opinion
Philadelphia’s Broken Jewish
Education Pipeline
BY ZEV ELEFF
hiladelphia needs new models to educate
its Jewish children. The day schools,
preschools, camps, synagogue programs
and youth groups that my children attend are
terrific. Our local educators rank among the
very best. The trouble is that not enough Jewish
families take advantage of these sites of Jewish
education. In economic terms, we have a pipeline
problem. The 2019 “Community Portrait: A Population
Study of Greater Philadelphia” conducted by
the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
provides the most recent data on Jewish edu-
cation in Philadelphia. The report tabulates that
6% of age-eligible Philadelphia Jews attend
Jewish day schools, and 11% are enrolled in
supplementary Jewish schools. About 7% of
age-eligible children participate in Jewish youth
groups. Neither are the typical pipelines to for-
mal Jewish education well used. Just 7% of
Philadelphia Jewish families send their young
children to Jewish preschools, and only 15%
register their children for Jewish camps.

The Jewish communities on the Main Line
score somewhat better, mostly because of
the higher concentration of Orthodox children
enrolled in day schools and camps.

How does all this compare with other
American Jewish communities? Including the
Philadelphia census, I collected 16 community
population studies conducted since 2011. My
list included peer communities in Baltimore,
Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit,
Pittsburgh, Miami and Washington, D.C. The
Philadelphia enrollment numbers ranked in the
bottom quarter (usually last or second-to-last) in
each educational setting.

What accounts for this? In 1989, sociologist
David Schoem worried that for most American
Jews a commitment to supplementary Jewish
education represented a “stepping out” of an
otherwise typically American daily routine.

But indigenous factors also provide import-
ant insight. Children represent just 12% of the
Greater Philadelphia Jewish community, which
is tied with Palm Beach, Florida, for the lowest
tally among population studies I reviewed. The
dearth of young people makes it challeng-
ing for synagogue schools, camps and youth
groups to recruit pupils. These, of course, were
the figures before COVID did much to further
16 AUGUST 18, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
attenuate the footholds of synagogues and youth
movements. Day schools face an even steeper challenge:
Public schools and non-Jewish private schools
in Philadelphia’s largest Jewish hubs are very
good. Three-quarters of Greater Philadelphia Jewish
families send their children to public schools,
and another 10% enroll in non-Jewish private
schools. When asked for their rationale, almost
a third of parents explained that they simply
prefer public schools. This group would, no
doubt, be the most difficult to convert to day
school families. Only 15% reported they felt day
school tuition was too expensive.

These families aren’t just opting out of day
school. Most Jewish public school families (two-
thirds) do not enroll their children in part-time
synagogue schools.

How, then, can our community restore the
Jewish education pipeline? Some organiza-
tions understand that it pays to leverage public
schooling rather than supplement it.

For example, Makom Community’s after-
school programs provide meaningful Jewish
education for children residing in Center City
and South Philadelphia. Makom synergizes
Jewish text-based study with an innovative
approach to urban education. Just as important,
Makom transports students from public schools
to its facilities and remains open during public
school closures. They’re there for public school
families. Jewish Student Union offers another model.

JSU convenes faculty-sponsored student clubs
in nine public high schools in the Greater
Philadelphia area. JSU’s programs during lunch
hour and after school aim to strengthen “Jewish
identity and connection to Israel.” JSU is liter-
ally “stepping into” the routines of hundreds of
Jewish teenagers.

Gratz College offers a final example. Gratz
offers dual enrollment courses that fulfill high
school requirements and provide an under-
graduate-level transcript for students seeking
college credit.

In addition, starting this year Gratz will oper-
ate the Youth Symposium on the Holocaust and
the Mordechai Anielewicz Arts Competition,
programs previously managed by the Jewish
Community Relations Council.

New models of Jewish education require us
to “step into” the daily routines of our children
and their families. This ought to inform how we
invest in traditional sites of Jewish education.

It also says much about the need to cultivate
efforts that see the public schools as a promis-
ing pipeline in Greater Philadelphia. JE
Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff is the president of Gratz College.

elena_hramowa / iStock / Getty Images Plus
P