Jewish School Research Articles

A Success Story?: Prussia’s Jewish Educational Policy in the Aftermath of the Emancipation Edict (1812–1870)

A Success Story?Prussia’s Jewish Educational Policy in the Aftermath of the Emancipation Edict (1812–1870) Andreas Brämer Translated by Bill Templer As an educational project, the Haskalah in German lands has always been acknowledged to mark a watershed in the history of German Jewry. However, the immediate social impact of the Jewish Enlightenment turned out to be far less significant than its advocates had desired. Between 1780 and 1810 the modernization of Jewish schooling did not go much beyond a small number of promising young ventures.1 Aside from the Jewish Reform schools that were established in Berlin and other German cities starting in 1778, the system of traditional Jewish schooling proved to be difficult to change. The sense of crisis shared by the maskilim was alien to many parents, who generally tended to mistrust secular trends,2 and the great majority of Jewish boys and girls continued to attend the conventional educational institutions at hand, if they received a regimen of regular instruction at all. Indeed, the traditional ḥeder continued to fulfill all the key expectations of Jewish society, even if it withheld knowledge of general culture from the children in attendance. More important was that the younger generation learn how to perform flawlessly as members of traditional Jewish society. Given this conservative constellation, as long as the state authorities did not intervene, comprehensive Jewish educational reform seemed beyond reach. In Prussia in the late eighteenth century, the government [End Page 412] administration took measures to place schooling under its own jurisdiction and supervision for the first time.3 The new regulations de facto targeted only the Christian schools, however, and thus initially nothing much changed for the local Jews, who retained certain privileges of communal autonomous administration. Even though enlightened officials considered the amelioration of the civil status of the Jews, their bürgerliche Verbesserung, as a project closely entangled with educational reforms, at first no program for restructuring Jewish schooling was implemented. Even the March 1812 Edict of Emancipation, which granted Prussian Jewry extensive betterment in legal rights, explicitly excluded any settlement of the Jewish educational system, postponing all “necessary regulations” to a later date.4 The first inklings of a partial new policy on Jewish education emerged only in May 1824, when a rescript from the education ministry issued concise instructions designed to establish a Jewish elementary school system under state control and modeled on contemporary criteria. This ministerial decree constituted a normative turning point in Prussian Jewish school history. Jewish children from the age of five were now required to attend school. Although one could legally fulfil the obligation through the hiring of private tutors in the parental home, as a rule instruction was to take place in the general local schools. If Jews decided to set up their own parochial schools, these were under the supervision of the same authorities responsible for Christian educational institutions. Further paragraphs of the edict dealt with qualifications for Jewish educational personnel, who, like their Christian counterparts, had to be able to demonstrate an ability to provide elementary instruction if they wished to obtain the necessary licensure as teachers.5 Thus, the edict aimed to remove all those professionals from the system who, due to their lack of training, appeared to stand in the way of progress, to impede, that is, “an improvement of the moral and civil condition” of the Jews.6 [End Page 413] The government had expressly extended its examination regulations to embrace all groups of teachers in Prussia. Even those teaching personnel who did not teach any elementary school subjects, restricting their instruction solely to Jewish religious content and the Hebrew language, were required to pass an official examination that specifically excluded religious subjects. Jewish schoolmasters achieved at least temporary success in their effort to circumvent this required state examination: not only did a certain segment of the teachers in early childhood education initially elude the formal attention of the authorities but the supervising bodies did not insist in all cases on strict adherence to the new regulations. Initially a number of teachers were actually exempted from taking the state exam; in other localities, the examination commissions sufficed with simple questions...

Wychowanie patriotyczno-obywatelskie w szkole żydowskiej w okresie międzywojennym (na przykładzie Lwowa)

Wychowanie patriotyczno-obywatelskie w szkole żydowskiej w okresie międzywojennym (na przykładzie Lwowa)

Hebrew learning ideologies and the reconceptualization of American Judaism: Language debates in American Jewish schooling in the early 20th century

AbstractThis article examines the ways in which Hebrew education was construed in the United States by tracing the Hebrew ideology debate of the early and mid-1900s, when dramatic changes were made to modernize Jewish schooling and its place within American society. Focusing on the Hebrew learning ideologies and educational philosophies of Samson Benderly and his followers, it examines how the

Parochial or Transnational Endeavor? The Attitude to Israel of Adolescents in Australian Jewish Day Schools

The aim of this qualitative research is to investigate the attitude of adolescents to Israel in Australian Jewish day schools. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss and Corbin in Grounded theory in practice. Sage, London, 1997), data from three sources (interviews, observations and documents) were analyzed, thus enabling triangulation. One key finding is that place attachment, exploration and criticism are not contradictory, but reflect the concern and involvement of the younger generation and serve as a form of reclaiming their connection to Israel through critical engagement. We also found that Israel is no longer part of the younger generation’s conceptual and extended selves to the same extent as in their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Therefore, Australian Jewish educators face a challenge of finding ways to enhance the attachment to a specific, parochial place in this era of transnationalism. We argue that Israel could still serve as a major constituent in creating a global Jewish identity provided that a more open and critical approach is taken to Israel Studies programs.

