JPR media coverage archive
Lost Charedi boys

Our Jewish schools come out with flying colours from the Government’s latest educational league tables. But buried away in the statistics is disturbing evidence that many boys in the strictly Orthodox community are being systematically undereducated in secular studies. While Charedi girls often achieve highly creditable exam results, many of their male counterparts will leave school for yeshivah at the age of 15 or even younger with barely a GCSE to their name. Last year a report into the 2001 Census by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research drew attention to economic deprivation among Jews in Hackney, Britain’s largest Charedi community. It is hard not to link the two trends. The new education data show that, compared with almost 200 15-year-olds in Charedi girls’ schools in Hackney, just one boy of that age was registered in a comparable boys’ school. By mid-teens, most Charedi boys are in yeshivah. Studying Talmud is an intellectually demanding pursuit, requiring discipline and application. But the lack of secular education means that many boys are being underequipped for life in the knowledge economy. It should be possible to combine intensive religious studies with a broader educational programme that will open up better career prospects for more Charedi boys — if only the rabbinical authorities would allow it. Indeed, the future well-being of the strictly Orthodox community may depend on it.