Abstract
Our discussion focuses on the Jewish day school movement in Australia, given its special place in the development of A1ustralian Jewish life. It has been justifiably described by Rubinstein as “the jewel in the crown” (The Jews in Australia: A thematic history. Volume 2 – 1945 to the present, 1991, p. 211) of post-war Australian Jewry. Although the Jewish day school system evolved to become the great success story of Australian Jewry, today it stands at crossroads, confronted by a number of challenges. How various Jewish day schools respond to these challenges, aided by rigorous and effective research, will determine how far Jewish education will continue to occupy its special and privileged status within the framework of the wider Australian Jewish community.
Indeed, given the scale, scope and vibrancy of Jewish education in Australia, there is an important need for rigorous, systematic and current data-based research regarding the effectiveness, as well as other aspects of Jewish day school education in Australia.
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Notes
- 1.
Solomon (1978) argues that from the outset the Melbourne Jewish community was more conscious of its Jewish minority identity. Thus, with the removal of state aid from denominational schools in the late nineteenth century, the Sydney Jewish community closed its day school but the one in Melbourne continued for a further 25 years.
- 2.
- 3.
Moreover, Rutland (2000) suggests that Jewish day school education has not been an unqualified success story. She refers to two studies regarding the effectiveness of “mainstream Jewish day schools” that were undertaken during the 1980s and “reached fairly negative conclusions” (p. 95). Rutland also argues that apart from the haredi schools, the others succeed more in terms of fostering Jewish association, commitment to Israel and knowledge about the Holocaust, but fare less well in the transmission of knowledge about Judaism and Hebrew language. She also claims that “many students complete 13 years of Jewish schooling feeling disillusioned and negative about their experiences” (p. 96).
- 4.
In addition to UJEB and BJE classes, the Progressive movement and individual Chabad Centres offer after-school and Sunday classes.
- 5.
- 6.
Interviewed 10 November 2008
- 7.
Interviewed 18 November 2008
- 8.
Transfers from the day schools often occur at grades 2 and 3 when a family’s second child may begin school and parents decide that paying the fees is beyond their means. There is a tendency for quite a number of parents to send their children to very good government primary schools, using the money they save during these years to send their children to Jewish secondary schools. For many years the trend was to favour Jewish primary day school education, but social reasons have played an important role in influencing parents to give priority to Jewish secondary schooling.
- 9.
Interviewed 25 November 2008
- 10.
Interviewed 17 November 2008
- 11.
According to Rutland (2000) most schools devote between a quarter to a third of the school day to Jewish studies. A number also allocate additional time for tefillah.
- 12.
A cautionary note is offered by Rubinstein (1991, Vol. 2) regarding the interpretation of such results. He argues that “if education at a Jewish day school were not ultimately valued by graduates, this would surely result in reluctance to send these graduates’ own children to a Jewish school” (p. 244). His view is that the facts do not support this.
- 13.
See Rutland (2000) for a more detailed analysis.
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Forgasz, P., Munz, M. (2011). Australia: The Jewel in the Crown of Jewish Education. In: Miller, H., Grant, L., Pomson, A. (eds) International Handbook of Jewish Education. International Handbooks of Religion and Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0354-4_61
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