Marc J. Epstein,
president of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Monmouth County. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of North Carolina and is in private business.

I didn’t attend Jewish day school as a child. I suspect that most of you didn’t, either. Even today, we know that most of us don’t send our children to Jewish day schools. Maybe that’s understandable considering the assimilative forces at work in our society. And it has only been in the past 30 years or so that the Jewish day-school movement has come alive in North America, particularly outside of Orthodoxy.

Today some 200,000 Jewish students are enrolled in day schools, double the number in 1978. While it’s still true that the majority of these students attend Orthodox day schools, the growth in non-Orthodox schools is pretty impressive as well. On the other hand, even within Orthodoxy only 37 percent of children attend Jewish day schools. Frankly, it’s difficult to believe this number is so low. Of course, among other denominations the numbers are even worse, averaging 7 percent.

Bowdlerizing the Bard, “to be a Jew or not…” Well, let’s assume (for the moment) that’s not in play, since you’re reading this paper and are probably a contributor to the federation. But “whither the American Jew” — that process certainly seems in play. The numbers are disturbing. The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey puts intermarriage levels in the mid-40 percent range. As a consequence, intermarried households have become a norm for the American Jewish community. In “Reexamining Intermarriage: Trends, Textures, Strategies,” the most comprehensive study to date of intermarried couples, sociologist Bruce Phillips found that only 14 percent of intermarried couples could be classified as Judaic, in the sense that the balance of religious observance in the home is Jewish.

This is not the time or place to make a case for our Jewish heritage. If it’s not important to you, I don’t have any magic words to make you change your mind. But if it is important, then bear with me as we look at the single most important tool we have to save our Jewish heritage. It is Jewish day schools.

Let’s use the evidence from the NJPS document “The Impact of Childhood Jewish Education on Adults’ Jewish Identity: Schooling, Israel Travel, Camping and Youth Groups.” The evidence presented in this document makes the case persuasively that day-school attendance is by far the strongest tool we have in preserving the American Jewish heritage.

For example, 84 percent of those who attended Jewish day schools for seven to 12 years were synagogue members, while 44 percent of those who went to supplementary schools for one to six years were synagogue members. Eighty-six percent of those who attended Jewish day schools for seven to 12 years thought “being Jewish [is] very important”; 36 percent of those who went to supplementary schools for one to six years thought “being Jewish [is] very important.”

If the case for Jewish day schools is so unequivocal, then what are we doing about it in Jewish philanthropy? Well, on some fronts we’re really working hard at it. For example, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education is putting millions of dollars into day schools and day-school excellence.

Yet there is a hole in our efforts the size of a freight train. Right now, the primary vehicle for aid to students from less financially fortunate families is parents who send their children to Jewish day schools. In other words, the Jewish community as a whole is not supporting the one tool we have for preserving our Jewish heritage. Up to now this burden has been left to the parents who already pay for their own children’s Jewish day-school education.

Other communities have seen the need. Individuals and foundations are stepping forward to address it, like the funders who pledged $10 million over five years to provide student financial aid in Baltimore, $15 million for tuition relief in Boston, and $500,000 a year in Milwaukee. Community leaders in Los Angeles, Chicago, and northern New Jersey are thinking about how to address this problem. What about Monmouth County?

The time has come for our community to address this issue — not tomorrow, but today. Nobody would propose that we give up on our other charitable enterprises to fund Jewish day-school education. On the other hand, what Jewish institutions are going to survive if there are no Jews around to support them? That’s the reality, if we’re to believe the numbers. So let’s get to it.