ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century American Jewry established many religious and social institutions, but faced serious obstacles founding a Jewish seminary or college. Jewish partisans of higher education were divided was the goal the higher education of Jews or Jewish higher education. Despite the eloquence of proponents, and verbal competition between cities that might house a Jewish institution of higher learning, success awaited the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The East European Jewish migrations resulted in the opening of Yeshiva Etz Chaim in 1886 and of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary on New York’s Lower East Side in 1896. Seminaries, the most prominent Jewish higher education institutions, coexisted with several small collegiate institutions founded before World War II. The Jewish teachers colleges also redefined and expanded their roles after the war. Hebrew Union College opened the American Jewish Archives, directed successively by Jacob Rader Marcus and Abraham Peck, in 1948.
