Negative:: Cheder

European Jews

Southwestern Krai

1912-1914s

Glass

13 x 18

РЭМ 12588-53

Jewish ethnographic expedition of S. A. An-sky. Cheder is a religious elementary school for boys 3-5 to 13 years old. A cheder differed from a Talmud Torah (a school for children of poor families) in that its “melamed” (teacher) was paid by the children’s parents. In many shtetls, the cheder was arranged in an ordinary home, in a room with a desk. The ABC book used at school was a siddur (prayer book), its editions often containing a page with letters and syllables printed in large type. Hebrew was studied with the aid of sacred books (Tanah and Talmud); children read the texts after the teacher. Having finished cheder, some teenagers continued to study the Talmud at the beth midrash, and some entered higher religious schools (yeshivas).