Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za © 2006 Human Sciences Research Council First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-7969-2114-8 Copy editing by David Merrington Typeset by Jenny Wheeldon Cover design by Karen Ahlschläger Print management by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 4477 Fax: +27 (0) 21 701 7302 email: orders@blueweaver.co.za www.oneworldbooks.com Distributed in Europe and the United Kingdom by Eurospan Distribution Services (EDS) 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8LU, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 0856 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7379 0609 email: orders@edspubs.co.uk www.eurospanonline.com Distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group (IPG) Order Department, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA Call toll-free: (800) 888 4741 All other enquiries: +1 (312) 337 0747 Fax: +1 (312) 337 5985 email: frontdesk@ipgbook.com www.ipgbook.com Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Contents Foreword v Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction – Jewish education at the crossroads 1 2 A bird’s-eye view 15 3 Globalisation, managerialism and communities 26 4 The global and local contexts 81 5 The cost of saving the Jewish community schools 161 6 The McDavid Schools for Jewish education 212 7 Coercion, consent and contradictions 275 8 Explaining change 303 Abbreviations 322 Glossary 324 Bibliography 326 Index 344 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za v Foreword The system of Jewish education in South Africa has often been described as the jewel of the community. While the system has been analysed in previous works, Chaya Herman has produced a study of Jewish schooling in Johannesburg which combines careful research with a fine theoretical understanding of the context in which the Jewish community and its schooling system is located. Until recently, Jewish schools such as the subject of this study, the King David Schools, reflected the moderate orthodoxy that was hegemonic in the community. While the community both built and maintained the school system, the educational direction was piloted by the professional staff. However, as Herman’s study so tellingly shows, by the end of the last millennium two powerful forces, both associated with globalisation, had blown the very system itself in a different direction. The first force was that of managerialism, with its emphasis on corporate principles and the concomitant efficiencies of scale, cost reductions and the replacement of the educational professional with the accountant. Business, rather than education, became the foundational principle of the school system. Simultaneously, a surge towards identity and community permeated the schools. A new hegemonic force, the ultra-orthodox, shaped the form of this identity. As Herman shows, the possibilities offered by the politics of difference were replaced by the grinding restrictions of a myopic world shaped in a Europe of 200 years ago. Authenticity was equated with the charedi worldview and became embraced by a significant segment of the business community, who seemed to gravitate to this intellectually light but halachically formalistic mixture. The circle was squared – the corporate and the ultra- orthodox met. Ironically, as pointed out by respondents cited in the book, the majority of Jews were forgotten and became marginalised through either ignorance, apathy or lack of an alternative political structure. This book serves as a warning to all who are concerned about educating their children to walk both in the ways of Jewish tradition(s) and as citizens of South Africa within a globalised world. It unmasks the sociology which governs the Jewish community and hence its present educational system. If it Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za vi is correct that the community can see no other way forward than that offered by the market, and only one truth, one way of practising religion, then it is most fortunate that this book is published now – in ten years’ time there may be almost no Jewish readership capable of reading such a rich text. DM Davis Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za vii Acknowledgements Prophets and Profits is based on my doctoral dissertation and is the culmination of four years of in-depth research, extensive reading and discussions. This was a long, emotional and arduous journey from which I finally emerged with a better understanding of educational change, the research process, the Jewish community and myself. Many friends and colleagues supported and encouraged me throughout the long process of researching and writing this book, and to them I am most grateful. I owe a special debt to my mentor Jonathan Jansen – without him this book would not have happened. Special thanks are also due to Judge Dennis Davis for his insightful Foreword, and to Michael Apple for endorsing the book. My gratitude goes to Yael Shalem, Leah Gilbert, Venitha Pillay, Eve Gray, Tracy Seider, and to members of the HSRC Press: Garry Rosenberg and John Daniel, who managed the peer review process, as well as Inga Norenius and David Merrington, who nurtured the book throughout the production process. I would like to thank my husband Tony, my children Tanya, Guy and Daniel, and my parents, Sarah and Zwi Agassi, for their love, encouragement and patience. I would like to give a special ‘thank you’ to Daniel who coined the title of this book. Most of all, I am indebted to the members of the school community who generously gave of their time and entrusted me with their stories – your experiences and expressions animated and enriched this text. Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za 1 Introduction – Jewish education at the crossroads ‘When I’m short of a headline, all I have to do is put in “Jewish community at the crossroads” because the Jewish community is always at the crossroads’ 1 were the insightful words of an editor of a Jewish journal. With the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa the community has found itself once again at a turning point as a result of it having to adjust to the all-encompassing transformation that engulfed the country after 1994. The restructuring of the Jewish community schools in Johannesburg, at the beginning of the 21 st century, tells the story of a community struggling to come to terms with the changing environment of the new South Africa. Yet, to tell the story of the restructuring of Jewish community schools solely from a local perspective, without paying attention to the globalised context within which the change occurs, will obscure more than it reveals. The reorganisation of educational systems worldwide has been affected by a combination of global economic restructuring and reduced social spending – both manifestations of neo-liberal thinking or what might be called the ideologies of the market (Ball, 1998). Market-led restructuring tends to be associated with a set of techniques, values and practices that has come to be referred to as ‘new managerialism’. This concept rests on two distinct claims about educational change: one, ‘that efficient management can solve almost any problem’, and two, that ‘practices that are appropriate for the conduct of corporate enterprises can also be applied to the public sector’ such as education (Rees 1995: 15). Another by-product of globalisation has been the resurgence of ethnic and religious communities in the search for identity. This is often