Jewish education in Dublin: organizational development and conflicts

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to dwell on the trends in the development of Jewish education in Dublin. The discussion is based on books written about the Jewish community and central figures in it, on interviews with people who were involved in shaping the Jewish education and with others who were familiar with it, on community magazines and documents found in the community and in the Jewish school.

The findings show that the Chief Rabbis were always the initiators and the driving force behind the founding of the Jewish educational institutions and in determining their educational policies. They were always assisted by the Education Ministry of Ireland, by the State of Israel and by members of the local community.

The Jewish elementary school in Dublin was founded in 1934 by Rabbi Herzog. At the initiative of Rabbi Jakobovitz they founded the Jewish secondary school in the early 1950s, together with an additional Jewish elementary school.

The problem of the Jewish schools was always the limited enrollment figures. Because of this, the Rabbis Cohen and Rosen unified the schools into a single educational institution where students studied from the age of three until the final year of secondary school.

The principals and teachers of secular subjects at the school were always non-Jews. In contrast, in most cases, the directors of the Jewish studies were emissaries from Israel. The teachers of Jewish subjects were residents of Dublin and rabbis who supplemented their rabbinical positions with teaching jobs. Good work relations always prevailed between the Jewish and non-Jewish staff, but the relations of the Israeli emissaries with the teachers of Jewish subjects and the rabbis were characterized by conflict.