Creative plan to help Jewish schools weather bad economy

Voluntary gifts on business invoices, group health insurance among initiatives

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Jewish business owners around the United States will be asked to add a $1 line item to their invoices seeking voluntary contributions to a fund for Jewish education.

That and a nationwide group health insurance plan are the first parts of an ambitious Orthodox Union program to increase revenue and lower costs for yeshivot and Orthodox day schools to help them survive the economic crisis.

“I would like to contact all of the Jewish vendors across the country and ask them to add a line item to their invoices, and I don’t mean only Jewish interest,” explained Rabbi Saul Zucker, the Orthodox Union’s new director of day school and education services.

Zucker took up his post in September after serving as rosh mesivta (head of school) of Mesivta of North Jersey, and before that as principal of The Frisch School in Paramus. He immediately began to seek ways to deal with the economic crisis that threatens Jewish schools that are dependent on tuition dollars from parents who, increasingly, may themselves be struggling financially.

“Would you contribute a dollar to the OU education fund? And use that as a start for the OU to then be able to assist schools that need assistance,” he said.

Zucker convened representatives of 45 schools at the OU’s Manhattan headquarters last week, with another 25 in virtual attendance online. On Monday he held a follow-up conference call with 25 schools during which four items were selected for immediate action.

“One of my mantras ... is tachlis,” or brass tacks, said Zucker Monday after the conference call.

“People can have a meeting on this type of subject and wring their hands and cry, and so forth, but if you’re not discussing very specific, practical steps it may be encouraging and it may be cathartic, but it’s not helpful.”

Local schools that are involved include Yeshiva of South Shore, Machon HaTorah, HALB, HANC, and North Shore Hebrew Academy.

Rabbi Dovid Kramer, the executive director of Yeshiva of South Shore, attended the meeting in Manhattan. In an interview Tuesday he pronounced himself impressed and eager to participate in the effort.

“We want to do whatever we can. We’re in the same boat as everybody else. So it’s worthwhile to we do whatever we can to make payroll.”

Zucker is sending out questionnaires to 600 Jewish schools nationwide seeking the names of Jewish business owners who can be asked to participate in the invoice program. Schools are also being asked to immediately provide the basic information needed to allow competing insurance agents to prepare proposals for the group health policy.

Schools will also be asked to commit to “put aside the idea of merit-based scholarships” which, Zucker explained, “represent tuition we could otherwise get,” and to eliminate spending on recruitment.

Instead, he proposes an OU sponsored public relations campaign to educate the public about the true financial cost of a Jewish education. The campaign would be aimed in particular at grandparents and others without school-aged children.

“I really hope this begins a paradigm shift,” said Zucker. “For as long as Jewish education has been an enterprise on these shores it’s been user-supported. We need a paradigm shift more along the lines of American education, where the community supports education.”

While his children did not attend public schools in Teaneck, NJ, where he lives, Zucker noted, “the theory is that I benefit by living in a town that has a really good public school. Kal v’Chomer,” (certainly), he said, people benefit from living in a Jewish community with good Jewish schools.

“I definitely benefit from the yeshivos in my area and I should pay for that.”