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Curricular Choices of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities: Translating International Human Rights Law to Education Policy
Author(s): Perry-Hazan, Lotem
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews
Abstract: This paper employs the provisions of international human rights law in order to analyse whether and how liberal states should regulate Haredi educational practices, which sanctify the exclusive focus on religious studies in schools for boys. It conceptualises the conflict between the right to acceptable education and the right to adaptable education in international human rights law, and analyses four case studies of Haredi education that exemplify different socio-legal approaches towards this conflict. The case studies show how education laws are transformed along the cogwheels of education policy, in which there are plural normative orders and many agents who implement them. Based on the case studies, I suggest that policies providing financial incentives for implementing educational standards may facilitate the realisation of the right to acceptable education in Haredi schools more than policies devised to enforce this right. I also suggest stipulations for effective conditional-funding policies.
“New World” complex educational package
Translated Title: Újvilág komplex oktatási csomag
Author(s): Anikó, Félix; Borsi, Zsófia
Date: 2018
Topics: Antisemitism: Education against, Education, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Evaluation, Curriculum, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Non-Jewish, Teaching
Abstract: The fight against antisemitism through the means of education should begin from as early an age as possible. Various informal, educational projects exist that work towards this goal, using a number of different methods. However, these projects often operate separately and on an ad hoc basis in educational institutions, hence they lack an overarching concept or idea for the students. This makes the projects less efficient, and their short and long term impact becomes more difficult to evaluate. Generally speaking, Jewish history and religion are not part of the national curriculum in secondary schools. In the rare cases when aspects of Judaism are taught, the main focus is on the Holocaust, which often has a negative and counterproductive effect. For this reason, the main objective of the New World project was to educate students on topics such as Hungary’s role in the Holocaust (which is still not fully accepted by Hungarian society), prejudices, radicalisation and Jewish identity.

