Jewish Education in the United States

In the Jewish community, it is said, nothing is simple—and education is no exception. Many American Jews have been and remain strong supporters of the public schools as forces for assimilation and acceptance into the larger society. Yet, from the early arrival of Jews in the United States, some proportion of Jews favored separate, Jewish schools—starting with the yeshivas, or Orthodox Jewish day schools, in the early 19th century. But as the Jewish community became more diverse, so did the schools, as each denomination started its own schools. Jewish day schools play a strong, positive, and expanding role in the education and socialization of Jewish children in the United States. Unlike Catholic schools and other large systems of education, Jewish schools are rather separated, localized, ...