The British government seems to have a much better understanding of education than the province of Ontario. Britain’s faith-based, state-aided schools, serving different religions, put Ontario to shame.

In a recent interview in the London Jewish Chronicle, the minister responsible for schools in Britain said that “Jewish schools play a very important part in our education system, and I absolutely want that to carry on.” He added: “They are, in many ways, leading in showing other parts of our school system how you promote communal cohesion.”

Last month, I was privileged to participate in the celebration marking the Akiva School in North London joining the British state system. The change has enabled the school to move into a new building and double its size.

I had helped to start Akiva almost three decades ago as the first Jewish day school in Britain under the auspices of the Reform movement. Other such schools, including Leo Baeck Day School in Toronto, were already in existence, and many more have been established since then.

At the time, most Reform leaders objected to segregated schools out of fear that they would ghettoize Jewish children. But one leader thought otherwise and provided us with the wherewithal. It’s a mark of his character that he would not allow the school to be named after him. Today, it’s one of several liberal Jewish day schools in Britain. Soon, a non-denominational secondary school, also state-aided, will be added.

Over the years, we have seen how students in Jewish day schools can be much more comfortable in their Jewish skins than their peers in the general system. Also, Jewish day schools often provide a better secular education and thus make students feel very much part of the society in which they live.

Not having to go to supplementary schools on Sundays and weekdays gives them opportunities for leisure activities with their non-Jewish friends and neighbours. What was feared to be segregationist has become a potential path toward integration.

The Reform movement had to create its own schools, because other institutions, invariably under Orthodox auspices, discriminated against children from Reform families. Orthodox leaders in Britain are said still to be trying to sabotage the efforts of the Reform movement in the ominously mistaken belief that Orthodoxy is owed the sole franchise on Jewish education. Mercifully, the British government refuses to collude.

In keeping with the liberal tradition of openness and tolerance, Akiva and its sister schools welcome all Jews. In line with many forward-thinking women and men, their leaders rightly believe that the future of Judaism is post-denominational and non-partisan – inclusive not exclusive. The entire Jewish world could do well to learn from them.