th century. He was brought into the community to serve as the chief rabbi of the combined orthodox congregations in 1906 and was charged with organizing Kashrut certification of the city. Soon thereafter he was employed directly by a few of the Orthodox congregations of the city. In the 1920s he worked as the rabbi of the Tifereth Israel congregation and continued to be involved in Kashrut certification. Rabbi Silverstone also published many pamphlets of his sermons throughout his decades. Most of the sermons are not context specific, but in his volume Devar Shalom, published in 1923, he includes some sermons responding to "reforms" within the Adas Israel synagogue. Adas Israel was the first orthodox synagogue in the city. It broke away from Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1869, when Washington Hebrew began moving towards reform. 

By the 1920s, Adas Israel was drifting closer to what would become the Convervative movement. There are few details in the published literature about the exact nature of this drift towards Conservative Judaism. The sermon I have transcribed and translated below is introduced as if he delivered it in Adas Israel itself. The text we have is not a transcript of an unbiased party, it is likely based on the notes that Rabbi Silverstone prepared for his talk. We cannot know exactly what he said to the assembled congregation of Adas Israel. This text tells us what Rabbi Silverstone's ideal speech would have been. It also tells us that there was clearly conflict within the synagogue, such that there was a faction of more orthodox congregants who wanted an Orthodox rabbi to address the community. 

The sermon itself contains references to some practices that the orthodox community considered to be reforms that went too far. Silverstone frames family pews as the impetus for his invitation to speak. He also references a practice of the rabbi of the synagogue leading the mourners in Kaddish, since many of them were not confident enough to recite it on their own. He also mentions the late Friday night "second" Sabbath service to which many people would drive their cars. These details may shed a little more light on the process of Adas Israel's shift from Orthodox to Conservative Judaism.  

דבר שלום 1923

ז.

דרוש חטאת הקהל

מה שאמרתי בבית הכנסת עדת ישראל שהפּרעזידענט רצה שיתפללו אנשים ונשים יחדיו.

כתיב בתורה (ויקרא ד') ואם כל עדת ישראל ישגו ונעלם דבר מעיני הקהל ועשו אחת מכל מצות ה' אשר לא תעשינה ואשמו.

רבותי! הבית הכנסת שנקרא עדת ישראל ששגו ורוצים שיתפללו אנשים ונשים יחדיו אשר זה מכל מצות ה' אשר לא תעשינה שאנו יודעים אשר זה רעפאָרם, אשר על זה יצאו באיסור גמור כל אגודת הרבּנים אשר טוב יותר שלא יבואו להתפלל כלל, וע"ז אמר ישעיה הנביא, מי ביקש זאת מידכם רמוס חצרי.

ומי הוא זה ואיזה הוא אשר מלאו לבו ורוצה לעשות בית הכנסת עדת ישראל לריפאָרם זה הוא הפ"ר, כלומר הפּרעזידענט ורעיתו. ע"כ תעשו בית הכנסת עדת ישראל מה דכתיב בפרשה זו והוציא את הפ"ר אל מחוץ למחנה... חטאת הקהל הוא.

ועליכם אנשי בּית הכנסת עדת ישראל אשר כולכם אתם מערי יהודה מרוסיא ופוילען אנשי בני קאַלוואריע פּאָניוועו בּיאליסטאָק וכהנה.

אדבר כעת אליכם קודם נסיעתי לארץ הק' כמו אליהו הנביא (מלכים א' י"ח) עד מתי אתם פסחים על שתי הסעיפים אם ה' האלהים לכו אחריו ואם הבעל לכו אחריו ותלכו לריפאָרם טעמפּעל...

כי בּית הכנסת כזה אשר הוא ריפאָרם למחצה או לשליש או לרביע, הוא יותר גרוע מריפאָרם כולה. כי לריפאָרם הכל יודעים להזהר מהם ואינם בכלל יהודים אָרטהאָדאָקסים ובכ"ז אתם בּאים בליל שב"ק בשעה השמינית להתפלל תפילה שניה, ואתם באים בליל שבּת רוכבים באטאָמאָבּילים כדי לשמוע דרשת הרבּי... אתם מחללים שבּת בפרהסיא כדי לבוא לשמוע מוסר מהרבּי... שומו שמים שזה הוא כטובל ושרץ בידו...