With the professional leadership and support of the Tom Lantos Institute, a complex educational project was realised. Its components build on each other, following a single line of thought: it incorporates the performance of the play New World, a subsequent drama-based pedagogical session and finally, 2-3 weeks later, an informal educational class led by the Haver Foundation. Each step of the programme was evaluated using a variety of methods such as mini-interviews, participants’ reports and questionnaires. Following a short literature review, this report intends to give a summary of the concept, structure, conclusions and results of the project. The report is dedicated to participants and leaders of similar initiatives, as well as to a wider audience of individuals interested in the topic.
Współczesna, nieformalna edukacja żydowska w Polsce – analiza SWOT
Translated Title: Contemporary informal Jewish education in Poland – a SWOT analysis
Author(s): Antonik, Joanna
Date: 2015
Topics: Evaluation, Informal Education, Jewish Education, Main Topic: Education
Abstract: Celem prezentowanych badań była eksploracja i opis współczesnej edukacji nieformalnej tworzonej przez społeczność żydowską w Polsce. W badaniach uczestniczyło osiem osób (sześć kobiet i dwóch mężczyzn). Rozmówcy i rozmówczynie to osoby aktywne w środowisku żydowskim, wolontariusze/wolontariuszki lub osoby pracujące w instytucjach żydowskich w Polsce. Metodą badawczą było studium przypadku, technikę stanowiły: narracyjny wywiad ekspercki oraz analiza dokumentacji. Badanie przeprowadzono osobiście na terenie Krakowa, Warszawy i Szczecina między majem a październikiem 2013 r. Uzyskane wyniki pozwoliły na ustalenie, kto jest nadawcą i odbiorcą edukacji nieformalnej, jakie treści są przekazywane w procesie edukacyjnym i w jakich formach to następuje. Opisano również motywacje organizatorów i uczestników badań, a także sporządzono analizę SWOT nieformalnej edukacji żydowskiej, która zostanie szczegółowo omówiona w artykule.
«Quelle transmission de la culture religieuse dans les écoles confessionnelles juives en France?»
Author(s): Laithier, Stéphanie
Editor(s): Laithier, Stéphanie
Date: 2018
Topics: Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education
Jewish Studies in the FSU: From Scholarship to Social, Cultural and Educational Construction, Regeneration and Growth
Author(s): Parizhsky, Simon
Editor(s): Wygoda, Shmuel; Sorek, Israel
Date: 2009
Topics: Education, Education: Adult Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Studies, Jewish Schools, Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Education, Universities / Higher Education, Jewish Organisations
A Renaissance of Jewish Studies in Contemporary Germany
Author(s): von Braun, Christina
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Universities / Higher Education, Jewish Studies, Jewish Revival, Post-1989
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the development of Jewish studies in Germany since reunification. After a brief historical review of the subject in the nineteenth century with the development of modern Reform Judaism and the science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums) created by Jewish religious and secular scholars, it focuses on the development of the past thirty years, in which not only the Jewish community but also Jewish studies have increased in importance. The growth of the Jewish community was largely due to immigration from the Soviet Union, but also partly to young Israelis who moved to Berlin. In line with these different backgrounds, a new interest in diaspora research emerged. The paper also deals with the difference between German Jewish studies (necessarily shaped by the Holocaust) and those of most other countries, where Jewish studies are mainly designed by Jewish scholars.
The Return of Liberal Rabbinic Education to Berlin: Abraham Geiger College, Zacharias Frankel College and the School of Jewish Theology
Author(s): Reich, Eli
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Revival, Jewish Education, Universities / Higher Education, Rabbis, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Conservative / Masorti Judaism
Abstract: In Berlin two rabbinical seminaries, a Reform and Conservative, have recently been established. The historical and intellectual roots of these institutions in the nineteenth century is sketched, and then contrasted with the present curriculum and the religious profile of the students. Some theological questions for the future of these projects conclude the article.
The International Jewish Youth Camp at Szarvas History, impact and future
Author(s): Pasajlic, Mina
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Summer/Youth Camps, Youth, Young Adults / Emerging Adulthood, Teenagers, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community, Informal Education, Jewish Revival
Abstract: The JDC-Lauder International Jewish Youth Camp at Szarvas is perceived today as the single most important Jewish outreach and educational programme in Central and Eastern Europe; it is a key symbol for Eastern European Jewry. This paper emphasises the importance of the Szarvas camp, located some 170 km south-east of Budapest in Hungary, and its impact on the Jewish identity of the Central and Eastern European participants, and by extension on their families and communities. It focuses on the camp’s history and uniqueness, and includes a personal experience on the part of the author, who has participated in the camp and today works as its programme director. It also presents information collected from those who have experienced the impact of the camp on themselves.
“Blacks Are Not Usually Labeled Jews” – Why Does a Colored Boy Go to a Jewish School?
Author(s): Vajda, Júlia; Kovács, Éva
Date: 2000
Topics: Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Intermarriage, Intermarriage: Children of Intermarried Couples, Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Education, Race, Racism, Interviews
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.
Theorising Jewish social justice education: a hermeneutical inquiry
Author(s): Plen, Matthew
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Politics, Social Justice
Abstract: Jewish social justice education is an active and growing field of practice, encompassing a diverse range of agendas and practices: teaching Jewish texts and values around issues of refugees, human rights and environmental justice; organising members of the Jewish community to oppose the occupation of the Palestinian territories and support the Israeli Left; advancing gender equality and LGBT+ inclusion within the community through informal education and training; engaging Jewish students in volunteer service-learning projects to alleviate poverty in the developing world; building inter-faith coalitions to work on local agendas such as housing, crime and healthcare; encouraging a culture of charitable giving and volunteering among Jewish young people; and mobilising Jews in the national and international political arenas around issues such as gun violence, climate change, immigration, hate crime and antisemitism. Yet Jewish social justice education remains an under-researched and under-theorised phenomenon. This theoretical lacuna has practical implications for the thousands of educators and activists across the world who are attempting to achieve social justice ends through the medium of Jewish education but have no well thought-out rationale as to what this might mean and, consequently, cannot know if it has any chance of success. This thesis explores possible theoretical foundations for Jewish social justice education by creating a hermeneutical dialogue between Freirean critical pedagogy, Catholic models of social justice education, Jewish social justice literature and interviews with thinkers and practitioners who consider themselves to be part of the Jewish social justice education enterprise. After drawing out and analysing the philosophical, political and educational themes that emerge from this dialogue, I propose three possible directions a coherent normative theory of Jewish social justice education could take: ‘Jewish politics in a renewed public sphere’, ‘Jewish education for relational community building’ and ‘Jewish critical pedagogy for cultural emancipation’.
The Vanishing State: Religious Education and Intolerance in French Jewish Schools
Author(s): Arkin, Kimberly A.
Editor(s): Seligman, Adam B.
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, National Identity, Religious Education
Abstract: France does not offer religious education in public schools. The French state does, however, fund private religious schools. The author focuses on the unintended consequences of one aspect of this practice—the decision to finance, but not regulate, Jewish day schools. The French Department of Education intends for Jewish school students (like their Catholic school counterparts) to see themselves as simultaneously French AND religious. But in the mid-2000s, the reality was quite different. The author argues that the content of religious education did not necessarily stop day schoolers from generalizing their trust beyond other Jews. Rather, it was the context of Jewish schooling that allowed Jewish students to understand themselves as “not French.” By funding and ignoring day schools, the State made this context, and thus the separation of religious and national identities, possible.
Onderwijs, burgerschap en religieuze vorming: Nederlandse joden tussen openbaar en bijzonder onderwijs
Translated Title: Education, Citizenship and Religious Formation: Dutch Jews Between Public and Religious Education
Author(s): Wallet, Bart
Editor(s): Laemers, M
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Schools: Non-Jewish
‘Marching at the Speed of the Slowest Man’: The Facilitation and Regulation of Student Autonomy in a Pluralist Jewish Day School
Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.
Date: 2019
Topics: Jewish Education, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: Faith schools are often perceived as restricting students’ autonomy through inculcating a single religious ideology and compelling participation in collective worship. Based on interviews and focus groups with parents, students and senior staff, this article investigates how England’s one pluralist Jewish secondary school has, in contrast, attempted to accommodate various forms of Jewish practice and facilitate students’ agency to determine their Jewish identities as desired. It reveals that students enjoy opportunities to actively negotiate Judaism, but that their autonomy is not without limits, and issues inherent to pluralism exist in executing an ethos accommodative of diverse, personalized expressions of Jewishness.
Jewish Lives: a longitudinal study to explore changing lives of Jewish secondary school students and their families. Focus: Israel
Date: 2018
Topics: Longitudinal Studies, Teenagers, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Israel Tours, Israel Attachment, Attitudes to Israel
Abstract: What do Jewish 18 year olds think about Israel and their relationship with the modern State? As this cohort enters late adolescence, their consciousness regarding their relationship with Israel will be forming. They will be leaving secondary school at the end of this academic year and if they continue onto further education, they will be confronted with the complex relationship with Israel that exists on campus. We are interested in the changing lives of adolescents and understanding how this cohort view their relationship to the modern State of Israel.

