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| The Reform/Conservative Hebrew School: Yachad (JTA) |
Even as the estimated number of Jewish children in the United States rose by 17% between 2000 and 2020, enrollment in Hebrew schools fell by at least 45% between 2006 and 2020, according to the report by the Jewish Education Project, a nonprofit that promotes educational innovation and supports Jewish educators in a wide array of settings.
The report identifies pockets of growth, mostly in the small number of programs like Fig Tree that operate outside of or adjacent to synagogues, and in schools operated by the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement. But overall, according to the report, just 141,000 children attend supplemental Jewish schools in the United States and Canada, down from more than 230,000 in 2006 and 280,000 in 1987.
This sad reality should not be surprising to anyone that has been paying attention. When over 75% of non Orthodox Jews are marrying out, is it any wonder that Jewish education of the masses is suffering?
Reporter Asaf Elia-Shalev lists several reasons for the drop in enrollment, one of which is the exemplified by the following anecdote:
Living in Brooklyn, surrounded by synagogues and Jewish schools, Rachel Weinstein White and her husband hoped to find a place where their children could receive a Jewish education for a few hours each week.
But they knew they didn’t want to enroll at a traditional Hebrew school associated with a local synagogue. For one thing, White wasn’t interested at the time in participating in prayer services, the main offering of most congregations. Plus, her husband is Black and not Jewish, and they were not sure how well he or their children would be welcomed.
That an intermarried Jewish woman wants her children to get a Jewish education is a good thing. But her marriage to a non Jew isn’t. That used to be taboo to just about any Jewish parent, regardless of how observant they were. Today it is all but forgotten as a Jewish value to at least 75% of non Orthodox American Jews.
In the case of Mrs. Weinstein White, her children - born of a Jewish mother - are Jewish anyway. But when the situation is reversed, the children are not. The number of people with names like ‘Goldstein’ or ‘Goldberg’ who are not Jewish is increasing. The high rate of intermarriage will surely hasten the demise of the non Orthodox American Jewish community. This is what happens when there is no Jewish education.
The lesson to be learned here is that a Hebrew school education is not a solution to this problem. I never thought it was. I see no scenario where the current trend will be reversed. Why is the Hebrew school system really failing?
Here's is what I think. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Jewish children that attend public school have no interest in attending another school - after school. If they are forced, all too often they will resent it and rebel.
I can testify to that phenomenon. I recall hating afternoon Hebrew school. In my home town of Toledo where there was no Jewish day school, I attended public school until fourth grade - and attended Hebrew school in the afternoon. I hated it. And I started hating being Jewish. Fortunately, for me, I was raised in a fully observant home. When my father realized what was happening to me, he sent me to a day school 60 miles away in Detroit. My peer group changed as did my attitude. We were all learning and doing the same Jewish things comfortable among friends. The scholastic day ended the same time for everyone. My environment was Orthodox both at home and in school.
If one is not raised in an observant home, the chances of attaching to oneself any religious teachings is not great. Especially in an afternoon - after school Hebrew school.
There are of course other factors why enrollment is plummeting. But after decades of non Orthodox Jews disengaging from any form of serious Judaism, increasing Hebrew school enrollment is just not going to happen.
One might think that the more intense level of study that a full time Orthodox day school provides would mean an even greater decline in enrollment. But the exact opposite is true. Elia-Shalev notes the following:
Fig Tree (an alternative 'Hebrew school whose enrollment has increased and where Weinstein White send her children) is an outlier in a stark trend revealed in a new report: Enrollment in supplemental Jewish schools — those that students attend in addition to regular schooling in public or secular private schools — is down by nearly half over the last 15 years.
Not sure what kind of Jewish education they teach at Fig Tree. But my guess is that little if any of it is about being observant. Meanwhile there has been an overall 50% reduction in enrollment over the last 15 years. That astounding statistic is a sad commentary about how poorly Hebrew schools have done over all these many decades. Contrast that with the following:
The report identifies pockets of growth, mostly in the small number of programs like Fig Tree that operate outside of or adjacent to synagogues, and in schools operated by the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement…
Another set of programs has grown dramatically in recent years: those affiliated with the Chabad movement, which tend to operate even when small and cost less than synagogue programs. Since 2006, the study says Chabad’s market share in terms of enrollment has grown from 4% to 10%, and in terms of the number of schools from 13% to 21%.
Those figures might represent an undercount, according to Zalman Loewenthal, director of CKids, the Chabad network of children’s programs. While the study says there are some 300 Chabad programs in the United States, Loewenthal said he is aware of at least 500 and perhaps as many as 600 — a number driven up in the last decade amid a push by Chabad to launch more Hebrew schools. His count is based on the number of customers purchasing the curriculum offered by his organization, which is also new in the last decade and in his view has contributed to improved quality among Chabad Hebrew schools.
Chabad is of course not the only religious school system that is thriving. Virtually all Orthodox Jewish day schools are. The vast majority of which are not Chabad. Their problems are the exact opposite of those being faced by Hebrew schools. They are bursting at the seams! And a lot of children find themselves without a school at the beginning of the year – having been rejected by schools simply because there are not enough classrooms to accommodate every Orthodox Jewish child.
Add to that the exorbitant cost per child to educate them - reflected by oppressively high tuitions - makes this phenomenon even more surprising. True, there are scholarships available in most cases. I mention this only to demonstrate what works and what doesn’t with respect to Jewish education.
There is a reason the Orthodox Jewish population is increasing. We have more children and we tend to keep them Jewish via our educational system.
I don’t really think there is a viable solution other than parents deciding to themselves be more committed to observance and sending their children to one of the many successful and growing Orthodox Jewish day schools. Because that works. The only problem will be how to accommodate the increase that would ensue. I only wish that were the problem instead of seeing so much of American Jewry disappear.
Just some of my quick thoughts on the subject.