Islamophobia and Anti‐Semitism: Shared Prejudice or Singular Social Pathologies

Islamophobia and Anti‐Semitism: Shared Prejudice or Singular Social Pathologies Michael Dobkowski There is no doubt: there has been a significant rise in anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia in recent years. Both have deep roots in history as well as being generated by more recent political and economic influences. Some see them as basically parallel phenomena, characterized more by their similarities than their differences. Others believe that anti‐Semitism is a unique prejudice that really stands alone and cannot be compared to Islamophobia or even racism. What I will attempt to do in this essay is to provide a theoretical and historical framework for approaching this complex and controversial question. I don't expect my analysis will satisfy everyone, but I do hope it will generate additional thinking on these impactful “hatreds.” The roots of Islamophobia Let me briefly begin with some context. Islamophobia is a term first put into use in 1997 in a report of the Runnymede Trust, a think tank in Britain launched by the British Home Secretary Jack Straw. It was given further currency by the 2001 UN conference on racism at Durban that most observers believe devolved from an examination of racism to an exercise in racism and anti‐Semitism. Israel was singled out for special criticism prompting the U.S. delegates to walk out. The official declarations eventually included a reference to anti‐Semitism, but this was counterbalanced by the addition of Islamophobia suggesting an equivalency between the two phenomena. Clearly, Muslim populations around the world are experiencing a hostile pressure and waves of discrimination that come from non‐Muslim populations of various sorts—the product of Hindu–Muslim tensions in India, of Christian–Muslim competition in Africa, of Jewish–Arab disputes in Israel and Palestine, and of anti‐Muslim immigrant sentiment in Europe and North America. There have been countless incidents of stereotyping, scapegoating, and bigotry directed against Muslims because of their religious identity. There exists a huge and profound ignorance about Islam. There is no shortage of voices proclaiming that fanaticism and intolerance are fundamental to Islamic tradition, that horrific violence against enemies of Islam and people defined as infidels have deep Qur'anic roots (Yoffie , 121). Many believe and are spreading the image that Islam is the enemy of the West, America, and Israel and that it is a religion prone to violence and terrorism. This tendency is certainly fueled by a long tradition of anti‐Muslim discourse in Western history and culture—from Dante to Don Quixote, to basic Orientalist scholarship; it has been exacerbated by ignorance, bigotry, and post‐9/11 fears. Islamophobia is real and to a certain extent is ingrained in Western culture. In his Orientalism, Edward Said demonstrated that the West's reified view of Islam has its roots in European colonialism. In his Covering Islam, he showed how these colonial notions continue to influence Western coverage of the Middle East in the 1990s. Islamophobia needs to be examined and confronted. It results from ignorance and from limited social contact, which is in turn buttressed by conflict and violence occurring around the world and its treatment by mainstream culture. This anxiety, like most prejudices, relies on a sense of otherness (Mattson , 129–130). Similarly, anti‐Semitism remains a persistent prejudice. The murder of Jewish shoppers at the Parisian Hyper Casher supermarket on January 9, 2015, after the killing of twelve people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, was particularly disturbing, not because it was the first such event but because it has become part of a troubling pattern. By every measure, there has been a rise of anti‐Semitism around the world—incidents of violence and intimidation, negative polling data, incitement, desecrations, rhetoric, etc. In 2006, Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Paris. In 2012, Mehdi Nemmouche killed four people at the Jewish museum in Brussels. In 2012, a rabbi and three young children were murdered at a Jewish school in Toulouse by Mohammad Merah. In early February 2015, there were killings in Copenhagen, and 300 Jewish graves were desecrated in Eastern France. Additionally, there were smaller affronts like the popularity of the quenelle gesture (a reverse Nazi salute...