This study is conducting an in-depth and sustained exploration of the changing Jewish lives of young people and their families. Our data is collected from students in 7 Jewish schools and from students in non-Jewish schools.
We compared data collected before attending the post GCSE Israel Tour with information obtained during Year 13. All the Jewish schools in our sample apart from one offer a Year 9 Israel Trip, which is a two to three week educational tour of the country, taking place towards the end of the summer term. 73% percent of the student sample went on their Year 9 Israel trip. In addition, one of our schools offers a Year 9 extended
Israel programme for 10 weeks, which typically attracts 10–20% of the eligible cohort.
Jewish Lives: a longitudinal study to explore changing lives of Jewish secondary school students and their families. Focus: The First Seven Years of the Study
Date: 2019
Topics: Longitudinal Studies, Teenagers, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Seconday / High Schools
Abstract: In 2011 we started following a cohort of Jewish 11 year-old students as they entered both Jewish and non-Jewish
secondary schools. We were interested in finding out about their school choices and experiences, attitudes to Judaism, Jewish identity and affiliation, sense of belonging in Britain, milestones and significant events. We were
also interested in finding out about their life choices after school. As we reach the end of seven years of research, we are able to look back at the opinions and attitudes of our students and their families with regard to their Jewish lives and their schooling.
Annbevelingen naar aanleiding van het onderzoeksrapport ‘Antisemitisme in het Voortgezet Onderwijs’’
Translated Title: Recommendations following the research report "Anti-Semitism in Secondary Education"
Date: 2013
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Policy
Abstract: Onderzoeksbureau Panteia heeft in opdracht van de Anne Frank Stichting onderzoek gedaan naar antisemitisme in het voortgezet onderwijs. In het voorjaar van 2013 hebben in totaal 937 docenten een schriftelijke vragenlijst ingevuld over hun ervaringen met antisemitische voorvallen op school. Hiermee is een actueel beeld verkregen van de aard en omvang van antisemitische incidenten op middelbare scholen. In de vragenlijst is ook gevraagd naar de aanpak van antisemitisme op school. De docenten uit dit onderzoek zijn doorgaans tevreden over het schoolbeleid en velen grijpen - volgens eigen zeggen - ook goed in bij incidenten. Daarnaast blijkt er enige behoefte aan ondersteuning bij het tegengaan van antisemitisme en discriminatie en bij het stimuleren van goede omgangsvormen. Het onderzoek naar deze ervaringen van docenten met antisemitisme, geeft zicht op wat er speelt op school en in de klas. De resultaten van het onderzoek ‘Antisemitisme in het voortgezet onderwijs’ (Panteia, 2013) bieden een aantal aanknopingspunten voor het onderwijsveld.
L’enseignement privé juif en France
Author(s): Allouche-Benayoun, Joëlle
Editor(s): Béraud, Céline; Willaime, Jean-Paul
Date: 2009
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools
Co si myslíš o… Předsudky v české společnosti a jak s nimi účinně pracovat ve škole
Translated Title: What do you think of…Prejudices in Czech society and how to work with them effectively in school
Author(s): Hoření, Karina
Date: 2018
Topics: Antisemitism, Education, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Non-Jewish, Roma, Racism
Abstract: Stereotypy o Romech a Židech v české společnosti. Jaké jsou a jak s nimi pracovat?

Jak funguje vzdělávání proti předsudkům v českých školách a jaké jsou příklady dobré praxe?

Tým ze Sociologického ústavu Akademie věd na datech z posledních let ukázal, jak jsou v české společnosti rozšířené stereotypy o Romech a Židech. Jedním ze zjištění je, že menší předsudky vůči Romům mají lidé, kteří se s nějakými Romy osobně znají.

Škola je jedním z nejdůležitějších míst, kde je možné pozitivně ovlivnit postoje mladých lidí. Tým Ústavu pro studium totalitních režimů se proto ptal učitelů a lektorů, jaké jsou jejich zkušenosti se vzděláváním k toleranci. Nabízíme doporučení, jak pomoci školám efektivně oslabovat předsudky.

