The prospect of recognition of the Hebrew language of instruction, which Josef Bierer had always advocated, was a decisive factor in the efforts to train teachers in 1919/20. In the autumn of 1919, the Jewish National Council set up a Hebrew seminar in the „Safah Ivriah“, financially supported by the Jewish community and the Joint, and headed by Israel Schleyer.
The association, which had 1214 members (in 1921), was divided into three sections (kindergarten, school and educational centre). However, the main focus of the association’s activities was the Hebrew language courses. In 1921, a total of 446 pupils were taught Hebrew (Czernowitzer Morgenblatt, 5 June 1921, p. 3).
In September 1922, the Secretary of State for Education, Alecu Procopovici, authorised the opening of a private Hebrew primary school by the „Safah Ivriah“, which was attended from 1927 to 1930 by the young student Paul Antschel and later the poet Paul Celan. Until the early 1930s, the school was located in the rear building of the Jewish Toynbeehalle, accessible through the rear entrance at Färbergasse 5, before moving to its current location at Synagogen Str. 6.
Apart from the national Hebrew school association „Safah Ivriah“, a few short-lived newspaper projects and a modest Hebrew cultural life, Hebrew played a subordinate role in the city’s communicative space in the inter-war period.
Text: Markus Winkler
