THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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BORIS SMOLAR
1
THE EDUCATION
SCENE: An army of about
2,000 Jewish educators
from the United States and
Canada will descend at the
end of this month (Aug.
26-30) on the campus of
Stanford University to dis-
cuss innovative approaches
to Jewish education at a
four-day conference.
Participants in this con-
clave — largest gathering
in North America on Jewish
education — will represent
the full Jewish ideological
spectrum, from Orthodox to
secular Jews. The confer-
ence is the ninth annual
gathering of the Coalition
for Alternatives in Jewish
Education. The organiza-
tion is a relative newcomer
on the Jewish education
scene. It was formed in 1976
and is not widely known
among the masses in
American Jewry. The
known central body for
Jewish education in the
U.S. and Canada is the
Jewish Education Service of
North America (JESNA)
which is the successor of the
American Association for
Jewish Education (AAJE)
reorganized in 1981 follow-
ing a joint two-year study by
the AAJE and the Council
of Jewish Federations. The
JESNA is designed to help
Jewish communities to deal
with their educational con-
cerns though coordination,
promotion and research.
The Coalition for Alter-
natives in Jewish Educa-
tion serves as a forum of ex-
change of philosophical and
theoretical approaches to
Jewish education. It also
sponsores programs and
projects concerning Jewish
education in the U.S. and
Canada.
AND
PLUSES
MINUSES: An overview of
contemporary Jewish edu-
cation in the United States
and Canada — based on re-
sf arch by JESNA pro-
vides data showing that ap-
proximately 360,000 of the
estimated one million
American Jewish children
between the age of 7 and 17
receive some formal Jewish
schooling. There were about
600,000 children enrolled in
Jewish schools in 1962. The
enrollment has during two
decades declined 58 percent
in supplementry schools but
increased 66 percent in day
schools, reducing the gen-
eral decline to 45 percent in
1982-1983.
JESNA research also
shows that there are today
23,500 instructors em-
ployed in Jewish schools,
with only 4,100 of them con-
sidered full-time staff. It es-
timates the total budget of
Jewish schools as being
more than $400 million.
This figure does not include
Jewish colleges and higher
schools of Jewish learning,
informal Jewish education,
adult education, Jewish
•
education programs in
summer camps, and the cost
of Jewish education
bureaus functioning in
large and intermediate
communities. The total an-
nual expenditure on Jewish
education in the U.S. and
Canada is estimated to ex-
ceed one-half billion dollars.
Dr. Alvin I. Schiff, execu-
tive vice president of the
Board of Jewish Education
of Greater New York — an
outstanding leader in
Jewish education — outlin-
ing before leaders of the
Council of Jewish Federa-
tions the trends and the
challenges in Jewish educa-
tion, presented the reasons
for the decline in enroll-
ment in the supplementary
schools and the increase in
all-day schools. They are:
• While there is a low
birthrate among Jews in-
clined to send their children
to supplementary schools,
there is a high birthrate
among Chasidim and Or-
thodox Jews who send their
children to. Jewish day
schools and yeshivot.
• The percentage of chil-
dren of intermarried
couples is very low in
Jewish schools, while
ethnocentricity is very
strong among ultra-
Orthodox Jews. A study of
12,000 children in 100
supplementary Jewish
schools in Greater New
York, conducted by the
Board of Jewish Educaion
in 1979, has shown that
only 3.3 percent of the
enrollment were children of
intermarried couples. If all
the children of inermar-
riages between 1958 and
1972 — the period during
which the 1979 school chil-
dren were born attended
supplementary Jewish
schools during 1979, they
would have comprised be-
tween 20 and 30 percent of
the pupil population. In-
termarriage, while viewed
by some as a potential for
adding new members to the
Jewish fold, actually results
in a very significant fallout,
Dr. Schiff said.
• Broken families — in
Orthodox homes single par-
enthood leads to enrollment
of the children in early
childhood 'programs in
.
Jewish schools.
• The supplementary
school decline, is due to a
great 'extent to apathy of
parents to Jewish educa-
tion, while the day school
increase is due to critical
reaction of parents to qual-
ity of education in public
schools. (Students in all-day
Jewish schools and yeshivot
receive their general educa-
tion and Jewish education
in the schools in which they
are enrolled.)
• Immigration of Rus-
sian, Iranian and Israeli
children has contributed to
the increase in day-school
enrollment.
STATE OF SCHOOLS
TODAY: There are today
some 1,835 supplementay
schools in the United States
and Canada: 760 of them —
largely one-day-a-week
schools and two or three
days a week — are under
Reform quapices; 785
schools, generally weekday
afternoon schools, are under
Conservative auspices; 250
weekday congregational
schools are under Orthodox
auspices; and 40 afternoon
schools are under com-
munal auspices. There is
also a small number of af-
ternoon Yiddish schools
under the auspices of the
Jewish fraternal organiza-
tion Arbeter Ring (Work-
men's Circle).
The number of day
schools and yeshivot in the
U.S. and Canada is 585 at
present: 462 of them are
under Orthodox auspices,
62 are sponsored by the
Conservative movement,
and 9 by Reform temples; 44
are common; four are inde-
pendent; and four are Yid-
dish secular. The Chasidic
schools comprise about 25
percent of the Orthodox
schools. About 65 percent of
the day school enrollment
are in Greater New York.
The Jewish federations
have placed Jewish educa-
tion among the top
priorities on their agenda.
Their support of Jewish
schools increases signific-
antly with every year. Cur-
March
. of
Dimes
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fund-raising efforts of the
schools such as dinners,
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Friday, August 17, 1984 21