JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

EDUCATION, JEWISH
engaging parents of early childhood students in Jewish experiences.
The challenges of creating, sustaining, and providing
access to frameworks of meaningful Jewish educational
engagement to nurture and facilitate lifelong Jewish learning
and living are considerable. It is, however, the commitment
and sense of urgency of those who care deeply about the advancement
of Jewish education and act accordingly in each
generation that ensures the vitality of Jewish life in the United
States, as elsewhere.
Bibliography: W.I. Ackerman, “Jewish Education for
What?,” in: American Jewish Yearbook, 70 (1969); H.W. Bomzer, The
Kolel in America (1985); A. Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York
City (1918); A. Dushkin and U. Engleman, Jewish Education in the
United States: Report of the Commission for the Study of Jewish Education
in the United States (1959); S. Fox, I. Scheffler, and D. Marom,
Visions of Jewish Education (2003); A.P. Gannes, Central Community
Agencies for Jewish Education (1954); L.P. Gartner, Jewish Education
in the United States (1969); S.A. Ginsburgh, “A Study of Nationally
Organized Jewish Youth Groups in America as Educational Agencies
for the Preservation of the Jewish Cultural Heritage,” Diss., Massachusetts
State College (1940); W. Helmreich, The World of the Yeshiva
(2000); O.I. Janowsky, The Jewish Community Center: Two Essays
on Basic Purpose (1974); D.Z. Kramer, The Day Schools and Torah
Umesorah (1984); J.B. Krasner, “Representations of Self and Other in
American Jewish History and Social Studies School Books: An Exploration
of the Changing Shape of American Jewish Identity,” Diss.,
Brandeis University (2002); J. Pilch, A History of Jewish Education in
the United States (1969); E.L. Rauch, The Education of Jews and the
American Community: 1840 to the New Millenium (2004); J.D. Sarna,
“American Jewish Education in Historical Perspective,” in: Jewish
Education (Winter/Spring, 1998); M. Schick, A Census of Jewish Day
Schools in the United States, 2003–2004 (2005); A.I. Schiff, The Jewish
Day School in America (1966); L. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making
of American Judaism (1995); J. Wertheimer, “Jewish Education in
the United States: Recent Trends and Issues,” in: American Jewish Year
Book, 99 (1999); J. Wertheimer, “Recent Trends in American Judaism,”
in: American Jewish Year Book, 89 (1989); N.H. Winter, Jewish
Education in a Pluralistic Society (1966); M. Zeldin, “The Promise of
Historical Inquiry: 19th Century Jewish Day Schools and 20th Century
Policy,” in: Los Angeles (1987).
[Gil Graff (2nd ed.)]
great britain
Early Period
Jewish education was quickly reorganized after the readmission
of the Jews in the mid-17th century. The London Sephardi
congregation established a boys’ school, Sha’arei Tikvah
(“Gates of Hope”), in 1664, where instruction was at first
given in Spanish, Portuguese, and Ladino, although English
was one of the secular subjects taught. A talmudical college
(Beth Hamedrash Heshaim, 1664) was also sponsored by the
Sephardim, and in 1730 the Villareal girls’ school was founded
to provide a training in Judaism, languages, and domestic science.
During the 17th century, the haham of the London Sephardim
had to devote several hours of his day to teaching
the children of his congregants. Jewish educational standards
among the British Ashkenazim were uniformly lower. Although
the Great Synagogue in London established a talmud
torah school in 1732, records of the mid-18th century show that
the more recent Ashkenazi community had managed to organize
only two small “ḥadarim” in which the language of instruction
was Yiddish. An anonymous publication of the late
18th century, Sefer Giddul Banim (London, 1771), discussed
contemporary teaching methods and syllabi in the spirit of
the Haskalah. Despite its Hebrew title, this work was written
in Yiddish and its approach reflects the critical views of English
maskilim of the time.
The 19th Century
By the beginning of the 19th century, English had replaced Portuguese
and Yiddish as the language of instruction in Jewish
congregational schools, which were reorganized and broadened.
The Sephardi “Gates of Hope” school was reconstituted
in 1821 and the Villareal girls’ school merged with the National
and Infant Schools in 1839. Meanwhile, the Ashkenazim had
overtaken the Sephardim in numbers and importance and this
development was reflected in the comparatively large number
of educational projects established during the first half of the
century. In London, various “free schools” came into being:
the Westminster Jews’ Free School (1811); the (East End) Jews’
Free School (1817); and the Jews’ Infant Schools, founded to
combat missionary activities. The Western Metropolitan Jewish
School flourished during the years 1845–97 and, from the
1860s, other schools were established in the Bayswater, Borough,
and Stepney districts. “Hebrew endowed schools” were
also founded in the major cities of the Provinces, such as Manchester
(1838), Liverpool (1840), Birmingham (1840), and Hull.
By 1850, some 2,000 Jewish children attended schools of this
type in Britain, representing a remarkably high proportion of
the total Jewish school age population at a time when the Jews
of Britain numbered no more than about 35,000.
The “free schools” did not, however, enjoy a complete
monopoly of Jewish education at this period. Some children
attended religion classes after spending the day at non-Jewish
schools, and their educational needs were catered for by the
Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge
(1860). Other children attended Jewish fee-paying schools run
by private individuals and these were often of vastly differing
educational standards. Among the best known were those of
the Hebraist Hyman Hurwitz (Highgate, c. 1800), whose pupils
included many who later attained eminence in Anglo-
Jewry; Solomon Lyon (1754–1820), whose Jewish boarding
school at Cambridge was the first of its type in Britain; the
writer Grace *Aguilar (Hackney, 1842–47); and the Orientalist
Louis *Loewe, who was secretary to Moses Montefiore.
Jewish educational institutes of an advanced type also
came into existence during the early and mid-19th century. A
chair of Hebrew was established at the non-sectarian University
College of London in 1828 and attracted Jewish teachers
and students; while the Jews’ General Literary and Scientific
Institution, inspired by the popular “mechanics institutes,”
was founded in 1845. Ten years later, Jews’ College was established
in London to train Jewish ministers and preachers. Dur-
204 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6