Vichna Kaplan

Vichna Kaplan (1913 – August 20, 1986) was an Orthodox Jewish teacher and school dean who, together with her husband Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, brought the Bais Yaakov movement to America. A prize pupil of Sarah Schenirer, the founder of Bais Yaakov in Poland, Kaplan opened the first Bais Yaakov High School in Williamsburg, New York, in 1938. She later opened the first Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary (1941 ), which provided teachers for all Bais Yaakov schools that subsequently opened in America and Israel.

Still active as dean of the Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary, Kaplan died on August 20, 1986 (15 Av 5746). Her daughter, Rebbetzin Frumie Kirzner, succeeded her as dean of the Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary. Rabbi Boruch Kaplan died on April 7, 1996 (18 Nisan 5756).

In 1958 the Kaplans opened a Boro Park branch of Bais Yaakov, which eventually superseded the Williamsburg location. The school continued to expand into elementary, high school and seminary programs. All other Bais Yaakov schools that later opened in America and Israel trace their history to Kaplan's original school, through the teachers Kaplan sent to staff them and the advice she gave to found them. The fiftieth yahrtzeit gathering for Schenirer in Madison Square Garden in 1985, which Kaplan organized, was attended by thousands of students of Bais Yaakov schools established in Hasidic, yeshivish, and Modern Orthodox communities with staff members drawn from the Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary. Seven thousand girls converged on the sixtieth yahrtzeit gathering at the Brooklyn Armory in Williamsburg in 1995.

The school outgrew Kaplan's home and occupied several rented locations before settling into its own building at 143 South 8th Street in Williamsburg. In 1944 it became an all-day high school. A dormitory was opened for out-of-town American students, students from Canada, and European refugees. At that point, Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, a successful maggid shiur at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, left his position to become school administrator. The Kaplans also opened a summer learning camp at Engel's Farm in Connecticut, in the tradition of the summer camps Schenirer had run in Poland.

Before leaving Poland, Vichna received permission from Rabbi Yehuda Leib Orlean, head of the central Bais Yaakov office, to open a Bais Yaakov school in New York. While Bais Yaakov elementary schools did exist in New York at that time, hers was the first religious high school for Jewish girls. She started the school with seven students around her dining-room table in Williamsburg in 1938. Two of her first students were the daughters of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz of Mesivta Torah Vodaas, who told her, "Take my daughters and build a seminary around them". The Mendlowitz girls brought five friends, and classes began.

In 1936 she was introduced to Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, an American student who, through the efforts of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman, had studied at the Chevron Yeshiva, Mir, Kaminetz, and Brisk yeshivas. After they met, Kaplan returned to America during Hanukkah 1936 and they corresponded by mail. As a condition for the shidduch (match), his family insisted that the couple live in America. At that time, the American lifestyle was perceived as detrimental to families wishing to live according to Torah values. Vichna's uncle privately thought that she should refuse to leave Europe, but advised her to consult with the Brisker Rav. The Rav assured her, "With Rav Boruch, you can go wherever he wants". The couple was engaged by mail in 1936 and married on August 8, 1937, eleven days after Vichna arrived in New York City. They had nine sons and four daughters.

Vichna Eisen was born in Slonim, Russian Empire, around 1913. Her parents, Ephraim Yehoshua Eisen and Merreh Gittel Lubchansky, daughter of Rabbi Chaim Leib Lubchansky, the Rav of Baronovitch, both died before her eleventh birthday. She and her brother Dovid were raised by their aunt and uncle, Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky, mashgiach ruchani of the Baranovitch yeshiva, who were childless.