cheder

American  

[khey-duhr, khey-der, hey-] / ˈxeɪ dər, ˈxeɪ dər, ˈheɪ- /

noun

Yiddish.

• chadarim,
  plural
• cheders
  plural

1. heder.

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cheder British  

/ ˈheɪdə, ˈxɛdɛr /

noun

1. (in Western countries) elementary religious education classes, usually outside normal school hours

2. more traditionally, a full-time elementary religious school

3. informal a place of corrective instruction; prison

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• chadarim
  plural
• cheders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cheder

literally: room

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cheder cheders

Kecel had no yeshiva, so Menahem gained an elementary knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish law and ritual at a cheder, a Jewish primary school.

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2022

One of twelve brothers & sisters, he went to school in the one-room village cheder, where the rabbi's goat stumbled about among the drying wash and tumbling babies.

From Time Magazine Archive

When I had gone with her to the cheder nebilin, when I had used my sepet-ram to save life, she had perceived in me feelings and impulses to which all her own nature responded.

From A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille

Of the Talmud he knew very little, having preferred to play with his gentile friends to wasting his hours in the cheder.

From Rabbi and Priest A Story by Milton Goldsmith

At the age of five, the Jewish lad was sent to cheder and his young years devoted to the study of the Bible.

From Rabbi and Priest A Story by Milton Goldsmith

There was a theater for performances and a Sabil-Kuttab, which Frankie explained was used both as a communal water source and an elementary school similar to our cheders.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

I spent seven years at it, not counting the several years of Talmud which I had had at the various cheders What is the Talmud?

From The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan