Sally Bein and his children: The Israelite Educational Institution in Beelitz
Panel discussion and film screening (in German, with translation into German Sign Language, DGS)
School class at the educational institution, ca. 1930, donation from Dagmar Drovs; Jewish Museum Berlin
In October 1908, the Israelite Educational Institution for Mentally Handicapped Children opened in Beelitz, Brandenburg. Initiated by the Jewish Community Association in Berlin and the Bnai Brith Lodge, the institution offered children with disabilities aged six to fourteen a ten-grade education.
Tue 28 Apr 2026, 7 pm
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
Sally Bein, born in 1881 in Inowraclaw in the Province of Posen, was the director of the home. The trained primary school teacher and teacher for the deaf introduced new educational approaches to the work with the children. They received instruction in classical subjects, Hebrew, and religion – the home was run according to religious dietary laws – as well as in handicrafts, physical education, and singing. The institution attracted considerable attention both within Germany and abroad.
Planned emigration to join his older daughter and her husband in British India was not possible due to the outbreak of World War II.
In June 1942, Sally Bein, together with his wife, his younger daughter, and the children and staff still at the institution, was deported to Sobibor and murdered.
The only known photographic record of the Israelite Educational Institution is a photo album belonging to teacher Arthur Feiner, who worked there from 1930 to 1933 and managed to flee to Shanghai in 1940.
This album was recently donated to the Jewish Museum Berlin. To mark the occasion, Aubrey Pomerance, head of the JMB archive, invites you to a discussion about Sally Bein, Arthur Feiner, the Israelite Educational Institution, and Jewish curative education in Germany. The film Die Kinder von Sally Bein (The Children of Sally Bein, directed by Dan Wolman) will be shown afterwards.
Sally Bein, ca. 1930, donation from Dagmar Drovs; Jewish Museum Berlin
Podiumsgäste:
- Dagmar Drovs, donor of the album, author on curative education in German Judaism
- Ronny Dotan and Tatjana Ruge, reseachers and authors on the history of the Israelite Educational Institution
- Sieglind Ellger-Rüttgart, Professor Emerita of General Rehabilitation Education at Humboldt University of Berlin and editor of the book Verloren und Un-Vergessen: Jüdische Heilpädagogik in Deutschland (Lost and Unforgotten: Jewish Special Education in Germany)
- Dan Wolman, director of Die Kinder von Sally Bein (The Children of Sally Bein)
The event will be interpreted in German Sign Language.
With the kind support of Berliner Sparkasse.
