Two days ago, on my way to a meeting in the centre of London, I found myself in the middle of the student march, part of the continuing argument about university fees. And if I hadn't been due elsewhere, I think I would have joined them.

I remember when I went to university, the first member of my family to do so. My late father, who'd come to this country as a refugee, had to leave school at the age of fourteen to help support the family. And one of the things he most wanted for his four boys was that we should have the education he missed. He knew, as did we, that it would open up opportunities for us that he'd been denied; and if it had cost very much, we probably wouldn't have had that chance.

Education has been a Jewish passion since the start. Moses said, in what's become our most famous prayer: "You shall teach these things diligently to your children." Ezra, leading the exiles back from Babylon, instituted one of the first great programmes of adult education. And by the first century, eighteen hundred years before England, the Jewish people had a system of compulsory universal education, paid for from public funds. Where other nations built castles, Jews built schools and academies. It's not too much to say that that's how we survived.

I wonder if, to this day, we realise what a radical vision lies at the heart of the Hebrew Bible. Throughout history, there have been two great attempts to shape a society of equal dignity. The first has been to try and create a situation where everyone has equal access to power: through the political system. The second focuses on equal access to wealth: through the economic system.

The Bible offers a revolutionary alternative: concentrate on equal access to knowledge: through the educational system. And it's the only one of the three that really works - because when it comes to power or wealth, the more you share, the less you have. That's why politics and economics always were and always will be arenas of conflict. But when you share knowledge you don't have less. The more you share, the more there is. Which is why the prophet Isaiah said: And all your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children. More than wealth or power, education is the key to human dignity. That's why, when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge, all our children should have an equal chance.

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