{"product_id":"hebrew-sabbath-school-union-of-america-proceedings-of-the-sabbath-school-convention-cincinnati-1886-the-founding-charter-of-the-first-national-jewish-religious-school-network","title":"The Founding Charter of American Jewish Religious Education: the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union’s 1886 Cincinnati Proceedings, with a Revealing Printed Date Error","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHEBREW SABBATH-SCHOOL UNION OF AMERICA\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eProceedings of the Sabbath-School Convention. Constitution and By-laws of the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union. Organization of the Executive Committee.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[Cincinnati: printer not identified, 1886]. 8vo (210 × 155 mm). 16 pages. Original printed paper wrappers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSingerman 3436; OCLC 518735.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eThe separately issued founding record of the first national effort to coordinate Jewish religious education in the United States\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn exceptionally scarce survival of the three-day Cincinnati convention that organized the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union. Meeting at Hebrew Union College from 29 June to 1 July 1886, delegates created a national body intended to give American Jewish religious schools a shared curriculum, trained teachers, graded publications, and a durable administrative structure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pamphlet was not simply a record for those who attended. The convention asked the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to print the proceedings, mail a copy to every Hebrew Sabbath school in the country, and request prompt official action. This separate setting — with its own wrapper title and new pagination — was therefore a working instrument of recruitment and national organization.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe constitutional object was direct: to establish a uniform system for Hebrew Sabbath schools throughout the United States through a common course of instruction and the training of competent teachers. Its program combined religious doctrine, Bible reading in English, Hebrew for prayer and biblical study, biblical and post-biblical Jewish history, and music for participation in worship. It extended beyond children's classes to confirmation, two years of post-confirmation study, and normal classes designed to train teachers and assist communities remote from established congregations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Union also proposed a national publishing system. Graded lesson pamphlets, biblical texts with commentary, and juvenile Jewish literature were to be centrally prepared and distributed. Member schools paid fifty cents per enrolled pupil annually, while each pupil was to receive the Union's pamphlets without further charge. The result was an early attempt to join curriculum, teacher formation, publishing, finance, and distribution in a single American Jewish educational network.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eA revealing date error\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first page of the separate pamphlet is dated \"Cincinnati, July 29, 1886.\" That date is a printing error. The official UAHC version begins \"Cincinnati, June 29, 1886,\" identifies the second day as June 30, and records a three-day meeting. More decisively, Cincinnati's \u003cem\u003eDie Deborah\u003c\/em\u003e of 9 July reported that the convention had already taken place from Tuesday, 29 June, through Thursday, 1 July.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe separate pamphlet was reset rather than extracted from the continuously paginated annual report: its line endings, page design, title treatment, and pagination differ. The erroneous substitution of \"July\" for \"June\" evidently entered during that resetting. The correct convention dates are \u003cstrong\u003e29 June–1 July 1886\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eConvention and organization\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwenty congregations had signified an intention to join before Morris Loth, president of the UAHC Executive Board, called the convention to order. Fifteen accredited delegates represented congregations in Cincinnati, Louisville, Mobile, Nashville, Greenville (Mississippi), Detroit, Montgomery, St. Joseph, Toledo, Little Rock, and Indianapolis. Among the leading participants were Isaac M. Wise, Adolph Moses, Henry Berkowitz, Louis Grossmann, S. Hecht, Isaac Schwab, and Joseph Stolz.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe permanent convention officers were S. Hecht, president; Isaac Schwab, vice-president; and Joseph Stolz, secretary. The twelve-member Executive Committee included figures from Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, Montgomery, Pittsburgh, Louisville, San Francisco, and Mobile. It elected Jacob Kronacher as president, S. Hecht as vice-president, A. J. Friedlander as treasurer, and S. Mannheimer as secretary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bylaws created committees on finance and on literature and publication. The latter was responsible for planning religious instruction, publishing school editions of biblical books, judging works submitted for publication, and reporting quarterly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eSignificance and rarity\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCyrus Adler and David Philipson later described the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union as the first attempt to secure united effort in Jewish religious education in the United States. The distinction is national and organizational. It does not displace Rebecca Gratz's pioneering Hebrew Sunday School Society, founded in Philadelphia in 1838; rather, the 1886 Union attempted to coordinate schools across congregations and regions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 1889 the Union sought data from approximately 200 schools. The 114 usable replies reported 13,406 pupils and 563 teachers — 186 paid and 377 volunteers — showing the scale of the field and the need for the teacher-training program projected in the constitution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe edition is very rare. Singerman records copies at AJHS and OCH\/HUC. HUC-JIR has confirmed its copy (BM 101 H4 1886), while a recent search had not yet located the copy cited at AJHS. OCLC 518735 records the edition, but a definitive census remains to be completed. Only one probable physical copy has been identified across the three commercial appearances found in our research, supporting the description \u003cstrong\u003eextremely rare in commerce\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eNote on the imprint\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo printer or publisher is named in the pamphlet, and the correct imprint remains bracketed. Bloch Publishing and Printing Co. is a plausible but unproven candidate. Bloch printed the UAHC annual reports, received UAHC printing payments in 1886, and received a payment expressly \"for Sabbath school Union\" in 1888. Until an invoice, job book, or archival instruction ties Bloch to this particular pamphlet, the attribution remains a note and is not promoted to the imprint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCondition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal printed paper wrappers; previously folded, with a little toning to the rear wrapper along the old vertical fold and a few small chips to the wrappers. The front wrapper is evenly age-toned, with light handling and minor edge wear; the interior is clean and well margined.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eReferences\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRobert Singerman, \u003cem\u003eJudaica Americana II\u003c\/em\u003e, no. 3436.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnion of American Hebrew Congregations, \u003cem\u003eThirteenth Annual Report\u003c\/em\u003e (1886), pp. 1988–2001.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Sabbathschul-Konvention,\" \u003cem\u003eDie Deborah\u003c\/em\u003e, 9 July 1886, p. 4.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCyrus Adler and David Philipson, \"Hebrew Sabbath-School Union of America,\" \u003cem\u003eJewish Encyclopedia\u003c\/em\u003e, vol. 6, pp. 310–11.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJames Henry Brown, \u003cem\u003eSunday-School Movements in America\u003c\/em\u003e (1901), pp. 126–27.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlexander M. Dushkin, \u003cem\u003eJewish Education in New York City\u003c\/em\u003e (1918), Appendix D, pp. 469–71.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJulius H. Greenstone, \"Jewish Education in the United States,\" \u003cem\u003eAmerican Jewish Year Book\u003c\/em\u003e 16 (1914–15), p. 118.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRussell E. Silverman, \u003cem\u003eThe Union for Reform Judaism: 1873–2009\u003c\/em\u003e (2011), pp. 50–51.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47410774868156,"sku":"AZ-HSSU-1886","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/s-l1600.jpg?v=1788618305","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/hebrew-sabbath-school-union-of-america-proceedings-of-the-sabbath-school-convention-cincinnati-1886-the-founding-charter-of-the-first-national-jewish-religious-school-network","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}