Żydowskie wychowanie i żydowska tożsamość...

Abstract

The author of the article analysed the profile of Jewish identity
and education, indicating some essential problems and describing
the way they are being tackled today.
As far as Jewish identity is concerned, Z. Gross distinguished
and depicted two separate standpoints, thus establishing two
kinds of identity: substantive and constructive. She also described
the diachronic and synchronic types of Jewish identity
discourse, highlighting their implications for education.
The educational system in Israel points to five fundamental
historic events (the establishment of the Zionist Movement, the
Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, The Six Day
War and the assassination of prime Minister Rabin) constituting
a significant factor of Jewish Zionist education, addressing them
in school curricula of particular subjects. Also, it is important to
commemorate these events in educational processes in order
to nurture the Jewish memory and strengthen Jewish national
solidarity and identity despite the internal conflicts and fundamental
reservations. Hence, the ability to compartmentalize and
differentiate between consensus and conflict in the educational
process is a salient feature of post-modern education. As to the
synchronic discourse, the educational system in Israel requires
transformation, since essentially no promoting forms have been
undertaken, only some sporadic activities done by few teachers
personally aware and committed to this problem.
The contemporary educational system in Israel, according to
Z. Gross, faces three closely interconnected cardinal problems in
the ideological, social and administrative spheres. These difficulties
result from the conflict between two Jewish civilizations and
traditions: the traditional and the modern. As a consequence, dramatic
transformations in Jewish identity and Jewish education are
taking place.
Therefore, these days the Israeli educational system needs to
cerate a new, multicultural Jew, embodying the various identity
conflicts that originated in historical and cultural processes. Such
Jews are able to develop a dialectical approach towards the inherent
conflicts, employing various identities as the basis of an
identity capable of facing the special challenges of traditional
society and adjusting itself gradually to ensure integration in the
post-modern world.