The young Maccabees School is a nationalistic organization with a prime and sole object to provide a Jewish education for the American Jewish youth. For reasons too numerous to name and too vast to discuss here the Jewish child is deprived of just that kind of an education, that is deprived of its own language, its traditions, its songs and its games. The Jewish child grows up with the erroneous idea that the Jews have no language of their own, no songs, no fairy tales, while the strange dialect spoken by their parents is looked upon as a kind of a slang that is not good enough to be used in refined company.

This is true of the Jews the world over, and particularly so of the Jews in our own blessed land. A few meaningless Hebrew prayers forced upon the child by an archaic "Rabbi" plus the famous "Bar-Mitzwah (Confirmation) speech, usually comprise the national educational baggage of the American-Jewish child. Why there should be German, Polish, Greek, Lithuanian, and other national religious schools, while the Jews are conspicuously negligent, 2is a question perhaps not for us to decide. Yet considering the enormously great Hebrew literature which, though young, has already won its place among the oldest literatures of the civilized world, the negligence and the indifference of the Jews sets one thinking.

We must apologize for the deviation from our real subject, that is the report on the activities of the Young Maccabees School. Our object in doing this was to bring home the vital and imperative necessity of an institution like the Y. M. S. Volumes could be written on this subject, but should these few lines succeed in directing the reader's mind toward the abnormalities of the education among the Jews at the present time, we would feel gratified. The Young Maccabees School was organized about a year and a half ago, principally through the efforts of the Poale-Zion organizations and the different Maccabees Clubs about which we will say a few words later on. The classes meet weekly. There were about seventy children, ranging between the ages of seven and fourteen years, and it had two instructors.

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The studies taken up were as follows: Hebrew taught in Hebrew, Jewish History, Yiddish Language and Literature and Folk Songs. From the very day of its inception the school met at the Chicago Hebrew Institute, and here, perhaps as well as anywhere it is timely to express our appreciation to the Institute for the great material and moral support rendered to our school. The Institute gave the school a free and congenial home, thus making it possible for us to be what we are today.

The Y. M. S. proved to be a success, and it soon became evident that the weekly meetings were not anywhere nearly sufficient to satisfy the demand, and on December 2, 1917, the school reorganized and reopened as a daily school with 140 pupils, three teachers and a principal. The classes now meet five times a week between 3:00 and 7:00 in the afternoon. The different subjects are divided among Mr. S. Cheifetz who teaches Hebrew; Mr. Asher Manishewitz, Yiddish; and Mr. Alexander Manishewitz, History; the principal of the school at present is Mr. M. Feldman.

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The resources of the school are provided by the Hebrew Institute in the form of a free home, by the different Maccabees Clubs, the Ladies' Auxiliary Clubs and last, but not least, by the Poale-Zionists of Chicago. The business and educational affairs of the school are very ably managed by the Administrative Committee and Board of Education comprised of Messrs. B. J. Shapiro, M. Feldman, Z. Cheifetz, Al Manishewitz, D. Snoch, and Asher Manishewitz.

The school has been growing steadily. New classes are being organized where more advanced studies in Hebrew and Yiddish are taken up. The number of pupils is gradually increasing. The children like their school, in spite of the fact that the classes meet in the afternoon, after they get through with their regular public school work. Very often the children remain in school for hours engaging the instructors in talks on Jewish History and Jewish life in general.

Working hand in hand with Y. M. S. and being of prime importance to it, are the so-called "Young Maccabees Clubs," already mentioned in this 5report. There are ten such clubs in the city at present, eight of which meet in the Hebrew Institute. The clubs have a membership of about two hundred, the age of the members ranging between eight and twenty years. The clubs meet weekly, and here again, the aim is purely educational, Jewish History, Jewish Language and Jewish Folk Lore. It is worth while noticing, that a great number of the members of the clubs (which is also true of the members of the school) are American-born children.

Each club elects committees to attend to its affairs under the direction of a so-called "Director," who is usually one of the teachers of the Y. M. S. The more advanced clubs have already been able to provide "Directors" for the younger clubs, from their own ranks. The directors, together with the different committees comprise a so-called "Federated Committee" which works for the good of all the clubs and the school, under the management of Mr. J. Cheifetz.

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Of the club meetings at the Hebrew Institute are the following:

Club A (1) Under the direction of Mr. Z. Cheifetz.

Club B (2) Under the direction of Miss Miriam Lichtin (member of club).

Club C (3) Under the direction of Misses Rebecca Krause and Yetta Manishewitz (club members).

Club D (4) Under the direction of Misses Malka Alexander and Sophie Alpert (club members).

Club E (5) Under the direction of Misses Ethel Cheifetz and Sarah Rozinski (club member)

Rhei Hamaceablecem - Hebrew speaking club, Mr. Z. Cheifetz, Director.

Club G (7) Under the direction of Mr. Reuben Horowitz.

Club I (9) Under the direction of Mr. M. Pot.

Besides being busy with their studies, the members of the school and the clubs find time for constructive recreation. Thus on March 31, 1918, a very interesting concert, arranged in harmony with the spirit of the organization was given in the large Gymnasium Hall of the Chicago Hebrew Institute. Only members of the Y. M. S. participated, and it proved a real treat to all that were present.