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Can We Attract the Majority of American Jews to Day Schools?

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If our goal is to attract the majority of American Jews, we need to market Jewish day school and its value using the best methods and practices that have been successful in other industries.

via Shutterstock
via Shutterstock

By Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Ed.D.

Over the past few weeks, Michael Steinhardt has delivered two speeches that could spark a national Jewish conversation about the value of Jewish day schools and how to attract more families to this option for their children’s education.

First, let’s review some important statistics. Whether we take the 3% figure Steinhardt cites in his talks or the approximately 20% that Professor Steven Cohen says is reflective of the most recent Pew study, the vast majority of American Jews do not choose Jewish day school education. If we look internationally, the picture is quite different. Every other country with a sizeable Jewish population sends a much larger proportion of their school-aged children to day schools. In many countries, the default option is for Jewish day school. The low rates of participation in the United States represent an aberration and are the source of Steinhardt’s focus.

At the same time, there is overwhelming evidence that day schools are among the most effective forms of Jewish education, along with summer camp and an Israel experience. Day school graduates have been shown to be more Jewishly engaged, disproportionately involved in Jewish leadership roles, more likely to raise their children Jewishly, and less likely to engage in negative social behaviors in college than their Jewish public-school and private-independent school peers. There are also studies that suggest that the families of Jewish day school students benefit Jewishly from the school communities that they initially explored for their children and ultimately chose and continue to choose for their own Jewish involvement.

So why, as Steinhardt asks, given the evidence of its efficacy, are the majority of Jewish families in the United States not choosing Jewish day schools? Steinhardt’s proposal is that in order to make day schools relevant and attractive to the majority of American Jews, the curriculum must be altered to offer an integrated model of education and to inspire students with the “innovative spirit and an intelligence of creativity” that led to the founding of and which still animates the State of Israel. Specifically, he would suggest that schools emphasize the accomplishments of Jews in the non-Jewish world as a way of showing students and their families not only the ability of Jews to make an impact on the secular world, but to draw upon the pride American Jews say they have despite their lack of engagement in Jewish life. While other Jewish educators and I might have a different vision of what particular approach constitutes an integrated curriculum, I agree with Steinhardt that the percentage of American Jews not sending their children to Jewish day schools represents both a crisis and an opportunity, and that an integrated model of education holds the potential to address this challenge.

Steinhardt’s proposal to integrate general and Jewish subjects is not new. Since the French Revolution, when Jews gained rights through individual citizenship rather than by communal affiliation, both elite and common Jews began to rethink their relationship to the secular world. Jewish schools dating to the mid 1600’s in England taught mathematics and English reading and writing, in addition to religious studies. In 1782, Neftali Hertz Weisel, an advocate for Jewish cultural and ideological change during the Enlightenment, wrote that Jewish schools should teach both Torat Ha-adam (general wisdom) and Torat Ha-shem (Jewish wisdom) as a way for Jews to gain the knowledge, morals, and behaviors needed for participation in the greater society. At the time this was a radical proposition. Today, most schools beyond the Haredi world subscribe to at least some type of curricular approach that attempts to integrate Jewish and general studies. The historian Jonathan Sarna has suggested that Jewish day schools serve as the “primary setting where American Jews confront the most fundamental question of Jewish life: how to live in two worlds at once, how to be both American and Jewish, part of the larger society and apart from it.” Many educators and Jewish educational thinkers have written about approaches to integration.

Historically, the vast majority of American Jews during the 20th century opted for public school as a vehicle for rapid enculturation. This was the case even with some of the leaders and most influential personalities within the field of Jewish education. Samson Benderly, who in 1910 became the director of the first bureau of Jewish education in New York, was a passionate advocate for public education and ascribed to the “Protestant model” of education. He believed that morality, universal values, patriotism, civics, and critical skills should all be taught in state-funded public schools to a mixed body of religiously diverse students. Religious education and practice was to be mastered by members of each faith in separate denominationally sponsored supplementary schools.

Jewish day schools were founded in the United States because a large number of American Jews became convinced that Jewish identity in contemporary society was not automatic, and they realized that students needed a certain type of education to nurture their Jewish identity. Supplementary schools (as they used to be called) did not adequately embrace the complexity of Jewish life in an open, democratic society. Jewish day schools were meant to negotiate the relationship of American Jewish education to American Jewish life. In the mid 1950’s Rabbi Simon Greenberg advocated that an integrated education was essential to the future vitality of Judaism within America.

So, when Steinhardt calls for a curriculum that is relevant to students’ lives as a way of engaging more Jewish students in the endeavor of Jewish day schools, he is walking in the historical footsteps of many American Jewish leaders and educators.

