Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday August 6, 1999

Report urges more funding for Jewish day schools

ULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NEW YORK -- In their strongest statement to date, Jewish communal leaders are urging greater national and local support for day schools.

A report released last month by the United Jewish Communities and its educational arm, the Jewish Education Service of North America, states, "No Jewish family that desires to send its child(ren) to a Jewish day school should be prevented from doing so due to financial reasons."

It calls on local federations to provide increased financial resources and other forms of assistance for all forms of Jewish education, "with special emphasis on support that helps to ensure day-school viability and vitality."

Hailed by many as the most powerful antidote to the Jewish community's assimilation and intermarriage woes, day schools provide a Judaic and secular education for an estimated 212,000 children in North America, or about 40 percent of all children involved in some form of Jewish education.

Once primarily the domain of the Orthodox -- 660 of North America's 810 day schools are Orthodox -- day schools have earned increasing support among liberal Jews in the past decade.

However, while demand for day schools is rapidly growing, these institutions face a host of financial challenges and most function with far less money per pupil than the public schools budget.

Some have large deficits, while others survive financially only by charging tuition so high that low-income and middle-class families don't consider them an option.

Many schools complain that financial constraints limit their ability to recruit qualified personnel or focus on improving the quality of their academic programs.

Most federations have increased their support for day schools in recent years and some are also creating sizable endowments for them.

Phyllis Cook, executive director of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, said day schools are "a high priority" for the federation.

"Our donors are very focused on needs of young people," Cook said. "This priority was established by the community and we are following through on it."

In the 1998 fiscal year, the JCF gave $1.23 million from its annual campaign and $2.9 million from its endowment to day schools. Recently. Cook announced that Menlo Park philanthropists Albert and Janet Schultz had given $250,000 to each day school in the S.F.-JCF region that is currently engaged in a capital campaign drive.

"These are unusual grants and significant grants," Cook said. "I think we've been ahead" of the demands for federation funding for more day schools.

At other local federations, funding to day schools is also rising. In 1999-2000, the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay is increasing its operating grants to day schools to $48,973, up from $34,366 in 1998-99. Scholarship money is doubling from $10,000 to $20,000.

"Expanding access to intensive Jewish education is a high priority for the East Bay federation," Ami Nahshon, executive vice president, said in a statement. "While there is no single magic formula to guarantee Jewish identity and involvement, day schools form a key ingredient in our community's plan for building Jewish futures."

The Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose allocates $120,000 to day schools, an amount that has grown each year.

"Six years ago, we identified Jewish education as the community's No. 1 priority," said Jon Friedenberg, the San Jose federation's executive director. "Day schools are an important part of that. We came to the same conclusion the UJC did much earlier."

Nationally, federation allocations still comprise less than 10 percent of most day schools' budgets, according to a 1997 study commissioned by the Avi Chai Foundation, one of several large foundations that provide funding and advocacy for day schools.

The report urges federations to foster partnerships among foundations, individual philanthropists, educational organizations and the religious movements not only to increase funding for Jewish day schools, but to raise the quality of instruction and encourage more Jewish families to consider enrolling their children.

The report is the product of a national "blue ribbon" task force created in late 1997 by the Council of Jewish Federations -- which recently merged with United Jewish Appeal to become the United Jewish Communities -- and JESNA.

The task force was a response to a proposed resolution by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and the Chicago-based National Jewish Day School Scholarship Committee that each community "fulfill its commitment to Jewish day-school education."

Instead of voting on the resolution at the CJF's annual General Assembly, officials decided to form the task force.

Federation officials praised the report.

"It raises the right issues and makes the right recommendations," said John Fishel, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

"The question is long term: What are the prospects for enhancing support for day-school education while at the same time ensuring that we not undermine support for other critical areas."

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.