Shearith Israel’s distinguished Polonies Talmud Torah School (PTTS) is now offering highly subsidized one-on-one tutoring customized to your child’s needs.
The Polonies Talmud Torah School, founded in 1802, was the first Hebrew School in America. Now, over 200 years later, our school still is still pioneering in its ability to provide children and teens with a substantive Jewish education in a positive and engaging environment.
We offer many scholarships so that no qualified student is turned away due to financial limitations. In order to continue, we ask for your help. Please consider sponsoring a student for an academic year or semester or contributing to our Hebrew school scholarship fund with a tax deductible contribution of any amount. Click here to make donation.
Hebrew School History
On the 21st of Nisan, the 7th day of Pesah (1731), our Congregation consecrated our first Yeshiba, named Minhat Areb, which was used as a Beth HaMidrash for the young members of our community.
In 1802, Meir Polonies donated $900 to fund what has been since known as the The Polonies Talmud Torah School or PTTS. Over two hundred years later, the school still carries his name, a dedication to the continuity of the educational mission of Shearith Israel.
In more recent times, our Hebrew School has provided children and teens, ages 3–16, with a substantive Jewish education in a positive and engaging environment. Our educated, trained, and enthusiastic staff created an enjoyable and warm learning environment in which children were motivated to learn and grow. Students developed Hebrew language skills (reading, writing and comprehension), learned the major portions of the Tanakh, Jewish holiday rituals, Jewish history, and how Jewish ideas inform our values in modern times.
After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our PTTS Tutoring program emerged and is going strong.