Mozes Belinfante. Bikurei Chinuch - Verzameling van stukken in de Hebreeuwsche en Nederduitsche talen, dienende tot proeve van opvoedingsgeschriften en schoolboeken ten dienste der israëlietische jeugd, in het koningrijk Holland.

(HOLLAND)

Belinfante

Amsterdam

1809

First edition. Text in Dutch and Hebrew.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 2378 (unseen).

Published in response to King Louis I’s pronouncements supporting the emancipation of Jewry in the Kingdom of Holland. Such social development in the King’s view, was predicated on the assumption that there would be reforms instituted to the local Jewish educational system. “To our regret…no one has realized that the majority of Jewish teachers in this kingdom do not know the language of the land, neither do they know how to teach their students grammatical Hebrew…Only one in a thousand children…can read by the time he graduates. The majority attend school for eight or nine years and then graduate aged fourteen not able to translate even one verse of the Torah, nor able to properly communicate in the language of the land” (Preface). This interesting educational textbook includes Hebrew-Dutch glossaries, as well as letters and instructions on etiquette and appropriate behaviors.