Private Orthodox Jewish religious schools have come under scrutiny in recent months after reports surfaced that up to 1,000 children are being illegally educated in unregistered schools. Against a backdrop of increasing regulation of religious schools, including Muslim madrassas, inspectors have warned that in some private religious schools children are not following a Study program with a comprehensive approach .

These headlines put the spotlight on some unregistered and illegal schools, but these represent an extremely small minority of schools with a religious character in the UK.

While church schools make up the vast majority of faith-based schools in the UK, Judaism has the highest ratio of religious school places per population of worshippers in England.

The classification of Jewish schools in England is complex, as they vary in their religious character and ethos. A broad distinction can be made between Jewish schools that belong to the "mainstream" and those that are "strictly orthodox." The latter have a stronger religious ethos because of the rabbinic authority that oversees them and the religious communities from which their students come.

The demand for and provision of state-funded Jewish schools has grown significantly in urban areas, where there is a substantial Jewish community. The issue of Jewish children attending Jewish schools doubled between the 1970s and 2008, from agreement with the Jewish Leadership Council. Some researchers have argued that this growth is driven by fears of assimilation and the desire of Jewish families to counteract the harmful influences of the wider society on their children.

Proponents of Jewish schools applaud the higher quality of the overall Education they provide compared to other state-funded schools, which is demonstrated by the strong performance of Jewish schools in league tables based on test scores.

However, the state-funded religious Education remains controversial. Opponents argue that faith-based Education is unfair and increases segregation and division in society on religious grounds. On the other hand, those who defend state-funded religious schools argue that they meet the needs of religious minorities and are an essential right of parents in a liberal democracy. They preserve their traditions in a secular society that, to a large extent, does not conform to their differential religious values. 

Life in a non-Jewish school

Some programs of study suggest that Jewish schools can have a significant effect on the training of Jewish identity. But analyses of Jewish students' experiences in non-Jewish schools is also a good way to understand why religious schools are so popular.

I developed a small-scale interview study analyzing the experiences of 28 Jewish students attending a range of non-Jewish high schools. Those who attended private or state-funded non-Jewish schools viewed their schools as a challenge, alluding to concerns such as incidents of anti-Semitic abuse or the fact that the school calendar conflicts with Jewish holy days.

Some of the participants' experiences were really shocking to me, such as hearing them report that the word "Jew" was used by non-Jewish peers as an insult. This was a small-scale study, so we don't know the extent to which these types of behaviors are prevalent, but it is important to keep in mind that some of the students who claimed to be extremely happy in their non-Jewish schools also reported challenges.

These issues can be seen as "push" factors for the popularity of state-funded Jewish schools. Among the "pull" factors are the provision of Jewish cultural activities and customs and a school community that is more conducive to furthering Jewish values and the student's cultural knowledge .

Identity building

Yet the relationship between the ethos of a Jewish religious school and that of the families to which its students belong can be complex. An academic case study of a Jewish secondary school in England showed that students and parents may understand their Jewish identity differently from the high school address.

Jewish identity is sometimes explained as a reference letter to shared history rather than a religious classification. It is because of this complexity of Jewish identity that the decision to send children to a particular school may not be due to religious motives. This nuance in the reasoning of parents and students that leads them to choose a religious school may be overlooked by those who oppose religious schools on the grounds that they indoctrinate students, forcing irrational beliefs on them.

Some Jews believe that going to non-Jewish schools better prepares them to live in a multi-cultural or multi-religious society, and that by doing so they can also help non-Jewish young people learn about Jewish culture. The problem is that with fewer students attending non-Jewish schools, those Jews who do attend such schools are more likely to constitute a small minority among their group of peers, with all the implications this may entail.