Educational Alliance Records

The Educational Alliance (EA), originally called the Hebrew Institute, was established June 14, 1889 when the Hebrew Free School Association, the Aguilar Free Library Society and the Young Men's Hebrew Association agreed to raise money in order to purchase land and erect a building which all three would occupy. The Hebrew Institute was incorporated on December 16, 1889. The Aguilar Free Library Society bought the land at 197 East Broadway, the Hebrew Free School Association bought the adjoining plot, and both leased their plots to the Educational Alliance. The flagship building opened in September 1891 and remains the central location, although the EA now offers programs at over 25 sites.

In 1893, the YMHA withdrew and the two remaining organizations reorganized the Hebrew Institute, renaming it the Educational Alliance, on May 4, 1893. The objectives of the reorganized EA were to be “of an Americanizing, educational, social and humanizing character” (1970 finding aid) for newly arriving Eastern European immigrants. The Baron de Hirsch Fund sponsored English language classes for new immigrant adults and children at the Hebrew Institute starting in 1892 until 1910, when the Fund withdrew its financial support of the English classes in order to focus on other pursuits. Additional Americanization efforts focused on naturalization and citizenship preparation, classes in civics, American history, English literature, hygiene, homemaking, modern cooking, sewing, and in music, patriotic and religious lectures and clubs, and athletic activities, including flag-waving exercises on American national holidays.

The Alliance was also engaged in religious activities through its People's Synagogue, Young People's Synagogue, Religious School, Zvi Hirsch Masliansky’s Friday evening Yiddish sermons, and the Oneg Shabbat program. It maintained a well-known Art School, founded in 1917 by Abbo Ostrowsky, a library, academic scholarship programs, pre-school and kindergarten classes, overnight camps, day camps, social clubs for children, mothers and the elderly, and a roof garden.

Starting in 1924, with the end of mass immigration, the EA began operating as a community center rather than as a settlement house. While still maintaining some immigrant-oriented programs, including the Legal Aid Bureau, the focus moved more towards aid and social service, as with the Neighborhood Service, opened in 1937, which provided advice and help with jobs and housing. Beginning under the leadership of David Blaustein, who was the superintendent from 1898-1907, and more fully developing under Henry Fleischman, the administrator of the EA from 1907-1938, the Alliance moved towards the social work programming that would dominate its activities in the post-war years. While volunteers continued to play a role, most of the programs and services, including the clubs, began to be run by social work students, and many of the supervisors were professionals.

As the demographics of the Lower East Side began to change in the 1930s and 1940s, the Alliance leadership faced the question of how to reconcile their Jewish heritage with their function as a community organization in an increasingly diversifying community. In the 1940s and 1950s, several organization-wide surveys were conducted in order that the leadership of the Alliance could better understand who they were serving and what those members needs were. Two of the most far-reaching surveys were the Nathan Cohen survey of 1948 and the New York University survey, "Between Two Bridges: A Study of Human Relations in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Area Served by the Educational Alliance”, conducted by Rhetta Arter and Daniel Dodson in 1953-1954. Gertrude Wilson, a social work professor from the University of Pittsburgh, held a year-long residency at the Alliance following the Cohen survey. Her work, including several professional papers, focused mainly on organizational questions and group work evaluation methods.

The Alliance leadership was also especially concerned with the problems of juvenile delinquency, substance abuse and mental health issues, and in the 1950s and 1960s developed programs aimed at helping to combat them. These programs included Operation Street Corner, started in 1956, which aimed at reducing teen crime, the Consultation Service, founded in 1951, and a joint program with Hillside Hospital to aid discharged psychiatric patients in reentering society, starting in 1962. The Educational Alliance was also one of the first organizations to offer a Head Start program, founded in 1965, helping young children to prepare for entering school, a program that the Alliance still offers today.

In 1950, the Stuyvesant Neighborhood House merged programs with the Educational Alliance, a process completed by 1952 and one which greatly increased the geographic scope of the Alliance’s operations. The Stuyvesant Neighborhood House became the Stuyvesant Jewish Community Center in 1952.

Although the records of this collection end in 1968, the Educational Alliance still exists today as a vibrant organization dedicated to helping its community through education, art classes, summer camps, and social services.

For short descriptions see: Official Souvenir Book of the Fair In Aid of the Education Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute, 1895, 144 pgs., Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Educational Alliance, 1915, 115 pgs., S. P. Rudens, "A Half Century of Community Service: The Story of the New York Educational Alliance," American Jewish Year Book, vol. 46, 1944, pgs. 73-99.

References

Bellow, Adam. The Educational Alliance: A Centennial Celebration. New York: Educational Alliance, 1990.