Beth Jacob

Bais Yaakov (בית יעקב also written Beit Yaakov, Beth Jacob, or Beis Yaakov—literally "House [of] Jacob" in Hebrew) is a genericized name for Orthodox full-time, Jewish elementary and secondary schools throughout the world for Jewish girls from religious families. While these schools share the Bais Yaakov name, they are not necessarily affiliated, though some are, for other reasons.

The name comes from a verse in Exodus 19:3, in which the term "House of Jacob" is traditionally understood in Judaism to refer to the female segment of the Jewish nation.

The Bais Yaakov movement was started by seamstress Sarah Schenirer in 1917 in Kraków, Poland. The first school building survives as apartments, and is marked with a bronze plaque.

While boys attended cheder and Talmud Torah schools (and in some cases yeshivas), at that time there was no formalized system of Jewish education for girls and young Jewish women.

Sarah Schenirer saw that there was a high rate of assimilation among girls due to the vast secular influences of the non-Jewish schools that the girls were then attending. Sarah Schenirer concluded that only providing young Jewish women with a thorough, school-based Jewish education would effectively combat this phenomenon. She started a school of her own, trained other women to teach, and set up similar schools in other cities throughout Europe.

She obtained the approval of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (author of Chofetz Chaim), who issued a responsum holding that contemporary conditions required departing from traditional prohibitions on teaching women Torah and accepting the view that it was permitted. Following the Chofetz Chaim's approbation, the Bais Yaakov Movement in Poland was taken under the wing of Agudath Israel. Additionally, she sought and received approbation from Hasidic rabbis as well, most notably the Belzer Rebbe and the Gerrer Rebbe. The original Bais Yaakov was a seminary of sorts, intended to train girls to themselves become teachers and spread the Bais Yaakov movement.

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