There used to be Jewish boarding schools in the mid-20th century. The last one was Carmel College. There also used to be ordinary boarding schools that had Jewish houses; Clifton was a famous one. I can't right now think of any terms that would help you find information about other examples. I also have a feeling that some of the Jewish schools which are currently running as day schools used to be boarding or at least have some boarding houses, but I don't know if that continued as late as the 80s.
It certainly isn't unheard of for Jewish kids to attend ordinary boarding schools either; my uncle and grandfather were both at Wellington, for example. That's a considerably older generation than Joel, of course. They had a pretty weird life there in lots of ways, but they weren't the only Jewish pupils either. As you've pointed out some of the big, famous Public schools have a reputation for anti-semitism.
I think Jewish parents would be concerned about shabbat and festival observance, yes, also about keeping kosher. With Judaism's emphasis on family-based religious observances, they might worry that their kid was missing out on that very important aspect of Jewish upbringing.
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It certainly isn't unheard of for Jewish kids to attend ordinary boarding schools either; my uncle and grandfather were both at Wellington, for example. That's a considerably older generation than Joel, of course. They had a pretty weird life there in lots of ways, but they weren't the only Jewish pupils either. As you've pointed out some of the big, famous Public schools have a reputation for anti-semitism.
I think Jewish parents would be concerned about shabbat and festival observance, yes, also about keeping kosher. With Judaism's emphasis on family-based religious observances, they might worry that their kid was missing out on that very important aspect of Jewish upbringing.