Tachkemoni School

The Tachkemoni school was founded in 1920 and ‘recognised’ (aangenomen) by the city of Antwerp the following year. Among the founders – primarily Mizrachi (religious Zionist) Jews – were rabbi M.A. Amiel of the Shomre Hadas community and E. Karlin. Chief Rabbi Ernest Wiener became one of its spiritual leaders.

The choice for education in modern Hebrew was daring but ultimately proved successful. In religious terms, Tachkemoni was (and is) less orthodox than the Jesode-Hatora-Beth-Jacob (JHBJ) school. The primary school was complemented by a kindergarten in 1926 and a section for girls in 1937. From 1927 the school organised evening classes of Dutch, French and English to stimulate the integration of the parents of the many foreign students. Before the Second World War the Tachkemoni school had about 675 pupils.

During the Occupation, the school was taken over by the Vereniging der Joden in België – Association des Juifs en Belgique and was called Joodse school van Antwerpen until its closure in 1943. The buildings were then used as a school for the Duits-Vlaamse Arbeidsgemeenschap, a collaborationist organisation supported by the SS. After the short-lived experiment as a unified Jewish school in Antwerp (with JHBJ)(5-25 October 1944), the Tachkemoni school resumed classes in early May 1945 as a separate institution, with 61 pupils. The infrastructure, damaged by bombings, was restored with funding from the Verenigde Israëlitische Gemeenten (and its hevra kadisha) and funds collected by Antwerp Jews exiled in New York. The lack of teachers for Jewish courses (and Hebrew) was solved by recruitment in Israel, which, however, often resulted in practical problems. The decision to organise mixed classes also dates from the immediate post-war period; initially a pragmatic choice due to the lack of students, the system remains in place in the present.

The further expansion of the school was made possible by the financial support of the Shomre Hadas community and the Claims Conference. An athenaeum (high school) was created in 1949 and subsidised by the State from 1959. A new kindergarten opened in 1957; the school has had its own synagogue since 1966.

Today, the Tachkemoni school offers pre-primary, primary and secondary education. Both secular and Jewish subjects are taught. The Hebrew courses in particular are meant to provide the pupils with the necessary preparation to study at Israeli universities. At present, the Tachkemoni school has about 570 pupils.

Part of the archives were likely lost as a result of various relocations and renovations in the last decades. Some of the archival material preserved in the basement has sustained water damage.