Reflecting on Judaism

          Having successfully completed the arrangements for a public meeting to bring the proposed School to the attention of the local community we needed to get down to the nitty gritty. We made contact with the London Board of Jewish Religious Education requesting a meeting to discuss the type of association which can be envisaged between that organisation and the School. Chief Rabbi Jakobovitz had indicated that he would like the school to introduce Ivrit B’Ivrit when teaching Hebrew and was prepared to pay the cost of training teachers in this method of tuition. The Headmaster willingly took up this idea, but as we will see in a later chapter, when the method was eventually introduced it was strongly resisted by the ‘powers that be’.   
          We made contact with Dr. E. S. Conway, Headmaster of the J.F.S., to show him the plans of our School and to request that he allocate sufficient places in his school for those of our pupils who wished to attend in due course. He agreed, in principle, to this suggestion and visited Ilford on two or three occasions, in consecutive years, to address parents contemplating the J.F.S. for their children.   
          The architects submitted the application for school’s planning permission in early September, as a formality, and were awaiting approval. The youth club had not yet approved their plans and since the architect wished to go to tender on all three projects simultaneously (the school, the nursery and the club) he said that this may delay progress for if the tenders went out separately it might involve extra costs. Because it was intended that the school open in September 1969, in early September 1968 we wrote to the architect requesting that, should the youth club not approve their plans very shortly, the building of the school not be delayed on that account. He replied that the documents for the school and nursery should be ready by the end of November or beginning December and that he would expect the builders to commence no later than the end of January; a seven month building programme, very tight indeed. We pointed out the logistical problems which would arise if the children from ‘Stepney’ could not be transferred on the due date.  He confirmed that he would be sending out the school’s and nursery tenders, even if the youth club did not instruct him, within the next two or three weeks.
          At this stage the local Committee had raised some £5,000 for the building fund with a further £5,000 likely in a short period of time. This, together with the £10,000 promised by the Claims Commission would enable the Managers to authorise the building of the nursery school, independent of the main school building, if necessary.
          It might be appropriate to include here an experience which occurred some years earlier. I write from memory since Raymond Rudie dealt with the whole matter from his office and I do not have his records. At the time, when we felt reasonably assured that we would be successful in building a Jewish school in Ilford, the Local Authority had still not included our proposed school in their building programme and would not promise a date. You may recall that in order to establish a Jewish school we had to prove that there was a ‘Jewish’ demand plus an overall shortage of primary places in the area, something which was difficult for us to prove. The Local Authorities announced in the local newspaper that they wished to build another primary school and invited local residents to object if they felt that they had good cause. Raymond Rudie lodged an objection stating that, by wishing to build another primary school in Ilford, the Authorities were admitting that an overall shortage of primary places existed and we had shown that there was a ‘Jewish’ demand. He suggested to them that if there was to be another school, our proposed school should have priority. Shortly afterwards both schools were placed in the building programme. Well done Raymond.
          On 2nd December 1968 a letter was sent to all those parents who had applied for their child to be admitted to the school, inviting them to attend for an interview, from Monday 30th December to Thursday 2nd January 1969, in the Board Room of the Ilford District Synagogue, Beehive Lane. Details of the new school, and arrangements made for the ordering of the school’s uniform, would be discussed. The Inner London Education Authority had agreed to pay the cost of a coach for transporting from ‘Stepney’, those children who wished to attend the new school, up to the cost of travel season tickets.
          At the meeting of managers and committee held on the 30th October 1968 it was reported that the Managers had reached an agreement with the Local Authority that the school would be named ‘Ilford Jewish Primary School’ and beneath such name would be recorded ‘Stepney Jewish School’ and the date of the foundation of the original school.
          It was also reported that negotiations had taken place with the London Board of Jewish Religious Education. Upon the basis of 1½ hours of Hebrew tuition a day the ‘Board’ had agreed to pay for the extra tuition for which the Council was not prepared to pay. The ‘Board’ was also prepared to pay the salary of a full time Director of Jewish Studies to be under the control of the Headmaster. Mr. Rosslyn indicated that he did not feel that such an appointment was necessary as he felt quite capable of overseeing the Jewish studies department himself. He would however welcome the interest of Rev. Black in this aspect of the school’s activities. He added that he considered 7½ hours per week of Jewish tuition adequate for primary children. The local Education Officer had informed him that the extra hours required for the Jewish studies must be voluntary both on the part of teachers and children. 
          The ‘Board’, whilst respecting Mr. Rosslyn’s ability, felt that a Director of Jewish Studies was necessary. This was their first venture into Jewish primary education and they wanted it to be an outstanding success. They were perhaps influenced by their experiences with the J.F.S. They entered into negotiations with the Torah Department of the Jewish Agency to supply us with a mutually acceptable Israeli teacher to fill the post of Director, on a two-yearly contract, and these arrangements continued for several years.
          Early in the new year of 1969 we received the final costing of the proposed combined buildings. It was £152,534 9s 11p made up as £90,272 approx. for the school, £28,000 approx. for the nursery and £42,000 for the Youth Club. The bad news was that completion date for the primary school would be only on 18th October 1969. Its starting date was to be 24th March. This left us with a logistic problem, mentioned in a previous chapter, which we would have to solve. 
          During March 1969 the Managers confirmed the financial arrangements made with the youth club whereby the Managers would be kept in funds to pay for the youth club’s proportion of the building costs; we learned that the Torah Department was having difficulty in nominating a suitable Director; Mr. Rosslyn had made arrangements with a local firm of outfitters to provide our children with uniforms carrying the school’s emblem; he was also negotiating the style of the children’s dining room tables and finally decided upon those still in use.
Woolf Abrahams.
November 2003.