 Mikveh Israel was a center of Jewish education in America during this time.The first U.S. Jewish teachers' college, Gratz College, established under the provisions of the will of Hyman Gratz (1776-1857), began in 1897.Mikveh Israel members started Dropsie College, the first post-graduate institution for Jewish learning in the world in 1907, bringing Cyrus Adler to Philadelphia.