Universal values in childhood concepts and education in the ‘New Yishuv’, 1882–1914

The tension between universal and local values is reflected in educational discourse in every period and society. The education of children serves to strengthen national identity and local culture in the face of globalising trends. This article examines the position and influence of western childhood images and pedagogical concepts, developed mainly from the eighteenth century onward, on the concepts and attitudes of educators of the Jewish national revival in the Land of Israel at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its focus is on the period in which the Hebrew educational system was founded, and children were valued as the future generation that would materialise the adults’ national hopes.