“In our city there were several cheders and one Jewish vocational school. It was founded by some philanthropist, a native of the city, who had made a career in other places, some even abroad. He looked with regret at the backwardness in which the Jews in his homeland had languished, and found that they were too exclusively devoted to trade and petty business. The Talmud says: the faces of a people devoted exclusively to trade will turn black... This is also one of the curses of exile, predicted by Jacob. To ease the severity of this curse, the philanthropist decided to encourage crafts and gradually introduce elements of secular education into the inert environment...”