Zjistili jsme, že předpokladem úspěchu je spolupráce celé školy. Další úspěšnou strategií je podpora setkávání žáků z různých sociálních skupin. Je rovněž třeba podporovat vzdělávání učitelů tak, aby dokázali ve třídě zvládat debatu o kontroverzních tématech.

Výsledky výzkumu jsme shrnuli do závěrečné zprávy, v níž najdete:

Kvalitativní i kvantitativní shrnutí současné praxe vzdělávání pro toleranci, realizovaných programů a jejich podpory.
Naše doporučení pro donory, jak efektivněji nastavit projektovou podporu, a pro školy a pedagogy, jak s předsudky ve škole lépe pracovat.
Rozsáhlou studii o postojích české společnosti vůči Romům a Židům.
À l'école de la Shoah: De l'enseignement de l'histoire à la pédagogie de la mémoire
Translated Title: The Shoah in the French Curriculum: From Teaching History to Teaching Memory
Author(s): Schneider, Floriane
Date: 2005
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Holocaust Education, Schools: Non-Jewish
L'enseignement de la Shoah dans les écoles juives
Translated Title: Holocaust education in Jewish schools
Author(s): Hazan, Katy
Date: 2005
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Holocaust Education
Du heder aux écoles actuelles : l'éducation juive, reflet d'un destin collectif
Translated Title: From the Heder to Contemporary Schools: Jewish Education as a Reflection of a Community’s Fate
Author(s): Hazan, Katy
Date: 2002
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Schools, Chedarim / Supplementary Schools
Abstract: This paper shows how from the start of the modern era to today, Jewish education always depended on the successive identity types to which the Jewish minority in France chose to belong. Following the heder of Jewish groups under the Ancien Régime, the consistorial schools followed Emancipation in the face of a concomitant and difficult challenge, namely promoting Jewish individuals in the community while acknowledging each individual’s religious specificity. Primarily a favorite means of regeneration for the poor and immigrants, this means of improvement reached the end of the 1930s in an unhappily weakened state as a result of the success of assimilation and the social secularization of society in general. Between the two world wars but mainly on the eve of World War Two, weaknesses began to appear in French Judaism as a whole along with yearnings for a more religious dimension of Jewish identity as well as a more favorable perspective on Zionism, even if many remained convinced Israelites. These yearnings were manifested in the emerging youth movements, mostly the French Israelite Boy Scouts, and the creation of the Maimonides College in Paris, which during the Occupation, experienced favorable conditions for their growth and the birth of new structures. However, this renewal was transient. Not until the 1960s and even more so in the 1970s did the development of Jewish educational opportunities flourish. The collapse of the French Israelite model was the fundamental cause of this new growth.
Les enseignants des écoles juives
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Teachers
Krav maga and chicken soup: symbolic Jewish identities within and beyond the Jewish school
Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Schools: Seconday / High Schools
Abstract: Faith schools may play an important role in reproducing ethnoreligious identities, yet research into Jewish schools has tended to overlook students’ personalised conceptualisations of faith. Instead, it has regularly utilised restrictive ‘indicators’ of ethnoreligious practice in order to gauge these institutions’ effectiveness in ‘strengthening’ Jewish identity and thus mitigating assimilation. In response, this article explores the ways in which students at a pluralist Jewish school negotiated and (re)shaped their Jewishness, and thus lived their identities in personally meaningful ways. Students articulated ‘symbolic’ forms of Jewishness, rooted in inclusive and often stereotypical cultural symbols rather than regular religious practice, and personalised their identities through the school’s amenability to diverse manifestations of faith. Consequently, the research illustrates the value of including young people’s perspectives of faith and faith schooling, with implications for understandings of ethnoreligious identity and practice in spaces beyond traditional religious sites such as places of worship.
Projections of demand for places in state-funded mainstream Jewish secondary schools in London: An update
Author(s): Staetsky, L. Daniel
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Schools: Seconday / High Schools
Abstract: Communal anxieties about the possibility of an inadequate supply of secondary school places in Jewish schools in London have, on occasion, run high, and have occurred against a context of demographic changes and an increase in preference for Jewish schooling. These seemingly unpredictable dynamics have made planning very difficult and this new study helps to bring some empiricism to the table.

This statistical study, authored by JPR Senior Research Fellow, Dr Daniel Staetsky, and supported by Partnerships for Jewish Schools (PaJeS), uses an empirical approach to predict future levels of demand for mainstream Jewish secondary schools in and around London. Using Local Authority data to examine applications and admissions from 2011 to 2018, it projects forward to the academic year 2022/23 in order to support future planning.

It is a follow-up to previous work in this area, and it draws on observations from the field that allow us to assess the accuracy of that work and to extend our projections further into the future.

