Abstract: Dans les familles juives composées de personnes issues de l'ex-URSS mariées avec des conjoints français on observe des tensions mémorielles spécifiques qui s'expriment souvent par des formes de silence ou d'occultation. Ces familles incarnent en effet des espaces où s'entrelacent et parfois s'opposent des mémoires nationales et individuelles divergentes, façonnées par des contextes historiques et politiques distincts, notamment en lien avec l'expérience de la guerre et de l'antisémitisme.
En URSS, la mémoire officielle exaltait l'héroïsme collectif, glorifiant les soldats soviétiques, tout en passant sous silence les expériences spécifiques, telles que la Shoah par balles ou les persécutions staliniennes. Ces épisodes, marqués par des arrestations, des exécutions et des formes de silence imposé (Nora, 1984), créent des lacunes mémorielles profondément ressenties dans les familles. En France, les conjoints français valorisent des récits axés sur la Shoah, influencés par une mémoire nationale ayant longtemps occulté la collaboration, comme l'a montré Rousso (1987). Les enfants, récepteurs de ces récits fragmentés, développent une post-mémoire hybride (Hirsch, 1994), marquée par des tensions entre héroïsme et victimisation. Les parents, confrontés à des récits douloureux, pratiquent souvent une forme d'auto-censure inconsciente pour protéger leurs enfants des traumatismes familiaux. Ce phénomène engendre ce que Kaufmann (2004) appelle une "réinvention identitaire", où les individus reconstruisent leur identité à partir de fragments narratifs lacunaires. L'oubli, qu'il soit volontaire ou inconscient, joue un rôle central en tant qu'outil dynamique permettant de naviguer entre les silences imposés, les récits collectifs contradictoires et les besoins identitaires du présent. Basée sur ma thèse de doctorat (2024), cette étude montre comment les familles juives transnationales reconfigurent constamment leurs récits mémoriels en intégrant les héritages soviétiques, français et juifs.
Abstract: Introduction
School-based vaccine programme delivery offers convenience to parents, and reduces the burden on primary care capacity. Vaccine coverage among school-age children is lower in Hackney (northeast London), and post-pandemic coverage recovery has been limited in Hackney compared to London and England. Hackney is home to the largest Orthodox Jewish (OJ) population in Europe where most children attend independent faith schools. This study aimed to assess (i): vaccine programme delivery gaps via independent OJ schools in Hackney; and (ii) the primary care catch-up and commissioning strategies undertaken to help close gaps.
Methods
Qualitative evaluations of national incident responses for poliovirus and measles tailored to underserved communities in northeast London (2022–24). Data consisted of in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 53) with public health professionals, healthcare practitioners, community partners, and OJ parents. Vaccine clinic visits (n = 11) were conducted in northeast London, affording additional (n = 43) focused and opportunistic interviews with OJ parents attending for catch-up.
Results
Evaluating the delivery of routine and outbreak vaccination campaigns to school-age children demonstrates that independent OJ schools in Hackney are a key programme delivery gap, directly impacting access to catch-up and routine adolescent programmes. OJ parents reported that they did not receive relevant vaccine programme information and invitations for school-age children via independent faith schools. Primary care-led outreach clinics were hosted to offer school-age immunisations to OJ adolescents, but did not offer HPV vaccines. Sub-commissioning community organisations to liaise with independent schools may be a strategy to help resolve this delivery gap, but would require responsibilities within school-age immunisation partnerships to be clearly assigned.
Conclusion
Limitations in vaccine programme delivery via independent faith schools in northeast London may play a role in suboptimal vaccination coverage. Programme gaps must be addressed to help ensure that every eligible child is invited for, and can access, routine vaccination via accessible pathways.
Abstract: • Nahamu’s position on the state of education for charedi children is set out in a paper published in September 2024. The paper made recommendations that require primary legislation. This bill is a welcome step towards ensuring every
child receives a broad and balanced education, and we welcome the inclusion of provisions that will specifically improve the lives of charedi children.
• This submission focuses on the following areas of the bill:
Children not in school (clauses 24 to 29 and schedule 1)
• Independent educational institutions (clauses 30 to 35)
• Ofsted’s powers to investigate unregistered, and therefore illegal,
independent schools (clauses 36 to 37)
• Revised national curriculum (clause 41)
• School admission arrangements (clauses 47 to 50)
• The opening new schools (clauses 51 to 55).
• While legitimate homeschooling should be supported, tighter provisions are needed to prevent misuse as a guise for unregistered, illegal schooling. This includes clear definitions of “efficient” and “full-time” education, standardised
guidelines, and sufficient funding for oversight.
• Current enforcement mechanisms, including SAOs, risk being ineffective without stronger accountability measures. Remedies must prioritise access to education over punitive approaches.
