(lit. "room"). A type of educational institution especially widespread in Eastern Europe until World War II and still to be found in the more Orthodox communities. The ḥeder generally consisted of a small group of young boys, their ages varying from five to 13, who met at the home of the "rebbe" (rabbi). The parents would pay a pittance, and that would be the rebbe's income. The rebbe generally had no pedagogical training or background, and anyone with some knowledge of the sacred texts could open his own ḥeder as a means to support his family. The rebbe would often divide the students into three age groups, working with each in turn. The youngest students learned how to read, the emphasis being on learning to pray from a prayer book. The intermediate group generally studied the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, while the older group studied the Talmud. Exceptional students might go on to a Yeshivah, but the vast majority entered the labor market after completing their ḥeder studies. The ḥeder teacher used corporal punishment to impose iron discipline. He was often assisted by a belfer (a corruption of the Yiddish behelfer---"assistant"), whose duties would include bringing the children to the ḥeder and taking them home at the end of the day. The course of studies was exclusively sacred literature, and the hours were long, even for the youngest children. From the 19th century, following the Haskalah ("Enlightenment"), an attempt was made by some instructors to modify the ḥeder by introducing Hebrew language and other Haskalah studies. This was referred to as the ḥeder metukkan ("reformed ḥeder"), but the experiment did not succeed and it was soon discontinued. Attempts to transplant the ḥeder to the United States as a supplement to public school studies were also unsuccessful.
In North Africa, children started ḥeder at the age of two or three. After learning to read Hebrew, they studied the prayer book and the Bible. In Britain, the (Orthodox) congregational Hebrew school was also known as a ḥeder.
