This dissertation is a study of the establishment and development of Gratz College, the oldest Hebrew Teachers College in the United States. The study will examine the College from its inception in 1893, through its first thirty-five years, to its reorganization in 1928. The aims of the study are two-fold. First, it will attempt to evaluate the efficacy of Gratz College in providing a higher Jewish education for Philadelphia's Jewish adolescent population. Second, it will asess whether the College was successful in its attempt to provide excellent training for those pupils who were to become teachers in the Jewish schools in the city.