ועוד דבר אחר אשר המשיך להביא את בני הנערים בבית הכנסת לומר קדיש אחר אביהם ואמם, והקדיש הזה הוא יקר בּעיניהם מאד וגם דבר זה תיקן הפ"ר...

אשר הרבּי יאמר הקדיש, והם אומרים אחריו בקול נמוך אשר אסור להשמיע את קולם לענות אמן, ואינם אומרים קדיש אחרי הוריהם רק אחרי הרבּי... וטעם כמוס להם מפני שרשעים בחייהם קרוים מתים, והמת עצמו עומד לנגדם ולכן הם אומרים קדיש אחריו... *)

וכל עיקר הענין שצריכים הרבּי בבית הכנסת שלכם, הוא רק לעשות ולתקן ענינים של ריפאָרם.

ואמרתי בזה מאמר חז"ל (סנהדרין צ"ז א') דור שבן דוד בא בו נערים ילבּינו פני זקנים ופני הדור כפּני הכלב. ואמרתי שדרכו של כלב לרוץ לפני אדונו. ואף שאינו יודע הדרך, אבל כשיבוא לשביל דרכים, שדרך אחד פונה לימין ודרך אחד לשמאל, אז יביט הכלב להיכין אדונו יפסיע רגליו אם לימין אז הכלב ירוץ לפניו דרך ימין. ואם אדונו יפסיע דרך שמאל אז הכלב ירוץ לפניו דרך שמאל.

כן פּני הדור של הרבּייס הללו שהם ככלבים אשר ירוצו לפני בעליהם ויביטו רק על פּרנסיהם ומנהיגיהם לראות אם רצוים דבריהם מנהגיהם ומעשיהם בעיניהם או לא. ורק מה שהפּרעזידענט או רעיתו הכבודה... זה יאמרו וזה יוכיחו לפני קהלם אם המנהיג חפץ לעקר איזה עיקרים של דתינו כמו להתפלל אנשים ונשים יחדיו, או שהרבי יאמר הקדיש בעצמו בעד כל האבלים, והם האבלים יאמרו בחשאי אשר גם מלאכים לא יוכלו לשמוע, יהיה לא הדבר קל מאד. הוא צריך רק לומר להרבי שלו יוכל להיות בטוח כי הרבּי יעשה את השאר, ויען כי אין להם חיזוק מעצמם כי אין להם תורה ויראה, ואם יראה להיכן הפּרעזידענט רוצה לילך אז הוא ירוץ לפניו ככלב.

ע"כ לדעתי החוב קדוש מוטל על האגודת הרבּנים דאמעריקא לצאת במחאה גדולה נגדם, ולצאת בקול קורא לאמר, שכל בּתי כנסיות שמתפללים נשים ואנשים ביחד הם ריפאָרמים גמורים ואסור לאיש ארטהאָדאָקסי להתפלל עמהם.

וע"ז אמר המלך שלמה במשלי א' שמע בני מוסר אביך ואל תטש תורת אמך.

*) וראיתי צחות נאה בשם הגה"צ ר' ישראל מוויזניטץ שפּעם אחד שאל רבּי רעפאָרמי מרב אָרטהאָדאָקסי מדוע שנאתם אותנו הלא אב אחד לכולנו ואל אחד בראנו ומדוע נבגד איש באחיו, ויענה לו הגה"צ ז"ל הן אמת כי "אב" אחד לכלנו, וויר האָבּען אאיין "פאָטער" אָבּער איין "מוטער" האָבּען מיר ניט. דען וואָס בּיי אייך איז "מותר" איז בּיי אונז "אסור"... 

Devar Shalom 1923

7.

Sermon on the Sin of the Community

What I said in Congregation Adas Israel when the president wanted men and women to pray together. 

