by Dr. Leslie Klein Ginsparg
Sarah Schenirer was an unlikely candidate to be a revolutionary leader. She was a poor, divorced, uneducated woman in a society where any one of those alone would be an impediment. And yet she overcame the odds and surmounted adversity to found the educational movement Bais Yaakov and become a leader and role model for the ages.
In her youth, Sarah Schenirer’s commitment to religious observance and love of Judaism made her somewhat of a social outcast. Her friends teased her for her piety and she oftentimes felt uncomfortable accompanying them to the popular activities of the time. But she did not waver in her commitment to Judaism. She continued to try to influence those around her positively, even when it failed to have any effect. She did so even while enduring her own personal pain. She was what the community would have called an “older single.” After feeling that she lacked the attributes to be successful in the frum marriage mart, she married at the age of 27. Her brief marriage was an unhappy one from the very beginning, ending in divorce at a time when divorce brought with it considerable stigma.
Seeing the assimilation going on around her, she wanted to spread her love and passion for Judaism. After spending time in Vienna and becoming very inspired by a local rabbi there, she was determined to dedicate herself to inspiring Jewish girls and women back home in Poland. Most know what happened next: she starts Bais Yaakov and becomes an immediate success, bolstered by approval from the entire community.
Except that’s not what happened at all. Sarah Schenirer’s first idea wasn’t to create a formal school. It was to create a youth society, similar to those of the secular ideological movements (Socialism, Communism, Zionism) that were so popular with Jewish youth at the time. She convened a group of teenage girls in 1915, excited to launch her movement. And she failed. The girls mocked her. They left her speech sneering. Sarah Schenirer could have quit, but she didn’t. “Who cares about doubts? Who cares about obstacles? Who cares if many laugh and ridicule my plan,” she wrote, “What role does my personal pride play here? If the intent is sincere and the aim is pure, my goal will certainly be achieved.” She endured a number of failures before she switched her focus from working with teens to starting a school for young girls in 1917.
Even after her goal was achieved with that school’s success and the movement’s growth, Sarah Schenirer still faced adversity, opposition and social ostracization. Communal leaders opposed her. Rabbinic leaders opposed her. They stopped her from opening schools in their towns. There are stories of people throwing rocks at her in the street. “Many were the times she was ousted with disdain by frum communities,” Bais Yaakov leader Rabbi Yehuda Leib Orlean, HY”D wrote after her death, “the people she turned to, especially in the beginning, turned her away.” Even after she garnered major support from Rabbinic and communal leaders, she still encountered trouble. “Even once she had achieved her hard-earned respect,” Rabbi Orlean continued, “there remained individuals who would not capitulate, and continued to place obstacles in her path.”
Sarah Schenirer faced personal troubles, disappointment, ridicule and opposition. But far from letting adversity and failure stop her, she used it to motivate herself to work harder. She persevered, and the entire Jewish world is richer for her efforts.
Leslie Ginsparg Klein is the Dean/Chief Academic Officer of Gratz College. Her forthcoming book, Bais Yaakov Girls: Agency, Identity, and Education in Jewish Orthodox Girlhood will be released in 2027. Read more of Dr. Klein’s work at Lesliegklein.com