The study concludes that current levels of provision will be sufficient if the demand in the next four years remains at today’s levels. Whilst this is a possibility, two of three possible scenarios presented in the report suggest an increase in demand, at a level in which about fifty additional places will be required across the entire Jewish secondary school system in London. Given this projected scale of increase, the report recommends that schools should develop some flexibility in capacity to satisfy the increasing demand. That might mean preparedness to open an extra class, as and when required, rather than to open an entirely new school.
¿Enseñar a extranjeros la escritura aljamiada del judeoespañol? Experiencias y metodología
Translated Title: Teaching Judeo-Spanish Writing to Foreigners?: Experiences and Methodology
Author(s): Ceballos Viro, Ignacio
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Ladino, Teachers
Abstract: A partir de las experiencias de enseñanza a grupos de aprendientes extranjeros de la escritura aljamiada del judeoespañol, se propone una revisión de los siguientes temas: 1) La pertinencia de la enseñanza de variedades lingüísticas (/dialectales) del español a extranjeros, especialmente cuando estas variedades son reducidas o prácticamente arcaicas, como en el caso del judeoespañol. 2) La relevancia de los aspectos culturales en la motivación para el aprendizaje de español. 3) La metodología de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la escritura, desde nuestros conocimientos de aprendizaje lectoescritor infantil.

Los resultados de la experiencia docente, y el análisis evaluativo de los procesos, sugiere los siguientes resultados: 1) La enseñanza del judeoespañol y variedades lingüísticas del español puede poseer interés, incluso hoy, si bien a destinatarios reducidos y con competencias lingüísticas elevadas, como complemento al aprendizaje general de la lengua. 2) Estos destinatarios se encuentran motivados hacia el aprendizaje de esta variedad del español, principalmente dentro de un racimo de intereses en los que los contenidos culturales y lingüísticos se encuentran fuertemente imbricados. 3) Los avances en enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lectoescritura en los niveles educativos de Infantil y Primaria proporcionan herrmientas metodológicas aptas para su aplicación en la enseñanza de la lectura y escritura a adultos
Displaying religious Jews in Jewish Studies classrooms
Author(s): Stuerzenhofecker, Katja
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Universities / Higher Education, Teaching, Students, Jewish Studies, Attitudes to Jews, Post-Colonial
Abstract: This paper reports on an evidence-based study of student learning in Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester. The research collected alumni perceptions of long-term learning outcomes of the study of contemporary religion on the 2nd year undergraduate course Religion, Culture and Gender. ‘Exoticisation’ of contemporary religious Jews, their practices and thought emerges as a key concept that captures some student responses to the curriculum. Post-colonial analysis of the data problematizes the pedagogical value of memorable teaching moments, and their desirable and undesirable outcomes.
Jewish Schools and the Challenges of Denominationalism in England
Author(s): Samson, Maxim GM
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Denominations
Abstract: Intra-faith contestation in educational spaces such as religious schools constitutes an issue that has received relatively little academic attention. In response, this article explores the ways in which England’s Jewish day schools have become bound up in broader debates regarding competing conceptualizations of Judaism and Jewish identity in a context of significant polarization in the Jewish community. The situation is centered on two recent developments within the Anglo-Jewish educational landscape: A Supreme Court ruling that has obligated oversubscribed Jewish schools to avoid selecting pupils based on matrilineal descent, and the establishment of a Jewish secondary school whose pluralistic approach to Judaism has been deemed antithetical to the Orthodox movement. The article argues that this pluralist school’s relative inclusiveness has been accompanied by growing exclusivity amongst many Orthodox Jewish schools, in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court ruling theoretically facilitated greater access to pupils whose self-identification as Jews had historically been denied. Furthermore, although the relationship is evolving, much of the Orthodox community remains reluctant to validate the school’s Jewish ethos. Consequently, although the school has sought to help reduce inter-denominational tensions within Anglo-Jewry, notions of Jewish ethnoreligious authenticity and perceptions of Jewish community boundaries remain highly contested.
Numbers of Jewish children in Jewish schools: Statistical bulletin for 2015/16 to 2017/18
Author(s): Boyd, Jonathan
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Demography, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews
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.
Collective Religious Autonomy under the European Convention on Human Rights: the UK Jewish Free School Case in International Perspective
Author(s): Kiviorg, Merilin
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law
Abstract: What should the response be if a religious community (or an affiliated institution) violates the
individual rights of either its own members or of others in society? This working paper analyses the
UK Jewish Free School case, which raised a question of racial discrimination in the admission policy
of the school from a theoretical and international law perspective with focus on the case law of the
European Court of Human Rights. The aim is to address broader issues of collective freedom of
religion or belief by giving some theoretical conceptualising points about collective religious
autonomy. An attempt is also made to provide some hypothetical predictions as to how the JFS case
would be decided under the European Court of Human Rights if ever submitted.
Who is a Jew? An Analytical Examination of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom's JFS Case: Why the Matrilineal Test for Jewish Identity is Not in Violation of the Race Relations Act of 1976
Author(s): Ordene, Jason
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Status, Law
A tale of two boys
Author(s): de Blois, Matthijs
Editor(s): van den Brink, Marjolein; Burri, Susanne; Goldschmidt, Jenny
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Law, Jewish Status, Jewish Schools
'Faith, However Defined': Reassessing JFS and the Judicial Conception of 'Religion'
Author(s): Petty, Aaron R.
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Jewish Status
Who is a Jew? Jewish faith schools and the Race Relations Act 1976
Author(s): Cranmer, Frank
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Jewish Status
Abstract: This article considers in detail the decision of the UK Supreme Court on the admissions criteria of what is known as the JFS, formerly the Jews' Free School (E, R (on the application of) v Governing Body of JFS & Anor [2009] UKSC 15). This school was oversubscribed and part of its oversubscription policy was to give precedence to children recognised as Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR). The OCR only recognised someone as Jewish if it recognised that person's mother as Jewish ('matrilineal descent') or if he or she had undertaken a qualifying course of Orthodox conversion. The Supreme Court held that this was in breach of the Race Relations Act 1976 as being discriminatory. This article considers both the actual decision and its implications not only for Jewish schools but also for faith schools in general.
Who is a Jew? Jewish faith schools and the Race Relations Act 1976
Author(s): Cranmer, Frank
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Jewish Status
Дневная и воскресная школы: о чем молчат директора?
Translated Title: Full-Time and Sunday Schools: The Silence of the Principals?
Author(s): Рохлин, Захар; Ротман, Хана
Date: 2002
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Chedarim / Supplementary Schools, Jewish Schools, Surveys, Teachers
Abstract: Весной и летом прошлого 2001 года социологическое бюро «Новой еврейской школы» провело опрос руководителей воскресных школ Российской Федерации. Полученные результаты оказались не просто неожиданными, они озадачивали, обескураживали...