It is written in the Torah (Leviticus 4) “If the whole assembly of Israel (Adas Israel) errs and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the community, and they do one of the commandments of the Lord that must not be done and they are guilty.”

Gentlemen! Your synagogue which is called Adas Israel has erred and wants men and women to pray together which is one of the commandments of the Lord that must not be done, since we know that it is reform that for which all the Union of Orthodox Rabbis has come out against, that it is better not to come to pray at all, and on this Isaiah the prophet said, “Who requested this from your hands the trampling of my courtyard.”

Who was the one that made up his mind and desired to make the congregation Adas Israel into reform, it was the “par” (bull), meaning the president and his wife. Therefore, the congregation Adas Israel must do what is written in this parsha, “Take the “par” (bull) outside the camp . . . it is the sin of the community.

It is your responsibility members of congregation Adas Israel which all of you are from the Jewish cities of Russia and Poland sons of Kalvaria, Ponivezh, Bialostok and the like. 

I speak now to you before my journey to the holy land like Elijah the prophet (I Kings 18) ‘How long can you hover over the two thresholds. If it’s the Lord God follow him and if it’s Baal follow him and go to a reform temple. . . 

Because a synagogue like this that is half reform or a third or a quarter is worse than fully reform. Because for reform everyone knows to be cautious of them and they are not at all Orthodox Jews. And with all this you come on the Sabbath night during the eighth hour to pray a second prayer, and you come on the Sabbath night driving in automobiles in order to hear the sermon of the rabbi . . . you are desecrating the Sabbath in public in order to hear ethics from the rabbi . . . The Heavens are desolate since this is like immersing with a rodent in hand . . . 

And another thing which continues to bring the youth into the synagogue to say Kaddish for their fathers and mothers. This Kaddish is very precious in their eyes and this thing too was instituted by the “par” (president/bull) . . .

That the rabbi recites the Kaddish and they repeat after him in a quiet voice that is impossible to hear their voice to answer Amen. And they are not saying Kaddish after their parents but after the rabbi. . . The reason is hidden from them because the wicked are called dead while they are still alive, and the corpse itself is standing before them and therefore they say Kaddish after him . . . *) 

[In the previous paragraph RGS is trying to be clever. The mourners’ Kaddish is recited by children on behalf of their parents. The phrase RGS uses is “to say Kaddish after their fathers and mothers” but it means on behalf. The phrase “to say after” can also mean to repeat, so he makes a play on words in which the young people in the synagogue are not just repeating after the rabbi to say Kaddish, they are also saying Kaddish on the rabbi’s behalf. Even though the rabbi is still alive, he can be considered dead because he is wicked, so the young people in the synagogue can be saying Kaddish on the rabbi’s behalf. It’s not really that funny, but I think it needs to be explained because he is intentionally insulting the rabbi in an obtuse manner.]

The entire reason that one needs a rabbi in your synagogue is to create and implement matters of reform. 

I relayed a statement of our sages of blessed memory on this (Sanhedrin 97a) ‘In the generation in which the son of David comes, the youth will humiliate the elders . . . and the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog.” I said that the manner of a dog is to run before its master even though it does not know the way. But when the dog reaches a fork in the road, that one way turns to the right and the other way to the left, then the dog will look to where its master steps his feet, if to the right then the dog will run in front of him on the righthand path. And if his master steps to the path on the left, then the dog will run in front of him to the lefthand path.

So is the face of the generation of these rabbis that they are like dogs that will run in front of their owners and look only on their benefactors and directors to see if their words, customs, and actions are desired in their eyes or not. But what the president or his honorable wife . . . This will state and this will prove in front of the community if the director desires to uproot these fundamentals of our religion, like to have men and women pray together, or that the rabbi recites Kaddish himself on behalf of the mourners, and those mourners recite it so quietly that even the angels cannot hear, the matter would be very easy. He needs only to say to his rabbi, he can be certain that the rabbi will do the rest. Because they don’t have any strength of their own, because they do not have Torah and fear [of heaven], and if he sees where the president wants to go, then he will run in front of him like a dog. 

