Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote, “There is only one way to change the world, and that is through education.” In today’s tumultuous, rapidly changing world where antisemitism threatens our sense of security, many are grappling with how to respond. The huge sums that are being invested in an effort to combat antisemitism have had little impact on the vulnerability felt by the Jewish community.
Bret Stephens is among the countercultural voices pushing for a fundamental re-focusing of how community resources are invested. According to Stephens, we should move away from being indignant with the lack of compassion for Jews, and instead make Jewishness, however one chooses to express it, “the centering fact of Jewish life,” based on the idea that “the goal of Jewish life is Jewish thriving.” That thriving can exist in a community where our Jewishness is a “centering fact of life.” The infrastructure for this transformation exists in our Jewish day schools, he argues, and our community should “make high-quality Jewish day school education available and affordable to every Jewish family that wants one.”
Over the last six years, enrollment in North American Jewish day schools has grown consistently year after year. The question is no longer whether our schools are good enough; increasingly, Jewish day schools are competing with the best independent and public schools in their communities. A Jewish day school education delivers strong academic outcomes but is ultimately about far more than academic achievement. Our schools build the Jewish and general foundations for a lifetime’s success, based in this promise: If you know who you are, you can be anything.
The data bears this out. Among Jewish college students, Jewish day school alumni are four times more likely to feel a strong connection to Israel than their non-day school peers and twice as likely to say Jewish identity is central to their lives.
Building a thriving Jewish community post-Oct. 7
To build a thriving Jewish community after October 7, the challenge is not a lack of resources. It is whether we will direct those resources toward deep and transformative Jewish education.
Visionary philanthropists are increasingly acting on that conviction. The Samis Foundation’s Day School Affordability Program in Seattle has driven a 25% increase in enrollment, while affordability initiatives continue to expand in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and elsewhere. In Cleveland, local philanthropists and schools mobilized around the Mandel Foundation’s $90 million challenge grant. Chicago is investing in an innovative educator pipeline initiative.
Investments are growing in our schools towards excellence, leaders and teachers, new and improved facilities, and in communities such as Miami, Tampa and Toronto, new schools are opening where demand for places exceeds supply. For schools in the US, the upcoming Federal Education Tax Credit presents an unprecedented opportunity to attract millions of dollars to tackle day school access and affordability, if we generate mass support from the entire Jewish community.
At Prizmah, I am honored to work with many of the leaders of these initiatives, and I have also had the privilege to meet a number of donors who are new to the Jewish day school scene. Their stories illustrate just how unique and significant this moment can be.
Bob Mallet of Pittsburgh is the grandchild of European immigrants and was raised in the “melting pot” ideology of mid-century America. Jewish community and identity for Bob were limited to high holidays and the antisemitism he encountered during his 1960s prep school education. Retiring from a successful business in food ingredient manufacturing, Bob explored philanthropic opportunities in higher education, sponsoring scholarships and even teaching entrepreneurship at Duquesne University (his late father’s alma mater) and Brandeis.
Bob was drawn to day schools because he realized that thriving on campuses today for young Jews requires a strong foundation of Jewish identity. The best way to “make more Jews,” as he puts it, is to start when they are young. Supporting Jewish camps and day schools—especially raising the bar through professional development of teachers and administrators—has become Bob’s passion, both locally in the Pittsburgh area and, with Prizmah, on a North American level. Without hesitation, Bob is investing a significant portion of his net worth into this effort, recognizing the importance of transformative impact now.
Blair Frank, a veteran of the investment industry, grew up in a nonobservant household without connections to the organized Jewish community. He believes this perspective—along with prioritizing ROI—allows him to have an especially analytical approach to funding Jewish causes. Like many Jews around the world, after October 7 he felt compelled to take action and began focusing his philanthropy on supporting the deep transmission of Jewish heritage.
Curious about the experience of Jewish college students during the anti-Israel campus protests, he was struck by how it was day school graduates who had the strongest sense of self. With a strong conviction that the Jewish people have survived and thrived over millennia as a result from their depth more than breadth, Blair understood that there are few experiences that can match the depth of attending Jewish day school.
The number of families with children in day schools is nowhere near what Blair knows is possible. By raising the number of families choosing day schools, Blair sees a direct impact on the transmission of Jewish identity and community. He is especially eager to work with Prizmah so that families and schools can take advantage of the new Federal Education Tax Credit.
When I think about this moment for day schools, I find enormous optimism in the stories of Bob and Blair. They are people whose backgrounds would not necessarily predict this kind of engagement. We are living at a time when the universe of those who care about the Jewish future is much larger than those who previously have been “insiders.” For all of us who work in, care about, and believe in Jewish day schools, this indeed can become an extraordinary era.
The writer is CEO of Prizmah, the network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America.