During the 1880s, many Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants came to America bringing along with them their children. Most of these Jews settled in cities, particularly New York City. In America, Jewish immigrant parents had to decide whether or not to send them to obtain a traditional Jewish education or to obtain a free public school education. In most cases, the newly-arrived poor Russian Jewish immigrants would send their children off to public schools.
In these public schools, many children obtained at least an elementary school education. During this time, school and education was not emphasized as much for the Jewish children. Many of them left school early obtaining the minimal required education at age 12, which was the when they could get their working paper. Later on, the age limit was raised to 14 and that was when they would leave school to obtain working papers. At this time, children were not attracted to attending high schools and colleges for several reasons. First of all, there were not many high schools in the city at the time. Second of all, diplomas and degrees were not necessary for employment. Lastly, many Jewish parents needed their children to work to help support to family. Continuing to pursue a higher education was only for those who could afford the luxury of not having their children to help provide for the family.
Going to college was rare for the majority of the Russian and Polish Jews. In addition to the emphasizing of helping to provide for the family, often times many children were unable to continue pursuing a higher level education due to the poor quality of the education they had received and the lack of schools and the lack of seats available in those schools. There were few seats available at tuition-free colleges like CCNY and Hunter College. Jewish males would attend CCNY whereas Jewish females would attend Hunter College. As time passed however, CCNY became largely a school dominated by a large Jewish student body.
