AJewishhome in a British public school

WHEN THE J e w i s h b o a r d - ing house closed at Clifton College, a Bristol public school, in 2005, some former pupils wondered if Jewish life at the school would continue to be strong. They breathed a sigh of relief as the school ploughed money from the sale of the house, named Polack’s, into providing bursaries for Jewish students.

Today, the school maintains the tradition of Polack’s by replicating within the main school many of the facets of Jewish life once found in the Jewish house. Clifton is the only public school with its own synagogue, enabling Jewish students to maintain their identity while being full participants in publicschool life.

There are daily synagogue services for Jewish pupils instead of chapel and Friday-night services followed by kosher Friday-night dinners, monthly visits by the rabbi for Friday-night services and ethical discussions, a weekly sixth-form interfaith discussion group and celebrations for Jewish festivals.

The Polack’s Centre provides a new meeting place for Jewish students. Their numbers are boosted by bursaries for Jewish children. Applicants are assessed at interview, during which trustees look for a desire to engage with their Jewish heritage and participate in Jewish activities at the school.

Jewish graduates of Clifton, depending on the era they attended, speak fondly of Polack’s House or Polack’s Centre. “Being part of the Polack’s Centre was like a little family, with shared traditions and values,” says 19-year- Polack’s Centre provides a new school hub for Jewish socialising, now the boarding house is closed old Dan Mazur. “It encouraged me to engage in my religion and I have recently been elected vice-president of Exeter University Jewish Society.”

Toby Foster, 25, reflects: “Clifton promises to help find out what you are good at and then helps you develop.” A first-year student at the University of Oxford, who asked not to be identified by name, says: “Attending Clifton College has been a life-changing experience for me and I am grateful and will be for the rest of my life, for being given such an incredible opportunity by the Polack’s House Educational Trust. Clifton College has given me a framework to express myself, academically and artistically. It offered limitless possibilities and opportunities that I could not even dream about prior to my arrival.”

Vladimir Bermant, who also studied at Oxford and today works in asset management, was at Clifton when the boarding house was still open and is now a school governor. “My sister Olga and I had a great time at Clifton,” he says. “The education is first-class, the school’s facilities and resources are as good as anywhere and the school has managed to combine academic excellence with valuing pupils’ extra-curricular interests.

“Polack’s was an outstanding facility, a place where Jewish teenagers discovered what it meant to be clearly Jewish but also clearly part of a supportive British institution. In establishing Polack’s, at a time when most mainstream schools had Jewish quotas, Clifton showed its values of tolerance and inclusion which remain a great source of pride for the school. “

Bermant adds: “I originally came to Clifton without a scholarship but the scholarship allowed me to remain at the school. Attending Clifton was a privilege and allowed my sister and me to pursue our interests in academia, sports, debating and other areas.”

F o r C l i f t o n , t h e focus is on continuity between the current era and the proud pre-2005 history of the school. And as Derek Winterbottom, author of a history of Jewish life at Clifton, wrote: “The Jewish house at Clifton lasted far, far longer than any similar experiment anywhere else and provided a fine education for thousands of Jewish boys, many of whom became prominent figures in their day.

“It was also the stage for something unique in the history of British public schools. Four outstanding schoolmasters from three generations of the Polack family demonstrated their exceptional skills over a period of 89 years, becoming an indelible part of the lives of the boys under their care and a significant factor within the Anglo-Jewish community.”

Polack’s was unique in publicschool history