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Jewish education (, Chinuch) is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah study, from the early days of studying the Tanakh.
Elementary school learning was considered compulsory by Simeon ben Shetah in 75 BCE and by Joshua ben Gamla in 64 CE. The education of older boys and men in a beit midrash can be traced back to the period of the Second Temple . The Talmud, states that children should begin school at six, and should not be kept from education by other tasks.
According to Judah ben Tema, “At five years the age is reached for studying Tanakh, at ten for studying the Mishnah, at thirteen for fulfilling the mitzvoth, at fifteen for studying Talmud” (Avot 5:21). Mikra refers to the Tanakh, Mishnah refers to the complementary oral Torah (the concise and precise laws dictating how the written Torah's commandments are achieved) and Talmud refers to comprehension of the oral and written law's unity and contemplation of the laws. The term "Talmud" used here is a method of study and is not to be confused by the Talmud by the same name. In keeping with this tradition, Jews established their own schools or hired private tutors for their children until the end of the 18th century. Schools were housed in annexes or separate buildings close to the synagogue.
Gamaliel III said that the study of the Torah is excellent when combined with Derech Eretz, worldly occupation, for toil in them both keeps sin out of one's mind; But study Torah which is not combined with a worldly occupation, in the end comes to be neglected and becomes the cause of sin.Pirkei Avot 2:2
After the formal court system was abolished, Yeshiva became the main places for Torah study. The Talmud itself was composed largely in the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia, and the leading sages of the generation taught there. Until the 19th century, young men generally studied under the local rabbi, who was allocated funds by the Jewish community to maintain a number of students. The Hasidic Judaism masters and the Lithuanian Jews rabbi Chaim Volozhin both founded centralised yeshivot; see Yeshiva#History.
Currently, the largest Yeshiva organization in the US is Yeshiva University, which is in New York City. It offers both religious and secular degrees, as is also the case for many other yeshivas both in Israel and the US. In Israel, the largest yeshiva is Mir Yeshiva. In the 20th century, Hesder (Israeli Religious Zionist) and Modern Orthodox yeshivot were also founded. In all of these communities, yeshiva study is common, with young men (and women in a midrasha) spending several years post high school Torah study. In the Haredi / Hasidic communities, their study often spans decades.
In October 2022 the Israel Democracy Institute was able to compile a 200-page bibliography of research on Israeli Haredim. Many people in Haredi communities believe that this was a targeted attack, since the bibliography was seen as obsessive by many. Some believe this idea gained traction due to the New York Times article "In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush with Public Money," which was written by Eliza Shapiro and Brian M. Rosenthal. The criticism of the article expressed that if this was to happen in the US they would not have more than a page or two on a study.
Education researchers have discussed how contemporary Orthodox Jewish education addresses challenges posed by contradictions between rabbinic literature and external historical sources. Five key tools have been identified—exclusion, allegory, synthesis, accommodation, and rejection—that educators can use to reconcile these discrepancies while maintaining respect for tradition and intellectual integrity. The choice of method depends on the educational context, audience, and school culture, with Hareidi settings favoring exclusion or allegorization to preserve rabbinic authority, and Modern Orthodox or academic environments being more open to synthesis, accommodation, or even rejection of certain claims. This line of research stresses the importance of balancing the Jewish value of seeking truth with communal norms, enabling educators to navigate complex historical questions in a way that strengthens students’ faith and critical thinking. Such an approach can be a valuable resource for understanding how Orthodox Jewish education engages with historical and theological challenges in the modern era.
There have been many changes in the yeshivas due to the advancement of technology. This includes the use of online libraries of Torah studies, which became popular during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as many yeshivas were forced to pivot online. This created a new model of Torah study that blends traditional and modern traditions. The funding of these modern schools rely on donations, which means that yeshivas do not have a strong stable financial stability. Non-orthodox streams have yeshivot also, although these are intended (almost entirely) for Rabbinic preparation. Their syllabi similarly depart from the traditional ideals.
