Benderly has developed what is here being generally called the Benderly method of Hebrew instruction. It is not the Benderly method at all; it is the natural method of teaching Hebrew, just as other languages are taught, and as Latin and Greek are now being taught during the summer session at Columbia University. We teach Hebrew and everything else in such a way that the mechanical side is pushed into the background. I hope that the Conference may at some time invite Dr. Benderly to come before it and demonstrate all our educational paraphernalia, text-books, leaflets, school paper, children's and teachers' literature, etc., not only for Hebrew, but for the teaching of other elements of Jewish life and religion.

What may, however, interest this Conference particularly is that we have worked out a method of teaching the Hebrew of the Union Prayer Book. We have listed all the words found in both volumes of the Union Prayer Book, and upon the basis. of these words we are working out a system of Hebrew instruction for Reform Sabbath Schools. The first three parts of the first year of this system are already published. They have been tried in a number of places, and, I believe, are meeting with some measure of success.

In the preparation of modern teachers we cooperate constantly with Professor M. M. Kaplan, of the Teachers' Institute of the Theological Seminary. Besides carrying on the pioneer preparatory work with Jewish girls, referred to above, we are working with an ever increasing number of devoted, enthusiastic young college men and women, who are eager to make Jewish education their life work.

In closing, I would say that we have sent our representatives to about forty Jewish communities outside of New York City. We are in more or less close communication with Jewish communities throughout the land. I would repeat that we are ready and eager to cooperate with all Jews, however they call themselves. We are trying to maintain the Jewish tradition of education. We want to help every Jew teach his child in somewhat better fashion than he might have taught the child without us. We do not tell people what to teach. After they have determined that, we come to them and say, "Perhaps we can

help you teach that better than you have been able to teach it formerly". In all this we are animated by the sole desire "to magnify the Thorah and to glorify it".

III.

RABBI WILLIAM ROSENAU,

REPRESENTING

THE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL OF THE JEWISH CHAUTAUQUA SOCIETY

The Jewish Chautauqua Society is primarily an educational agency. Having taken the words, "The study of the Law is the principal duty of the Jew", as its motto, the Jewish Chautauqua Society has devoted itself to the spread of the Law in the widest acceptation of this term. It never sought identification with any distinct party in Jewry. It was catholic in its Jewish interests. It ever aimed at the establishment of the "united Israel" of which Dr. Magnes just spoke.

Next month will complete the twentieth year of the Jewish Chautauqua Society's existence. The educational work it launched at its inception consisted of Study Circles for young people and adults, not only in sparsely settled, but also in populous Jewish communities. It later added to its original work the supervision of religious education in the farming colonies of New Jersey and North Dakota.

Throughout the twenty years of its life the Society also conducted, at first summer, and later winter, as well as summer, assemblies for the purpose of coordinating by lectures, popular conferences and teachers' institutes, its various educational activities. Without the fear of being regarded boastful, the Society can make the claim that it was the first Jewish organization in this country to offer to religious school teachers the opportunity of institute work.

The most recent feature in the educational program of the Jewish Chautauqua Society is its Correspondence School. While originally intended to train, without party bias, the religious school teachers of Jewish communities, it offers, according to

well-defined Jewish principles, help to all men and women, more particularly parents, in the molding of the Jewish child-life.

There are those who prefer, and justly so, instruction in the class-room and under the influence of the teachers' personality. And yet these persons will concede that conditions exist which justify education by the correspondence method. The correspondence method has been tried with wonderful success by the International Correspondence School at Scranton, Pa. It has been adopted by some universities in the giving of courses leading to the Bachelor's degree. Confident of the success which would attend the application of the correspondence method in religious as well as in secular instruction, the authorities of the Jewish Chautauqua Society called the Correspondence School for the Training of Religious School Teachers into being. Those of us who are responsible for this Correspondence School were convinced that the institution would answer a long-felt want. The Teachers' Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, that of the Hebrew Union College, and the Graetz College of Philadelphia, have served only their respective local constituencies. Young men and women preparing themselves for the career of religious school teacher can not be expected to undergo the expense of residence in New York, Cincinnati or Philadelphia, far distant from their homes. The status of the Jewish religious school teacher in this country is not yet satisfactorily defined. Most religious school teachers volunteer their services and, in such instances where a salary is paid them, it is by no means commensurate with the labors, responsibilities and dignity of their position. In order to reckon with existing conditions, and at the same time to offer professional help to men and women desirous of developing Jewish child-life, the Correspondence School, with the use of the correspondence method, was established.

