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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXI, No. 1. July 1996
minority group. They differ from the wider societies in two important respects. Their involvement in the professions and in business and commerce is proportionally higher than average. Jewish educational achievement for men and women, especially participation in higher education is much higher than the average for the rest of the population.
In countries such as the UK, the Jews have developed strong representative bodies to protect the communities' interests, to make Jewish views known to others and to facilitate co-operation with other religious and minority communities. The longest established and best known such Jewish organisation is the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Jewish communities finance themselves by, in the case of synagogues, levying membership fees and by fund-raising events and donations. In the U.K. surveys show that Jews give more money per capita in charitable donations than any other sizeable minority group. They are very efficient at using donated money. e.g. they take full advantage of deeds of covenants and other tax-efficient means of giving. Jewish organisations are very professional in seeking grants from local and central government bodies and other charitable sources of funding. Many Jewish organisations use specialist fund raising personnel.
There are two major areas of Jewish communal endeavour as a focus for charitable and philanthropic activity. One is the provision of community social services, e.g. residential homes for the Jewishi elderly. The Jewish example is held up as a model for other communities. The second area is Jewish education. Ever since the earliest days of Jewish settlement in the U.K. there have been Jewish schools. Today the trend towards provision of Jewish primary and secondary education is increasing across all parts of the Jewish community. The need for educaction to maintain the future viability of the Jewish community is not questioned by most Jews. In addition to full-time Jewish schools, ther is a dense network of part-time educational and cultural activities: Jewish religious classes for children and adults, Jewish youth clubs and residential holiday camps.
Culturally, Jews come from a wide range of backgrounds. In the West they generally adopted Western cultural modes. An example of this is in the synagogue. Where music is used, either chorally or instrumentally, it is recognisably 'westernised'. With regard to questions of gender equality, the westernisation of the Jewish community has proceeded very far. There are now few areas of community life from which women are any longer excluded. The remaining exclusions are
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