Jewish Education To-day and To-morrow – Education Week, Hanukkah 1943. Education Week, No. 32. Published by Jewish Educational Publications for the Joint Emergency Committee for Jewish Religious Education in Great Britain, Woburn House, Upper Woburn Place, London, W.C.1. London, 1943. A rare and important publication presenting a comprehensive report and forward-looking plan for the rehabilitation and advancement of Jewish religious education in Britain during the height of World War II. Extremely rare.
A comprehensive report and detailed plan for the rehabilitation of Jewish religious education during the height of World War II, following the “Education Week” held during Hanukkah 5703 (1943). The report was issued in response to the emergency situation in which children aged 5 to 14 were receiving no structured form of education due to the war. To address this crisis, a special Emergency Committee was formed to rethink and rebuild the framework of Jewish education in Britain. The first part of the report discusses the current state of Jewish education, while the second part outlines methods for restoring both religious and general Jewish education that had been disrupted by the war. Included is an extensive review of spontaneously formed educational groups throughout Britain that emerged to fill the void in formal education—most of which consisted of Torah-observant youth who organized studies in synagogues, clubs, and Talmud Torahs, focusing on religious instruction, Jewish history, and Hebrew language. The report also provides an in-depth account of the plight of Jewish refugee children who had arrived in Britain during the war years and received no formal education at all. Thousands of such children were left without schooling, and the report presents statistical data on Jewish immigrant children in various British cities, alongside the committee’s efforts to address the issue through the distribution of textbooks, the creation of special courses, and the organization of educational gatherings. Another area of focus was the severe shortage of educational institutions for girls. The situation in Britain had become so dire that only at the end of 1942 did organized lessons for girls begin—until then, they had been entirely without any educational framework since the outbreak of the war. The second section of the report, titled “The White Paper on Educational Reconstruction and the Future of Jewish Education, ” includes a thorough critique of the general education system, which claimed to solve the religious education issue by integrating children from observant families into general education devoid of Jewish values. This section explores in depth the tension between religious and secular studies, the preferred educational structure from the perspective of the religious community, and more.
Extremely rare. Only one copy listed in the WorldCat global library catalog—held in a London library.
80 pp. Very good condition.