Therefore in my opinion, there is a holy obligation placed on the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America to publish a great protest against them, and to publish an announcement saying that all synagogues in which men and women pray together are fully reform and it is forbidden for an Orthodox man to pray with them.

On this King Solomon said in Proverbs 1, “Listen my son to the ethics of your father and do not abandon the instruction of your mother.”

*) And I saw a nice joke in the name of the treasured saint rabbi Yisrael of Vizhnitz that one time a reform rabbi asked an orthodox rabbi, why do you hate us, do we not share on father and one God created us, so why does a man betray his brother? The treasured saint of blessed memory answered him, it is true that we all share a father, we have one father but one mother (muter) we do not have. Therefore, what for you is permitted (mutar) is for us forbidden . . .

The Immoral Message of the Film 'East and West' (1923)

I have recently watched the 1923 silent Yiddish film East and West. You can find it on YouTube with bilingual title cards.

The premise of the movie is what happens when an American born Jewish girl, named Molly Brown, vists her Orthodox cousins back in Galicia in the Austrian empire. She engages in some shenanegans including eating on Yom Kippur and teaching the synagogue choir boys an American song and dance. 

The main conflict of the story begins when Molly wants to do a mock wedding with her cousins. At the time, her cousins' family had been hosting Yankel, a Yeshiva Bochur, for meals. The mock wedding needed a groom, so they forced Yankel to be the groom. Molly wanted him to go through all the motions of a marriage including putting the ring on her finger. Yankel understood that giving her the ring would constitute a halachic marriage, but he had developed a crush on her and allowed himself to be forced to do it. 

Yankel refuses to give her a divorce, and is ostracized by the community. He tells Molly that she should find him in Vienna in five years. Yankel moves to live with his secular uncle in Vienna. He gets a secular education and becomes an aclaimed author. When Molly returns to Vienna, she unknowingly meets her legal husband at one of his book talks in which he was appearing under a pseudonym. He starts actively courting her using his pseudonym and she falls in love with him. Molly thinks they cannot start a committed relationship, since she was married and is an Agunah. Then Yankel reveals himself to her and she is happy that they can be together, and the movie ends happily ever after. 

I find it thought provoking how Molly as a character engages in gender role inversion. In her role in the play as the super Americanized girl, she boxes for fun. When the cook rats her out for eating the break fast meal on Yom Kippur, she tries to get her revenge by socking the cook. 

Later she dresses up like the other members of the all-male synagogue choir and tries to join them when they perform at her cousin's engagement party. 

(In these instances when Molly does somethings wrong, she gets a patsh. It's not pleasant to observe even fictional children on screen being hit. Those scenes are meant to played for laughs.)

In her last moment of gender inversion, she basically forces Yankel to marry her. He knows he shouldn't perform the marriage and all the men watching the mock wedding tell him not to, but Molly encourages him. She forced him to be at this mock wedding in the first place. After she learns what happened, she blames herself for forcing Yankel to marry her. 

The first inversions are played for laughs. It's simply funny to see a woman doing something that a man would normally do. The same kind of way gay men are often just played for laughs in more recent cinema. The final inversion of gender roles at the mock weddding results in tragedy. You could read the mock wedding scene as the limitation of acceptible gender inversion. This is when it goes too far, and she gets into real trouble. 

The overall message of the second act of the movie is very problematic. It is essentially a manifestation of the fantasy of men who refuse to divorce their wives. In Jewish law, only the initiative of the man can lead to a divorce. If a man wants to abuse his ex-wife after they have already separated, he can withhold the divorce and prevent her from getting remarried. A woman in this situation is known as an Agunah, someone who is chained. 

Yankel turns Molly into an Agunah when he refuses to divorce her. Molly's father calls him a scoundrel. The rabbi of the community orders him to divroce Molly, so the Jewish community rises up against him and he is forced into exile. The community mob is framed as mindlessly following the rabbi's orders. As if wanting to free an Agunah itself is a backwards practice. (Granted, you can criticize Orthodox Jewish marriage law as backwards. In my opinion the movie is pretty neutral about Jewish marriage law itself.)

