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During the last decades the concept of interreligious education has been developed in which exploration and personal identity formation form important aspects. The increasing multi-cultural and multi-religious society requires open, respectful, and tolerant attitudes for which schools have to prepare. Therefore, theorists on interreligious education emphasize that education should have an inclusive stance toward the truth: no religion can claim to grasp the whole truth. But, would this not lead to relativism? In this article the authors investigate J. A. Comenius' (1592-1670) contribution to this question. He was a pietistic Christian theologian, educationalist, and school reformer who was victim of several religious clashes. His whole life he was wondering how education could contribute to enhance peace and wisdom among citizens. For him God was the ultimate truth. Therefore religion played an important role is his considerations and solutions. The authors are of the opinion that for more than one reason Comenius can be an inspiring partner in dialogue for contemporary theorists on interreligious education. (Contains 1 footnote.)

The subject of this article is Dutch Jewish education since 1945, attended by some 20% of the Jewish children in the region of Amsterdam. I consider the motives of the advocates of Jewish day schools, for whom the Holocaust was an important argument from a psychological, educational, social and cultural perspective in rejecting multi-religious education. For them the children damaged by war, and their offspring, needed a safe and familiar environment in which they would meet comprehension. Moreover, the Holocaust had become part of Jewish identity and had stimulated the study of roots and traditions for which Jewish schools would provide the foundation. However, these schools were confronted with social and political pressure to realise multi-religious education as a necessary preparation for living together in a pluralist society. Jewish leaders disagreed with this point of view citing the aims of Jewish schools and their contribution to the civic education of Jewish pupils.

In the Netherlands, the first girl admitted to a qualifying secondary education and the first female university student were sisters, Frederika and Aletta Jacobs, after the father and Aletta had made successful requests. In each case, the admission brought an end to a long-standing male privilege. And in each case contemporaries conceived of these ambitious girls as exceptional and therefore raised hardly any objections. In reality, however, the arrival of the Jacobs sisters initiated what amounted to a revolution in girls' education, as Dutch girls and women began to follow their examples in unexpected numbers. This article considers the history of the education of Jewish girls in the nineteenth century. The authors focus primarily on the Dutch case and on developments prior to or immediately following the Jacobs's requests. The authors first summarize the Dutch debate on girls and secondary schooling around 1870. The authors then briefly sketch the history of Jewish secular and religious education during the nineteenth century. Their third focus is on Jewish girls' education and on the Jewish community's attitude towards women's study. And finally, they evaluate the comparative weights of the Jewish tradition and of enlightened liberalism in encouraging Doctor Jacobs and his daughters to initiate this revolution in girls' education. (Contains 84 footnotes.)