JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Olam) were in the Greater London area; and there were three
major yeshivot in Gateshead, Manchester, and Sunderland,
each of which had an associated kolel (institute for higher rabbinic
studies). Gateshead, an island of strict Orthodoxy, had a
yeshivah population of 160 in 1962 and also housed two Jewish
schools. There were smaller yeshivot in Ilford, Leeds, Liverpool,
and Glasgow. Advanced Hebrew studies were also pursued
by degree students at the universities of London, Leeds,
Manchester, and Oxford, and at Dublin and Glasgow.
Jewish education was promoted in Great Britain by various
communal and other bodies, including the National Union
of Hebrew Teachers (1945), which fought a long campaign to
raise the status and remuneration of the Jewish teacher; the
B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation (1953); the Inter-University
Jewish Federation (1919); the Central Council’s Jewish Youth
Study Groups (1946); and Ḥovevey Torah (1951), a voluntary
organization of young adults conducting a weekly program
of advanced Torah study in London. Other important educational
bodies included the Society for Jewish Study (1946),
whose members ranged from the Orthodox to the Liberal; the
Jewish Book Council (1949), which organized an annual Book
Week of lectures and exhibitions in London; and the Institute
of Jewish Studies (1953), established in Manchester by R. Alexander
*Altmann and later transferred to University College,
London. One notably successful educational scheme was the
Hebrew Seminar movement initiated by Levi Gertner, director
of the Jewish Agency Education Department, which drew
hundreds of participants to its weekend and vacation courses
in the countryside and abroad.
Hebrew Teaching
The cost of maintaining the fabric of Jewish education in
Great Britain is borne by the most committed, and derives
from communal taxation, voluntary donations, Zionist grants,
kashrut supervision fees, and synagogue seat rentals. Additional
sums are obtained from fees paid by a minority of
parents, and a proportion of the budget is also paid by the
state.
In order to improve the general standard of Hebrew
teaching, salaries were increased (this was not necessary in
state-recognized schools) and a number of teachers’ training
colleges established. These included the Teachers’ Institute
attached to Jews’ College, whose students sat for degree and
diploma examinations; an evening institute run by the London
Board; the Lady Judith Montefiore College; the Salford
Training College in Manchester; and two women’s colleges
administered by the Beth Jacob movement in London and
Gateshead. In most, if not all, of these the minimum training
period was three years; and in 1960 there were close to 250
men and women enrolled. There were active Jewish education
boards in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield, and a
communal education officer in Birmingham.
Subsequent Developments
While estimates of the Jewish child population (and of those
receiving part-time Jewish education) fell with the decline of
EDUCATION, JEWISH
the general child population in Britain, the number enrolled
in Jewish day schools reached some 13,000 at the end of the
1970s, representing over 20% of the estimated Jewish child
population. New Jewish day schools continued to be founded
and there were positive developments in Jewish adult education
in various aspects involving synagogues of different religious
affiliation, the Lubavitch movement, and courses for
younger Jewish leaders. Enrollment continued to rise through
the 1980s and 1990s reaching 30% in 1992 and 51% in 1999. The
United Synagogue Agency for Jewish Education operated 14
primary and nursery schools and five secondary schools in
the early 2000s and had trained over 150 teachers since 1997.
The Leo Baeck College Center for Jewish Education offered
an M.A. program in Jewish education from 2002.
Bibliography: Z. Scharfstein, in: The Jewish People, 2 (1948),
178–88; V.D. Lipman (ed.), Three Centuries of Anglo-Jewish History
(1961), 53–54, 85–89, 179–80; I. Fishman and H. Levy, in: J. Gould and
S. Esh (eds.), Jewish Life in Modern Britain (1964), 67–85; S. Stein, in:
Remember the Days. Essays … Cecil Roth (1966), 145–79; L. Gertner
and B. Steinberg, in: Jewish Education, 38:1 (1968), 34–45; A. Eisenberg
(ed.), World Census on Jewish Education (1968), 95–97; I. Mehlman,
Ha-Ḥinnukh ha-Yehudi ba-Golah (1969), 46–55. Websites: www.
brijnet.org; www.lbc.ac.uk.
australia
In 1968 there were 40 school units of which 12 were day
schools with an enrollment of 3,580 and 28 supplementary
schools with a total registration of 3,335.The programs of allday
schools included secular subjects as prescribed by State
authorities. In most of these schools 12 hours per week were
allocated for Jewish study of traditional subjects, including
modern Hebrew. These schools served children from grades
1 to 6 (ages 5–13 primary) and grades 7 to 12 (ages 14–17 secondary).
The percentages of pupils on the secondary level were
satisfactory (about 690 out of the total 3,580).
In the supplementary schools or part-time schools, based
on a six-year program, the children attended four days a week
as well as once-a-week classes. The educational program of the
supplementary schools conducted by synagogues varied with
the type of sponsorship. The Orthodox placed more stress on
traditional subjects (prayers, Bible, customs, and Hebrew),
the classes conducted by the Zionist Council emphasized the
study of Hebrew, the liberal synagogue-schools, especially in
the one-day-a-week classes, employed the vernacular in all
teaching, and the Yiddish schools taught almost exclusively
Yiddish language and literature and some Hebrew for bar
mitzvah purposes. In addition to children receiving an education
in the Jewish schools, there were in 1968 about 3,700
pupils in the religious instruction classes of the government
schools. Since the education departments in all states of Australia
permit denominational teachers to conduct weekly lessons,
the Jews made full use of this opportunity. Thus a total of
approximately 10,600 children received a Jewish education: a
little more than a third having had a maximum program, and
about two-thirds a minimal education. Most schools lacked
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