178 FROM THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BEST 



It may not be amiss at this juncture to correct a state- 

 ment made by Mr. Peter A. Speek in his otherwise 

 attractive treatise on the absorbing question of American- 

 ization. In his book, "A State in the Land," page 176, 

 there appears the following passage: 



"The local manager of the Hirsch fund in Woodbine, 

 New Jersey, a Jewish colony, stated that there is in the 

 colony a Hebrew school supported by individuals and to 

 a certain degree by the Hirsch fund. It is a Hebrew 

 school connected with activities of the synagogue, main- 

 tained for religious purposes. It corresponds to the paro- 

 chial school of Christian churches. About sixty pupils 

 attend this school." 



This is entirely contrary to the facts. The Hebrew 

 school referred to is not a parochial school. It is a 

 school where Hebrew is taught. It is a place where the 

 children are given religious instruction, after the regular 

 public school hours. There was no such thing with the 

 Jewish people of Woodbine as a parochial school, in 

 the sense and with the purpose it is maintained and con- 

 ducted by other denominations mentioned in other parts 

 of his book and justly criticized by him. There was 

 not and there is not one child of school age in Wood- 

 bine who does not attend the public schools and the 

 great majority of the graduates of the latter enter high 

 schools. These schools are maintained partly by the 

 State and partly by the Borough and supervised by the 

 County Superintendent, and their curriculum is fixed by 

 the State and County authorities. There is not a young 

 man or a young woman in Woodbine whose tongue is 

 not English and whose thought is not American. They 

 are, of course, taught by their parents the tenets of their 



