AROUND FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, when our leader Mrs Sarah Schenirer first approached the Jewish world with the idea of Bais Yaakov, she had almost no supporters, and only very few Jewish parents understood what she wanted and what she was talking about.

The Orthodox world was in despair over the problem of religious education for Jewish girls, and in any case could not believe that some humble, unknown woman would be able to overcome the obstacles and smooth the path.

Mrs Schenirer, who was full of faith and confidence in what she knew to be true, was not deterred by the dismissive and sceptical way she was treated. She took on the task of becoming a link in the long golden chain of Jewish heroines, who in every generation brought the Jewish people comfort, strength, and redemption.

This integrity, Jewish fire, work ethic, self-sacrifice, creativity, and deep faith in her ideal have already immortalized Mrs Schenirer in the history of the Jewish people as the great exemplar of a kosher and modest Jewish woman for many generations to come.

Much of the victory of the Bais Yaakov ideal and the collective return of thousands of Jewish girls to Israel of old should be credited to her fiery writings, which so profoundly express her spiritual feeling, warmth, and simplicity, and thus must strike a chord in the Jewish feminine soul.

We have collected in this book the most important essays, speeches on various occasions, and letters to young women and children that have been published over the past ten years in the Bais Yaakov Journal and Kindergarten, or other publications.

We are hoping in this way to produce something useful. The Jewish wife and mother, the Jewish girl and Jewish child, will find in this book ways of acquainting themselves with an authentically Jewish perspective on various life problems, learning the significance of Jewish holidays, becoming aware of many issues in Jewish life, and more deeply understanding the ideals of Jewish feminine life according to the Torah and of educating the younger generation according to the spirit of God's people.