The Teachers Institute of The Hebrew Union College. Graduation of the First Class at the Plum Street Temple, June 15, 1912.

Contains order of service, various sermons and closes with a prayer by Kaufmann Kohler, president of Hebrew Union College. During the early waves of immigration to the United States, Rabbis and predominantly European-trained male teachers provided religious instruction to youth in private settings, often in synagogues. When Rebecca Gratz established the Hebrew Sunday School Society in Philadelphia (1838), teachers were “appointed from among the young ladies” of the Mikveh Israel Congregation. These “teaching ladies” were unwed, well-meaning, untrained women who did their best to provide instruction in the local Reform Sunday schools. There was no profession of Jewish education in 19th-century America. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were few paid religious school teachers. Most were volunteers, and many of those were public school teachers, trained for assignments in general education, but woefully lacking in knowledge of Judaism. It became apparent that the young American Jew could not be educated in the same manner as years past. Thus, institutions for the training of Jewish teachers developed in major American cities, especially where there were large concentrations of Jews. The Teachers Institute of Hebrew Union College was founded in 1909 by Rabbi Louis Grossmann, successor to Isaac Mayer Wise as rabbi of Congregation Bene Yeshurun, Cincinnati.