Expanding the mission: The Alliance Israélite Universelle, the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Jewish Boys’ School in Basra, 1890–1903

Abstract In the late nineteenth century the French–Jewish Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) established and administered primary schools for Jewish communities throughout the Muslim world, with a focus on North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. The AIU’s actions in the territories that later became Iraq have been seldom studied compared to the schools in other geographic areas and have been almost totally ignored with regard to Basra. This article utilizes the letters of the Archives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AAIU) and other select primary sources to explore the AIU’s, and to a lesser extent its sister organization’s, the Anglo-Jewish Association’s (AJA), relationship with the Jewish community in Basra in the 1890s and early 1900s leading to the AIU’s takeover of the Basra Jewish School in 1903. In doing so it provides a foundation for future scholars to more fully examine both the AIU’s subsequent work in the city and also the history of Basra’s Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century.

From German Philology to Local Usability: The Emergence of ‘Practical’ Arabic in the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa' 1913–48

This article examines the pedagogical shifts in the study of Arabic at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, the leading school for Arabic studies in the Jewish education system. Analyzing the moulding of Arabic studies in the crucial years of educational institutionalization (1913–48), it demonstrates an inevitable tension with regard to Arabic studies: between the German philological approach and the ‘practical’ approach. In light of this tension, it shows the gradual emergence of a new ‘practical’ approach in the Jewish education system in Palestine, which was not only the result of a clash between different pedagogical methods, but was propelled by another, powerful, clash: that of the heated political conflict in Palestine. Using primary sources from seven different archives, in Israel, Britain and Germany, this article reveals that the shift towards practicality was motivated by political developments and ideological shifts as much as by pedagogical considerations, and therefore has had significant ramifications for the emerging field of Arabic studies in Jewish schools in Palestine/Israel.

Ethnicity and immunization coverage among schools in Israel

ABSTRACTObjective. Recent years have seen a global trend of declining immunization rates of recommended vaccines that is more pronounced among school-age children. Ethnic disparities in child immunization rates have been reported in several countries. We investigated an effect of ethnicity on the vaccination rates of immunizations routinely administered within schools in Israel.Design. Data were collected from the Ministry of Health database regarding immunization coverage for all registered Israeli schools (3736) in the years 2009–2011. Negative binomial regression was used to assess the association between school ethnicity and immunization coverage while controlling for school characteristics.Results. The lowest immunization coverage was found in Bedouin schools (median values of 75.1%, 81.5% and 0% for the first, second and eighth grades, respectively) in 2011. During this year, vaccination coverage in the first and second grades in Jewish schools was 1.51 and 1.35 times higher, respectively, compared to Bedouin schools. In the years 2009 and 2010, no significant increase in risk for lower vaccination rate was observed in Bedouin schools, and children in Arab and Druze schools were more likely to have been vaccinated.Conclusion. The lower vaccination refusal rate found in Bedouin schools supports the hypothesis that difficulties related to accessibility constitute the main problem rather than noncompliance with the recommended vaccination protocol for school-age children, featuring higher socio-economic status groups. Our study emphasizes the importance of identifying, beyond the national-level data, subpopulation groups at risk for non-vaccination. This knowledge is essential to administrative-level policy-makers for the allocation of resources and the planning of intervention programs.

School-Church/Synagogue Partnerships: A Comparative Case Study of Religious Capital Enrichment

The context for this study is the increased focus on school-community partnerships in the United States. With limited research having been conducted on high-achieving schools, this is a case study of one of America’s top 100 high schools, a Jewish day school; this article reports on its school-synagogue partnership. Like most research on school-community partnerships, this study is based on the theories of capital reproduction. Yet, it is aligned with those claiming religious institutions as producers of capital, finding that these partnerships are effective at harnessing capital when explicitly designed for school members to experience the partnering institution’s religious life.

Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism

This is an edited volume rich in analysis and written with authority. Seligman's book deals with difference and how societies live with it. The scholars present a nuanced account of present-day phenomenon of religious and cultural diversity through country and continental cases studies: “Teaching Religion in the European Union” (Silvio Ferrari); “Religion and Ethical Education in Divided Societies: The Case of Cyprus” (Dilek Latif); “Teaching Religion in Bulgarian schools: Historical Experience and Post-Atheist Developments” (Daniela Kalkandjieva); “The Vanishing State: Religious Education and Intolerance in French Jewish Schools” (Kimberley A. Arkin); “The Crisis of Liberal Citizenship: Religion and Education in Israel” (Schlomo Fischer); “Secularism(s), Islam, and Education in Turkey: Is E Pluribus Unum Possible?” (Ahmet T. Kuru); “Walking the Tightrope: Prospects for Civil Education and Multiculturalism in ‘Ketuanon Melayu’ Malaysia” (Joseph Chinyong Liow); “Educating Citizens in America: The Paradoxes of Difference and Democracy” (Ashley Rogers Berner and James Davison Hunter). Nicely sandwiched between the European and American continental overviews are case studies of lesser studied societies. Of course there could be more exemplars: we have Israel but no Palestine, Turkey but no Syria, and perhaps above all, Bulgaria but no Russia. Yet among the book's many qualities is its power to get the reader thinking about what those gaps are, perhaps even why such gaps exist in the literature. Here we have templates of historical, political, and religious analysis that provide not only an ethnographic wealth of detail but also the methodological tools for further investigation.

