Education has always been a central component of Jewish culture. Traditionally, Jewish boys have been expected to maintain high levels of academic dialogue, and this standard has deeply affected Jewish life through the ages. Traditional Jewish educational institutions, likewise, are deeply rooted in their culture.
Jewish elementary schools, known as heders, are taught by rabbis who focus on classical Jewish texts. Orthodox children are commonly expected to attend Jewish school in the mornings, public school during the day, and Jewish school again in the evenings. Two disciplines of study are expected, both religious and secular. Upon turning 13, Jewish boys are confirmed in bar mitzvah ceremonies, rites of passage that symbolically send them into their adulthood. Education continues at secondary schools called yeshivot. While girls have traditionally been excluded from advanced Jewish academics, they have been brought into the learning traditions and the upper educational system in modern times. In the United States, non-Orthodox Jewish girls are also given equality in the bat mitzvah ceremony.
Throughout the twentieth century, Jewish culture has been “westernized,” and strictly traditional forms of Jewish education have become less common. In Europe before World War II, approximately 50 percent of Jewish children had some form of Jewish education. Levels of Jewish education reflected the local culture. Sol lived in traditional eastern Europe, and his schooling in Dovhe was Orthodox. Silvia, who was raised in a modern, cosmopolitan family in Vienna, received no religious education at all. In Gemunden, Bert’s education reflected an interwar German compromise: students at public schools were given an hour of religious classes. A rabbi came to the German schoolhouse for the daily lesson.
Regardless of cultural differences, however, a high expectation for academics has remained a central element of Jewish culture. Therefore when the Nazis banned Jewish children like Bert and Paula from getting an education, they were not just compromising the future of the Jews of Europe. As with most elements of anti-Jewish persecution, they were attacking Jewish identity.
