Activities of schools and institutions for deaf and blind children established on the initiative of Lviv Jews from 1871 through 1939

Abstract

The article describes the initiatives of the Jewish community in Lviv in the area of special education taken during the Galician autonomy period (1867–1918) and in independent Poland (1918–1939). It is based on little known references kept in Lviv and Cracow archives. Lviv Jews’ interest in the education of blind and deaf children was awaken by Vienna, where the first schools for the deaf and the blind in Europe had been established. The article presents the functioning of the first Jewish center for deaf children and adolescents on Polish lands – it was established by Izaak Józef Bardach in 1871. The institution functioned as a private school, supporting itself mainly through subsidies from the city of Lviv and from the local Jewish community till 1939 when it was incorporated into the state school for the deaf at Łyczakowskiej street. The Jews from Lviv contributed to the establishment of the first Jewish school for the blind in Poland. It was set up in Bojanowo in 1926 and transferred to Warsaw in 1936. The article expands the current state of research on the history of schooling for people with disabilities on Polish lands, showing the contribution of the Jewish community to the development of schools for the deaf and the blind.