"A Long and Broad Education": Jewish Girls and the Problem of Education in America, 1860–1920

MELISSA KLAPPER

DURING THE SPRING OF 1872, thirteen-year old Jennie Rosenfeld ventured out with trepidation to take the entrance examination for the public high school in Chicago. Though her mother was afraid to let Jennie go downtown alone, she felt that the possibility of keeping her daughter in school outweighed other considerations. After the examination Jennie waited while her tests were marked. By the time she returned home that night, she was enrolled for the fall and already excited about becoming a high school student, one of a limited number of Chicago adolescents and an even smaller number of Chicago Jewish girls. She felt much less afraid of the long journey home than she had felt of the journey there. Before she even began classes, high school had already opened up a new geographic world to her, and Jennie looked forward to the new educational and social worlds awaiting her in the fall, when she would become one of a growing number of adolescents identified by their roles as high school students. Jennie's widowed mother was as excited as her daughter. Like other Jewish parents of the period, she was proud of her daughter's educational opportunity and unworried about any possible effects on family relationships or ties to community.