"Hebrew Kindergarten in Warsaw" – a Rare, Impressive Certificate, Signed by the Teacher and Children's Author ...

"Hebrew Kindergarten in Warsaw" – a Rare, Impressive Certificate, Signed by the Teacher and Children's Author Yechiel Halperin and the Greatest Hebrew Teachers – [1912]
A certificate from the 24th of Adar 1912, given to the student Rivkah Sheinman from Lutsk, the shire of Volhyn.
The certificate was given "to indicate that she attended the verbal courses of the Hebrew kindergarten of P. Halperin in Warsaw, for a year and a half, and finished her studies in a very good manner".
Signed:
Ya'akov Fichman; Yitzchak Greenbaum (eventually one of the leaders of the Zionist Movement; N. Chefetz; Chaim Eliezer Dovnikov (an educator who was murdered during the 1929 Palestine Riots); Z.Y. Yaffe; Shmuel Shevach Kantarowitz (a teacher and Hebrew grammarian); additional teachers.
On the lower part of the certificate, the signature of the manager Yechiel Halperin.
Stamp: "The Hebrew kindergarten of P. Halperin in Warsaw".
A large, impressive certificate on thick paper. On its upper part, a star-of-David. The certificate is surrounded by red and black frames.
Historical background:
In 1909, Yechiel Halperin, who until then was a Hebrew teacher in Warsaw, established the first Hebrew kindergarten in Warsaw. The kindergarten was the first one outside the borders of the Land of Israel that was conducted in Hebrew. Since then, Halperin devoted himself to the education of young Jewish children.
In 1910, he opened a seminar for training kindergarten teachers for Hebrew kindergartens; yet, since men were forbidden to be involved in such enterprises, the institution was opened in the name of his wife "P. [Peninah] Halperin".
All classes of the seminar were taught in Hebrew. The teachers of the seminar included the best educators and writers, including Ya'akov Fichman, Hillel Tzeitlin, the poet Ya'akov Lerner, and the grammarian Shmuel Shevach kantarowitz, Bialik, Tchernichovsky, Z.Y. Yaffe, C.A. Dovnikov and more. The chairman of the board was Yitzchak Greenbaum.
After he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1919, Halperin continued his educational work. During the years 1920-1926, he served as the chief supervisor of kindergartens in the Land of Israel.
During the years 1926-1927, he worked as a teacher at the Levinsky Seminar for teachers and kindergarten teachers and in 1933, opened his own seminar for kindergarten teachers in Tel Aviv. The seminar was active until 1941. Halperin wrote children's songs, among them "Ha'Yoreh" (Geshem Geshem Mi'Shamayim") and "Shir Eres" ("Numi, Numi Yaldati") which is the most well-known lullaby in Israel. Both poems were set to music by Yoel Angel.
Yechiel and Peninah Halperin had four children: Uriel (the poet Yonatan Ratush; 1909-1981), Miriam (the author Miri Dor; 1911-1945|), Gamliel (the linguist Zvi Rein; 1914-1998) and Uziel (the linguist Uzi Ornan; born in 1923).
After his death, Yom Tov Levinsky wrote of him: "He devotedly educated a whole generation of hundreds of kindergarten teachers for the Hebrew child. For more than thirty years, the man created in the child's language and refined a Hebrew style of babies. He is of blessed memory".

The receiver of the certificate: Rivka Sheinman, married Dr. Yisrael Rubin, who changed his family name to "Rivkai" for his love to her. She died in 1968.
Size:
Condition: Very Good.