Search Results

Faith, integration and prejudice: understanding school choice among European Jews

Author(s): Beider, Nadia

Date: 2025

Topics: Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Jewish Perceptions of Antisemitism, Parenthood, School Choice, Prejudice

Abstract: The persistent popularity of faith schools has been understood primarily through the prism of race and class, with less attention paid to the importance of religion and religious prejudice. Data from the 2018 EU Fundamental Rights Agency survey of Jews in 12 European countries indicate that parents are split over their preference for faith schools that provide a sense of belonging and socialisation opportunities within the community while others prioritise integration into society. However, concerns over antisemitism lead some parents to prefer Jewish school environments in an attempt to shield their children from marginalisation. Such concerns are more prevalent among those who have experienced antisemitism. Although many Jewish parents are willing to sacrifice a feeling of religious inclusion in favour of more socially diverse educational environments, safety concerns are less easily allayed, ultimately serving to bolster the popularity of faith schools.

"Es war ja eher mehr Not als Wille". Narrative der Schulwahl für den Besuch der Jüdischen Oberschule in Berlin

Translated Title: "It's been more need than willingness". Narratives of school choice for attendance of the Jüdische Oberschule in Berlin

Author(s): Anusiewicz-Baer, Sandra

Date: 2018

Topics: Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Interviews, School Choice

Abstract: Das Jüdische Gymnasium in Berlin ist stark nachgefragt. Der Artikel untersucht die Narrative, mit denen ehemalige Schülerinnen und Schüler die Entscheidung ihrer Familien erklären, das Jüdische Gymnasium als weiterführende Schule zu wählen. Mit Hilfe qualitativer Methoden - dem problemzentrierten Interview und der Grounded Theory - werden drei Narrative für die Schulwahl herausgearbeitet und im Zusammenhang mit dem Ziel der Schulgründung die Revitalisierung jüdischen Lebens in Deutschland diskutiert. Ergebnis ist, dass weniger das jüdische Profil der Schule, sondern Faktoren wie der Privatschulstatus oder die Schulform Gymnasium die Entscheidung zugunsten des Jüdischen Gymnasiums strukturieren.

Antisemitism in schools: How prevalent is it, and how might it affect parents' decisions about where to educate their children post-October 7?

Author(s): Lessof, Carli

Date: 2024

Topics: Antisemitism, Jewish Children In Mainstream Schools, Jewish Perceptions of Antisemitism, Jewish Pupils, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Schools: Non-Jewish, Parenthood, October 7 2023 attacks + aftermath, Surveys, School Choice

Abstract: This report draws on data collected in June and July 2024, eight months after the October 7 attacks on Israel and in the context of the war in Gaza, to explore Jewish parents' understanding of whether their children have experienced antisemitism either at school, in the vicinity of school, and travelling to and from school. The research goes further to investigate whether parents would make different choices about where to educate their Jewish children in light of the events of October 7, the war in Gaza and the rise in antisemitism in the UK.

This is part of a growing body of evidence demonstrating how antisemitism can drive Jews away from participation in wider society, and that should be of concern to anyone who cares about building a more cohesive and understanding society. The findings raise critical questions for mainstream school administrators about how to manage the issue of antisemitism in their schools and, indeed, for government leaders about social cohesion.

Some of the key findings in this report:
A little under a quarter (23%) of British Jewish parents surveyed reported that their child or children had experienced antisemitism at school (12%), in the vicinity of school (6%) or travelling to or from school (9%).
Parents of children at a Jewish school are more likely to report that their children experienced antisemitism while travelling to or from school (13%) than at school (3%).
In comparison, those with children at mainstream schools are more likely to report their children experienced antisemitism at school (21%) than travelling to/from it (2%).
Three-quarters (73%) of Jewish parents with children in mainstream schools said that the October 7 attacks and the war in Gaza would not affect their choice about where to educate the children, but one in five (20%) said they would now be more likely to send their children to a Jewish school.
This proportion doubles (40%) for parents whose children have experienced antisemitism in, around or travelling to or from their mainstream school.
Just over half of Jewish parents with children in Jewish schools (52%) said that the attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza would not affect their school choice, with most of the remainder (46%) saying they would be even more likely to opt for Jewish schooling now.

Jewish schools rather than Jewish education? School choice and community dynamics in multicultural society

Translated Title: Des écoles juives plutôt qu’une éducation juive ? Choix d’école et dynamique de communauté dans une société multiculturelle / ¿Escuelas judías en lugar de educación judía? La elección de la escuela y la dinámica de la comunidad en la sociedad multicultural

Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.

