A groundbreaking local effort to fund day school education was described as a "coming of age" for American Jewry at the campaign's official launch April 29.

About 150 attended the launch of the MetroWest Day School Campaign for Affordability and Academic Excellence in a ceremony held at the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany.

Keynote speaker Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg praised the campaign, whose goal is to raise $50 million to lift standards and cap tuitions among the area's three Jewish day schools.

"This is the launching moment of Judaism coming of age," said Greenberg, president of the Jewish Life Network and cofounder of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, a partner in the campaign. The project, he said, marks "a fundamental transformation of the Jewish community, when we say whatever it takes to flourish in freedom, that's what we should do."

The campaign is a collaboration among United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey and the three area day schools: Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph, and Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union with campuses in West Orange and Cranford.

The money is intended to make day schools more affordable, especially for families ineligible for tuition assistance but not affluent enough to be able to afford high tuitions without aid. The funds will also go toward upgrading the quality of the academic programs at each school.

The program has been called "groundbreaking" for the amount of money being raised for the three schools and the depth of the collaboration.

Among those attending the launch event were leaders from other Jewish communities in the state exploring the creation of similar programs.

Greenberg's remarks preceded the formal recognition of the 11 founding donors of the campaign, who have contributed a total of $13.5 million with individual gifts of $250,000 or more.

During the event, founding donor Jerry Gottesman announced the creation of the Herskovitz Society for donors to the campaign who give $100,000 or more in current or planned gifts. The society is named for Sadie Herskovitz Gottesman, Jerry's mother, and Samuel and Mollie Herskovitz, his maternal grandparents.

In his talk, Greenberg said the campaign for day schools reflects a seismic shift in American Judaism, from a period of assimilation into "Protestant" American culture to a period of embracing Judaism in a pluralistic society.

But the pluralism that allowed full Jewish expression also created a paradox: In an open society, he asked, how do you combat "a tremendous ease of integration, disaffiliation, and assimilation" and its concurrent high rates of intermarriage and disaffection?

The answer, he said, is found among Jews who have discovered the joy and meaning of Judaism and who "value the distinctiveness" of their tradition. In that kind of Jewish world, said Greenberg, "there is only one way to breed loyalty, retention, and commitment: That way is education. That's why we're seeing a shift in federation; that's why we are here this morning."

He added, "It's not just day school but a total environment of Jewish immersion. In addition to day school, there are camps, Israel travel, youth movements."

But if research shows that day school is among the most effective means to ensure continuity, he said, "it is also the longest-term and the most expensive. It is too expensive for families alone to pay."

The recognition of this by the larger community, demonstrated in the MetroWest day school campaign, is the "fundamental transformation of the Jewish community. That is a coming of age."

Choirs from all three benefiting day schools performed during the event.