His early secular education was at a local Catholic school, and his Jewish education came from attendance of a Cheder, and from his father, who was a talmudist and Hebrew grammarian.
Timm demonstrates how the practice of translating the Bible in Jewish elementary schools (kheyder) during the earliest period of the emergence of the Yiddish language influenced the formation of its Germanic Component, that the influence of Judeo-French in this context is more important than thought, and that an important part of the original translation vocabulary is present in everyday Modern Eastern Yiddish
Until the 19th and 20th century, boys attended the Cheder (literally "room," since it was in the synagogue, which historically was a building with a Bet Midrash being the only room) or Talmud Torah where they were taught by a Melamed tinokos' (children's teacher).