Day school tuition crisis

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Jan 2, 2025, 10:44 PM

Why ISIS’s Message Still Echoes in America

The clock had just struck midnight. Fireworks illuminated the skies as people worldwide embraced the hope of a new year, the promise of a brighter 2025. I, too, tried to share in this fleeting moment of optimism. But history...

Chava Berman Borowsky

Feb 9, 2024, 1:40 PM

Religious Trauma

The Walk of Shame One of the three members of our school tuition board who also happened to be the father of a classmate gave my parents an ultimatum. “Either you pay what we demand or don’t send your kids...

Elchanan Poupko

Sep 11, 2023, 10:55 PM

Urgent Letter to New York’s Jewish Community

I recently started teaching in a school experiencing a 10%-20% growth in its student body. The school is not in New York. This is not an unheard-of phenomenon. Jewish Day Schools in Florida have been experiencing extraordinary growth, as...

Harold Goldmeier

Feb 8, 2023, 7:41 PM

Minister Chikli: Raise Money for Jewish Day Schools

Jewish community leaders obsess over the rampant assimilation of Diaspora Jews. Assimilation is not just about breaking free of the straitjacket rules of Judaism like keeping the Sabbath, kosher, and marching in Israel Day parades. It manifests as the...

Nov 25, 2022, 2:24 PM

Who will pay our teachers?

Illustrative: Scott Sokol, head of school at MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham, Massachusetts, leads morning circle, one of several camp-like elements the school has adopted. (Courtesy of MetroWest Jewish Day School/via JTA)

Too many quality day school teachers leave the field due to financial struggles, but if starting salary were $70K (plus raises), they'd cover the shortage easily

Nov 9, 2022, 9:23 AM

A (dystopian?) shabbaton tale

Once upon a Modern Orthodox Jewish high school shabbaton, the 9th and 10th graders played a choose your own adventure game. At one juncture, the protagonist could opt to leave the high paying finance job and become the CEO...

Elchanan Poupko

Aug 9, 2022, 12:27 AM

6 ways to stop the Great Teacher Shortage

What happens when great teachers leave the profession (and when those who can become great teachers don't enter it)? Shaky schools and an uncertain Jewish future

Aaron Finkelstein

Feb 3, 2021, 10:16 PM

Extending the Branches of Jewish Education

For the last few years before Covid, part of my role as a school rabbi was offering learning opportunities for parents. I’ve offered classes/shiurim after morning drop off, a club for parents and children to practice putting on Tefillin,...

Elchanan Poupko

Aug 14, 2020, 8:07 AM

Free Jewish Education for All. Now.

Sitting in his small hotel room in Basel, Switzerland, a tired journalist from Vienna famously wrote: "In Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, l would be greeted by universal laughter. In five...

Jack C. Bendheim

Aug 3, 2020, 12:58 PM

Don’t skip out on Jewish day school this year. It’s an ethical issue

Great yeshiva education is the key to our thriving communities: Without registration, received tuition, and the hiring of teachers, our schools will fail

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