I want to turn briefly to what might characterize a Jewish day school education that would be attractive to a larger group of American Jews. The first quality is educational excellence. Large numbers of non-affiliated and less engaged American Jews already pay high tuition for the education they want. Some observers believe that there may be as many Jewish students in private-independent schools as there are in Jewish day schools. While the most committed American Jews may be willing to subscribe for a lesser general education product in exchange for the Jewish aspects of a school, the day school field as a whole must meet or exceed the educational quality found in the best public and private independent schools. Our schools must be well rounded with a full range of extra-curricular activities; arts and athletics; programs that include all student learners; and innovative programs in STEM, robotics, gaming, and other 21st century educational initiatives.

Second, Jewish schools need to highlight the Jewish aspects of their programs that provide students with an advantage over their peers in other types of schools. The values that Jewish day schools can foster in their students must be front and center. In many communities, day schools are already perceived as being exceptional in providing their students a moral and ethical grounding to lead purpose-driven lives. Emphasizing this quality and the life-long value it affords students beyond any other high-quality public or private-independent school can be the core of a relevant education. Knowing what it means to be a good and moral person, understanding the contemporary value of 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom, and being able to apply this knowledge to the world are values and skills at which Jewish day schools excel. The second advantage Jewish schools have is that the skills of traditional Jewish education (the critical study of texts, relentless questioning, collaborative study, and analytical reasoning) are the exact 21st century skills that other schools now tout as cutting-edge and innovative. These have been deeply embedded in Jewish education for centuries.

Third, Jewish day schools need to create environments that value community. If we are going to attract the vast majority of American Jews who are not currently engaged Jewishly, we have to show the parents of our potential students why being part of our communities can be an essential component in supporting the growth of their families. Jewish day schools should seek to be the hub for Jewish education both for the families who have chosen this form of education and for the larger Jewish community. One example might be in providing Israel education, another area of day school expertise, to the larger community.

Jewish day schools also need to formulate their vision in a clear and concise manner, and market it together with the larger Jewish community. Many families who have not been exposed to Jewish day schools often view our learning communities as homogeneous, narrow, and parochial, when nothing could be farther from the truth. If our goal is to attract the majority of American Jews, we need to market Jewish day school and its value using the best methods and practices that have been successful in other industries.

Last, Jewish day schools are expensive, and we have to address this issue head-on. If excellence, Jewish values and skills, vibrant community, and vision and marketing are essential to attract the majority of American Jews who are not currently choosing day schools, making Jewish day schools affordable to the widest number of families needs to be a national communal priority. If our community could significantly increase the percentage of American Jews who attend Jewish day schools, we would see a transformative effect on the next generation of United States Jewry and a profound reverberation across the Jewish world and in Israel.

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Ed.D., is Head of School, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland.

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  2. I agree with many of the steps you suggest, particularly about better articulating the meaning and value of Jewish day school. However, you do not adequately address what I believe is the biggest challenge, for day schools and for many other Jewish organizations: that diversity is a positive value for the majority of American Jews, and not a positive value for the organized Jewish community. You write, “Many families who have not been exposed to Jewish day schools often view our learning communities as homogeneous, narrow, and parochial,” and the only way you respond is to say “nothing could be farther from the truth.” Really, nothing?! Seems to me that almost all if not all students in Jewish day schools are Jews. That is by definition homogeneity. That you see being surrounded only by Jews as a positive value is fine for you, and I encourage you to better articulate why, because the majority of American Jews disagree and instead believe in the positive value of diversity across racial/religious/ethnic lines. The arguments against that made by the organized Jewish community (for decades now) have at best failed to sway significant numbers and in reality have probably pushed more people away than engaged.

  3. Great article. I do think your last point is the most important one. The Jewish folks who choose other private schools are an important sector; however, there are many families (especially Jewish communal professional families) that cannot afford the high cost of a private, Jewish education. Even with scholarships, the cost is a hardship for many. In today’s economy, many middle income families are now lower middle. We need to come up with a “Birthright” for Jewish education if we truly want to impact the next generation of Jewish thinkers, leaders and families.

  4. Rabbi Malkus, Nice to see you, if only online. 🙂

    I think it begins and ends with educational excellence. In every city in the US, American Jews are lined up around the block to pay through the nose for secular private schools. (Indeed, I was raised attending one of those very schools in NYC.) I have an uncountable number of friends who claimed to prefer the price tag or diversity of public school for their children, and then those same fought tooth and nail to get their children into elite private middle and high schools — even those that require students to go to Christian chapel weekly. If we had the best academic schools in the country, we would have even non-Jewish students fighting to get into our top-flight schools.

