More than a safe haven: Jewish schools after Oct. 7

The aftereffects of Oct. 7 and the multi-front war that confronted the State of Israel have affected Jewish communities around the world in myriad ways. These conflicts, alongside the sharp rise in global antisemitism, are driving significant shifts in worldwide Jewish education.

In the wake of increasing antisemitism, enrollment in Jewish day schools is rising worldwide. Jewish schools, which have traditionally focused on connecting students to their heritage and fostering Jewish identity, must today also prepare students to confront challenges from peers, navigate hostile environments on university campuses, and engage daily with a Jewish identity that has become charged and intensely public.

Next week’s Global Jewish Educators Summit, a four-day conference in Jerusalem bringing together hundreds of international Jewish educators, will discuss these issues and help to shape the future of Jewish education.

The conference is organized by the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and will be operated by UnitEd, a global initiative (NGO) established in partnership with the ministry, dedicated to strengthening Jewish day schools and supporting educational leadership worldwide.

With more than 850 Jewish schools in 54 countries, UnitEd fosters students’ Jewish identity, deepens community engagement, and strengthens connection to the State of Israel.

To gain greater insight into the state of Jewish education in the Diaspora, this writer spoke with two key Jewish educators – Rabbi David Meyer, CEO of PaJeS, a UK-based organization that supports Jewish schools, trains and assists teachers, and develops educational programming and resources; and Dvorah Serrao, CEO of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, which operates four Jewish schools in France, three in Morocco, and two French-speaking schools in Israel.

Both Meyer and Serrao say enrollment in Jewish schools has increased in their countries since Oct. 7, largely among families who previously had sent their children to secular schools. Antisemitism has played a major role in this increase.
Meyer says while UK Jewish schools have made a considerable effort to accommodate this increase, they do not have enough space to meet the demand.

Serrao notes there are over 90,000 Jewish children of school age in France. Two-thirds of that total, or 60,000 students, have not been educated in Jewish schools until now. Some attended public schools while others studied in private Catholic schools, which are often academically strong and somewhat less expensive than Jewish schools.

After Oct. 7, she explains, many of these Jewish students could no longer stay in public schools as their safety could no longer be guaranteed. To meet the growing number of Jewish children who want to attend their schools, the Alliance Israélite Universelle has begun expanding school facilities in two locations.

“Meanwhile, there are 90,000 Jewish children, and today there’s only space for 35,000 of them. We need to extend and expand our capacity,” says Serrao.

Another important focusin Jewish schools, both in France and the UK, is increased safety and security. Meyer states that every Jewish school in the UK has security guards, which the British government supports. Security is provided for school field trips, and schools frequently hold security drills.

In France as well, says Serrao, security is paramount. “Once you ensure a child comes into a Jewish school, you have to secure the building, and you have to secure the premises. It is very important to work with the local police and everyone who’s working on security and procuring funding for all of this.”

What is it like for young French Jews to grow up amid rising antisemitism, both on the streets and online?

Serrao says having pride in one’s Jewish identity is easy when students are among their peers in a Jewish school. The difficulties increase when students graduate from Jewish schools and begin university. “That’s when the test occurs.  As long as they are in a Jewish day school, go to synagogue on Shabbat, go to Jewish summer camps, and participate in sports with other Jews, they don’t go out so much into the outside world.

“Once they finish Jewish day school, they do, and then it’s going to be a big challenge for them. That’s when they need to find other Jews.”

How have students in Jewish schools responded to the events of Oct. 7?

For Rachel Fink, director of education at UnitEd, these challenges underscore the importance of belonging. “The events of the past three years have brought into sharp focus something Jewish educators have always known: Jewish education matters most when it helps a young person understand where they belong and why that belonging matters,” she says.
“We are not seeing a retreat from Jewish education, but a renewed determination to make it deeper, more relevant and more meaningful.”

Meyer says many older students in the UK have developed a stronger connection to Judaism since the attack. “I think that we’ve seen an upsurge and uptick in their connection with Judaism.”

By contrast, some children who were nine or 10 years old at the time are questioning their link to Judaism. “They are the ones who are most likely to be turning around and saying, ‘Well, if it’s so difficult to be a Jew, am I not better off not being a Jew?’ So educating these children through these challenges is also really important.

“There have been highs and lows, and obviously seeing the hostages released was a huge high, and making the students feel the connection they had to that was enormous. Just seeing the news over the last week [when Israeli passengers on the Flydubai flight thwarted the co-pilot’s attempt to crash the plane] has also been a high. And that’s important as well, to be able to ensure that our students are enthused by what they are seeing.”

For her part, Serrao says that the goals of Jewish education in France have shifted somewhat since Oct. 7, from primarily text-based studies to shaping aspects of Jewish identity.

“Instead of starting with which texts we want children to study, we now ask: What kind of Jews do we want them to become in the world after Oct. 7? What adults do we want them to be? Instead of talking about Jewish identity, we’ll talk about Jewish behavior. How do we want them to behave as Jews, and therefore, what kind of teaching do we need to give them?”

She adds that one of the main principles of the Alliance is that students will both respect the values of France while understanding Jewish values and traditions, such as holidays, Shabbat, and dietary laws, while speaking Hebrew, knowing the story of Israel, and being committed to the State of Israel.

Both Meyer and Serrao will attend next week’s conference in Jerusalem and look forward to learning and sharing their ideas about Jewish education post-Oct. 7 with contemporaries around the world.

“We not only have collaboration between the schools in the UK,” says Meyer, “but now we are seeing greater collaboration – thanks in large part to the role of UnitEd and the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism – between communities around the world. Many of the people who will be at the conference have met repeatedly and interacted.

“The key opportunity for us moving forward is this network, which permeates from Israel supporting our Jewish schools. But the interaction between the Jewish schools around different communities across the Diaspora, and the opportunities we have as a global community for supporting, educating, and enthusing our children – this is the challenge and the opportunity for the next few years.

“Ultimately, what we’re turning around and saying is we’ve got challenges in the UK; they’ve got challenges in Australia; they’ve got challenges in Canada; everywhere we’ve got challenges, but actually, as a whole community, we have something really special. We are a Jewish world, and that allows us to collaborate, educate our children, and make them feel they are part of something special.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity there, and that is what I think this conference has got the potential to achieve – bringing these communities together not just so that we can come and take away an idea, but that we can forge those ideas together and see how we can interplay and intertwine between the communities to be able to ensure the success of that.”
Serrao says time is of the essence. “Before Oct. 7, we had time to think about things. Today, we need to address the issues ahead of us. I’m coming to the conference to express concerns, raise awareness about the situation we’re in, and be inspired by others on how they have addressed the consequences of Oct. 7 and come back with a strategy and an action plan.

“I am coming to hear from others how they analyze the situation, how they experience it, and how they come back with ideas and plans to address all the issues we’re facing today in a better and more experienced way.

“UnitEd and the presence of the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism have been a huge asset, an asset that today we cannot do without. We must continue to work together.”

This article was written in cooperation with the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, UnitEd, Herzog College, and the World Zionist Organization’s Department of Education.