In America, some yeshivas of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox), but non-Hasidic (Lithuanian) identity, offer state-compliant secular education curriculums. For example, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas runs a "NYS Board of Regents certified High School" with a contemporary curriculum "in compliance with the latest Common Core standards."
American Hasidic yeshivas, from elementary to high school levels, have a long history of shying away from all but the most rudimentary exposure to secular studies. For example, when several decades ago Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam of the Bobov Hasidic dynasty was met with intensified calls for higher-level secular education from Hasidic parents of Bobov-affiliated yeshivas, Halberstam rejected their pleas and stated that on principle he would not compromise "even if it means that I will have no more than one student."Rabbi Aharon Perlow in Biographical feature The Divrei Shlomo, Harav Shlomo Halberstam, the Bobover Rebbe, Zy"a: Marking his 20th yahrtzeit on 1 Av, Hamodia Newspaper, Weekly edition, July 22, 2020 (Vol. XXIII, No. 1119), p. 7 of newspaper's "Community" section: "parents began complaining that the children were not being taught English on a high enough level, and as a result, they would never be able to find jobs. More parents joined the chorus, until the issue was brought to the Rebbe. He... said, 'I want you to understand that even if it means that I will have no more than one student, I will continue following the path that my father taught me. I will not compromise on these principles! Critics such as Naftuli Moster have worked to promote the adoption of national or state standards on secular subjects by such yeshivas.
A New York Times investigation into the quality of education in the more than 100 all-boys schools across Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley in 2022 revealed that the schools generally taught only rudimentary English and math and no science or history, while receiving more than $1 billion in government money in the previous four-year period. The NYT investigation alleged that the current secular curriculum in most New York Hasidic boys' schools exists for children between the ages of 8 and 12 only and consists of reading and math, four days a week, often for 90 minutes a day, and only after a full day of religious lessons. English teachers are often not fluent in the language themselves, and there have been anecdotes of students correcting their teachers on the spelling of words such as 'math', misspelled as 'mathe'. Select schools do provide more robust syllabi which include science and social studies, and interactive learning programs such as Science fair and .
Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for Hasidic schools, and J. Erik Connolly, a Chicago lawyer representing Hasidic schools, denied claims by the NYT and others that graduates of the schools were unable to speak or write in English. Echoing Hasidic leaders, they quoted data showing that Jewish schools in general perform well on standardized tests for high school students. NYT reporters countered that these results almost entirely reflect the performance of students at non-Hasidic schools; most Hasidic schools do not administer state standardized tests at all, but in 2019 some did give these exams, and 99% of the thousands of Hasidic boys who took them, failed, in contrast to 49% of all New Yorkers who passed. Additionally, accounts of almost three dozen then-current and former teachers across the state's Hasidic yeshivas, including in those schools that do not administer standardized test, revealed that most of the thousands of boys whom they had taught had left school without learning to speak English fluently, let alone read or write at grade level; in regards to math, most could add and subtract, some could also multiply and divide, but few could do more.
Following the NYT reporting, concerns were raised by some local politicians as to the standard of secular education provided. Particular criticism followed accounts of corporal punishment in the schools.
Despite these apparent short-comings, there has been research that suggests that a traditional Yeshiva education can be an indicator of later success in law school, whether that relationship is causal or merely correlative remains a matter of debate.
The educational philosophy of Hasidic and most non-Hasidic Haredi yeshivas in Israel is largely similar to that of their American counterparts, i.e. opposed to secular studies, no path to attaining a Bagrut certificate. As of 2017, percentage of Haredi girls taking matriculation exams was 51% (up from 31% a decade prior; for boys it was 14% (down from 16%), since Orthodox yeshivot mostly ignore core subjects. About 8 percent of Haredi students pass the exam. Miriam Ben-Peretz, professor emeritus of education at the University of Haifa, and winner of the 2006 Israel Prize notes: “More and more Israeli students don’t have any foundation of knowledge, any basics — not in math, not in English, not in general...things have to change." Some Israelis who have been educated in Haredi yeshivas have established Out for Change, an organization seeking to sue the government for alleged failure to enforce Israel's law for compulsory education. There is a similar organization in America called YAFFED (Young Advocates for Fair Education).