  5. While your ideas (and those of Mr. Steinhardt) are well articulated, they seem to be based on the assumption that the majority of American Jews want to send their children to private schools (and that these families should choose Jewish schools). I am a parent who is strongly committed to Jewish life, but I would not send my child to private school, whether a Jewish day school or not. Besides the fact that it is out of my grasp financially, I deeply believe in the value of a public school education as a fundamental building block of our civic life. In addition to getting a great education, my child goes to school with children who are Jewish, Christian, and Muslim; rich, poor, and middle-class; American-born and foreign-born; every color of the rainbow; in two parent families, one parent families, with parents who are heterosexual or gay… As a nontraditional family ourselves, it’s important to me that my child be surrounded by children and families from all different backgrounds, while remaining rooted in her own Jewish identity. Every family makes the choice that is right for them. For some families, that means private school, which can be a terrific choice! For others, public school is the right choice.

  6. Cost is a huge issue that seems to be downplayed in the articles I read here– in other countries where there is no separation of church and state, Jewish schools get state funding and are therefore affordable. Here, only the wealthy or most highly committed are willing to pay for day school. For middle class families, even with financial aid, day school is a real hardship. The community seems clueless about this (speaking from experience) and this is off-putting. Not may people are willing to have to beg to keep their hard-earned money so they can afford to pay their bills, which is what middle class families frequently have to do currently. I don’t know what the solution is, but if you want to attract (and keep) more families, this is an issue of primary importance.

    Second is learning diversity. Day schools are lousy at dealing with kids with learning disabilities or simply who are outside the box. This alone drives away families who otherwise would be committed to day school. Huge problem.

    Tuition costs and teaching to diverse learners– anyone listening out there?!

  7. That cost was the final point here was surprising to me: it’s often the first thing a family considers, and quickly will rule out day schools without more than a cursory look. My partner and I both work for non-profits, and while we are very committed to Jewish life (and I went to day schools k-12) we could never afford to send our daughter to day school without her grandparents’ largesse. If they decide they don’t want to pay, that’s the end of day school for us. I have many friends who simply don’t have the money and so never really considered it.

    But there is another strong factor against day schools: they are generally run by a board of wealthy parents who have little to no expertise around education. Our local day school busted their union two years ago, as did the Schechter in Chicago. Diversity is essentially non-existent. In short, our daughter is surrounded by wealthy white kids at school, and the school is run by wealthy white people, who generally don’t have expertise in education. It’s a situation that really concerns and upsets me.

    Every time we talk about our disappointment with day schools, though, we come up against the frustrating reality that the alternative is Sunday school/Hebrew school, an option that seems equally horrifying to adults and children.

    Jewish education is hard work. I don’t think any of our institutions are doing such a great job.

  8. Interesting perspective, and thoughtfully presented.

    I’m not sure if you are right or wrong, but my experience in trying to promote day school attendance, using financial incentives, improving educational quality, among other efforts, tells me that none of the approaches offered in the article are going to be effective at increasing secular Jewish parents’ interest in sending their children to day school. There are so many interconnected factors involved with their decision to reject day school for secular educational options, that solving any one or even ten of them isn’t going to overcome the rest.

    The reality is that Jewish parents just don’t value Jewish education as much as they value the perceived correlation between excellent secular education and adult success and happiness. The only thing that I believe will increase enrollment in Jewish day school is changing the values of Jewish parents. Until Jewish parents value Torah knowledge and Torah observance, FOR THEMSELVES and for their kids, the value proposition of Jewish day school versus any other school option will always go against Jewish day schools.

    Just one man’s opinion.

  9. It’s worth digging a bit deeper into Mitch’s point about international comparisons. If we understand what Jewish day schools in other countries have going for them, it may help point us in the right direction and, just as important, help us avoid pursuing improvements or reforms, likely at considerable expense in human and material resources, that haven’t made a difference in day school enrollment in those countries in which Jewish children do attend Jewish day schools in large numbers.

    I have a unique perspective on this question: I headed Mount Scopus College in Melbourne Australia for 6.5 years, at the time the largest Jewish day school in the world with an enrollment of 2,400. The six other Jewish day schools in Melbourne enrolled another 2,700 students, and the total of slightly more than 5,000 represented approximately two-thirds of the school-age Jewish population in that community.

    So let’s look briefly at the suggestions that Mitch and others in the Comments thread have made
    so far:

    1. Educational excellence – The students and graduates of Mount Scopus and the other six schools were successful in their studies and, often, in life, but the educational programs of the schools could not be considered excellent by any objective measure. Their technology and other cutting-edge programs were weak, their extracurricular offerings thin, and their ability to meet the needs of students with learning differences and other differences extremely limited.

