Looking Back, Looking Forward

The majority of our cohort were close to the end of their time at university during the last phase of data collection. They were on the edge of independence, but not there yet. In this final chapter we explore what we have learned about them and what we don’t yet know. We reflect on the answers to two key questions that have been at the core of our study: (1) What, over time, have been the consequences for young people and their families of attending a Jewish secondary school rather than a non-Jewish one? (2) What has the longitudinal design of our research enabled us to see that we would have missed had we only collected retrospective data at a single point in time? We conclude that attending a Jewish school has contributed to strong personal connections to Israel, unusually strong friendships that helped social adaptation at university, and a positive sense of connection to and comfort with the Jewish community. Our study’s longitudinal design reveals the resilience of close family relationships over the course of the adolescent years, evolving understandings of what it means to be feel at home in the UK, and finally how slowly change occurs in families and in individual Jewish lives.