The first Jewish day school developed in Germany, largely in response to the higher emphasis in general on secular studies. In the past, an apprenticeship was sufficient to learn a profession, or alternatively several years in a gymnasium could prepare one adequately for university. Rabbis who pioneered Jewish day schools included Rabbi Shimson Raphael Hirsch, whose Realschule in Frankfurt am Main served as a model for numerous similar institutions. Jews have also been disproportionately engaged in the building of academic institutions of education and in promoting teaching as a professional career. Three of the past four presidents of the American Federation of Teachers have been Jews: starting with Albert Shanker, her successor Sandra Feldman, all the way to current AFT president, Randi Weingarten.
In 2007, there were over 750 day schools in the United States and 205,000 students in those schools. Beyond those students, hundreds of thousands (~250,000) of Jewish children attend supplementary religious, Hebrew school, and congregational schools.
One of the main arguments for this educational inequality of discouraging women from learning Torah related topics is found in the Talmud. According to Rabbi Eliezer in Tractate Sotah: 'If a man teaches his daughter Torah, it's as if he's teaching her foolishness.' Traditional religious views were that women were not on the same intellectual level as men, and therefore were unable to understand the intricacies of the Torah and Talmud.
This situation changed largely due to the efforts of Sara Schnirer, who founded the first Jewish girls' school Bais Yaakov in Kraków in Poland in 1918. leading to the formation of the Beth Jacob Movement. From the 19th century onward, public education became compulsory in most of Europe, and Jewish schools were established in order to maintain educational control over Jewish children.
In the Beth Jacob system, women primarily learn Torah, and also some halacha (Jewish religious law), but not the Talmud. This means that they are not only taught Torah but are also taught 'the lifestyle of being a homemaker, and supporting their husbands who want to learn in yeshiva all day.'
and Education In Judaism Article by: Shifra Baronofsky
Girls in the United States at this time were often educated at public schools together with boys, and they received their Jewish education through programs at synagogues and Sunday schools, as Jewish day schools were less common.
After the end of World War II, women moved into Jewish studies research and teaching. The balance of education for women and men has made great strides in equality in Jewish schools.Miller Helena Grant D. Lisa Pomson Alex (2011). 9789400703537, Springer; 2011 edition. ISBN 9789400703537
The Conservative movement has USY - United Synagogue Youth. The Modern Orthodox movement has NCSY. BBYO is a non-denominational group, though most Jews associate it with the Reform movement. The North American Federation of Temple Youth, known as NFTY, is the organized youth movement of Reform Judaism in North America. Funded and supported by the Union for Reform Judaism, NFTY exists to supplement and support Reform youth groups at the synagogue level. About 750 local youth groups affiliate themselves with the organization, comprising over 8,500 youth members.
The Camp Ramah network, affiliated with Conservative Judaism runs camps in North America where youngsters experience traditional Shabbat observance, study Hebrew and observe the laws of kashrut.
The Union for Reform Judaism runs the largest Jewish camping system in the world, the URJ Camp & Israel Programs. They operate 13 summer camps across North America, including a sports specialty camp, teen leadership institute and programs for youth with special needs, as well as a number of Israel travel programs. Participants in these programs observe Shabbat, engage in programming about Jewish values and history, and partake in typical summer camp activities including athletics, creative arts and color war.
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute in partnership with The Chabad on Campus International Foundation, manages the Sinai Scholars Society, an integrated fellowship program for college campus students comprising Torah study, social activities, and national networking opportunities.
From the 20th century onward drama has been used as an educational tool. Programs such as Jewish Crossroads by Shlomo Horwitz provide educational theater in schools and synagogues in various English-speaking countries. The Lookstein Center at Bar-Ilan University, a think tank geared to Jewish educators in the Diaspora, lists many drama-related programs on their website for use of teachers in the classroom.
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