From School Leadership to Community Leadership

The aim of this literature case-study review is to present the unique solutions taken by principals of schools with socially marginalized student populations to overcome these problems. This is a review of three qualitative case studies of principals: (1) a principal of a Jewish school with children of migrant workers who were ignored by the State; (2) principals in a Jewish-Arab city who organized to act against city-hall corruption; (3) the struggle of Arab high school principals against favoritism in the appointment of teachers. The principals initiated pedagogical innovations to promote their students’ achievements. When encountering resistance from school environment, they cooperated with local organizations for financial support. Then they struggled to change local and state laws and regulations by mobilizing the media, the legal and political systems and Third Sector organizations. Most principals acquiesce to authorities’ demands. These principals defied the system thus redefining their role from organizational (school) leaders to community leaders. Principals should view their work as political in nature and form their own association to support each other.

The stories of our national past: History and heritage in a Jewish high school

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the relationship between the teaching of history (the academic study of the past) and the teaching of heritage (meaningful stories tying people to a collective past). The research was conducted in a Jewish high school whose explicit mission involves teaching history through a US history course and heritage through an Israeli history course. Yet in reality, both classes, in different ways and to different effects, were engaged in a shared quest to help students understand the past and find meaning in its stories. This paper shows that history and heritage – often viewed by scholars as distinct enterprises – are neither clearly delineated nor mutually exclusive within the context of high school history education. By exploring two different attempts to navigate the murky waters of history and heritage, this paper highlights the tensions that arise when teachers aim to help students find personal and collective meaning, as well as intellectual stimulation, in their studies of the past.

Israeli high school teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards a pedagogy of inclusion

The aim of this study was to investigate attitudes of teachers towards a pedagogy of inclusion in their classroom, focusing on differences between teachers in schools with lower socioeconomic status (SES) populations and those in schools with more affluent students, and between homeroom as opposed to subject teachers. Our study population consisted of 214 teachers from Jewish secondary schools (7th through 12th grade) in Israel's state school system. The schools surveyed were classified by socioeconomic level (high, intermediate, or low). The study demonstrates that teachers in low-SES schools report more inclusive attitudes and behaviour than do teachers in high-SES schools. Another key finding was that homeroom teachers self-report greater inclusiveness than do subject teachers. This finding is very important for the Israeli high school system, since subject teachers constitute roughly 70% of its teaching personnel, whereas students engage with homeroom teachers, on average, no more than 10% of their time in school. In the context of exclusive practices, we found a lack of differentiation between various types of behavioural problems: teachers responded to aggressive or disruptive behaviour in the same manner as they would handle disengagement, truancy, or learning avoidance. Finally, with regard to the form of punishment imposed by schools, a common response encountered in this study was the withholding of remedial instruction in response to problematic behaviour.

Ethnicity vs. national culture in one nationalized educational site: the case of the annual school trip

This study examines the interface between ethnicity and nationality in a nationalized educational site – the annual school trip – that took place in a Jewish high school in Israel that serves underprivileged ethnic groups. Based on ethnographic field work, I analyze how the Ashkenazi (central-eastern European origin) hegemonic national culture that is embedded in the field trip is worked out by the Mizrahi (Asian and north African origin) students, in light of their ethnic background and the ethnic Ashkenazi/Mizrahi division that characterizes the Israeli society. Although both groups share the same national sentiment, the analysis exposes the different ways the pedagogical practices used by the trip represented the national hegemonic culture and the ways it has been contested and reshaped along ethnic lines while reflecting the existing ethnic borders that the pupils were trying to widen.

