Growing Up in Britain

Jewish schools are frequently criticised for functioning as ghettos that separate young Jews from mainstream society, or as contributing to an insular mentality. This chapter tests those claims employing a well-established model for the study of societal acculturation, distinguishing between integration, participating in and absorbing majority culture while preserving a distinct minority culture; assimilation, immersion in and adoption of the majority culture while discarding a distinctive minority culture; and separation, rejecting the majority culture in service of sustaining a rich and full minority way of life. From the beginning of the study, we have paid close attention to how students in British schools view themselves as British citizens and the extent to which they get involved in larger causes in the UK. We have found, as we show, that Jewish school graduates have indeed been engaged in British civic life; their schools have empowered them to play an engaged role as British citizens. And, yet, as we also reveal, encounters with antisemitism, which many experienced for the first time once they reached university, have profoundly undermined the sense of the UK as home for many of the study’s participants.