Help wantedAround the country, Jewish schools grow faster than supply of educatorsRANDI BAROCAS
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 Solomon Schechter Day School teacher Betsy Silber helps student Max Goldfine with a project. Like many communities around the nation, the Phoenix area faces challenges in attracting teachers and administrators to keep up with a boom in Jewish education programs. |
The squeeze is being felt particularly in some of the nation's bigger Jewish communities, such as Boston. Daniel Margolis, executive director of that city's Bureau of Jewish Education, says the situation and other factors made this upcoming school year "a tough year to find qualified teachers," including those in entry-level positions.
"We do face a very serious problem," he warns of his Jewish community's situation.
Paul Flexner, director of human resources development at the Jewish Education Service of North America in New York, agrees there is "a shortage of personnel in Jewish education at all levels."
In the last 10 years, Margolis estimates, the Greater Boston Jewish community added as many as 100 full-time positions in the education field, many of which were slow to be filled. Among the outside factors contributing to the shortage of Jewish educators, he said, is the recently improved economy.
"People don't need to rely on positions in the Jewish community to make a living," he says. In addition, the lack of "a systematic training program" that would prepare professionals for the field is aggravating the situation, Margolis says.
Flexner agrees. "One of the big problems ... is that we don't really have a mid-career" program, he said. Those who graduate from religious-oriented colleges and other institutions as teachers lack the resources needed to move into administrative positions, he observed.
While it's less pronounced than Boston's problem, the educator shortage is nonetheless being felt in the Greater Phoenix area, as well. Barbara Gereboff, principal at Phoenix's Solomon Schechter Day School, and Bonnie Morris, education director at the Solel School, say it is quite difficult to find qualified teachers to fill positions at their schools
While there is a large enough pool of secular educators to teach subjects such as math, English and science, both Solomon Schechter and the Solel School look for well-rounded educators who can incorporate aspects of Jewish studies into class curriculum whenever possible, Gereboff and Morris say.
Morris, who acknowledges that "there are not enough qualified people for the jobs that we need to do in this community," says all teachers at the Solel School have degrees in education.
"Ideally," Morris says, "someone would have a degree in general education and in Jewish studies."
But because there is such a narrow pool of qualified Jewish educators, schools often have to turn to other alternatives. At the Solel School, for example, Morris says she has "specialists who not only teach the students Judaic and Hebrew studies, but also work on continuing education with the faculty." Also, Morris says some of the Solel School's faculty members may not have a formal Jewish education
"The biggest issue is to find people who really have training in a number of things," Gereboff explains. "They need to be able to teach Hebrew as a language. They also need to have Judaic studies content, and they need to be role models."
Boston's Margolis says the role-model issue is a significant factor in the educator shortage. He says "parents and other key role models" for would-be educators do not make the field of Jewish community work "psychologically attractive" to Jewish youths.
"You can't tell people how to talk around the dinner table, but you can try," Margolis says, emphasizing that career choice, heavily influenced by parents and other role models, often occurs at a young age.
Positions still filled
Despite this bleak combination of factors, Margolis maintains that "Boston has been successful in attracting people and retaining people," perhaps even more so than other Jewish communities seeking educators. To do so, he says, the Jewish education community has offered salaries competitive with those in other cities. He noted that salaries can range from $30,000 for teachers to up to the hundreds of thousands for headmasters, depending on the size of the community, as well as other factors.
Flexner believes that the ideal scenario occurs "when a school is interested and willing to go out and find the best that they can find. ... They will raise the salary to get the person."
More often, however, a lack of funding, especially at synagogue schools, renders that scenario unrealistic, Flexner acknowledges. In fact, he says, salaries at some religious schools around the nation are actually decreasing. Valley educators say Jewish educator salaries here are holding steady, but gradually will need to be increased to attract and retain good people in the field. While the salaries here are on a par with those at public schools, religious schools have difficulty matching the public schools' employee benefits, such as health care coverage and retirement plans, they say.
Even in areas where salaries are decreasing, "I would be hesitant to say that the quality (of educators) is definitely dropping," Flexner says. Yet, with fewer candidates and more positions, there are some compromises being made, Flexner concedes.
"Some of the qualifications are being skipped over, ... but that doesn't mean that these people aren't good, capable educators," he says.
Religious schools are "turning to secular educators who are Jewish, and asking them to run our Jewish schools," Flexner says. Those people may be excellent educators and administrators, even if they do not possess extensive Jewish knowledge; in such a situation, the school would rely on a Jewish studies specialist to fill in the gaps, he notes.
The Solomon Schechter Day School in Newton, Mass., which this year launched a search to replace outgoing head Rabbi Joshua Elkin, found itself in a more fortunate position, according to search committee member Elizabeth Jick.
"We ended up doing a lot of aggressive outreach," including approaching heads of other Solomon Schechter schools, even those who did not have any plans of leaving, says Jick. Those efforts, she says, yielded 14 candidates. In the end, the school hired Rabbi Dov Bard, who had been head of the St. Louis, Mo., Schechter school since 1991.
Sinai Academy of the Berkshires in Pittsfield, Mass., also recently filled the position of school head. Unlike the Newton Schechter, however, its location did not necessarily function as a drawing card.
"Even in the metropolitan area, there is a real shortage of qualified Jewish educators," acknowledges Marcy Greenfield Simons, chair of the school's personnel committee. She emphasizes that the problem is amplified in rural areas.
"In order to tempt someone to come here, we had to offer a competitive salary," she says, adding that the "wonderful community" that is in the Berkshires also worked in favor of the school.
"We have realized since the inception of the school ... (that) it's an enriching challenge for any school to attract a really qualified Jewish educator," Greenfield Simons says. She emphasizes, however, the limits of courting candidates and of attempts to make Jewish education enticing for would-be teachers and administrators.
"I think a person is drawn into this field spiritually," she says. "I don't know that if a school offered A, B or C that it would draw more candidates."
Despite the difficulties elsewhere, some Valley educators say the situation has so far not created major difficulties in finding qualified help here.
Rabbi Zalman Levertov, director of Phoenix Preparatory High School, set to open under the auspices of Chabad of Arizona later this month, says he had no trouble whatsoever hiring qualified teachers to staff his school
"All you want are the best qualified teachers you can get," Levertov says. "The rabbi will run the Judaic program, so there won't be any conflict between the Judaic and secular programs at the school.
"You have to find the right person for the right place. They are available," Levertov says of qualified teachers. "But when you hire somebody, you have to make sure he is somebody that you want to work with, that he's right for the community and that he's right for the students. That may make it a little difficult to find the right match, but I think they are available."