perceived to be a response to economic globalisation and its homogenising tendencies, a reaction which has been described by Hargreaves (2003) as the ‘paradox of globalisation’. In this view, people are impelled to look for alternative sources of meaning and attachment as a result of the diminishing of national borders, 1 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za PROPHETS AND PROFITS 2 the increase in transnational interactions, the uncertainties of flexibility and contractual work, and the absence of trust, care and commitment experienced in the corporate world. The notion of community provides a sense of belonging and security. Community is perceived as a ‘warm circle’, a cosy and comfortable place to be in (Bauman, 2001a). However, communities have a ‘dark side’: their tendencies for parochialism, exclusivity, intolerance and coercion. There are morally questionable groups, such as gangs and fundamentalist religions, which often abuse the notion and the language of communities (Noddings, 1996). At face value, religiously affiliated schools fit well with the ideal notion of community by virtue of their being built on the principles of shared understanding or common tradition, dominant goals and practices. This implies that faith-based community schools, such as Jewish community schools, could be well positioned to counter the perils of the global economy. There is, however, hardly any research testing this assumption. Grace (2003) argues that, in the growing literature of globalisation and education, the role of religion is generally ignored. Grace (2002) challenges the ‘secret garden of Catholic education research’ by exploring the dilemmas that Catholic schools face in an increasingly secular and consumer-driven culture. Apple (2001a) analyses the tense alliance of contradictory forces that have impacted on public education in the United States and the United Kingdom, namely the neo-liberals who are committed to markets, choice and privatisation, the neo-conservatives who yearn for strong state control and a return to traditional knowledge and values, the authoritarian populist religious fundamentalists who are concerned about secularisation and want to return to (their) God, and a faction of the professional and managerial new middle class who may not totally agree with the other three, but are dependent on them for professional advancement. This latter group supplies the technical knowledge for the alliance; that is, the notions of accountability, efficiency and management procedures. While Grace examines the impact of managerialism and secularism on the spiritual and religious mission of Catholic schools, and Apple examines the working of the power bloc that has increasingly turned educational policies towards the ‘right’, this study expands the context of inquiry by exploring the nature of the synergy between managerialism and religion and its impact on the broader social and cultural fabric of faith-based community schools. Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za [...]... restructuring was an attempt 3 PROPHETS AND PROFITS to impose a narrow extremist solution to the ongoing conflicts between Judaism and Zionism, religion and democracy, and Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism.2 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za This study explores what was considered to be the ‘first stage’ of restructuring – a stage that aimed at ejecting the past, establishing new management and designing a blueprint... observing it from a position of detachment, and I had an interest in the way that the restructuring would unfold This raised a strong potential for bias, which I tried to neutralise by self-questioning, by reflecting on my motives and assumptions 9 PROPHETS AND PROFITS and disclosing them in my personal journal, by triangulation of resources and informants and by constant searching for disconfirming... initiative of the chairperson and the vice-chairperson of the Board, an anonymous entrepreneur and the Chief Rabbi, and was supported by unidentified ‘top brains and talents in the Jewish community – from business, the law, fundraising and philanthropy’.2 The CEO’s brief, arrangements and plans were not revealed, except for the fact that he would be given a free hand in all financial and educational matters... that, if the schools were to be managed like a corporate, better and sustainable structures should be put in place, and the organisation would become ‘lean and mean’ A sense of relief spread throughout the community, accompanied, however, by many concerns and rumours regarding the CEO’s secretive engagement and agenda 15 PROPHETS AND PROFITS Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Following the employment... existence and who are able to participate in this knowledge society, mainly because it demands flexibility and adaptability to unpredictable changes The unintended consequences of the knowledge society are job and pension insecurity, the collapse of welfare safety nets and the erosion of supportive communities and relationships Taking part and winning in the global economy therefore creates anxieties and. .. about the origin and nature of the restructuring process and its intended and unintended consequences, as well as the experiences of the stakeholders in this process The local expression of global forces is dependent on national and institutional conditions and realities Chapter 4 therefore provides the ideological (Judaism and Zionism), national (South African), local (Jewish community) and institutional... that exemplified the tensions between democracy and religion, Zionism and Judaism, and Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism This chapter explores the way that the process impacted on teachers and parents and the way their initial consent to the restructuring process was transformed – owing to the autocratic mode of change – into anger, frustration, lack of trust and ultimately into sheer rejection I end Chapter... created and which found expression in resistance to the middle school policy, and in the eventual departure of the CEO 13 PROPHETS AND PROFITS Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Chapter 7 explores the global, national and local conditions that supported the autocratic mode of change as described in the previous chapters It attempts to explain the support given to the restructuring from the financial and. .. community values and new managerialism is particularly pronounced in this context as, on the one hand, there are forces in the wider society that pull these schools towards democracy and the construction of a national identity based on inclusivity and tolerance, while, on the other hand, the schools are facing economic and identity crises which seem to lead to a narrowing of their borders and impel them... research process and appeared in many forms They emerged when I tried to achieve a balance between my intentions, on the one hand, to know and expose the hidden processes at work in the restructuring of the Jewish community schools and, on the other hand, to protect the privacy of individuals and the schools While the system is identified, I tried to ensure maximum confidentiality and anonymity for . www.hsrcpress.ac.za PROPHETS AND PROFITS 4 to impose a narrow extremist solution to the ongoing conflicts between Judaism and Zionism, religion and democracy, and Orthodoxy. like to thank my husband Tony, my children Tanya, Guy and Daniel, and my parents, Sarah and Zwi Agassi, for their love, encouragement and patience. I would