Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). * * * * * A MANUAL FOR TEACHING BIBLICAL HISTORY BY EUGENE KOHN _Rabbi of Congregation Chizzuk Emunah_ _Baltimore, Md._ NEW YORK THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA 5677--1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917 BY THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA _To the memory of_ _SOLOMON SCHECHTER_ ז״צ״ל _this book is reverently inscribed_ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author cannot permit this book to go to press without acknowledging his indebtedness to the Education Committee of the United Synagogue for their encouragement and assistance. He is especially grateful to Dr. Julius H. Greenstone for his many helpful suggestions and his careful reading of the text, both in manuscript and in proof. To Dr. Cyrus Adler and Professor Mordecai M. Kaplan his thanks are also due in large measure for their aid in removing crudities and improving the form and content of the work. INTRODUCTORY NOTE Jewish pedagogic literature is still in its infancy. While text-books for children, more or less satisfactory, have been produced by many authors during the past century, the effort to provide the teacher with proper material for his guidance in instruction is of very recent origin and the supply has thus far been very slight. The students in our several normal schools, and especially the large army of teachers, scattered throughout the country, who have not had the advantage of a normal school training, are often obliged to resort to works by Christian authors for information and guidance. While these may supply them with the facts and with the most approved method of presentation, they cannot give them the Jewish point of view which is so essential to the Jewish teacher. As the late Dr. Schechter once remarked, "We cannot have our love letters written for us. We must write them ourselves, even at the risk of bad grammar." We must place in the hands of our teachers books which will inspire them with loyalty and devotion to Judaism, which will give them the proper attitude to the Bible and to Jewish tradition, and which will provide them with an adequate understanding of Jewish strivings and ideals.