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not necessarily Jewish schol- Hille I Day a community priority.
ars, but who wish to provide Sc hool: Most communities face an
this knowledge to their chil- Far from intermarriage rate in ex-
dren. We also note that by "ins ular." cess of 50 percent.
Shouldn't our children
educating children, the en-
tire family raises its level of Jew- be educated as Jews so they
ish knowledge as well as its can choose to remain Jewish?
quest and affinity toward Jew- Shouldn't they be exposed to
ish identification and religious classical texts, the oral and writ-
ten law that have bound togeth-
observance.
Mr. Imerman goes on to con- er generation to generation?
tradict himself by calling day Jewish illiteracy is what leads
schools a "narrow and insular to Jewish oblivion!
All studies indicate that an
experience," yet would like to see
the formation of "quasi-public overwhelming number of Jew-
schools" that would attract pub- ish day school graduates remain
lic charter-school dollars. I ask Jewish, marry Jews and priori-
for honesty when one views how tize Judaism in their lives.
truly broad an educational en- Unfortunately, the research in-
vironment our public school sys- dicates that no other religious
tem is when it draws from small education delivery system has
geographic clusters that are gen- this impact on Jewish continu-
erally from a homogenous socio- ity.
Even though it is expensive,
economic bracket.
If our public school had a true shouldn't we be scientific about
open enrollment system, I would our community allocations and
distribute the greatest amount
agree with the argument.
At Hillel and at all the day of funds possible to what we
schools, we draw from a very know works, i.e. day-school ed-
wide socio-economic group with ucation?
Can we afford to ignore the re-
a common interest — that in-
search? We cannot ask families
terest being Judaism.
Day schools are more akin to to pay for a day school education
magnet schools where students at the expense of their retire-
gather based on a common in- ment plans and their children's
terest rather than merely being college education. The commu-
formed because a common group nity cannot afford to have day
can afford to purchase a home in schools merely as an elitist pri-
a similar price range. Unfortu- vate school alternative; they
nately, since our schools teach must be a relatively affordable
Bible, classical texts, Jewish public school alternative.
I know the community in-
laws and prayer, we cannot
falsely participate as a public vestment in day schools today
will assure the likelihood of Jews
school.
Mary is mistaken when he im- tomorrow who will continue to
plies an unduly large amount of invest in Federation, education,
the day schools' funding comes synagogues, elder-care services,
from Jewish Federation alloca- social agencies, Israeli institu-
tions. Please tell Mary that tions, etc.
Wouldn't it be tragic if there
roughly 8 percent of Hillel's an-
nual budget comes from this were no one to continue the valu-
communal allocation. However, able work of Jewish philan-
other committed and philan- thropy. and promote the Jewish
thropic donors assure that we institutions our communities
are able to provide some tuition have created? It seems that Jew-
subsidies, albeit not enough, to ish philanthropy responds best
nearly 40 percent of our stu- to crises, and I believe that the
dents. We know there are still issue of Jewish continuity and
many families who cannot afford Jewish illiteracy are issues of cri- (--\
sis proportion.
this choice.
Most importantly, every com-
Marcy Borovsky
munity is burdened with the is-
President, Hillel Day School
sue of Jewish continuity; this is

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