Page 62 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Education and the bet hamidrash

Outside of religious studies and a little writing in Yiddish, we
never learned a thing. At the age of eleven, I did not know a word of
Polish or Russian, the languages of the land, and never learned the
rudiments of grammar or arithmetic. The orthodox Jew did not like
his children to learn those languages for fear they would desert their
people for the other culture. And the existing government did not
want the Jew to go to the government school because of the old
saying, “knowledge is power.” In Russia an educated man, or rather,
a man who read, was suspected of being a revolutionary, so the
government preferred the Jew to have his own religion and his own
language.
Had I received a little education in grammar and known the
rudiments of arithmetic when I landed in this country, I probably
would have learned a profession. I have seen a few in the sweatshops
where I worked who, as poor and humble as they were, studied and
accomplished things. At twenty-one, when one has to earn a living
and go to school at night, to begin again like a boy of six, one has to
be a genius. To reach an objective one has to concentrate and strive
toward it, and I never determined which object I desired most—be it
money, women, pleasure, or business. The foundation of my early
education was systemless and aimless, and that has remained with me
to this day. I like to read about different subjects and different
philosophies. Every science interests me, and I enjoy various labors.
It was the hope and ambition of my parents to bring me up as a
learned Jew and a religious man. By learned, I do not mean to say
qualified for a career; they never thought of a means of livelihood for
me. Jewish learning was not a profitable profession. The elders
warned us, saying, “Do not make your learning a shovel to dig with
it.” We learned for the sake of learning and knowledge. Young men
buried themselves in the bet hamidrash, studying eighteen hours a day,
poorly fed and clothed, without enjoyments of the simplest kind, just
for the sake of learning. Those who did not learn or understand
respected and supported those men who made that sacrifice. These

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