• This submission underscores the need for targeted funding, strengthened oversight, and specific measures to address the unique challenges within charedi communities, ensuring all children, including charedi children, access their legal right to education
Abstract: Cette contribution tente d’approcher les sentiments nourris par le souvenir du Yiddishland à la fin du XXe siècle et au début du XXIe siècle. Elle cherche, afin d’aborder cette sphère habitée par l’ancrage familial, traversée par des antagonismes idéologiques, hantée par le souvenir de l’émigration et de l’intégration ainsi que celui de souffrances inouïes et longtemps indicibles, à suivre les représentations idéales d’un monde perdu, dans le domaine de la culture et dans celui des utopies politiques, en s’intéressant d’une part à des aspects du renouveau de l’expression culturelle yiddish en France au cours des trois dernières décennies, en particulier dans la chanson (Jacques Grober, Violette Szmajer, Batia Baum, Michèle Tauber et le groupe du Paon doré) ; d’autre part aux survivances des motifs d’utopie politique trouvant leur source dans l’épopée idéologique et historique du Yiddishland (Charles Melman, Mojsze Zalcman) ; enfin à la réappropriation de la mémoire véhiculée par le yiddish telle qu’elle peut être perçue dans les interviews réalisées par Max Kohn entre 2006 et 2016. Cette recherche, tentative d’exploration d’un cheminement affectif vers le yiddish de la part d’un enfant né à cette époque en Israël et ayant grandi en France dans une famille non yiddishophone, se limitera à certaines expressions de cette mémoire et de ces motifs d’espérance en France, sans s’interdire de les mettre en rapport avec des expressions analogues dans d’autres pays de la diaspora juive ou en Israël.
Abstract: In this report:
The number of Jewish pupils enrolled in Jewish schools has been climbing consistently for several decades and has increased significantly since the mid-1990s. This rise, described in previous JPR Jewish schools bulletins, has occurred in both the 'mainstream' and the 'Strictly Orthodox' sectors, though at different rates.
According to the latest official figures, while the overall number of registered pupils in 2023/24 shows an increase of 0.2% per annum since figures were last published by JPR three years ago, in the previous year alone, there was a reduction of 471 pupils, or 1.3%. This marks the first decrease in numbers since JPR started collecting data annually in 1995/96.
Some of the key findings in this report:
There are 136 Jewish schools in the UK, a net increase of 3 schools since 2021. The total figure is comprised of 45 mainstream Jewish schools and 91 Strictly Orthodox schools.
36,064 Jewish pupils studied in these schools in the academic year 2023/24. This represents an increase of 239 pupils, or 0.2% per annum since figures were published three years ago.
However, this growth only occurred in the first two years of these three years; in the third year (between 2022/23 and 2023/24), there was a reduction of 471 pupils, or 1.3% - the first decrease in numbers since JPR started collecting data annually in 1995/96.
For the first time, the mainstream sector has decreased across all three years in secondary and primary schools.
The Strictly Orthodox sector saw an overall increase. However, in the last academic year, the number of pupils in Strictly Orthodox schools fell by 358. This is not a result of demographic decline or a change in parental preference; instead, it reflects shifting government policy and practice in schools, reducing the number of children recorded in registered Strictly Orthodox schools.
The balance between registered mainstream and Strictly Orthodox schools has remained stable. 60% of Jewish pupils in Jewish schools are in Strictly Orthodox schools; 40% are in mainstream Jewish schools. This is a significant shift since the mid-1990s when the ratio was 55% mainstream to 45% Strictly Orthodox.
87% of all Jewish pupils in mainstream schools are in Greater London and South Hertfordshire. This distinction is much less pronounced in the Strictly Orthodox sector, with 63% being in London.
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Strategic Planning, Policy, Demography, Denominations: Haredi / Strictly Orthodox, Care and Welfare, Health, Poverty and Deprivation, Housing, Care and Welfare: Care for the Elderly, Age and Generational Issues, Youth: Jewish, Children and Childhood: Jewish, Fertility and Birth
Abstract: At 28,075 Jewish people, Greater Manchester recorded the largest Jewish population in the UK
outside of London and adjacent Hertfordshire. At first sight, it appears to have grown by 12%
between 2011 and 2021, most likely driven largely by high birth-rates among the strictly Orthodox
community. Similarly, if the data eventually proves to be accurate, this constitutes a growth of 29%
over the twenty years between 2001 and 2021. Provisional estimates of the Haredi community
based on other data sources (such as Manchester Connections) suggest that the Haredi community
could be as large as 22,778 but, again, further analysis is needed before any firm conclusions can be
drawn. Whatever the final numbers, it is clear that Greater Manchester, which includes the largest
Eruv in the UK with a perimeter of more than 13 miles, covering parts of Prestwich, Crumpsall and
Higher Broughton, is an important and growing centre of Jewish life.
