`We Must Teach Our Children'
Philadelphia
he title used by President
George W. Bush for his
national education program
is "no child left behind."
The virtues and faults of that plan are
a matter of public debate. But if there
were a comparable title for the policy
that has long governed the approach to
Jewish education in this country by our
organizations and philanthropies, it
might best be titled, 'All children who
cannot pay are left behind."
The drive to make quality Jewish edu-
cation affordable for all has been contin-
uing for some time. But as the current
school year ends, the truth is, we're still
losing the battle.
In the early 1990s, after the contro-
versial National Jewish Population Study
revealed that more than half of all Jews
were intermarrying, the buzzword in
Jewish communal circles was "continu-
ity." Donors to Jewish groups that had
paid scant attention to the question of
whether or not their members would
have Jewish grandchildren suddenly
became very interested in the subject.
The notion that intermarriage and
assimilation would not only undermine
the demographic base of American
Jewry, but topple its infrastructure,
of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
His e-mail address is
jtobin@jewishexponent.com
served to focus attention on a growing
movement that was starting to shift
from the margins of Jewish life to its
mainstream: Jewish day schools.
The idea of providing comprehensive,
religion-based alternative to the public
schools has been alien to most American
Jews. Outside of the minority that iden-
tified themselves as Orthodox, day
schools seemed to contradict the tradi-
tional liberal ethos of the majority of
Jews who viewed parochial education as
a contradiction of their embrace of a
secular American identity.
But to the generation of Jews who
came of age at the close the 20th centu-
ry, the fear that their identity was slip-
ping away in the sea of American free-
dom was acute. They are, as one Jewish
educator put it, "less uptight" about
being thought of as "less American."
Day school advocates point with
pride to studies from the New York-
based Avi Chai Foundation and other
sources that showed their graduates had
lower rates of assimilation and intermar-
riage, as well as greater affiliation with
the Jewish community later in life.
These numbers were influenced by
the fact that those who went to day
schools came from families that were
already committed to Jewish life. Day-
school kids were likely to have grown up
with observance of Judaism in the home
and to have been exposed to other fac-
tors that foster Jewish identity, such as
summer camps and trips to Israel.
But even when that's taken into
remains a system open for the
account, day schools still stand
wealthiest and effectively closed
as the best continuity invest-
to the middle-class. Most of
ment available. This has led to
an expansion in the number of
those who are not wealthy are
simply intimidated by the price
institutions and the funding
of day school. A declining
available to them. The success
economy means many Jews
of groups such as the
simply cannot afford the sacri-
Partnership for Excellence in
Jewish Education, which has
JONATHAN fices they must make to buy
the best Jewish education.
mobilized some big names in
S. TOBIN
Jewish philanthropy behind the
Special
What To Do?
day-school movement, is an
Commentary
Can the organized Jewish world
indicator of the momentum
do something about this? One
that has been built.
veteran activist still thinks it can.
But though a decade has passed since
Chicago businessman George Hanus
talk about prioritizing day schools
has been organizing efforts to get com-
began, most Jewish kids are still not
munities and federation to do more for
attending, and that fact seems unlikely
day schools for several years, but believes
to change.
the time has come for a "national move-
Why? One key reason is cost. Tuition
for day schools runs high. A survey of
ment."
"I believe the current crisis is getting
local schools here in Philadelphia shows
worse daily," says Hanus. "But there is
that the least expensive one costs more
no visible energy being put into solving
than $5,000 per year for kindergarten;
the problem."
the highest is priced at more than
For him, placing the onus for funding
$9,000. And the higher the grade, the
on parents is a mistake. Hanus sees day
higher the tuition. Even more startling
schools as being as important to Jewish
is the fact that the prices in many other
survival as the armed forces are to
places range even higher.
national survival.
Jay Leberman, head of the Raymond
"The current system is like a movie
and Ruth Perelman Jewish Day School
theater. You want to attend, you buy a
here in Philadelphia, sums it up in one
ticket," he explains. "What it should be
phrase: "sticker shock."
is like the army and the navy that every-
"Enrollment is up, and federations are
one supports. Instead, the schools are
trying to find creative ways to fund
just fending for themselves."
tuition," Leberman says. "But the high
costs have had a tremendous impact."
TEACH OUR CHILDREN on page 44
Scholarships are available, but this
reveal a two-year reduction of refugees in
Africa from 6 million to 2 million, and
of Asian refugees from 2 million to 1
million. These were exiles who found
aid and refuge among sympathetic
brethren and neighbors — as has been
the refugee absorption process through-
out the ages.
But in the Middle East, dislocation
has unfortunately taken on a new
dimension. The Palestinian refugees,
whatever the reason for their displace-
ment, remain unwanted outcasts, still
shunned by their fellow Arabs more
than half a century after the Israeli War
of Independence. There are still
1,262,867 Palestinian Arabs languishing
in the refugee camps — helpless and
hopeless, ignored by all their brothers
except for their value as irritants against
Israel.
Unfortunately, the family of Arabs to
which the Palestinians belong would
rather have a cause than a solution. A
troubling example of this discrimination
was demonstrated in 1977 when Syria
launched a major effort to develop some
of its vacant land and turned to the
United States for technological assis-
tance. Syria observed that because of its
full employment it needed people as well
as technology and promised to give plots
of valuable land to anyone who would
come to work it. When asked, "Why
not give the land to those Palestinian
Arabs who would choose to accept your
offer?" the reply was, "We will give the
land to anyone — the Ibos, the Koreans,
Americans ... anyone who comes, any-
one but the Palestinians! We must keep
their hatred directed against Israel."
And so the plight of the Palestinian
refugees continues, due in equal parts to
their "friends" and foes alike.
T
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor
Dual Lands
But all of that was yesterday. Today's rel-
evant issues are unrelated to the ethnici-
ty of ancient Judea, or to who was the
tenant and who the landowner at the
turn of the century or even to who was
robbed of his land or terrorized or dis-
placed by whom and when.
The only question to be addressed is,
"What now?" How can the use and
ownership of the land be adjusted to
peacefully and productively accommo-
date these two peoples? Who was at fault
in the past and to what degree is neces-
sarily a judgment of history — issues
destined to raise still more controversy,
incite still more violence and extend the
distrust and despair into a still more
clouded future.
A—sifccessful resolution of the conflict
depends now on finding a productive
starting point for discussions, a new
beginning untainted by the past. The
current needs of both the Israelis and the
Palestinians — security, the opportunity
to work, the availability of fertile land
- and usable water and markets for the
resulting product — must indeed be
addressed, but satisfying those needs
requires some degree of amnesia.
Deliberations on the injustices or the
political or economic problems dividing
the two peoples now tend to break
down at the same point, the "yeah, but
..." moment when memories reassert
themselves, which, in turn, condemns
progress. The memory of the sins of yes-
WHAT Now? on page 44
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6/27
2003
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