The Russian Night School on Baltimore Street

What is generally believed to be the first evening school in the United States to teach English and American history to immigrants grew out of the relationship between Rabbi Benjamin Szold, Henrietta Szold, and the circle of newcomers who befriended them. Admiring Rabbi Szold’s deep knowledge of Jewish texts and Hebrew literature, many Russian-Jewish immigrants would meet in his office for intense discussions; out of these gatherings emerged a literary society named for Isaac Baer Levinsohn, a Yiddish-langauge writer, and intellectual. As a veteran teacher and school administrator, Henrietta agreed to assist the society in the start-up of a night school. It began in the fall of 1889 with an overflow crowd in a cramped walk-up room. The growing demand challenged Henrietta to recruit additional teachers and locate larger facilities. Soon they had hundreds of students crowding into a building, now long gone, at 1208 East Baltimore Street.

Henrietta Szold described the Night School in an article in the Baltimore Sun, published July 13, 1892: “In the Russian night schools the chief aim pursued is the teaching of the English language … and the chief subject dwelt upon is United States history and geography… [T]hose who frequent the night schools are cultured, intelligent men and women… speaking and reading several foreign languages and versed in history and literature… Thirty pupils presented themselves the first evening; the number rose to 60 before the week was over and at the end of the season 150 had enrolled. During the second season, 500 were under instruction, and during the one just ended 708 men and women were taught in seven English classes, two arithmetic classes, and one bookkeeping class. The pupils range in age from 9 to 60, but only such children are accepted as pupils as are put to earning a livelihood in the factories and cannot, therefore, go to the public schools. It has happened again and again that children and father, sometimes husband and wife, have sat on the same bench, side-by-side.”[1]

During its nine years of operation, the Night School taught approximately 5,000 students. While the school closed in 1898, it left a lasting impression on education in the United States, as there are many organizations that offer nighttime English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, such as Baltimore City Community College.

[1] [Szolds of Lombard Street by Alexandra Lee Levin]