This report was commissioned by Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Regions
(GMJRC) to research and analyse community strengths and provide a mapping of Jewish
organisations in the Greater Manchester area. It was overseen by the GMJRC strategic group – a
group that was formed of Councils and organisations across the Jewish religious spectrum as a
response to the pandemic. It reviews services in seven themes: Children & Young People; Adult
Services; Older People; Health; Employment; Emergency Response; and Housing. As well as looking
at delivery, governance, leadership, and building assets, it also tries to understand where the gaps
and support needs are. As the demographics and relative sizes of the mainstream and strictly
Orthodox Jewish populations continue to change, this study represents an important examination
of both the challenges and opportunities of how the respective communities work together. As
these populations change across the UK, and beyond, the study will have significance to other cities
where these Jewish communities exist side by side.
The Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR) used a variety of data sources to identify organisations
delivering in each theme and built maps of that data which can be seen throughout this report.
Mobilise Public Ltd use several methods to gather data from these organisations in each theme.
The main approach was qualitative, using stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions with a
purposely selected sample of these organisations, and the evidence collected was supplemented
with a short survey which was issued to a larger number of organisations. The research was
coproduced with a subset of the strategic group through a series of facilitated sessions and was
designed to build a good understanding of delivery in each theme as well as an understanding of
challenges and opportunities in readiness for the strategic group to develop a more integrated
strategy for the Greater Manchester Jewish community
Topics: Disability and Special Needs, Jewish Continuity, Language, Hebrew, Interviews, Main Topic: Other, Schools: Non-Jewish, Schools: Jewish Schools, Education: Special Education, Schools: Jewish Pupils In Non-Jewish Schools, Schools: Jewish Pupils in Jewish Schools, Children and Childhood: Jewish
Abstract: Growing up Jewish in Poland presents the findings of a study about the developmental trajectories of 17 children and adolescents from 14 families living in Poland who attended the Lauder-JDC International Jewish Youth Camp Szarvas (Hungary) for the first time at the time of the study (2015-2018). Resorting to a longitudinal analysis, the present study aims to examine what happens, over a period of three years, to a group of Jewish boys and girls that have experienced a Jewish summer camp for the first time in summer 2015. The study focused on the role that the summer camp itself plays in shaping a proactive Jewish life but also analyzed more globally other aspects that influence Jewish participation. What are the main factors that affect Jewish participation both on the kid’s and on the parents’ perspective? What are the possible “Jewish” trajectories of 13-to-16-year-old teenagers in Central Eastern Europe? Do they keep connected with Jewish life? If yes, how? What’s their scale of values? What are their priorities, their hopes, and their perceived future as they make their way from teenagehood to young adults?
The main methodological feature of this study lies in it being a qualitative, longitudinal, observational cohort study. In contrast to most studies that explore development retrospectively, this study involved interviewing first-time Szarvas campers and their families over a longer period, with up to three consecutive interviews per family over a period of three years. To our knowledge, this research experience is unique in Jewish Europe.
Topics: Holocaust: Survivors: Children of, Intermarriage, Intermarriage: Children of Intermarried Couples, Schools: Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Education, Race, Racism, Interviews, Children and Childhood, Children and Childhood: Jewish, Parenthood, Age and Generational Issues
Abstract: Emma was born in 1956. Her parents survived the Holocaust with the help of false documents and their Slavic appearance – goes the family legend. Emma was brought up by her parents, according to communist principles. She is already 17 when she first learns from her aunt that she is Jewish. She meets her husband, Ben, a Nigerian, in 1976, and they leave for Nigeria. A year later Emma returns alone, pregnant, and from then on, her relationship with Ben is almost completely cut off. In 1990, Emma sends her child to a Jewish school. The analysis of the narrative interview reveals that for Emma, the meaning of choosing a stranger from a different culture was to get rid of a stigma. The presence of the colored child born from the relationship comforts her – if she manages to hide the Jewishness of the child, this covers her Jewishness as well. Along with this, she seems to be trying to protect her son from her identity problem: the color of his skin gives clear evidence of who he is and where he comes from. A decade later, she changes her strategy: now she wants the hidden stigma to be revealed and seen. And once more she uses her son to achieve this: if her son attends a Jewish school, he becomes Jewish. And if he is Jewish, that means that she too is Jewish.
