Jerry Gottesman — shown with his wife, Paula, at a PEJE gathering last spring in Boston — spoke about the MetroWest campaign for local day schools at the Dec. 2 PEJE conference on Jewish schooling.
Photo courtesy PEJE
December 4, 2008
A local fund-raising and endowment-building campaign for Jewish day schools served as a centerpiece at a national conference on Jewish schooling held Dec. 2.
Leaders of the MetroWest Day School Campaign were among the main presenters at the meeting of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, held at the New York offices of the national United Jewish Communities.
The local speakers included Kim Hirsh, development officer of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, and Jerry Gottesman of Morristown, a longtime PEJE “Partner” and benefactor of Jewish day school efforts in MetroWest.
Brad Klatt of Short Hills, a leader of the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston and a PEJE partner, cochaired the conference.
They spoke of a campaign whose overall goal is to raise $50 million in endowment support for the three local day schools: Kushner, Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange, and Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph.
The local initiative, launched in April 2007, passed the $20 million mark in September.
The PEJE conference — with about 25 federations and community foundations participating — focused on building day school endowments through such federation-day school partnerships.
Josh Elkin, executive director of the Boston-based PEJE, had high praise for the MetroWest effort.
“The visionaries of this initiative have made cross-school collaboration a priority, and the focus on enriching each school’s excellence and the needs of middle-income families is exactly what these tough economic times require,” said Elkin, in an e-mail message before the conference. “That community leaders have stepped up to the plate and are already supporting these efforts so generously speaks positively for the whole endeavor and bodes well for the continued vibrancy and vitality of MetroWest Jewish day schools.”
Ambitious challenge
Hirsh said she planned to learn as well as share at the conference.
“There’s a lot of great work going on in Chicago, in Philadelphia, in San Diego. Everyone is tackling issues slightly differently. I’m very much going there as a sponge,” she said. “We have one of the models. It’s not necessarily the best one, but it’s working for us.”
Her talk was to focus on how the local initiative relies on multiple layers of partnerships, she told NJJN before the gathering.
“Our campaign is based on partnerships on many levels: with the Gottesmans” — Jerry and his wife, Paula —“our lead donor family, with the Jewish Community Foundation, with other leading donors, with PEJE, with day school leaders.”
One challenge of such a program, she acknowledged, is its ambition.
“We have to raise funds to secure day school education for the future and make sure it is available and excellent. It will take years and years and decades to do this,” she said. “But it’s an untapped opportunity — the passion and commitment that has developed in the day school community is unparalleled. There are layers of potential supporters in the day school community we are just beginning to tap, including alumni, parents of alumni, and grandparents of alumni.
“The bottom line is, day schools work. They build Jewish continuity and develop young people who are committed Jews and contributors to society.”
Ultimately, the schools will have to rely on themselves, as other private schools do.
“Federations can’t swoop in and do this for day schools alone,” said Hirsh. “They don’t have the capacity. Day schools have to learn how to leverage support within their communities working with federation and donor families.”
She suggested day schools look at the endowments of private schools — like the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts — and follow their example.
“You have to build endowment fund-raising into the culture of the school,” Hirsh said. “Over generations, people have been leaving money [to these private schools] in their wills or making major gifts during their lives. Most day schools have not thought of it. They are too busy holding galas to raise money fast enough to turn the lights on, pay their teachers, and give scholarships. But day schools are private schools, and they need to act like it.”
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