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Jewish Education and Its Outcomes: Knowledge and Interests among Jewish Summer Camp Participants in the former Soviet Union

Translated Title: החינוך היהודי ותפוקותיו: מה יודעים ובמה מתעניינים משתתפי מחנות הקיץ בברית המועצות לשעבר

Author(s): Epstein, Alek D.

Date: 2013

Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Students, Summer/Youth Camps, Israel Education, Surveys

Abstract: The current research is based on two surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012 at nine youth camps organized for high school students’ education and recreation by the Jewish Agency for Israel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Among the campers who responded to our survey, over two-thirds have attended Jewish schools or clubs. However, the study has shown that most respondents had a very limited knowledge of general Jewish and especially Israeli history: only under a quarter (24.7%) came up with three post-biblical names of historical Jewish figures. Recalling three meaningful names in the history of the State of Israel proved to be even more challenging: nearly half of respondents could not recall a single name (47.6%) and only 22.8% stated three relevant names. Respondents also manifested poor familiarity with the history of Russian Jewry over the last two centuries, i.e. their own cultural heritage that apparently is not transferred from parents to children in their (usually ethnically-mixed) families.

Russian Jewry Today: A Sociological Profile

Author(s): Brym, Robert; Ryvkina, Rozalina Vladimirovna

Date: 1996

Topics: Demography, Main Topic: Demography and Migration