Date: 2018

Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Identity, Jewish Schools, Synagogues, Parenthood, Multiculturalism, School Choice

Abstract: The expansion of faith schooling in countries such as England raises important questions about their appeal in multicultural societies. Through a case study approach, this article aims to understand the influences behind parents’ decisions to send their children to Jewish schools. It illustrates a tension experienced by Jewish parents between a desire for their children to be educated as a community of ‘similar’ peers, and the segregation that might result as a consequence. In order to ‘justify’ their choice of separate schooling, parents constructed a desirable, essentialized notion of Jewishness that coalesced their two main selection criteria, academic standards and the presence of other Jewish students. By operationalizing their Jewishness for ‘secular’ purposes in such a way, they were able to secure a perceived superior academic education whilst avoiding disfavoured ‘others’ in multicultural comprehensive schools, and in the process defined multiculturalism on their own terms. Consequently, the article foregrounds the broader dynamics of multiculturalism and community that are implicated in questions of (faith) school choice, and the complex intertwinement of parents’ school selection criteria.

Jewish Lives: a longitudinal study to explore changing lives of Jewish secondary school students and their families. Focus: School Choice

Date: 2015

Topics: Longitudinal Studies, Teenagers, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, School Choice

Abstract: For the first time in the history of Jewish schooling in the UK, researchers are following the Jewish lives of children who entered one of seven Jewish secondary schools at a particular moment in time. More than 1,000 families
are participating in a study that aims to explore the changing Jewish lives of families during the seven years their
children spend in secondary school, and possibly beyond. This publication focuses on what we have learned from parent surveys and interviews about secondary school choice. We have been able to explore how and why Jewish
families in the UK make their secondary school choices, a topic that can pre-occupy them for several years before their child actually makes the transition from primary school to secondary school.

Altarity : choosing schools : choosing identities in London

Author(s): Hart, Rona

Date: 2004

Topics: Schools: Non-Jewish, Israeli Expatriates, Immigration, Main Topic: Education, School Choice

Abstract: This ethnographic study delineates the experiences of immigrant families living in London as they engage with local schools. The findings chapters of the dissertation explore issues of access, by following the parents as they
enter London's educational marketplace and as they choose a school for their children. The study portrays the process of educational choice from their perspective as newcomers, highlighting their positioning in the
educational marketplace and the significance of their skills and resources as educational consumers.
The findings reveal eight types of capitals that these families draw on as they engage with the education market. These are: cultural properties, social resources, identities, symbolic assets, psychological empowerment,
cognitive capacities, economic means and statutory positioning. The analyses highlight the development that occurred in the choosers'
consumerist skills over time, suggesting that there may be a way to
empower disadvantaged choosers to obtain improved positions as
educational consumers.
A central theme in this study is the occurrence of a communal pattern of
schooling among this group of families. Searching for the factors that
occasion segregation in education, the focus of the research shifted to
explore the role of the choosers' networks. The findings suggest that by
using various control mechanisms, these networks engendered a continual
pattern of schooling resulting in segregation and closure.
'Choosing schools - choosing idenbties' stands for the main argument of this
study which states that the choice of school, as an act of consumerism,
represents the choosers' collective identities, and at the same time plays a
significant role in reinventing these identities.

The Jewish day school marketplace

Author(s): Valins, Oliver; Kosmin, Barry

Date: 2003

Topics: Jewish Schools, Jewish Education, Surveys, Parenthood, Main Topic: Education, School Choice

Abstract: This report provides an in-depth examination of the attitudes and characteristics of Jewish parents living in Greater London and the South-east who are the current and potential users of formal educational services. It provides a sample of parents, assesses who they are and examines how they would like to educate their children. It provides hard empirical data that will help community planners to design educational services that are in keeping with the needs and wants of the Jewish population of Greater London and the South-east.

Secondary School Choice as a Window on Jewish Faith Schools in Contemporary British Society

Author(s): Miller, Helena; Pomson, Alex; Hacohen Wolf, Hagit

Date: 2016

Topics: Jewish Schools, Jewish Community, Jewish Pupils, Parenthood, Surveys, Main Topic: Education, School Choice

Abstract: Research into school choice has generally explored both the processes by which choices are made and the considerations that parents explore when making this important decision on behalf of their children. This article examines the secondary school choices of Jewish parents in the United Kingdom. It explores parents’ reasons for choosing to select Jewish faith secondary schools. We frame our arguments against the back- drop of the wider faith-school phenomenon in the UK, and as with the Christian communities, we find a disconnect between the small number of Jewish adults attending places of worship regularly and the growing number of Jewish children attend- ing Jewish faith schools. We show that for many parents, schooling is synonymous with Jewish socialization, or encul- turation; developing networks of Jewish friends, providing sufficient cultural resources to enable participation in Jewish life, and nurturing distinctive values. We show how Jewish schools have become more than places for academic advance- ment for these families; they have become the primary locus of Jewish community.

Search results