Then Yankel runs away for five years. He spends these five years fixing himself up to be attractive to his imagination of who he thinks Molly is. Yankel barely knew Molly before he married her. He just happened to be in the house when they were doing the Mock wedding. He makes himself secular, because he knows Molly is an American girl. He makes himself into a famous author, because he knows she enjoys reading books. 

When she meets Yankel, she falls for him. He guessed correctly. Then when he reveals himself to be her abuser, she is happy and stays in love with him. Her happy acceptance of his true identity does not make any sense. She wouldn't have known that he was serious about waiting the five years. A regular person would have assumed he was just stalling to refuse again later or to simply disappear and leave her chained forever. 

It is unbelievable that the moment Yankel reveals himself to Molly after the five years, she doesn't at least slap him across the face. She certainly should have refused to continue the relationship now that she knows that he was who made her into an Agunah. Instead she's happy and kisses him. This is the fantasy of a get refuser. That if they keep withholding the divorce, maybe they can repair the relationship, and everyone can live happily ever after. 

It's a fun movie to watch. At the same time the moral of the story is a justification for abuse that ignores the agency of women. It is a fantasy that continued abuse can result in a happy conclusion.

The Bais Yaakov School of Washington, DC

The Orthodox Jewish community of the Greater Washington, DC area does not have a Bais Yaakov school. This lack of a Bais Yaakov high school was not an inevitability. During the post-war efforts to rebuild eastern-European orthodox Judaism in the United States, a young rabbinic couple attempted to build a Bais Yaakov in the District of Columbia. The husband, Yisrael Orlansky, was born in Poland in 1929¹ and fled to Lithuania with his family as Poland was about to be invaded. When the USSR captured Lithuania, they were sent into exile in Siberia for the duration of the war.² The wife, Rachel Finkel, was born in Germany in 1929, and she survived the Nazi concentration camps.³

After coming to the United States, Yisrael Orlansky studied in the Mirrer Yeshiva in New York and attained Semicha in 1949.⁴ There he met Rachel Finkel, and they married in 1949. The couple moved to Washington, DC in 1950 to work in Jewish education.

At first, the Orlanskys lived in an apartment at 1502 P St. NW, which was in the heart of the old Jewish community of Washington, DC. In the 1950 census, Yisrael Orlansky reported that he worked as a Hebrew Teacher at a private school, and Rachel Orlansky reported that she worked as a kindergarten teacher for a private school.⁵ They may have been working at the Hebrew Academy of Washington or at one of the Orthodox synagogues’ Hebrew schools in the area.

In October 1953, the couple bought a house at 222 Jefferson St. NW,⁶ which was closer to where many of the Orthodox synagogues had had been moving as their communities moved towards the suburbs. In the following year, fall of 1954, Rachel Orlansky opened a Nursery school in that house.⁷ The couple planned to develop this nursery school into a Bais Yaakov school for girls. Rachel Orlansky was working with Gittel Kaufman, the wife of Rabbi Harry J. Kaufman, rabbi of the Beth Sholom Talmud Torah Congregation.

In Fall 1955, Rachel Orlansky and Gittel Kaufman opened a kindergarten class for their new Beth Jacob School of Washington. Classes for the Nursery and Kindergarten may have been held in 702 Jefferson St. NW or 4904 Georgia Ave. NW.⁸ The sources from Fall 1955 conflict. The school’s business address was the Orlansky’s house, at 222 Jefferson St. NW. The kindergarten and pre-school classes were most likely co-ed classes that admitted both boys and girls. A 1958 registration advertisement describes the kindergarten and pre-school classes as “for boys and girls.”⁹

In the next academic year, the school added a first-grade class. This first grade class was only for girls in accordance with the general mission of Beth Jacob Schools to education Jewish girls.¹⁰ To signify the young school’s growth from a nursery school to an elementary school, they inaugurated the first board of directors in November 1956. A representative from the National Association of Hebrew Day schools, Rabbi Meir Belski, spoke at the ceremony. The ceremony was held in the Talmud Torah synagogue on 16th Street and Emerson.¹¹