Не желая искать соринку в чужом глазу, мы сочли исследование малоудачным, а причину этого усмотрели в несовершенстве собственных методов. Мы положили исследование «под сукно». Однако одна из его главных тем — тема взаимодействия воскресных и дневных еврейских школ — не утратила от этого своей актуальности. Она постоянно вставала в ходе дискуссий, которые проходили на наших семинарах, поднималась в письмах читателями нашего журнала и членами-корреспондентами Педагогического клуба НЕШ, всплывала в беседах с кормчими еврейского образования — экспертами-методистами, представителями различных академических и спонсорских структур.

В результате мы все же решились вынести на читательский суд собранные год назад материалы. Ибо постепенно нам стало ясно, что при всех своих недостатках проведенное исследование обладает одним важным достоинством: оно выявляет серьезную проблемную область, причем делает это аналитическими методами.

В основу этой статьи положен отчет, представленный социологическим бюро «НЕШ» на семинаре директоров воскресных школ СНГ и стран Балтии (Москва, 2001). Мы надеемся, что руководители и педагоги воскресных школ откликнутся на ее публикацию. Сейчас именно тот «исторический момент», когда ваши мнения могут сыграть важную роль в определении будущего еврейского образования, основного и дополнительного. Ждем ваших писем, друзья.
Перейти В Еврейскую Школу: Социолого-Психологический Анализ Мотивации Учащихся
Translated Title: To Move to Jewish School: Sociological and psychological analysis of student motivation
Author(s): Линниченко, B.; Шойхет, Г.
Date: 1998
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Pupils
Die Jüdische Oberschule in Berlin: Identität und jüdische Schulbildung seit 1993
Translated Title: The Jewish secondary school in Berlin: Identity and Jewish education since 1993
Author(s): Anusiewicz-Baer, Sandra
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Interviews, Jewish Pupils, Jewish Education, Jewish Identity
Abstract: Als erstes jüdisches Gymnasium in Deutschland nach dem Nationalsozialismus war der Jüdischen Oberschule zur Eröffnung 1993 Aufmerksamkeit gewiss. Die Schule startete mit 27 Kindern. Heute besuchen mehr als 400 junge Menschen das Gymnasium - Zeit, Bilanz zu ziehen und zu fragen, wie die Schule die Identität ihrer Schülerschaft geprägt hat. In ausführlichen Interviews ergründen 23 Ehemalige, was ihnen die Jüdische Oberschule bedeutet. Ergänzt um eine historische Einführung und vier Fallporträts entsteht so das Bild einer einzigartigen Bildungseinrichtung. Sandra Anusiewicz-Baer gelingt zugleich eine Darstellung der Bedingungen und Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten jungen jüdischen Lebens in Deutschland heute.
Jewish Studies and Holocaust Education in Poland
Editor(s): Zimmerman, Lynn W.
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Holocaust Education, Jewish Studies, Universities / Higher Education, Jewish Education
Abstract: This volume examines how people in Poland learn about Jewish life, culture and history, including the Holocaust. The main text provides background on concepts such as culture, identity and stereotypes, as well as on specific topics such as Holocaust education as curriculum, various educational institutions, and the connection of arts and cultural festivals to identity and culture. It also gives a brief overview of Polish history and Jewish history in Poland, as well as providing insight into how the Holocaust and Jewish life and culture are viewed and taught in present-day Poland.

