Freedom of Education and Dutch Jewish Schools in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

In the Netherlands of the mid-nineteenth century a political debate took place concerning the desirability of denominational schools. Roman-Catholics and Protestants opposed the current law of 1806, which defined the new state subsidized Dutch primary schools as denominationally neutral, but with an overall Christian identity. They wanted their own schools, in which they could teach doctrine. The new constitution of 1848 and its implementation in the Education Act of 1857 met their demands by allowing freedom of education for all denominations. Quite different was the situation of the Jews. Contrary to other denominations, Jews were supported to set up their own schools, in which doctrine was taught, even after 1817. For them, the freedom of education made a constitutional principle in 1848 meant the freedom to send their children to regular public schools. The result was the disappearance of almost all of the forty-eight authorised Jewish primary schools. In this paper we explore the motives behind these Jewish actions and their meaning in the context of political and social debates that took place in the mid-nineteenth century, motives, which were directly related to matters of emancipation, acculturation, and their desired – or unwanted – affects.