by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

September 11, 2008

A year after its launch, a community-wide campaign in support of Jewish day school education has reached the $20 million mark.

More than 35 donor families have made commitments of $100,000 or more, and close to 100 donors have made gifts to the MetroWest Day School Campaign, an endowment initiative that aims to boost excellence and affordability at three local Jewish day schools.

The campaign, launched with a goal of $50 million, earned national attention as a model for pooling support for day schools across denominational lines.

Under the plan, each school retains its own endowment fund while drawing on a community fund and a matching pool coordinated by the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, the planned giving and endowment arm for United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

Its beneficiaries are Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, and the Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County.

The campaign was launched in April 2007 with $13.5 million. Since then, the schools and JCF have raised $6.5 million more in what they acknowledge is a tough economic climate.

“I am proud of the leadership that United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ and our Jewish Community Foundation have demonstrated in launching and growing this nationally renowned day school initiative,” said UJC executive vice president Max Kleinman. “It will recruit and retain many more families for day school education by making it more affordable for middle-income families while enhancing its academic excellence. It is a ‘win-win’ for the parents, the schools, and the Jewish community.”

In furthering the campaign, “we’re dealing with high-end donors who are very committed to Jewish education,” said Kim Hirsch, development officer at the MetroWest foundation. “The economic downturn may affect annual giving in the schools, but this is on a different level; these are people who are giving major endowments and/or future commitments as well as annual gifts.”

Already under way this year is a $2 million match challenge from The Paula and Jerry Gottesman Family Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest. The Gottesmans are the lead funders of the MetroWest campaign. Under the matching gifts program, which extends through June 30, 2009, matching grants will be awarded for gift commitments of $100,000 or more.

Families who have made such commitments become members of the Herskowitz Society of MetroWest, named for members of the Gottesman family. A major event is planned for Dec. 14 in Whippany to recognize members of the Herskowitz Society and highlight progress in the schools.

Administrators at the three schools say they expect to spend more than $1 million from the campaign during the 2008-09 school year (see sidebar).

The MetroWest campaign will be highlighted at a national day school endowment conference cosponsored by the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education and the national United Jewish Communities in New York on Dec. 2.

 

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Sharing the wealth

The MetroWest Day School Campaign comprises four funds: one designated fund for each of the three beneficiary schools and a community fund benefiting all the schools. Here’s how local schools are drawing on these grants and investments:

Schechter: tuition breaks

In July, Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union awarded 10 local families tuition subvention grants. The grants of $2,000-$5,000 are part of a newly endowed program to make the Conservative school in West Orange more affordable for middle-income families.

The endowment is modeled on a program in place at the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris Academy since 1998. That program has long been recognized as a national model.

Families with adjusted gross income ranging from $120,000 to $200,000 with children in middle or high school are eligible for these grants. For 2009, five middle school families each received $2,000; five high school families each received $5,000. The grants are per student, so families with more than one student at Schechter are eligible for multiple grants. The grants are available to current and new families.

The tuition subvention endowment was made possible by the Och Family Fund, created with $4.7 million donated last spring.

Daniel Och, one of the first students to attend SSDS, is chief executive officer and chair of the board of directors at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, a global institutional alternative asset management firm with approximately $30 billion in assets. He and his wife, Jane, pledged $1 million to the school last April. They offered another $1 million if the school could raise $1 million in matching funds by June 30. The school secured $1.7 million for a total of $3.7 million, which was in turn matched by $1 million from the MetroWest Day School Campaign.

Daniel and Jane Och reside in Scarsdale, NY. His parents, Dr. Michael and Golda Och of South Orange, were among the families who founded SSDS in 1965. The younger Och made the gift on the occasion of his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and in recognition of their longstanding involvement in the school.

The elder Ochs thanked their son and daughter-in-law, the Gottesmans, and Schechter families who supported the tuition program.

“We look forward to seeing the fund grow, enabling many more middle-income families to receive grants so that their children can complete their Schechter education,” they said in a prepared statement.

SSDS’ head of school, Dr. Joyce Raynor, noted, “How fitting it is to have the new Och grants named for such a special and important family in the Solomon Schechter community.”

Stephanie Bash-Soudry, the school’s development director, said, “This is just the beginning of our efforts at SSDSEU to grow our school endowment and address the issue of affordability.”

Hebrew Academy: smart technology

Science and technology, athletics, and theater arts all received enhancements recently at the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph.

Four “Smart boards,” electronic chalkboards, have been installed, and a fifth will be at the school by November; laptops have been integrated into the middle school curriculum. Plans are afoot to create a greenhouse to complement environmental aspects of the science curriculum.

In addition, a school theater program is being created, and a 40-foot rock-climbing wall has been installed. The wall is expected “to help kids learn balance, fitness, and teamwork,” said the school’s development director Naomi Bacharach.

Money raised through the MetroWest Day School Campaign also enabled the independent community school to go through the accreditation process with the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools.

HAMC dean of general studies Dr. Cheryl Bahar called the process “extremely rigorous.”

“It enabled us to engage in a comprehensive self-study that scrutinized our entire school and curriculum,” she said. “This accomplishment has truly shown that the Hebrew Academy is on par” with other private schools in New Jersey.

Kushner: for parents in the middle

At the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, tuition relief tops the list of priorities.

“There are parents who fall into the gray line who are in the middle. Scholarships do not address them, but they can’t do the tuition,” said JKHA head of school Susan Dworken. “The economy is tough; people are strapped. We’re delighted the endowment will allow them to have some relief.”

The grants this year targeted preschool families, particularly “middle-class parents who were challenged to send their children to our pre-K program in the face of lower- cost alternatives,” said JKHA board copresident Ed Zughaft. Six families received grants of $2,000 each, nearly doubling the class size.

The school is also focusing on its science curriculum through teacher recruitment and retention initiatives. “In a market so tight, having additional dollars to offer even for professional development adds to our ability to recruit the highest-quality teachers,” said Dworken.

Community Fund: enhanced education

The following projects are being underwritten by the Community Fund, which benefits all three schools and is overseen by a community-wide board:

A new part-time position, coordinator of MetroWest day school endowment projects, has been filled by Jordana Schoor, who works in the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life.

Science education in all three schools will be enhanced through new equipment, professional development, and a detailed review by nationally known expert Nitzan Resnick, PhD, director of the New Science and Math Initiative of the South Area Solomon Schechter Day School in Boston.

An expert from Montreal will work with teachers and administrators in the schools to improve “differentiated instruction” in Hebrew language — teaching children at different abilities.

A marketing initiative will promote the benefits of Jewish day school education in MetroWest among young families.

Existing student trips to Israel will be enhanced, including leadership and scholars-in-residence programs in Israel, efforts that the schools would otherwise not have been able to fund.

— Johanna Ginsberg

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