This background material is supported by essays by Poles who have been active in the changes that have taken place in Poland since 1989. A young Jewish-Polish man gives insight into what it is like to grow up in contemporary Poland, and a Jewish-Polish woman who was musical director and conductor of the Jewish choir, Tslil, gives her view of learning through the arts. Essays by Polish scholars active in Holocaust education and curriculum design give past, present and future perspectives of learning about Jewish history and culture.

Contents:

Introduction

Culture, Identity and Stereotypes

The Historical Context

Jewish Student NGOs in Present-Day Poland (1999–2013): Being Here by Piotr Goldstein

Jewish Studies and Holocaust Education at Polish Universities

The Center for Holocaust Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków: Studies, Research, Remembrance by Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Elisabeth Büttner and Katarzyna Suszkiewicz

Holocaust Education in Polish Public Schools

The Legacy of the Holocaust in Poland and Its Educational Dimension by Piotr Trojański

NGOs and Their Role in Holocaust Education and Jewish Studies

Memory, Non-Memory and Post-Memory of the Holocaust: Coming Out of Amnesia in Post-Communist Poland? by Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs

Museums: Their Role in Holocaust Education and Jewish Studies

The Role of the Arts in Holocaust Education and Jewish Studies

Teaching About the Holocaust through Music by Izabella Goldstein

Jewish Culture Festivals in Poland

Conclusion
Limmud International - Contributing to the Global Jewish Conversation
Editor(s): Ravid, Shlomi
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Peoplehood, Limmud, Globalisation
Abstract:

