You write that because of the diverse student body, Rebbetzin Kaplan sometimes received unusual requests, like that of some chassidish parents who didn’t want their daughters studying directly from texts.
Yes, and she always honored that. If chassidish parents objected to their daughters using a text, like a Chumash, Rebbetzin Kaplan said they didn’t have to. One chassidish mother insisted that her daughter stay home on Friday to help prepare Shabbos, so Rebbetzin Kaplan told the girl, “Stay home. That’s your mesorah. You’ll make up whatever tests you miss on a different day.”
After the war, in the 1950s, [many chassidic groups] started their own girls’ high schools, so these chassidish girls stopped attending Bais Yaakov. But all the principals of the chassidish schools were graduates of Bais Yaakov. One of my classmates, Shulamis (Prager) Keller, for example, was the principal of Puppa and another Bais Yaakov student, Rifka (Hess) Pollack, was the principal of Beis Rochel.
You also write that some teachers at Bais Yaakov taught in Hebrew – a practice that today is restricted to Modern Orthodox schools.
A lot of the teachers taught in Yiddish but some taught in ivris. Ivris, not ivrit. They didn’t have the Sephardic havara. Rebbetzin Kaplan spoke a perfect ivris.
Ivris is very important. It’s part of the mesorah. The tefillos are in ivris.
Why did you write this book?
The main reason is that when I was in eighth grade, I was a very rebellious type of student and wanted to go to Ramaz, which was a co-ed school. My mother told me we couldn’t afford it and sent me to Bais Yaakov instead. I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to have fun in school, and I wasn’t terribly interested in Bais Yaakov. So I made trouble and once or twice a week the teachers would send me out of class.
I would go to the office and Rebbetzin Kaplan would always tell me what a nice, good, and smart girl I was. After she did this twice every week for two months, I believed her and changed. And I realized later that she made me the person I am today because she held my hand when I was an obnoxious 13-year-old teenager. I had never really thanked for being so wonderful to me so I [felt I had] a debt to pay.
I also wanted the world to know who Rebbetzin Kaplan was and how, because of her, Bais Yaakov blossomed in America. She was always very modest and said, “If it wasn’t me, it would be somebody else.” But I don’t know. She was such a determined, wonderful, and marvelous person.
