Jewish Secondary School Research Articles

Preserving Jewish Identity Without Returning to the Ghetto: A Case Study of the École Maïmonide, France's First Jewish Secondary School, 1935–2022

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes the history of France's first Jewish secondary school: the École Maïmonide, from its founding in Paris in 1935 to the present day. With close to 1,500 pupils today, it has become one of France's largest Jewish schools. Born out of a fear that exclusive reliance on secular French public education could lead to the inexorable erosion of Jewish religious practice and culture in France, the École Maïmonide was designed to provide French Jews with a Jewish alternative to the State's lycées, where pupils could follow a solid Jewish studies program alongside a high-quality general studies syllabus. While such a project implied a degree of separation from mainstream French society, the École Maïmonide's founders remained committed to public education for the majority of Jewish youth and the full integration of their pupils into French society. Analyzing the ways in which these aspirations materialized in the school's day-to-day organization and how the balance between them evolved throughout its history, this case study seeks to further our understanding of the history of Jewish education in France as well as the evolution of the discourse on identity preservation within the French Jewish community.

Homophobia and Racism in the Classroom: Secondary School Teachers' Coping Methods in Relation to Their Level of Religiosity

Teacher training, professional development, and existing research on the teaching of controversial issues all largely relate to teacher preparation for lessons on topics known in advance. However, teachers often cannot anticipate spontaneous, explosive student remarks and must address them without advance preparation. This mixed-methods study performed a qualitative and quantitative examination of the most common types of student statements that teachers encounter, their methods of action, their educational goals, and their concerns and needs in facing this challenge. In an online questionnaire, 160 Israeli Jewish secondary school teachers were presented with two scenarios, one regarding a homophobic statement in the classroom and the other regarding a racist statement. The questionnaire asked whether the teachers had encountered a similar statement in their classrooms, and if so, to describe the statement and their response. In addition, it posed closed questions to the teachers regarding the appropriate course of action in each scenario and their educational goals in similar cases. Data was analyzed using the N-Vivo software, and variable-by-variable matrices were produced in order to examine the findings according to the teachers’ stated levels of religiosity. The research findings indicated that most teachers encounter homophobic and racist statements. Regardless of their degree of religiosity, they usually choose not to ignore explosive statements, instead facilitating a class discussion alongside disciplinary treatment and one-on-one conversation if necessary. The teachers’ goals were first and foremost liberal-democratic, and national-religious goals were at the bottom of the ranking. The exception was found among religiously devout teachers, who ranked religious values first, followed by tolerance, discussion culture, and critical thinking. The teachers’ primary concern was the issue of backup, followed by fear of dismissal and shaming on social media. The study demonstrates that explosive statements are not a rare phenomenon and may hurt a variety of groups in Israeli society. The findings reflect the need for a process of moral and social self-reflection in Israeli Jewish society, a reexamination of training and professional development programs for teachers, and a reevaluation of the current research focus on structured and prearranged discussions. The study points to the commonality between teachers in various streams of education, all of whom prioritized acceptance of the other and pluralism, as reflected in the prominence of tolerance and other liberaldemocratic educational goals. In an era of increased polarization and extremism in Israel and worldwide, it is important to prepare teachers to combat homophobic and racist statements and train students for a tolerant democratic discourse.

Du « judaïsme musculaire » au Bac Bleu Blanc : le sionisme à l’école Maïmonide

This article traces the various ways in which Zionism has been interpreted and manifested itself in the context of the Lycée Maimonide, France’s first Jewish secondary school, from its founding in 1935 to the present day. Despite increasingly close ties to Israel, French Zionism has retained a diasporic dimension. This article draws on sources from institutional and private archives, the community press, and some fifty interviews with former students and teachers conducted between 2016 and 2020 in the Greater Paris area and in Israel.

‘Marching at the Speed of the Slowest Man’: The Facilitation and Regulation of Student Autonomy in a Pluralist Jewish Day School

ABSTRACTFaith 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 Schools and the Challenges of Denominationalism in England

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.

Exploring God: Using the Arts as a Way to Engage Secondary Students in Discussions About God

The article presents research from a practitioner research study conducted in a non-denominational Jewish secondary school. As part of the study, students created artistic works based on chapter 12 of the biblical book of Numbers. Four of the twelve student groups created works that directly engaged with their conceptions of God as represented in the text while also making direct links to God's role in their lives. Learning through the arts can be a powerful tool that teachers can draw on in order to provide space for students to reflect on their understanding of God and as a way to engage students in conversations about God.

Challenging the Status Quo: The Story of Jcoss — The Jewish Community Secondary School

As early as the mid-1990s, individuals within the Jewish community in the UK were discussing the potential of setting up a pluralist Jewish secondary school in London. Until 1981, every Jewish school in the UK had operated under Orthodox auspices. By 1999, three pluralist primary schools were thriving, and the political and Jewish communal climate was ready to support the development of a new kind of Jewish secondary school. A feasibility study in 2001 led to the formation of a steering group and the project was born. Nine years later, JCoSS opened its doors in a brand new, state-of-the-art building in North London, and 150 eleven-year-olds began a new kind of Jewish secondary education. This article charts the journey of this project, from idea to reality, navigating political, economic and community challenges, and shows how one group of people changed the landscape of Jewish education in the UK.