The Limmud mission, which emphasizes learning, diversity and community, has proven to be a compelling set of values. These values are central to international groups. Studies have shown that Limmud participants are highly likely to travel internationally and recognize that they are part of a global community. However, this is not enough. The question that needs to be addressed entails how being a member of an international community can help us strengthen the Jewish people.
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.
Reconsidering the Development of Academic Jewish and Israel Studies in Russian
Author(s): Epstein, Alek D.
Editor(s): Khanin, Ze'ev; Epstein, Alek D.; Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Israel Education, Jewish Studies, Universities / Higher Education
Constructing the National Identity: Jewish Education in Russia Twenty Years after the End of the Cold War
Editor(s): Khanin, Ze'ev; Epstein, Alek D.; Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Schools
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
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.
Competition or cooperation? Jewish day schools, synagogues and the (re)construction of young people’s Jewish identities in England
Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Identity, Jewish Schools, Synagogues
Abstract: Diasporic synagogues have historically provided a number of educational and social functions. However, the growing popularity of state-funded Jewish schools in England necessitates analysis of these institutions’ changing roles and their implications for performances of Jewishness. Drawing upon interviews with rabbis, and interviews and focus groups with parents and students at a Jewish school, this article demonstrates three challenges for synagogues associated with the recent growth in Jewish day schooling: the instigation of instrumental attendance at services in order to secure a school place; and the co-option of synagogues’ traditional functions as both education and social centres. In the process, it illustrates how conceptualisations of Jewish identity are contested, resulting in discrepant attitudes towards Jewish education. Consequently, the article contributes to understandings of the spaces in which young people practise their Jewishness, and highlights the challenges for community leaders in ensuring that Jewish schools and synagogues cooperate rather than compete.
The Geographies of Jewish Education: Jewish Schools, Synagogues, and the Construction of Young People’s Jewish Identities
Author(s): Samson, Maxim George Morris
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Identity, Jewish Schools, Synagogues, Pluralism, Schools: Seconday / High Schools
Abstract: Faith schools represent controversial aspects of England’s educational politics, yet they have been largely overlooked as sites for geographical analysis. Moreover, although other social science disciplines have attended to a range of questions regarding faith schools, some important issues remain underexamined. In particular, contestation within ethnic and religious groups regarding notions of identity have generally been ignored in an educational context, whilst the majority of research into Jewish schools more specifically has failed to attend to the personal qualities of Jewishness. The interrelationships between faith schools (of all kinds) and places of worship have also received minimal attention. In response, this investigation draws upon a range of theoretical approaches to identity in order to illustrate how Jewish schools are implicated in the changing spatiality and performance of individuals’ Jewishness. Central to this research is a case study of the Jewish Community Secondary School (JCoSS), England’s only pluralist Jewish secondary school, with more extensive elements provided by interviews with other stakeholders in Anglo-Jewry. Parents often viewed Jewish schools as a means of attaining a highly-regarded ‘secular’ academic education in a Jewish school, whilst also enabling their children to socialise with other Jews. In the process, synagogues’ traditional functions of education and socialisation have been co-opted by Jewish schools, revealing a shift in the spatiality of young people’s Anglo-Jewish identity practices. Furthermore, JCoSS, as well as many synagogues, have come to represent spaces of contestation over ‘authentic’ Jewishness, given widely varying conceptualisations of ‘proper’ Jewish practice and identity amongst parents, pupils and rabbis. Yet, although JCoSS offers its pupils considerable autonomy to determine their practices, such choice is not limitless, revealing an inherent dilemma in inclusivity. The thesis thus explores how different manifestations of Jewishness are constructed, practised and problematised in a school space (which itself is dynamic and contested), and beyond.
Leaders' Perceptions of Youth Identity in a Summer Camp in the United Kingdom A Qualitative Enquiry
Author(s): Shabi, Maya; El Ansari, Walid
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Youth Movements, Summer/Youth Camps, Jewish Identity, Jewish Leadership, Interviews
Abstract: Informal Jewish educational settings are places that both affect Jewish Identity and transmit Jewish knowledge (Chazan, 1991). For instance, Jewish youth movements provide young people with social, cultural, and informal educational Jewish experiences outside of the classroom setting (Reisman, 1991). Chazan (1991) explained informal education as ‘an activity that is freely chosen by a person and that is very dependent on that person’s active involvement and positive motivation. It is not effected in any special place, but may happen in a variety of settings and venues’. Hence, informal education is not based on the fixed curriculum or grading systems which are characteristic of schools, although, it should reflect a well-defined set of goals, contents, and programmes (Chazan, 1991).
Why Do Parents Affiliated to Progressive Synagogues Choose to Send Their Children to Orthodox Jewish Primary Schools?
Author(s): Lewis, Gwynneth
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Interviews
Abstract: Over the last 130 years attendance by Jewish children at Jewish day schools in Britain has waxed and waned, until now, in the twenty-first century, attendance figures are similar to those of the 1880s, with almost 60 per cent of Jewish children attending a Jewish primary or secondary school. Recent research has examined this trend within the Jewish population as a whole, mainly concentrating on Jewish secondary schooling. Because of the impact this phenomenon has had on chederim and because of the fundamental differences between the different branches of Judaism, it is important for Jewish educators and leaders to understand what factors lie behind the choices that parents make when deciding on their children's schooling. This study investigates the reasons why parents who are affiliated to Progressive synagogues choose to send their children to Orthodox Jewish primary schools, concentrating on one Progressive community in the north of England in particular, and contrasting the data with that from two larger and older communities. The data was collected through the use of interviews and questionnaires, then analysed in relation to the history and size of the three communities and contrasted with the conclusions of previous studies. The findings suggest that the size and relative age and history of the principal community have had a significant influence on the attitudes of the parents toward the city's Jewish community and the importance of the role of the Orthodox Jewish primary school in maintaining that community, to the extent that the parents' social identity as 'Jews' is more important to them than their synagogue affiliation.
Teaching ethnic history in school: experience from the West and the case of Jewish history in the Former Soviet Union. A literature review
Author(s): Tartakovsky, Eugene
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish History, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Multiculturalism
Abstract: This article discusses the teaching of ethnic history in the public
school system. It argues that the struggle for human rights, the ideology
of multiculturalism, and concern for the psychological well-being of
ethnic minorities encourage the teaching of ethnic history in many
countries. At the same time, the importance of emphasizing a common
identity among youth, together with the psychological difficulties of
teaching different and often contradictory historical narratives, are listed
as possible obstacles on the way towards a multicultural curriculum. This
article reviews the results of numerous studies that demonstrate how
students belonging to ethnic majorities and minorities differ in their
historical knowledge, trust of teachers and texts, motivation to study
history, and perception of the material. The experience of teaching
Jewish history in the former Soviet Union is reviewed, and directions for
further research are suggested.
Collective Identity and Urban Schooling: The Case of the London Jewish Community
Author(s): Bash, Leslie
Editor(s): Thomas, Elwyn
Date: 1994
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community
'A tale of two cultures' : a dialogical study of the cultures of a Jewish and a Catholic secondary school
Author(s): Scholefield, Lynne
Date: 1999
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish - Christian Relations, Dialogue, Comparisons with other communities, Ethnography, Interfaith Dialogue
Abstract: Interpreting culture as symbols, stories, rituals and values, the thesis explores the culture of a Jewish and a Catholic secondary school in a dialogical way. The survey of the literature in Chapter 1 identifies relevant school-based research and locates the chosen case-study schools within the context of the British 'dual system'. Chapter 2 draws on the theoretical and methodological literatures of inter-faith dialogue and ethnography to develop and defend a paradigm for the research defined as open-inclusivist and constructivist. The main body of the thesis (Chapters 3-5), based on field-work undertaken in 1996 and 1997, presents the two schools in parallel with each other. Chapter 3 describes the details of the case studies at 'St. Margaret's' and 'Mount Sinai' and my developing research relationship with each school. In Chapter 4 many different voices from each school are woven into two 'tales' about the schools' cultures. This central chapter has a deliberately narrative style. Chapter 5 amplifies the cultural tales through the analysis of broadly quantitative data gained from an extensive questionnaire administered to a sample of senior students in each school. It is the only place in the thesis where views and values from the two schools are directly compared. The final two chapters widen the horizon of the study. Chapter 6 presents voices which were not part of the original case studies but which relate, in different ways, to the culture of the two schools. Chapter 7, with theoretical ideas about Jewish schools and education, and Catholic schools and education, provides resources for further dialogue about culture within Judaism and Catholicism and for Jewish-Christian dialogue. The thesis ends with some reflections on possible implications of the two cultures for discussions about the common good in education.