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October 13, 2000/14 Tishri 5761, Vol. 53, No.3
Phoenix aims for day-school culture
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
The Phoenix Jewish community is a prototype in a national effort to create a culture of Jewish day schools.
The pilot program represents a team effort involving the national Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), the Jewish Education Service of North America and the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
Elaine Schreiber, chairwoman of the Western Region of United Jewish Communities and past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, was slated to speak about the local pilot program at a PEJE donor assembly in White Plains, N.Y., Sept. 17-18, but stayed in Phoenix that weekend to accept the local federation's Medal of Honor award.
The goal of the pilot program, according to Schreiber, is to create a culture that will address barriers to day-school education, incentives of a Jewish curriculum and parents' individual concerns.
"We have excellent day schools here, and all are under-attended," said Schreiber. The reason, she explained, in part is the high cost to families to send their children to private day schools.
"Before we truly do fund- raising (to lower tuition), we have to create a culture of day schools in this community," she said.
The Phoenix federation has held preliminary meetings addressing the problem with representatives from some local day schools, Schreiber said. "The next step is to meet with the directors of all the schools."
"The day-school movement is one of the key institutions that needs to be supported and strengthened ... to have the Jewish renaissance we keep hearing about," said Rabbi Joshua Elkin, executive director of PEJE, based in Boston.
Calling Jewish day schools "a complex world to navigate," Elkin said in an interview that strengthening them would require a multi-faceted coordinated effort by schools, federations, communities and private foundations.
He stressed the need to make day-school education available and affordable for everyone.
In addition to secular subjects, day schools teach Hebrew, Jewish history and philosophy and liturgy. Many also provide highly trained teachers and quality facilities.
The PEJE donor assembly recognized philanthropic organizations and individuals who are attempting to improve the lot of day school education and to give them a venue to share ideas and experience, Elkin said.
It "acknowledged the incredible impact philanthropic groups have had on the day-school movement," including Avi Chai of New York and the Gottesman family of New Jersey.
More than 300 attendees heard from keynote speakers Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, founding dean of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Brookline, Mass., and Dr. Jack Wertheimer, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.
Among those attending were PEJE steering committee members and representatives of philanthropic groups and of schools receiving PEJE grants.
The assembly was a chance "for a synergy of ideas ... that will propel us to think more boldly and aggressively (about day-school education)," Elkin said.
We are living in a new age of Jewish education - as stress shifts from exclusive synagogue religious school instruction to community day school education - and it needs community support, said Lois Zachary, a volunteer on the local federation task force for alternative funding of day-school education.
Zachary said it's important to create a "culture" supporting the view that education "is important to the infrastructure for the continuity and vitality of the Jewish community."
The Pardes School at Temple Solel in Paradise Valley has established its own relationship with PEJE independent of the current federation pilot effort. PEJE has awarded Pardes a $50,000 challenge grant; if Pardes raises this amount, PEJE will match it.
In addition, Pardes has received $40,000 in services from PEJE, including consultation with a madrikha (coach), Dr. Shulamitch Elster.
The Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, to be located initially at Temple Chai in Phoenix, and later moved to the planned Jewish Community Campus in Scottsdale, is also receiving services of a PEJE madrikh.
PEJE is providing madrikhim, educators with long experience in day schools, to work in conjunction with various schools nationwide to improve the overall quality of education and to make day-school education more effective and attractive.
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