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Detroit Jewish News
1
1
upswing for congregational schools
which, with only 2-6 hours of class
time per week, educate the majority
of Jewish children. In recent years,
they've struggled to cover expenses
with tuition and membership dues,
often feeling like the community
stepchild as they watched the Jewish
Federation increase allocations to Jew-
ish day schools.
But lately, community leaders are
talking seriously about revitalizing
congregational schools. And they are
starting to put their money where
their mouths are.
In June, Federation committed
itself to raising a $10 million endow-
ment that will be buttressed by Unit-
ed Jewish Foundation grants and will
be earmarked for congregational
schools. The Detroit Congregational
Initiative, part of a $25 million pro-
posed string of endowments called
the Jewish Life Fund, will finance
intensive teacher training and curricu-
lum development projects, as well as
innovative programs created by the
congregational schools. "We see it as
an innovations fund to make the sup-
plemental school experience exciting
and meaningful for all our kids," said
Federation Executive Vice President
Bob Aronson.
Federation leaders are also dis-
cussing the possibility of providing
some interim funds to synagogue
schools before the Detroit Congrega-
tional Initiative goes into effect. And
Federation's scholarship fund for . con-
gregational school students has grown
dramatically, from $122,500 in 1997-
98 to $500,000 for the coming acade-
mic year. In addition, Federation is
sponsoring a pilot initiative, Michigan
Jewish Online Education, to integrate
computer resources into the Hebrew
school curriculum.
Nationally, as well as locally, there
is renewed attention for synagogue
schools. The Association of Directors
of Central Agencies (ADCA) for Jew-
ish Education recently convened to
study ways of improving synagogue
schools. It hopes to issue a report at
the 1999 General Assembly of the
Council of Jewish Federations. The
Jewish Education Service of North
America (JESNA) is also launching a
task force which will explore how it
can support congregational schools,
said Paul Flexner, JESNA's director of
human resources development.
Ironically, part of what has pro-
pelled congregational schools into the
limelight is increasing advocacy on
behalf of day schools, particularly a
Chicago-based grassroots movement,
the National Jewish Day School
Scholarship Committee, which has
been urging federations and Jewish
philanthropists to create endowments
to fund day schools. The ADCA pro-
ject was, in part, a response to the
CJF's formation of a blue ribbon
committee to research ways of
increasing funding for day schools.
"With all of the continuity talk
and all the day school talk, people
have been lambasting supplemental
schools, and some people are saying
that the only way to address continu-
ity is to get everyone to go to a day
school," said JESNA's Flexner. "Yet,
between 60-70 percent of Jewish chil-
dren who get a Jewish education
attend congregational or community-
based programs, and that's not going
to change dramatically no matter how
much is invested in day schools.
"Congregational schools are here to.
stay and we have the responsibility as
a community to make them the best
'they can be."
Serious talk
on school funds.
Like Flexner, Barbara Cook, chair
of the Detroit Federation's education
division, believes that congregational
schools need not be pitted against da
schools, and that both educational
vehicles deserve support.
"I'm not totally convinced that one
way or another is necessarily better,"
she said. "There's a place for both day
schools and synagogue schools and, at
least in Detroit, the majority of kids
will always be educated in synagogue
schools so we should have the best
schools possible."
Elissa Berg, who is chair of
Detroit's Jewish Educators' Council
and education director at Adat
Shalom, said she is pleased that edu-
cation in general, including congrega-
tional schools, has becorfle more of a
community priority. "It's very much
on the top of the agenda, where it did
not necessarily seem that way in sea-
sons past," she said. "All parts of the
community — both locally and
nationally — seem to be talking
about education. Everybody is seeing
that we won't have a vital community
if we don't figure out ways to make
Judaism matter to our children."
UPSWING
on page 110