That the School would be heartily welcomed throughout the United States was a foregone conclusion. In the summer of 1911 Dr. Berkowitz and I were delegated to go to the Pacific Coast in order to establish there the Western Summer Assembly. On our journey we visited many communities. In each of these the insufficiency of the religious education furnished by the

Jewish religious school was accentuated. The ill-preparedness of earnest teachers to do their work satisfactorily was agreed to be at fault. Thus it happened that the Correspondence School was planned. Through the generosity of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff the school was launched December, 1911. Courses were planned. A faculty was appointed. Course books on methods of teaching were prepared by the staff. The courses offered are: The New Education with Special Reference to Curriculum; School Organization and Class Management; Methods of Teaching the Primary Grades; Methods of Teaching Biblical History in Junior and Senior Grades; the Prophets of Israel; Methods of Teaching Jewish Religion in Junior and Senior Grades; Methods of Teaching Jewish Ethics; Methods of Teaching Post Biblical History; Methods of Teaching Hebrew; and the History of Jewish Education.

The best way to judge a movement is to consider its accomplishments. At first thought our work may seem to have progressed slowly. When, however, it is remembered that the men and women upon whom the development of the Correspondence School devolved are busy in other professions, like that of the ministry and secular instruction, our achievements assume gratifying proportions. Thus far we have completed and published seven volumes. They are: "The History of Jewish Education"; "The New Education as Applied to Religion"; "School Organization and Class Management"; two volumes on "Methods of Teaching the Primary Grades"; "Methods of Teaching History in the Junior Grades"; and "Methods of Teaching Jewish Ethics". In this connection mention should be made that four other books, "Pedagogy as Applied to Religious Instruction"; "Methods of Teaching Post Biblical History and Literature"; "Methods of Teaching Jewish Religion"; and the second volume of "Methods of Teaching Biblical History", will appear in the fall. These books are now on the market and can be procured from the office of the Secretary.

No less an authority than Dr. Israel Abrahams, of London, has been kind enough to make due acknowledgment of the value of our work. He has reviewed our literature most favorably in the columns of the "Jewish Chronicle", and has been instru

mental in having Dr. Berkowitz and me invited to come to London this month in order to present the work of the Jewish Chautauqua Society with special reference to the Correspondence School, at the meetings of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies of Great Britain and the Jewish Historical Society of England.

You are undoubtedly anxious to know something concerning the size, personnel and work of our student body. We have now one hundred and twenty students on roll. They are mostly graduates of high schools. Some are graduates of colleges and universities. Many are actively engaged in the teaching profession. These students are not merely enrolled, but they are doing work. Nineteen certificates have already been awarded for courses completed. From all our students we receive the encouraging report that they feel amply compensated with instruction for the work they are doing.

I shall not give you further details. For additional information as to the purposes and methods of the Correspondence School for the Training of Religious School Teachers under the auspices of the Jewish Chautauqua Society, consult its register, which will be gladly sent you by the home office in Philadelphia upon application. The longer we are engaged in our special endeavor, the more deeply do we become convinced that the Correspondence School is needed in the economy of the Jewish life of America. Not until we shall have properly trained teachers in every community can we hope to see alive and active the Jewish consciousness, for the wakefulness of which we are constantly pleading.

IV.

RABBI LOUIS GROSSMANN,

REPRESENTING

THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE OF THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE

An institution established to further the cause of religious education may choose between alternatives; it may endeavor to bring spiritual enlightenment, which men need against the demoralizations which creep on them from their sordid preoccupa