1893 – Jewish Chautauqua Society  − 15 September, 2007

Founded by Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, the Jewish Correspondence School was to be the first nationally organized correspondence school for the education of relgious teachers.  The problem as seen by Rabbi Berkowitz, was the relaince upon teacher taught in Europe.  It was his contention that children/students raised in the United States were different from those raised in Europe and that they did not respond well to the educational methods and practices being utilized in Europe. 

The methodology of instruction created by the Jewish Correspondence School, relied upon reading circles, texts read in common among a group of students and a list of discussion and review questions and guidelines for further reading.

www.americanjewisharchives.org/aga/journal/PDF/LVI/AJA_LVI_04.pdf