What are the principles that a school is hewing to with the use of the Bais Yaakov name?
This is the part of the article that should contain the hook — the pithy anecdote that will grab the reader’s attention and cleverly sum up the main idea of the feature. So which story belongs here? The teen whose mechaneches was a bulwark of support through a tough time? The student who was publicly shamed for not being able to read a Rashi? The student whose principal was glad the day she wore slippers to school, because her feet would be warm? The preschooler whose morah drove to her house in August to personally deliver a prize and give her a hug? The teen whose love for Torah ignited while sitting through 11th grade-Chumash? The disgruntled graduate who left the derech and wrote a best-selling memoir about her years in the benighted Bais Yaakov system? The 12th-grader who, emulating her teacher, decided to marry someone who would learn long-term? The 12th- grader who, disenchanted with school, decided to marry someone who would learn long-term? The 12th- grader who coasted through school, unnoticed, and doesn’t know yet whom she will marry? Can we pick one of those stories over the other? They are all true, they are all real, they all matter. They are all part of the saga of Bais Yaakov. It is the story of us all.
More than a century after Sarah Schenirer opened the first Bais Yaakov, is her legacy still thriving? Would she recognize our schools? How has this institution evolved over more than a century of growth? What is a Bais Yaakov? Is it a monolithic edifice that can be summed up in a single person’s experience, or even with the aggregate experiences of the people she knows?
Early Bais Yaakov staff meeting minutes, in Dr. Judith Grunfeld’s own hand, listed Bais Yaakov’s goals as threefold: tzniyus, yiras shamayim, and aminus — personal integrity. Since World War II, however, Bais Yaakov hasn’t had a central office or official organ, much less a charter or official platform.
Today, it’s come to encompass a wider set of ideals and culture, but without a specific, universally accepted definition. Still, certain factors seemed to crop up reliably in people’s definitions. Some of the most common themes are an emphasis on the centrality of Torah in all aspects of life; serious source-based Torah learning, but with the goal of enhancing a woman’s traditional family role; and tzniyus as the paramount value for a Jewish woman.
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