Who was Sarah Schenirer, and what was her life’s dream?

What does it mean to be above history, to be so embedded in the collective consciousness of our people that one’s name comes to represent not only a person, but a standard, a way of being?

Since the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and even in the years that preceded it, Sarah Schenirer has symbolized education for girls al taharas hakodesh, built upon the principles of sacredness, sanctity, and devotion to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah. At a time when sitting near Mama at the hearth and drinking in the laws and lifestyles she embodied was no longer feasible or attractive, she understood her changing world — and devised a system of Torah education whose success exceeded anyone’s dreams

The year was 2023, and I found myself in Toronto for the very first time. The occasion was not a wedding or a friendly get-together, but the first ever Bais Yaakov Conference, a gathering of tens of erudite scholars from across the spectrum of Judaism (and non-Judaism) who had undertaken a serious academic study of the Bais Yaakov movement. At one point during the proceedings, the conference leader whose book shaped the modern discourse made an ironic observation: “The only one of us in this room whom Sarah Schenirer would actually be proud of is Tzipora.” I was taken aback, momentarily discomfited by the sudden and unprecedented spotlight.

But as all eyes turned to me, an Orthodox woman guided exclusively by the light of halachah, I realized that while scholars might research and debate the historic impact of Sarah Schenirer’s legacy, the story is still unfurling. Each Bais Yaakov alumna holds a mirror to her work, to her journey and its fulfillment.

Who was Sarah Schenirer, and what was her life’s dream?

Every Bais Yaakov girl, myself included, was raised in the ether of a legend: a woman from a little town in Poland, a seamstress who was very sad, sewing clothes for the body while the soul remained unclad. As I grew older and began to study the history of the era, I realized that like many legends, this one contains essential truths but elides important elements. The complex reality of Sarah Schenirer’s life, beginning with the fact that Krakow was far from just a mere Polish hamlet, is rarely conveyed in its fullness.

Then, several years ago, I noticed a new surge of interest in Sarah Schenirer’s biography, motivations, and accomplishments, and the reframing of her activity to suit a variety of audiences. Academic and social accounts of Sarah Schenirer’s life and labors tended to recast her efforts as a woman attempting to upend the status quo, to recentralize the control of young women’s education and place it in women’s hands. Some portrayed her as an unhappy and underprivileged woman who took on the rabbinic establishment and won, creating new interpretations of halachah to secure the rights of Orthodox women. In one glaring example, I found renderings of Sarah Schenirer’s image used on mastheads and T-shirts to promote chareidi feminism, a cause she would certainly have resisted in her lifetime.

The reason this modern line of interpretation has held sway is clear: Sarah Schenirer in fact did what no one else had been able to accomplish before. She created a new pathway for girls to access their Yiddishkeit, opening up an avenue of learning and development that had previously been considered forbidden to the vast majority of the era’s women, save for those exceptional “melumados” — usually the daughters of rabbanim and rebbes — who had rare access to Torah learning and gained mastery of broad portions of written and even oral Torah.

Sarah Schenirer sought, espoused, and accomplished something entirely new: A formal program dedicated to the spiritual nurture of all Jewish girls, one that would captivate their minds and hearts through the wisdom of Torah. Did that make her a renegade? A feminist activist? A system disrupter, unafraid to trample rabbinic and patriarchal authority? This conceptualization felt false and simplistic, and also provided a justification for those who sought to alter the fabric of traditional Yiddishkeit.

The time had come, I felt, to reclaim Sarah Schenirer’s legacy for the women and girls to whom she dedicated her life, the spiritual daughters who choose to hold fast to Yiddishkeit without compromise, without progressive adjustments. Determined to present an authentic record for her daughters and mine, I set forth to recover Sarah Schenirer’s own voice and intentions: from her diary, from her writings, and from the words of those whose lives she changed forever.