Metadata: Jews Free School
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Holding institution (official language):
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Postal address:
- 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB, United Kingdom
- Phone number:
- (+44) 20 7332 3820
- Email:
- ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
- Reference number:
- LMA/4297
- Title:
- Jews Free School
- Title (official language):
- Jews Free School
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jews Free School
- Date(s):
- 1863/1939
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 0.16 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- Records relating to the Jews' Free School and former teachers at the school. This deposit contains letters, school magazines, newspaper cuttings and an attendance register. Some material relates to Anglo-Jewish historian Myer David Davis (also spelt Davies), who started his career as a teacher at the Jews' Free School as Talmud Torah master.
- Archival history:
- Deposited at London Metropolitan Archives in 2001.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jews' Free School (renamed JFS Comprehensive and later JFS) is the largest Jewish school in Britain. It was founded by Moses Hart, who paid for the restoration of the Great Synagogue where the school opened as a Talmud Torah for 15 boys in 1732. It was originally a charity school for orphaned boys with priority given to those of German parentage. By 1788 the school had moved to Houndsditch in the City of London and in the late 1790s moved again to Gun Square where the number of pupils increased to 21. In the nineteenth century Dr Joshua Van Oven found a permanent site for the school in Bell Lane. Between 1880 and 1900, one third of all London's Jewish children passed through its doors - by 1900 it had some 4,000 pupils and was the largest Jewish school in Europe. The School provided children with a refuge from poverty, a religious and secular education and in the spirit of the times “anglicised” them. The school enjoyed the patronage of the Rothschilds and had for 51 years a headmaster called Moses Angel. Angel was probably the most influential figure in UK Jewish education in the nineteenth century and a great advocate of anglicising his pupils. The school remained at Bell Lane until 1939 when it was evacuated to Ely during World War II. The Bell Lane building was destroyed during enemy action and after the war the school remained closed until a new site was found on the Camden Road. In 1958 the school reopened as JFS Comprehensive. The school is now knows simply as JFS and is based in Kenton, North London.
- Access points: locations:
- London
- United Kingdom
- Subject terms:
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Access, restrictions:
- These records are open to public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to closure periods.
- Finding aids:
- Please see online catalogues.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
- Yerusha Network member:
- London Metropolitan Archives
- Author of the description:
- Nicola Avery, London Metropolitan Archives, 2018
