Our History

The Hong Kong Jewish community has roots dating back to the early 1900s, and it has played an important role in the development of Hong Kong as an international city of commerce and business. A handful of Jewish merchants settled in the fertile Pearl River delta, establishing vast and intricate trade networks to supply the world with the raw materials and finished goods necessary for everyday life. Here at the gateway to the Far East, they set up rich and thriving export businesses that persist to this day. 

The original concept for Carmel School was to teach a Jewish child how to live in two civilisations—Jewish and secular—and how to achieve the synthesis between Jewish culture and the culture of the wider world.
Ivan Greenstein, First Chairman of the Board of Governors

A unifying feature of Hong Kong's thriving Jewish community, the school has grown from an inaugural class of 12 pre-school pupils to a multi-campus institution with a current roll of over 400 students. In the nearly three decades since its founding, Carmel School has earned recognition as a superb educational institution—rigorous, traditional and innovative—an institution dedicated to intellectual achievement, and reflecting a tight-knit, welcoming community, supportive of students and profoundly committed to their growth and well-being.

Carmel School is committed to serving as an institution of learning for the Jewish community to perpetuate and build upon the long-standing religious, cultural and economic ties to the region. Through a rich and varied curriculum of both international and Jewish studies, students acquire the knowledge and experience they need to prepare for the future. Carmel students are encourage to form life-long relationships, learn, laugh and ultimately grow together.