Definition of cheder in English:
cheder
nounplural noun chedarim/KHeˈdärim/ , plural noun cheders
(also heder)
A school for Jewish children in which Hebrew and religious knowledge are taught.
‘Religious education was once taught in a heder, an eastern European elementary school for boys.’- ‘Klausner was born near Vilna in 1874 and began his education in a traditional Jewish heder, or schoolhouse.’
- ‘I remember this; when I was about nine or ten, and fervent into my Jewish education (I used to go to extra cheder (Hebrew school) on Tuesday, just because I wanted to), I took Yom Kippur very seriously.’
- ‘Like those around him, my father went to cheder, spoke Yiddish, and led a religious life.’
- ‘The consecration of the building in Brighton Road also provided a new home for a cheder, or school where Sutton's children could learn Hebrew.’
- ‘Back then, I was pretty good in cheder, so the Jews of our community thought they would do a wonderful thing and collect enough money to send me to a yeshiva to become a rabbi.’
- ‘My father tells me that when he was in heder in Brooklyn, he showed the rabbi a book with pictures of dinosaurs, which the rabbi promptly declared a ‘goyishe bubbemiseh’ (gentile old wives' tale).’
Pronunciation
Origin
Late 19th century from Hebrew ḥeḏer ‘room’.
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