A MANUAL
FOR TEACHING
BIBLICAL HISTORY

BY

EUGENE KOHN

Rabbi of Congregation Chizzuk Emunah
Baltimore, Md.

————

NEW YORK
THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA
5677—1917

Copyright, 1917
BY
THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA

To the memory of
SOLOMON SCHECHTER
ז״צ״ל
this book is reverently inscribed

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author cannot permit this book to go to presswithout acknowledging his indebtedness to the EducationCommittee of the United Synagogue for theirencouragement and assistance. He is especially gratefulto Dr. Julius H. Greenstone for his many helpfulsuggestions and his careful reading of the text, bothin manuscript and in proof. To Dr. Cyrus Adler andProfessor Mordecai M. Kaplan his thanks are also duein large measure for their aid in removing cruditiesand improving the form and content of the work.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Jewish pedagogic literature is still in its infancy.While text-books for children, more or less satisfactory,have been produced by many authors during thepast century, the effort to provide the teacher withproper material for his guidance in instruction is ofvery recent origin and the supply has thus far beenvery slight. The students in our several normalschools, and especially the large army of teachers,scattered throughout the country, who have not hadthe advantage of a normal school training, are oftenobliged to resort to works by Christian authors forinformation and guidance. While these may supplythem with the facts and with the most approvedmethod of presentation, they cannot give them theJewish point of view which is so essential to theJewish teacher. As the late Dr. Schechter once remarked,"We cannot have our love letters written forus. We must write them ourselves, even at the risk ofbad grammar." We must place in the hands of ourteachers books which will inspire them with loyalty anddevotion to Judaism, which will give them the properattitude to the Bible and to Jewish tradition, andwhich will provide them with an adequate understandingof Jewish strivings and ideals.

It is with this object in view that the Committee onEducation of the United Synagogue requested RabbiEugene Kohn to prepare the work which is now givento the Jewish public. The author has succeeded admirablyin his undertaking and has produced a work[10]which contains valuable aids to the earnest teacherwho is anxious to become more proficient in his calling.This volume, which is the result of considerable class-roomexperience, intimate knowledge of the sources ofJewish history, and arduous labor, gives correct andadequate data of the lessons treated, stimulating suggestionsas to the manner of imparting each individuallesson to the average child, and, what is perhaps ofgreatest importance, an exalted attitude that the teachershould assume towards his work. While the responsibilityof the work rests entirely upon the author, theCommittee feels gratified in being able to present, as itsfirst publication, a work that so fully responds to anurgent need. It is hoped that this book will be followedby many other volumes which may help in the betterequipment of the Jewish teaching profession.

Julius H. Greenstone, Chairman,
Committee on Education of the
United Synagogue of Amer