Joseph Schuster-Shiloh — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Joseph Schuster-Shiloh was one of the pillars of Hebrew education in Poland and Lithuania and a teacher in Israel, but he would have been forgotten had one student in the fourth grade of Municipal High School Alef not engraved on his heart three columns of Dante's "Inferno" that Schuster used to write on the board as a warning to the students interrupting his lessons. This student was the writer Ya'acov Shabtai, who immortalized his mentor in the final chapter of the novel Sof Davar (Past Perfect). He died almost three decades ago.

In the final chapter of Sof Davar, Yaakov Shabtai's last novel, Meir, the protagonist, sets out on a journey of reminiscence, a journey to his youth and childhood. Among the meetings with his beloved friends and family Meir recalls "it is exactly the history teacher with the huge head and mighty chin that projects from the heavy, angry face" (Sof Davar, p. 214). The teacher's description strikingly matches the appearance of Shabtai's history teacher at Municipal High School Alef in Tel Aviv. Shabtai does not name his history teacher. It is a fitting tribute that we should now know the teacher's real name.

Shabtai's teacher was a leading educator in Poland and Lithuania between the two world wars; in Israel he taught history at Municipal High School Alef, alongside his colleague, Moshe Frank-Drury.  Moshe Frank-Drury wrote Hamoreh hanishkah shel Leah Goldberg Tarbut Vesifrut, 30.4 (Leah Goldberg's Forgotten Teacher), referring to Dr. Joseph Schuster-Shiloh.

Born in Galicia, on February 28, 1896, he graduated with a doctorate in Vienna during World War I and at the same time studied at a rabbinical seminary. He received his Ph.D. for his essay The Ukrainian Elements in Polish Poetry of the 19th Century. With the founding of the Tarbut organization in Poland, he started to establish Hebrew schools throughout the country and was principal at several of them. After teaching a year in high school in Lodz, he established the first Hebrew high school in Lida (the town that served as a world center of the Mizrahi movement before the war), between Grodno and Vilna. From Lida he moved to Vilna and ran a private Hebrew high school for two years. He then taught a year at the Grodno high school. From 1925, until he made aliyah to Palestine in 1935, he ran the Tarbut high school in Vilna. During all those years he was a social activist, who contributed greatly to reviving Hebrew culture in Poland and Lithuania.

In many group photos preserved from those days in the Aviezer Yellin Archives of Jewish Education in Israel and the Diaspora (at Tel Aviv University), Schuster's image can be easily recognized from Shabtai's description. A typical example is a photograph taken in Lida in 1923 at the end of the school year.

In his role as chief superintendent of "cultural" institutions, from 1920-1935, Schuster traveled widely throughout Eastern Europe. This allowed the intellectual, who was fluent in many languages, including Arabic and Chinese, to broaden his horizons even further. It is therefore not surprising that he arrived at Bonn University in Germany in the spring of 1932, at the same time as Leah Goldberg was studying there for a Ph.D., under the guidance of the Nazi-hating Professor of Oriental Studies, Paul Ernst Kahle. In six of her letters to her girlfriend, Minna, (Hebrew Girls, 2009), Leah mentions Schuster, calling him "Professor-Doctor."

After immigrating to Israel, in 1935, he taught for two years at Ben-Shemen, ran the Nordia High School in Tel Aviv, and helped establish a high school in Kfar Saba. In 1947, like his colleague Frank, he joined the staff of Municipal High School Alef. He taught history there until his death in 1958, aged 62. The figure of Schuster, who changed his name to Shiloh in Israel, appears in all the school graduation pictures from that period. After his death, his colleagues dedicated an anthology of articles Sefer Shiloh to his memory (edited by Dr. Michael Handel, published in 1960, with the help of the Tel Aviv Municipality's Department of Culture).

More than 50 years have passed since his death. His students recall that he used to begin the lesson with a short summary of the previous lesson by a student who knew how to keep it short. The next thing was the recognition test on the map. One day a student was asked to point out the location of the Rhine River and accidentally pointed to the Volga. Schuster commented sarcastically: "Very interesting; the Rhine has moved – the discovery of the 20th century!" After the trip around the European map, "Shosti" would begin his lecture.

His students remember the short, energetic teacher arriving early to school, with a thick pile of books in one hand and in the other, a small leather bag containing a wet swimsuit. He maintained the connection between sport and knowledge all his life. Schuster was the only adult teacher who went out with his students for all their school trips. During the trip to the Dead Sea, he easily climbed Masada, leaving his students panting behind. The students did not know that their teacher had been an alpinist in the past. He did not only play active sports but he also had a keen interest in sporting events around the country. Despite the fact that he was friendly with the students, the students were unable to find out any details about his personal life and his background. He remained a mysterious and alien person in their company.

Translated from: Sarah ben Reuven  Ha'aretz 30/7/2010

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