feature
Hebrew School
Enrollment Asaf Elia-Shalev | JTA.org
L iving in Brooklyn, surrounded by
synagogues and Jewish schools, Rachel
Weinstein White and her husband hoped
to fi nd 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 off ering 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.

So about eight years ago, she started her own
program together with a few families, setting
up a cooperative and hiring a teacher in an
early version of the “learning pods” that would
become a pandemic fad.

“It was just this incredible, magical year,” White
said. “So many people started hearing about
our little class and asked to join that it became
necessary to create a second class. … It just kind
of grew organically from there.”
Today, the school, Fig Tree, enrolls about
350 children across three locations, and plans
are underway to expand further. In hour-long
classes on Sundays and weekday afternoons,
children learn about Jewish holidays and history,
16 APRIL 27, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
engage in art and creative
play, explore their local
Jewish communities and learn basic Hebrew,
in a program that culminates in a b’nai mitzvah
year. It overlaps signifi cantly with traditional
Hebrew schools, but outside the usual setting
— a synagogue classroom — that has become
a cultural shorthand among American Jews for
rote, uninspiring Jewish education.

That dynamic may be why Fig Tree 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.

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 nonprofi t that promotes educational
innovation and supports Jewish educators in a
wide array of settings.

The report identifi es 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 Chasidic 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.

Some of the decline in Hebrew school
enrollment is countered by increasing enrollment
in Jewish day schools, where students study
Jewish topics for at least part of every day. The
number of U.S. children attending Jewish day
schools has risen by roughly the same amount,
90,000, that Hebrew school enrollment has fallen
since 2006, according to the report, though a
signifi cant portion of the increase stems from
population growth in Orthodox communities,
where the vast majority of students attend day
schools. Miriam Heller Stern, a professor at Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, said
the results suggest that, as with many aspects
of religious life today, Hebrew school enrollment
cannot be counted on as an act of obligation or
tradition. “There’s this idea that parents send their
kids to Hebrew school because they went to
Hebrew school and that’s a rite of passage in
North America, but that may be a myth,” she
said. “People don’t want to push their kids to
have to do the same thing they did, necessarily,
anymore.” The report speculates about what has fueled
the enrollment decline — from demographic
Background pattern and Hebrew book: Slanapotam/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
Across US Down
by Nearly Half
Since 2006



Courtesy of Yachad via JTA
changes to shifts in how American Jews think seven years ago and called it Yachad, which competing needs, according to Stern.

about countering antisemitism to increased means “together” in Hebrew.

“People want to be able to have bite-sized
access to Jewish learning online — and also
“One day a week we meet at the Conservative pieces just like you sign up for a six-weeks art
about what has allowed some schools to thrive. congregation and one day a week we meet at class, they might want a six-weeks Jewish class,”
It notes that all of the supplemental schools that the Reform congregation, so we are keeping she said. “In this atmosphere, some communities
responded to its census said their schools help our kids involved in both,” said Gail Greenberg, are fi nding ways to be more modular and more
children feel connected to the Jewish people.

Yachad’s director. “My goal is to make it at the fl exible, and meet people’s needs in diff erent
“We believe that many factors have led to the highest common denominator. For example, all
ways.” decline in enrollment of students in supplemental of our food is kosher so anyone who wants to eat
Stern also said, referring to six programs
schools in the last decade,” said David Bryfman, here can.”
highlighted in the study as
the Jewish Education Project’s
success stories, that the future
CEO. “However, it’s also a myth
calls for programs to off er
that all supplemental schools
an “immersive” experience,
don’t work.”
meaning that children become
The group is planning a series
part of a community.

of online sessions with some
“They are getting something
of the dozens of researchers
beyond just knowledge,” Stern
and practitioners involved in the
said. “They’re also getting
report, with one goal the sharing
connection and belonging,
of success stories identifi ed by
the survey. Of the six identifi ed
which provides the foundation
in the report, a common theme is
for something bigger in their
urging experiential, community-
lives.” based learning. Some of the
Stern said she thought the
promising models explicitly
report pointed to gaps in the way
position themselves as infusing
American Jewish communities
Jewish content into child care,
allocate their resources.

Children light candles as part of their lessons at Yachad Religious School in
fi lling a pressing need for
“Supplementary education
Oak Park, Michigan.

American families.

really was abandoned as a
Still, it may be hard to counter
communal priority,” she said.

The arrangement appears to be working.

the demographic realities of contemporary
“Individual communities had to fi nd ways to fund
American Jews: Just a third of U.S. Jews in a 2020 Last year, about 90 students were enrolled,
survey said someone in their household was a and this year, enrollment is at 128, including 26 it on their own. And I think that is part of why we’re
member of a synagogue. That was the case even new kindergarteners, with even larger numbers seeing a decline.”
Bryfman said he’s optimistic, both about the
for the majority of non-Orthodox Jews who said expected in the future.

Another set of programs has grown dramatically power of supplemental schools and the potential
they identifi ed with a particular denomination, a
in recent years: those affi liated with the Chabad for them to generate new support from Jewish
marker of traditional engagement.

The waning of synagogue affi liation is borne movement, which tend to operate even when donors.

The Jewish Education Project had sought
out in the Jewish Education Project’s report, small and cost less than synagogue programs.

which found that more than 700 supplemental Since 2006, the study says Chabad’s market outside funding to pay for its study and failed,
schools shuttered between 2006 and 2020 — share in terms of enrollment has grown from 4% to he said. But now that the numbers are clear, he
most outright, though as many as 200 have 10%, and in terms of the number of schools from is beginning to see interest from philanthropies.

13% to 21%.

survived in a new form after merging.

“I don’t want to count the dollars before they’re
Those fi gures might represent an undercount, granted,” Bryfman said. “But the study is already
Temple Solel, a small Reform congregation in
Fort Mill, South Carolina, shut down its Hebrew according to Zalman Loewenthal, director of beginning to have the desired eff ect of bringing
school in recent years. The volunteer-run program CKids, the Chabad network of children’s more resources to the fi eld.”
had up to eight students at a time, according to programs. While the study says there are some
Fig Tree isn’t set up to benefi t in a possible
300 Chabad programs in the United States,
Russ Cobe, a lay leader.

future of increased charitable investments in
“We sort of hit a point where we weren’t able to Loewenthal said he is aware of at least 500 and
Jewish education. That’s because the school
sustain it,” Cobe said. “We only had a couple of perhaps as many as 600 — a number driven up in
is set up as a business — an expression of
people teaching and students from a wide range the last decade amid a push by Chabad to launch
confi dence in its growth and to insulate itself from
of ages and they wouldn’t show up every week. more Hebrew schools. His count is based on the
Also, our wheelhouse seems to be retirement age number of customers purchasing the curriculum the vagaries of philanthropy.

“It’s a very unusual model for the Jewish
and above. We don’t have a lot of young families.” off ered by his organization, which is also new in
Hebrew school mergers off er one possible the last decade and in his view has contributed to education and I would argue a self-sustaining
approach to countering the enrollment decline. improved quality among Chabad Hebrew schools. one,” White said. “We don’t have to rely on
In general, nontraditional approaches to Jewish fundraising… and we’re not beholden to some
Two synagogues, one Reform and one
Conservative, located half a mile apart in Oak education may be attractive at a time when of the other requirements that a nonprofi t would
Park, Michigan, established a joint school about American families have packed schedules and necessitate, which allows us to be nimble.” ■
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