LEESER, ISAAC. The Testimony: An Address Delivered at the Schoolhouse of the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia, at the Opening of their School, on Sunday, the 4th of Nissan, 5611 (April 6th, 1851)

In his address at its official opening, Isaac Leeser pinned great hopes on the Philadelphia day school. His educational philosophy is best summed up in these words: “We purpose to combine elementary and afterwards scientific education with a gradual and progressive acquirement of Hebrew, Hebrew literature, and religion. It is not to be as in other schools, a secondary matter whether the children learn Hebrew and religion or not, but they are to acquire these if nothing else even can be imparted” (p. 12). When the school opened the next day (Monday), 22 students were enrolled. A month later, the student body had increased to 63. Eventually, enrollment would peak at 170 students. Leeser developed a curriculum which afforded both English and Hebrew studies: geometry, natural history, rabbinic literature, German, French, Latin, Greek, botany and chemistry. Sessions took place five days a week. In 1878, ten years after Leeser’s passing, Hebrew studies were reduced tio supplemental programs. See Lance J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995), pp. 204-5.