Jewish Education For Generations
Of northern New Jersey
Northern New Jersey Jewish Education for Generations (JEFG) is a newly formed non-profit organization dedicated to:
1) Assuring that each and every Jewish child in our community has equal access to a quality dual curriculum education, regardless of a family’s ability to pay,
2) Revising the current day school economic model, which places the responsibility for financing day school education exclusively on the shoulders of parents,
3) Identifying and implementing creative solutions to reduce costs by collaborating across the day school network,
4) Partnering with communities in New Jersey and nationwide to identify and secure all available sources of public and private funding.
The current economic model for funding day schools is no longer sustainable. It is no longer possible for parents of day school students to shoulder the cost of day school tuition on their own. Broader support is essential.
The cost of day school education, however, is not an issue that is unique to Northern New Jersey. Community leaders as well as Jewish organizations and foundations across the country have been actively mobilizing to create new approaches to reduce the financial strain on families. In communities like Boston, Chicago, New York, Phoenix and Metro West New Jersey, these approaches are gaining traction, just as they are in our community. Jewish Education for Generations (JEFG) was formed to address these challenges in Northern New Jersey.
A broad coalition of educators and rabbinic, organizational and lay leaders has been meeting regularly to address the need for increased scholarship dollars and the related need to make day schools more affordable for all. JEFG represents this unprecedented consortium of day schools, community leaders and rabbi's seeking to develop long term, transformational solutions that will ensure the future of our schools. The network of schools and educational programs that comprise JEFG, includes Ben Porat Yosef, The Gerrard Berman Day School, The Moriah School, The Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, Sinai Schools, The Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, Yavneh Academy and Yeshivat Noam.
JEFG ‘s broad plan for the assuring affordable, high quality day schools consists of a three-pronged plan:
1. Identification of opportunities for costs savings through interschool collaboration and grant applications: For the first time, representatives of the various schools are sitting regularly around the table, focusing on imaginative ways in which we can work together, across the community to cut costs and to find new funding opportunities. This exploration is centered around such subjects as: collaborative procurement, pooling benefits, and accessing available grant monies through communal and governmental programs. The discussion has resulted in concrete ideas which are being actively pursued.
2. Creation of a communal Superfund for Jewish education: As long as the burden of education rests solely upon a small segment of the population, real solutions to the crisis before us will be elusive. We must instead move towards the reestablishment of the "communal" model; within which each member of the community recognizes that the education of all children is the concern of all. This has been a cornerstone of successful, transformational efforts in areas such as Boston, Philadelphia and Metro West New Jersey. Towards that end we plan to launch a communal Superfund for Jewish education. This fund will consist of two components.
A. Donor driven Endowment Fund: Major donors across the community will be encouraged to contribute towards a fund designed to mitigate the cost of local day schools beyond current scholarship efforts. Stress will be placed upon the historic goal of ensuring, on a continuing basis, the right of all area children to an affordable, effective Jewish education. In many cities, this fund has been specifically targeted to help middle income families.
B. Congregational “Kehilla” fund: All local rabbis and synagogues, across denominational lines, will be asked to participate in a congregational fund designed to help finance day school education. Congregants will be urged to earmark an ongoing monthly regular personal payment towards this fund. Each synagogue’s contribution will be directed towards schools of their religious denomination. This model, created in conjunction with the Orthodox Union, is being replicated in communities across the country.
3. Working toward identifying all sources of public and private funding available for day school education, as well as any resources that may help mitigate the costs currently endured by families.
The success of our schools is apparent. It is demonstrated by the number of new, young families who continue to relocate to our community, largely because of its reputation for outstanding education. It is apparent in the paths taken by graduates of our day schools, who have continued on impressive courses of higher education, and in many cases have later returned to our community or have chosen to live in Israel, and have taken on leadership positions in schools, Shuls and other communal organizations. It is these very same day school graduates and their children who will assure that continued vibrancy of Jewish life in our community and in Israel for years to come.
JEFG is committed to working toward to maintain the high standards of education for which our schools are known and to assure that the doors to those schools are open to all students for generations.
To accomplish this at this critical juncture in the course of Jewish education we need the support of the entire community.