Brandeis professor Joseph Reimer has referred to the afternoon religious school as the "poor cousin" of American-Jewish education, especially in an age when so many community resources and so much attention have gone into the day school movement. The rise of day schools has certainly been an amazing story of Jewish revival and commitment, but a new study from the Avi Chai Foundation comes to remind us that supplementary Jewish schooling also plays an important role in determining the community's future.

Study author Jack Wertheimer writes that, in the aggregate, a majority of Jewish children receive their Jewish education in supplementary settings.

And many supplementary schools continue to deserve the denigration that led the legendary mother to tell her son, "I suffered through Hebrew school, so should you." Schools have too few hours to accomplish their goals, families put too low a priority on Jewish schooling, teachers are poorly compensated and regarded, and the bar and bat mitzva is viewed as a graduation from Jewish learning.

The good news is that synagogues, seminaries, and educational bodies are taking fresh looks at their supplementary schools. Rabbis and cantors are being urged to take more education courses. As good congregational schools serve as important draws for new members, synagogues are developing "family learning" programs that integrate schooling with service and practice within the congregation. Schools are also learning that in the limited time available to them they are better at creating positive Jewish experiences than in merely developing "skills." Overall, Wertheimer reports, morale is up among children, parents, and teachers.

The report lays out in stark terms the challenges ahead. They include declining Jewish birth rates, turf battles between synagogues and local boards of Jewish education, and the inevitable question over whether to devote resources to day schooling or supplementary schooling. And Wertheimer emphases how little we know about schools and their outcomes, and the impact they have on Jewish identity.

The Avi Chai study is a slim document, but it reminds readers that there is ferment and change within the supplementary school movement, and that a contracting majority of our kids deserve as much attention as a growing minority.