their children to non-sectarian public schools during the day. In the afternoons or on Sundays they would send the children to Cheder or Talmud Torah-type Jewish-run schools for religious training, as had been the tradition in Europe. Parents feared that in North America, this approach was failing to transmit Judaism in a compelling and lasting manner. Students went to Jewish classes when tired in the afternoons. They were subject to the secularizing forces in their mixed communities, encountering the larger American society and culture in public school, on the street, and at home. There were only four or five Jewish day schools outside New York City. The rabbis intended their new school system to have a dual-curriculum: Jewish day schools would provide a Judaic (Jewish or Torah religious) education for half the day and a good secular education in classical subjects, all in one building or complex. They planned for each new school to be guided by an ordained rabbi who would serve as the headmaster or principal. He would recruit a "general studies" associate principal (also known as the "English principal"), preferably someone who was also loyal to the traditions of Judaism. The associate would recruit, assist, supervise and guide the teachers who would teach the secular subjects generally taught in the public schools. Post-war conditions American Jews were shocked as they learned the overwhelming scale of Jewish deaths due to the Holocaust of World War II; six million Jews had been killed, and the great European Jewish communities and Torah centers destroyed. Many American Jews had lost relatives in Europe. In addition, more than half a million United States Jews had served in the US armed forces; some participated in the liberation of the concentration camps, or worked with the millions of displaced people in camps after the war, including Jews trying to find out if any of their families had survived. Many American Jews were sympathetic to the rabbis' appeals to ensure a moderate Jewish education for their children, at least until the Bar Mitzvah age (12-13). In addition, most Jews in the United States felt pride when the new State of Israel was established, due in part to fierce fighting by the many European Zionist Jews who had immigrated there when it was Mandate Palestine. The United States was the first nation to officially recognize the new Jewish state. With a renewed commitment to Judaism, American