Abstract: Teacher and parent ratings of emotional and behavioural disorders were made for children aged 5-15 years in the strictly orthodox Jewish community in North London, on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). We obtained 369 sets of teacher ratings and 226 parent ratings. Our parent ratings generally reflected less disturbance than did parent ratings in the national samples reported by Meltzer and colleagues (Meltzer, Gatward, Corbin, Goodman, & Ford, 2003; Meltzer, Gatward, Goodman, & Ford, 2000). Our teacher ratings reflected similar levels of disturbance to teacher ratings in the national sample, except that the older boys in this sample were rated as more disturbed by their teachers. Teacher ratings of disturbance were associated with perceived Special Educational Needs (SENs), and it was noted that statutory remedial help was said to be needed particularly urgently for older boys. In this community there is negligible statutory educational funding and remedial support for older boys is said to be particularly under-resourced. The strictly orthodox Jewish community is characterized by large family size and high levels of economic deprivation, and it might be expected that there would be high levels of associated emotional and behavioural disorders. The relatively low levels of behaviour disturbance found were suggested to be the result of moderating factors such as high levels of family cohesion, social support and religiosity.
Abstract: Produced by JPR on behalf of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and authored by JPR Executive Director, Dr Jonathan Boyd, this statistical bulletin contains data on Jewish school enrolment in the UK for the academic years 2015/16 to 2017/18. It is intended to help community educators and policy makers monitor changing trends over time and to inform thinking about the development of the field.
The report confirms and adds to our existing understanding of enrolment, demonstrating again that more and more Jewish children are going to Jewish schools. The actual number has risen from about 5,000 in the 1950s to close to 35,000 today, a period which, by contrast, has also seen the UK Jewish population as a whole decline by about 30%. The most acute numerical increase has occurred over the past twenty years or so, with the total more or less doubling from about 17,000 in the mid-1990s to the level found today.
Amongst the key findings in the paper:
There were 34,547 Jewish children studying in Jewish schools in the academic year 2017/18.
This represents an increase of 3,633 children, or 11.8% since the last figures were published for the academic year 2014/2015.
This increase can be observed in both the mainstream and strictly Orthodox sectors: the mainstream sector had 1,666 more Jewish children in 2017/18 compared to 2014/15; the strictly Orthodox sector had an additional 2,367 children over the same period.
58% of Jewish children in Jewish schools are in strictly Orthodox schools; 42% in non-strictly Orthodox or ‘mainstream’ Jewish schools.
Three quarters of all Jewish children in Jewish schools are in the Greater London area or South Hertfordshire.
Enrolment in strictly Orthodox schools continues to increase dramatically over time, increasing by an estimated 166%, or over 12,000 children, since the mid-1990s.
The annual growth rate of the strictly Orthodox sector is estimated to be about 4.3%, compared to 3.1% in the mainstream sector.
The growth of the Jewish school sector is a reflection both of high fertility levels in the strictly Orthodox part of the Jewish community, and a growing interest in Jewish schooling within the more mainstream part of it. UK Jewish community leaders have focused considerable attention on Jewish schooling in recent years out of concerns about declining levels of Jewish knowledge and engagement. However, as these schools have developed, considerable attention has focused on general academic quality which has helped to attract higher numbers of pupils. In turn, as the choice of Jewish schooling has become more common, it has also grown in acceptability, pushing up numbers still further.
Abstract: The number of Jewish children in Jewish schools has almost doubled since the mid-1990s, rising from 16,700 then to over 30,000 now, while the number of Jewish schools has jumped from 62 to 139 over the same period.
The report is the first in a series of studies being produced by the new partnership between the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, cooperating on the collection, analysis and publication of key community statistics.
The results of the study show that the majority of the 30,900 Jewish children studying in Jewish schools in 2014/15 were in haredi schools (17,500, or 57%), whilst the remainder (13,400, or 43%) were in mainstream schools. Twenty years ago, the equivalent proportions were 45% strictly Orthodox, 55% mainstream. The shifting balance provides further evidence of the changing composition of the British Jewish community.
The growth in the haredi sector is particularly striking. There are three times as many haredi schools in the UK today as there were twenty years ago, educating 10,000 more children between them.
However, the overall increase in enrolment is not exclusively due to the growth of the haredi population. A significant part of the upsurge can also be explained by developments in the non-haredi or ‘mainstream’ sector.
More than four out of ten mainstream Jewish school-age children are now studying in Jewish schools, compared with just a quarter twenty years ago. In numerical terms, that constitutes an increase of over 4,000 children. To accommodate this increase, there are 11 more Jewish schools operating in the mainstream sector than there were in the mid-1990s. Collectively, about 85% of all pupils studying in them are Jewish.
From a geographical perspective, Jewish pupil enrolment in mainstream schools in London and the surrounding areas has been growing steadily over the past twenty years, increasing by 72% since the mid-1990s. By contrast, Jewish pupil enrolment in mainstream Jewish schools outside of London has declined by 23% over the same period. In short, the mainstream Jewish school sector has become increasingly London-centric.
The geographical dynamics are very different in the haredi sector. Whilst the majority of pupils in the strictly Orthodox sector are still attending schools in London, the number in Manchester has more than trebled over the past twenty years, and the city has increased its share of haredi pupils from one in five to one in four of the total. Thus, numbers in the haredi school sector reveal a shift towards Manchester.
