There are now 11 all-day Jewish schools in South Africa with nearly 5,000 pupils plus an estimated 10,000 children attending Tal-mud Torahs and Hebrew nursery schools, the 13th National Conference of the South African Board of Jewish Education has been informed.
Sol Yellin, the outgoing chairman, described the growth of the day school movement as the most significant development since the prior conference. He said that the percentage of children attending Jewish schools was better in the 116, 000-member South African Jewish community than in many larger communities.
The delegates invited Prof. Zvi Adar of the Hebrew University to investigate the structure of Jewish education in South Africa and to offer recommendations for future development. The conference reaffirmed the board’s policy of a “national traditional” education and rejected requests for more Jewish ritual and stricter observance in the Jewish schools.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