The case of the Jewish High School in Berlin: a denominational school dealing with diversity

The following contribution deals with the conception of Jewish schools in Germany. With regard to the British debate about state funding for religious schools, current developments in the Jewish educational system in Germany will be presented. After this, the constitutional framework for the establishment of denominational schools in Germany will be analysed. The second and major part of the article deals, as a case study, with the Jewish High School in Berlin, which is the only Jewish secondary school in contemporary Germany. In an empirical qualitative approach, the desires and expectations of the pupils in their religious education take centre stage. Before moving to the empirical study, an overview of the history of the Jewish High School, its re‐establishment in 1993 and a profile of the pupils and the school will be provided, in order to understand the special character of this school. The conclusion in the last part raises the question of new directions emerging from a Jewish school which has pupils who are heterogeneous culturally, religiously and socially and which does not react with a strategy of cultural preservation, but with a policy of inter‐religious dialogue.

Jewish education in Dublin: organizational development and conflicts

The aim of this paper is to dwell on the trends in the development of Jewish education in Dublin. The discussion is based on books written about the Jewish community and central figures in it, on interviews with people who were involved in shaping the Jewish education and with others who were familiar with it, on community magazines and documents found in the community and in the Jewish school. The findings show that the Chief Rabbis were always the initiators and the driving force behind the founding of the Jewish educational institutions and in determining their educational policies. They were always assisted by the Education Ministry of Ireland, by the State of Israel and by members of the local community. The Jewish elementary school in Dublin was founded in 1934 by Rabbi Herzog. At the initiative of Rabbi Jakobovitz they founded the Jewish secondary school in the early 1950s, together with an additional Jewish elementary school. The problem of the Jewish schools was always the limited enrollment figures. Because of this, the Rabbis Cohen and Rosen unified the schools into a single educational institution where students studied from the age of three until the final year of secondary school. The principals and teachers of secular subjects at the school were always non-Jews. In contrast, in most cases, the directors of the Jewish studies were emissaries from Israel. The teachers of Jewish subjects were residents of Dublin and rabbis who supplemented their rabbinical positions with teaching jobs. Good work relations always prevailed between the Jewish and non-Jewish staff, but the relations of the Israeli emissaries with the teachers of Jewish subjects and the rabbis were characterized by conflict.

Bagels, schnitzel and McDonald's—‘fuzzy frontiers’ of Jewish identity in an English Jewish secondary school

Using data gathered during a case study of the ‘culture’ of a Jewish secondary school, this article explores the indeterminate boundaries of Jewish identity. By examining the mechanisms that control what and who comes into the school, and what is approved and disapproved of in the school, a picture emerges of what and who is counted as ‘Jewish’. There is detailed consideration of the admissions policy, the rules about kosher food, the explicitly religious symbols in use, the importance of Israel and the contested issue of McDonald's. Sometimes the boundaries are very clear‐cut, but in some cases there is ambiguity and disagreement that make the frontiers of English Jewish student identity decidedly fuzzy.

A Dangerous Age? Secondary education and moral-religious training: The case history of Dutch Jewish secondary education 1880-1940

Many small cultural and religious minorities are confronted with the problem of how to introduce their offspring into their own religious culture and values and at the same time to integrate into society. Often education is considered as the main tool to manage the problem. The historical case of the Dutch Jews and their perception of Jewish secondary education highlight the arguments in the shaky balance of integration and segregation. Coming from a situation in which Jews were set apart from society before 1850, they intended to integrate but at what price? This article uses source material from Jewish papers in which the discussion about Jewish secondary education dominated the contents from 1890 to 1928, the year in which the first Jewish secondary school was realised. The awareness of puberty as a dangerous age stimulated the discussion and underlined the old and new arguments in favour of their own secondary school as a matter of survival for Jewry. Why it took such a long time before the school was realised was mainly a consequence of the internal struggle between proponents and opponents, who both fostered the strong desire not to be set apart, but at the same time were worried about the increasing assimilation. This article explores to what extent the arguments were based on cultural and religious values and beliefs, and the way in which societal developments strengthened the points of view.

Using the past to understand the present: consideration of the cases for and against a Jewish secondary school in Leeds

Cet article montre dans le cas precis l'etablissement d'une ecole secondaire juive a Leeds, les liens entre le passe, le present et le futur restent etroits; les contraintes heritees du passe affectaient et affecteront toujours la situation presente et future. Les evidences concernant l'etablissement possible et futur d'un lycee juif a Leeds sont considerees et les positions des parties concernees sont analysees selon le contexte historique local.