As the school expanded into the elementary grades, it needed to take on more staff. Hannah Auerbach, the daughter of a rabbi in Alexanderia, and a student at George Mason University, taught at the Beth Jacob School in the Fall of 1957.¹² Like Rachel Orlansky, Hannah Auerbach was a refugee from Europe. When she was a baby, Auerbach fled Nazi Germany with her parents after Kristallnacht.¹³

In the Fall 1957 semester, the Beth Jacob School added a second-grade class. In September 1957, the school acquired a house at 1501 Gallatin Street NW to be used as a school building.¹⁴

The Beth Jacob School helped organize a dinner to honor a long time Jewish educator, Leib Eisenberg, for his 84th birthday.¹⁵ The articles associated with this celebration described him as a founder of the Beth Jacob school.¹⁶

In the summer of 1958, the Beth Jacob School ran a day camp.¹⁷ If things went well during the summer of 1958, the advertisement for camp registration would be the only piece of evidence that this camp even existed. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and produced news reports.

On July 31, 1958, Louis Kosberg, a driver employed by the Beth Jacob School, was driving 11 children home after day camp. He had already dropped off two children when he reached the intersection of Peabody Street and Georgia Avenue.¹⁸ Kosberg was heading east along Peabody Street with 9 children in his station wagon. He stopped at the stop sign before attempting to cross Georgia Avenue. The southbound traffic was backed up through the intersection, so he waited until someone gave him room pass through. Kosberg did not initially see anyone coming in the northbound direction, so he continued driving into the intersection.

Kenneth Buck was heading north on Georgia Avenue in his sedan at around 30 miles per hour. When both drivers noticed each other, Kosberg tried to accelerate out of the intersection and Buck slammed on the breaks. Kosberg could not accelerate fast enough, and Buck’s breaks did not slow him down in time. Buck’s sedan plowed right into the rear-right corner of the station wagon sending it spinning around. The three children seated in the rear facing bench of the station wagon were flung out of the car and sustained severe head injuries. Two of the three children died of their injuries, while the third recovered.¹⁹

Though this car crash was a terrible and saddening incident, the news reporting on it provides a glimpse into what kind of people were sending their children to the Beth Jacob School. The news reporting on the story provided the identities of all the passengers of the station wagon at the time of the crash. The two children who died were siblings 8-year-old Phyllis and 4-year-old Samuel Goldfeder. Their father, Harold Goldfeder, owned a pharmacy. Two of Yisrael and Rachel Orlansky’s children were in the car, 4-year-old Joseph Chaim and 5-year-old Moshe. Joseph Chaim was the third child thrown out of the back seat of the station wagon, but he recovered from his head injury and survived the crash. 4-year-old Irit Barak the daughter of the second secretary of the Israeli Embassy, Baruch Barak, was also in the car. 6-year-old Ira Davis, son of Rabbi Albert Joseph Davis, the rabbi of Ohev Shalom and previously the director of Bais Yaakov of Baltimore. The last three children for whom I could not determine the profession of their parents were 8-year-old Pamela Friedman and siblings 7-year-old Karen and 4-year-old Eddie Karl.²⁰

This carpool is by no means a representative sample of the 60 or so students who had been attending the Beth Jacob School in the previous academic year. Nor were all these students at the day camp necessarily students at the school the rest of the year. We can divide up these students by gender, age, and background. There were three girls in the carpool who were 7 or 8 years old. These are girls who could have attended the first and second grade classes at the Beth Jacob School in the 1957–1958 academic year. There were five boys and one girl between 4 to 6 years old. These six children could have attended the pre-school or kindergarten class in the previous academic year.

Six children’s parents were laymen and three came from rabbinic homes. One child was the daughter of an Israeli diplomat. To this day, Israeli diplomats have continued to send them children to the Jewish day schools in the area.

