From Anna Kluger to Sarah Schenirer: Women's Education in Krakow and Its Discontents

This article reconstructs the struggle for higher education of Anna (Chaja) Kluger, born into a Hasidic family in fin-de-siecle Krakow. Kluger's mother, Simcha Halberstam, was a direct descendant of R. Hayim Halberstam, the founder of the Sandz Hasidic dynasty. At the age of fifteen, after completing a prestigious primary school to which she was sent by her parents, Kluger was betrothed to a young yeshiva student and forced by her parents to abandon her studies. Being passionate about studying and determined to continue her education, Kluger fled home in 1909 and sued her parents to allow her to continue her university studies with the financial support of her father, Wolf Kluger. After a defeat in the local court, she appealed the decision to the Viennese Supreme Court and ultimately won her case. Kluger went on to earn a PhD degree in 1914 at the University of Vienna. The Kluger affair became a cause celebre in Krakow and in Vienna, attracting much attention in the press. Among its repercussions, the article suggests, was the introduction of new norms in Orthodox Jewish society aimed at restricting secular education for Jewish women. These norms accompanied the introduction of formal religious education for girls and represented a development no less innovative for traditional Jewish society.