Leadership for Equity and Social Justice in Arab And Jewish Schools in Israel: Leadership Trajectories and Pedagogical Praxis

The research investigated how principals in Israel's Jewish and Arab school systems perceive and practice their role in promoting equitable education to bridge socio-economic and pedagogic gaps. It asked how Jewish and Arab principals understand the concept of social justice and what they do in order to promote social justice reality in their schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Arab and Jewish principals. Analysis of interviews indicated that Israeli education policy perpetuates ethnic and social gaps. The principals reported different personal trajectories that shaped their perceptions of social and described strategies used to promote social justice.

Court-led educational reforms in political third rails: lessons from the litigation over ultra-religious Jewish schools in Israel

This paper offers a model for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of judicial involvement in educational reforms. It uses the model to analyze two case studies of court-led educational reforms in the third rail of Israeli politics – the curricula and the admission policies of ultra-Othodox (Haredi) schools. These case studies are located at the knotty junction of human rights, religion, and politics in education policy, generating concern in many countries. The conclusions demonstrate that even when the courts are cautious, judicial involvement in third rail educational reforms may produce impacts that drive the cogwheels of policy-making in directions that are apt to undermine the interests of the petitioners. Therefore, the choice of courts as a forum for shaping education policy in political third rails should be prudently considered. The paper also demonstrates the need to evaluate litigation by means of a contextual, evidence-based analysis. It highlights that in certain cases, what may appear to be unjustified judicial activism or restraint is, in fact, a reasonable response, whose harmful ramifications may be attributed to the context of political third rails. Even the best judges are not immune to the well-known assertion that ‘hard cases make bad law.’

A Linguistic Analysis of the Role of Israel in American Jewish Schooling

This essay analyzes the place of Israel in American Jewish schooling from the beginning of the 20th century until the early years of the 21st century. It utilizes curricula, textbooks, and instructional units, as well as other primary and secondary sources to delineate four distinct periods of Israel education. The subject of Teaching Israel is contextualized in the larger frameworks of both general developments in education as well as the dynamics of Israel in contemporary American Jewish life. The article concludes by delineating emergent 21st century patterns of Israel education that represent new directions.

Problemy świeckiej szkoły żydowskiej w Galicji doby autonomicznej w świetle opracowań Artura Załęckiego

Problemy świeckiej szkoły żydowskiej w Galicji doby autonomicznej w świetle opracowań Artura Załęckiego

An Historical Case Study in Jewish Women's Education: Chana Shpitzer and Maʿaleh

This article presents two pioneering religious Jewish schools that opened their doors to girls in Jerusalem in the first decade and a half after the end of World War I and the establishment of the British Mandate in Palestine. One of these schools, established by Chana Shpitzer, was exclusively for girls, while the other, Ma‘aleh, was coeducational. Although both schools were Orthodox in outlook and identified with the growing Zionist move ment, their approaches to Torah education for girls were quite different. I believe a comparison between these two schools offers some insights into the relative advantages and disadvantages of single-sex and mixed Jewish educational frameworks.

Peculiarities of Real Educational Institutions Functioning in the Subcarpathian Rus (Pidkarpatska Rus)

The article highlights historical and pedagogical aspects of the development of realsecondary educational institutions that functioned in the territory of the Subcarpathian Rus (1919-1939). After World War I the Czechoslovak Republic undertook a commitment to arrangeTranscarpathia as an administrative unit entitled the “Subcarpathian Rus”. The situation withUkrainian schools in the Subcarpathian Rus was very poor. Only two town schools wereUkrainian. In spite of the language chaos in the land, Rus (Ukrainian) town schools started to be setup and Hungarian ones started being re-organized. In the 20ies – 30ies in the Subcarpathian Rus asthere appeared real national secondary schools (real grammar schools) in which students weremainly Ukrainians. In real grammar schools with their utilitarian nature of the content of educationthere could be traced the growth in the number of students due to improved access to thoseinstitutions. However, gradually, the trend towards Czechization could be traced, a number offorms with Czech as the language of teaching were opened. The Academy of Sciences in Prague,having researched the language issue, decided that the language the “Subcarpathian Rus people”were speaking was identical to the Ukrainian language of the Halychyna people, thereforeUkrainian was acknowledged to be the language of teaching at Ukrainian real grammar schools.All in all, as of 1933 Ukrainian real grammar schools in Berehovo, Khust, Mukachevo andUzhhorod had 46 forms, parallel Czech units in Khust, Mukachevo and Uzhhorod had 20 forms,parallel Hungarian units in Berehovo had 12 forms, the reformed Jewish grammar school inMukachevo had 8 forms. In total there were 9 secondary schools.