Sarah Schenirer: The Woman Who Revolutionized Jewish Education for Girls

A Spark in the Darkness

In the Jewish month of Adar, 1935, Sarah Schenirer passed away in Kraków, Poland. Her legacy, however, continues to shape the lives of Jewish women around the world.

Sarah Schenirer was born into the Cohen family, descendants of the renowned halachic (Jewish legal) authority, the Shach (Rabbi Shabtai HaKohen). Like many Jewish girls of her era, she attended a Polish secular school, which was mandated by law. During World War I, she was separated from her family and found herself living as a refugee in Vienna. At age 31, unmarried and alone, she sank into despair.

One Shabbat morning, she walked into the Stumper Synagogue in Vienna. The rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Flesch, delivered a sermon lamenting the state of Jewish girls who were educated in secular schools and knew little of their heritage. He spoke of the righteous women of Jewish history, great leaders who helped shape the nation.

For Sarah, it was a lightning bolt. She realized her calling: to educate Jewish girls in the ways of Torah. In that moment, her sense of despair gave way to a deep sense of purpose. She would establish a Jewish school for girls, something that had never formally existed before.

A Revolutionary Idea Gains Ground

For generations, Jewish education was almost exclusively for boys. Yeshivot, cheder, and Torah schools served males, while girls were left out of formal religious instruction. Sarah Schenirer's idea of creating a Jewish school for girls was groundbreaking and not without opposition. Many traditionalists feared it was too radical or imitative of non-Jewish culture.

But support soon followed. The Rebbe of Belz endorsed her initiative, and others quickly saw its value. Within a few years, Bais Yaakov schools had opened across Poland. By 1937, there were 250 schools across the country, all dedicated to educating Jewish girls in the spirit of Torah and mitzvot.

Though Sarah never had children of her own, her thousands of students became spiritual daughters. In the dark years of the Holocaust, they brought light and strength to ghettos and camps. After the war, many of them helped rebuild the Torah world in Israel and beyond.

Today, it is taken for granted that Jewish girls receive a strong religious education, but that reality exists only because of Sarah Schenirer's vision and courage.