    2. Marketing the Jewish aspect of the school program – The Jewish Studies program and the Jewish life in the school were no stronger than the rest of the program, and many families tended to enroll their children despite the Jewish content, not because of it.

    3. Affordability – Although Felice correctly points out that, outside of the United States, Jewish day schools receive government support, in Australia the extent of that support was no more than one-fifth of the school budget, meaning that tuition was subsidized by about 20% relative to the cost of Jewish day schools here. With prices exceeding $20,000 a year in many parts of America and approaching $40,000 in my local community (New York City), a 20% reduction would not be insubstantial, but it would also not be enough to shift the cost-benefit analysis for many, if not most, of the families that don’t send their children to Jewish schools at the moment.

    Therefore, while there are good reasons for Jewish day schools and their community partners to work towards improving the quality of education, highlighting the Jewish aspect of the school program, and lowering the cost of Jewish day schools, the comparison to Australia suggests that precipitating an enrollment increase may not be one of those reasons.

    What does make a difference? In Australia, it was community, but in a very different way from the one Mitch alluded to. In Melbourne, Jewish schools became an appealing vehicle for building community for a specific reason on account of a particular history. At the time Jewish day schools were founded in Melbourne, in the late 1940s, Jews had recently experienced a wave of antisemitism in the non-Jewish private schools that were the desirable destinations for their children. (The quality of public schools was poor at the time, so private schools were the only real option.) Families began to worry that their children might be exposed to discrimination and/or religious coercion if they sent them to private schools, and they also wondered whether Jews might soon find themselves totally excluded from those schools (a concern that never materialized). With this backdrop, Jewish day schools were founded and attracted their first students. As time passed, the enrollment in Jewish schools continued to increase as more families fled the private schools for the recently established Jewish schools, until, ultimately, a tipping point was reached. From that moment onward, if a family wanted its children to regularly rub shoulders with other Jewish children, the only viable option was a Jewish school, because that was the only place where significant numbers of Jewish children tended to congregate.

    The upshot of the Australian experience is clear in some ways and unclear in others. If 21st-century American Jewry is similar to mid-20th-century Australian Jewry, heavy investment in educational excellence, Jewish enhancements, or cost reduction is not likely to have a huge impact on enrollment (though investment in these improvements may be desirable for other reasons). However, the one factor that did increase day school enrollment – antisemitism and the Jewish community’s resulting alienation from the secular school system – is both beyond the control of the American Jewish community and a factor that the Jewish community would not want to encourage even if it could.

    Where does this leave us? Perhaps back at the drawing board, but perhaps with the cautionary insight that solutions that have been proposed to the Jewish day school enrollment crisis are not supported by the experiences of Jewish communities in other countries around the world.

    Can Jewish day school enrollment in the United States be increased? Perhaps, but most likely not by pursuing any of the strategies that have been proposed to date.

  10. The article is a good articulation of the recruitment message of most of our day schools. As many of the responses note, it does not take into account the context in which our community functions.

    The actual money paid for tuition is only one aspect of the economic milieu. It is a class issue. If under 20% of Jews use day schools, and under 20% pay for private independent schools, 60+ % do not choose private schools of any sort. Many cannot afford the tuition, or do not wish to make significant lifestyle sacrifices. Many also do not like the values implicitly transmitted in an elitist institution populated largely by the economically fortunate. As long as our community operates in a philanthropic model, with the wealthy making decisions and being honored for their “leadership”, with others largely excluded, day schools will not be attractive to the rest of us. The problem reflects larger societal issues – just look at the success of the Trump and Sanders campaigns and consider how it relates to our Jewish community.

    Another place to look to understand the context is the Orthodox community. It is not a class issue there, but an imperative for families to use day schools because they share core values, and the education is immediately relevant in their families, and in synagogue in which they actually participate on a regular basis.
    .

  11. Shalom All,

    Issac wrote above: “It is…….an imperative for (Orthodox) families to use day schools because they share core values, and the education is immediately relevant in their families, and in synagogue in which they actually participate on a regular basis.”

    David wrote above: “The reality is that Jewish parents just don’t value Jewish education as much as they value the perceived correlation between excellent secular education and adult success and happiness. The only thing that I believe will increase enrollment in Jewish day school is changing the values of Jewish parents. Until Jewish parents value Torah knowledge and Torah observance, FOR THEMSELVES and for their kids, the value proposition of Jewish day school versus any other school option will always go against Jewish day schools”

    Yish’ar koh’chem, kol hakavod, bravo and kudos!! Because there is no non Orthodox Judaism that inspires the kishke level commitment to its values analogous to that found among Orthodox Jews, the probability of non Orthodox day school growth will continue to decline.

    Biv’racha,
    Jordan