Though the car crash was horrific and tragic, the Beth Jacob School of Washington opened for classes in Fall 1958. The school was now offering pre-school and kindergarten classes for boys and girls and first through third grade classes for girls. The school took on Rabbi Simcha Sterzer as an administrator. In November 1958, Rabbi Simcha Sterzer hosted a television program in which students at the Beth Jacob School sang Hanukkah songs.²¹ Sterzer also served as a cantor for the high holidays at the Young Israel Shomrei Emunah synagogue in 1958–1961.²²

Over the course of the 1958-59 academic year, the Beth Jacob School had been renovating its building on 1501 Gallatin Street NW. The school hosted a dedication ceremony on June 7, 1959. As part of the ceremony, the school stated that it had grown to 100 students over the course of the five years of its existence.²³

In October 1959, the school appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to allow the Beth Jacob School of Washington to establish “a day school consisting of nursery and kindergarten and all elementary grades.”²⁴ I’m not familiar with the legal environment of Washington, DC at the time. The Beth Jacob School had been operating out 1501 Gallatin Street NW since 1957. It took them two years before they appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to have a permit to operate a school in a residential area. I don’t know if they were granted an adjustment after this appeal.

The Beth Jacob School of Washington reopened for the 1959–1960 academic year after they had renovated their house at 1501 Gallatin Street NW. I do not know if they were able to expand to have a fourth-grade class in 1959–1960, but as I will explain later there is reason to suspect they did not expand beyond third grade.

In January 1960, the PTA of the Beth Jacob School held a fundraising ‘package party.’ The announcement for the event described the event. “Admission will be by package. A gay evening of auctioning, door prizes, blintzes and other delicacies.”²⁵

In June 1960, the Beth Jacob School began to appeal for funds to close its budget deficit. Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky claimed that 40% percent of his 100 students were receiving tuition assistance.²⁶ The school also needed to fund renovations to its facility to comply with local regulations for schools. These pressures created a $10,000 gap in the budget.²⁷

Despite the budget difficulties the Beth Jacob School opened for the 1960–1961 academic year.²⁸ The parent teacher association of the Beth Jacob School held another package party fundraising event in February 1961.²⁹ In March 1961, the school hosted a Purim party for which the nursery and kindergarten performed a Purim play.³⁰

At the end of the 1960–1961 academic year, the Beth Jacob school appealed to Board of Zoning Adjustment once again. In this appeal, the Beth Jacob school only asked to create a school spanning pre-school through third grade for 60 students.³¹ This was a less ambitious appeal than the October 1959 appeal. The fact that the school anticipated having third grade as the highest grade in the school in 1961 implies that the school was unable to expand beyond third grade in 1959 and 1960.

The Beth Jacob School of Washington did not survive the summer of 1961. On July 28, 1961, the Beth Jacob school sold its building at 1501 Gallatin Street NW.³² The school did not reopen for the 1961–1962 academic year. The short period of its operation has faded from the communal memory of the Greater Washington Jewish community.

Rabbi Yisrael and Rachel Orlansky left Washington, DC after their Beth Jacob school closed. They sold their house at 222 Jefferson Street NW in August 1961.³³ By the mid-1960s the Orlansky family was living in Brooklyn. Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky worked as the Assistant Principal of the Bais Yaakov of Boro Park.³⁴ The Orlansky family moved to Israel sometime in the 1970s and Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky worked as an administrator for the Chinuch Atzmai school system.³⁵

