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I'm reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen and have come across (in chapter 1) the claim that, during the Great Depression, in Brooklyn,

[e]very Orthodox Jew sent his male [high-school-age] children to a yeshiva, a Jewish parochial school, where they studied from eight or nine in the morning to four or five in the evening… Hebrew studies in the mornings and English studies in the afternoons.

Is this true? My impression — though I'm not sure on what it's based — has always been that most, or, at least, many, Orthodox Jewish boys at that time attended public school and got Torah education after school (often at a "talmud torah" designed just for this after-school purpose).

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    According to Wikipedia the story is set in 1944? – Gershon Gold Nov 26 '13 at 16:13
  • @GershonGold, maybe most of it (I don't know), but not the part I quote above. – msh210♦ Nov 26 '13 at 16:57
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    This question is about the history of an aspect of observance of Judaism - teaching one's children Torah. It is therefore on-topic, as it's about Judaism. – Isaac Moses♦ Dec 20 '16 at 15:45
  • Rabbi Wein once said that he was with a number of rabbonim who had grown up in the United States (as he had) and had all attended public school for secular education. He also joked that they all knew the words to many of the christmas carols. – sabbahillel Dec 20 '16 at 16:40
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    I concur with @IsaacMoses. I hereby cast my symbolic vote to reopen. (That is, I'd vote to reopen if my vote weren't immediately binding.) – msh210♦ Dec 20 '16 at 17:58
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My father, who grew up orthodox in Brooklyn during the depression era, went to public school for High School. He told me that although there were a few Yeshivas, and most of the children went to Public School in that period. He had a Hebrew tutor in the afternoon, yet he told me that many did not. Although there were some Yeshivos (Chaim Berlin, Torah Vodaath, and perhaps a few others) they definitely did not attract the majority of orthodox boys in those days. The claim by "Chaim Potok's The Chosen" sounds inaccurate.

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    This matches my father's experience. My father grew up in an orthodox household outside of New York (Galveston, Chicago, Houston) and attended public school, graduating high school in 1936. Religious studies were in "cheder" which I took as the equivalent of "Hebrew school" for my generation. – Dennis Nov 26 '13 at 18:02

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