Germany Introduces Official Jewish Religion Textbooks in Schools for First Time Since Holocaust

Germany is launching an official series of textbooks on Jewish religion for schools across the country for the first time since the Holocaust. The initiative begins with the release of the first volume in the "Da'at HaDorot" series, aimed at students aged 10 to 16, focusing on Torah studies. This volume will be integrated into classrooms in the upcoming school year.

The project plans to publish seven additional volumes covering key topics such as the Hebrew Bible, prayer, ethics, Jewish law, the holiday cycle, and Jewish history. This educational milestone results from close cooperation between the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the major publishing house Ernst Klett. The series is designed for use in both Jewish and non-Jewish schools to address a long-standing lack of structured and curriculum-aligned Jewish educational materials.

Joseph Schuster, president of the Central Council, highlighted the significance of this step, which elevates Jewish religious education to equal status with recognized Christian education in Germany. Maximilian Scholiok, CEO of Ernst Klett, emphasized the collaboration’s blend of religious expertise and didactic publishing experience, noting the inclusion of advanced digital and interactive elements such as QR codes and precise Hebrew transliterations with translations.

This development marks a historic closure of a painful chapter: before the Nazi regime, organized Jewish education existed in Germany but was brutally halted during the Holocaust. Decades later, official Jewish religious education is returning to German schools through the main educational framework.