The results of school reforms in upper Hungary: Jewish schools under state control

Abstract

This paper explores the development of the first so-called ‘Jewish national schools’ that had been established after 1783 as institutions under state control, where Jewish children were educated according to state-prescribed curricula in secular subjects, in order to become true citizens (Staatsuntertanen). The article focuses on schools in the Pressburg and the Kaschau (Kaschau/Kassa, today Košice) school districts that not only included the whole territory of present-day Slovakia, but also reached into the Ungvár (today Užgorod) region and several others in present-day Hungary. The paper is based on documents from the State School Administration in Hungary at the end of eighteenth century. The school records reveal the number of schools and teachers, the number of pupils attending them as well as the official curricula.