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1. ^“Rav Israel Orlanksy,” geni.com https://www.geni.com/people/Rav-Israel-Orlansky/6000000002189223060 Accessed Jan. 14, 2025
2. ^See Chaim Tikotzki (ed.), lapid eish novahrdokai, Jerusalem: Yisrael Orlanksy, 1993.
3. ^“Rochel Orlansky (Finkel),” geni.com https://www.geni.com/people/Rochel-Orlansky/6000000002189170221 Accessed Jan. 14, 2025.
4. ^“English Letter With Signature of Rabbi Avraham Kalmanovitz of Mir,” Tiferet Auction House https://www.tiferetauctions.com/auction/289-%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%AA-49-%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%AA-he/lot-54-%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA/ Accessed Jan. 14, 2025 [Letter is dated to August 23, 1950. It certifies that Rabbi Israel Orlansky graduated from the Mir Rabbinical College in February 1949.]
5. ^National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 3071; Page: 79; Enumeration District: 1-502.
6. ^Document Number: 1953039899. Book Type/Roll: LAND/10066/605. DC Recorder of Deeds.
7. ^“Nursery Classes,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 28, 1955.
8. ^“Beth Jacob Women Set Meeting Date,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Nov. 25, 1955.
9. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 15, 1958.
10. ^ibid
11. ^“School to Install,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 16, 1956. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1956-11-16/ed-1/seq-49/ The article says 14th street, but compare with Lawrence Frenkel, American Synagogue Directory, New York: Frenkel Mailing Service, 1958. https://archive.org/details/americansynagogu00unse/page/14 which places Talmud Torah at 4901 16th St. NW.
12. ^“Ms. Auerbach Is Engaged,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 17, 1957. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-11-17/ed-1/seq-87/.
13. ^Morton Isaacs, “Chana Auerbach Isaacs,” Rochester Holocaust Survivors Archive https://jewishrochester-chai-archive.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/individual%20Resource%20Folders/Isaacs%20Chana%20Auerbach/Isaacs%20Chana%20Auerbach2.html Accessed Jan. 14, 2025.
14. ^Document Number: 1957032354. Book Type/Roll or Frame/Page: LAND/10939/417. DC Recorder of Deeds.
15. ^“Synagogues Mark Brotherhood Week,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Feb. 14, 1958.
16. ^“Eisenberg, 84, to be Honored,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Feb. 15, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-02-15/ed-1/seq-8/.
17. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 15, 1958.
18. ^“Day School Car Crash Kills Girl, Injures 8,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Aug. 1, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-08-01/ed-1/seq-21/.
19. ^“Driver of Car Held Responsible in Death of Day Camp Children,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 8, 1958.
20. ^“Collision of Camp Car Kills Child, Injures 8,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 1, 1958.
21. ^“Churches on the Air,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 29, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-11-29/ed-1/seq-10/.
22. ^“Yom Kippur to Begin at Sunset Tomorrow,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Sept. 22, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-09-22/ed-1/seq-6/, “Jewish Yom Kippur Begins at Sundown,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Oct. 11, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-10-11/ed-1/seq-51/, and “Rites Sunday to Open Rosh Hashanah Holiday,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Sept. 8, 1961. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1961-09-08/ed-1/seq-44/.
23. ^“Beth Jacob Day School sets Dedication Rite,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 4, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-06-04/ed-1/seq-59/.
24. ^“Classified: Officials Notices: Board of Zoning Adjustment,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Oct. 9, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-10-09/ed-1/seq-66/.
25. ^“Beth Jacob Party,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Jan. 22, 1960.
26. ^“Funds to Meet Deficit Sought by Girls’ School,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 17, 1960.
27. ^“Jewish School Seeking Funds,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 17, 1960. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1960-06-17/ed-1/seq-2/.
28. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 28, 1960.
29. ^“Beth Jacob School Sets Package Party,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Feb. 3, 1961.
30. ^“Purim Party Set,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 5, 1961. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1961-03-05/ed-1/seq-9/.
31. ^“Classified: Official Notices: Board of Zoning Adjustment,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 30, 1961.
32. ^Document Number: 1961022276. Book Type/Roll: LAND/11641/576. DC Recorder of Deeds.
33. ^Document Number: 1961023454. Book Type/Roll: LAND/11647/381. DC Recorder of Deeds.
34. ^[Ad], “Birkas Mazal Tov Beis Yaakov D’Boro Park,” Der Tog (New York, NY), Nov. 3, 1967. https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dertog/1967/11/03/01/article/63.1.
35. ^“25 Million Dollar Children Torah Rescue Fund Proclaimed by Chinuch Atzmai Torah Schools,” Jewish Observer (New York, NY), February 1980. https://agudah.org/wp-content/uploads/1980/09/JO1980-V14-N06-7.pdf Accessed Jan. 15, 2025.