Let me tell you about Sam (not his real name), whose story was sent to me by one of our on-campus JLIC (the OU’s Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) educators. Sam came from a well-grounded Modern Orthodox family and attended a prominent Jewish day school and high school. He spent the usual year in […]
For the past four issues of Jewish Action, my messages have been devoted to one topic—the affordability of Jewish life, particularly with regard to yeshivah tuition. My goal was to make this matter, so vital to the health and continuity of the Orthodox community, front and center for the Orthodox Union and its varied constituencies […]
The community in which I live, Teaneck, New Jersey, is in many ways typical of Orthodox communities across North America. True, incomes are somewhat above average, but day school tuition and also property taxes are far higher than the norm. What that means is that when my neighbors come up to me with various concerns, […]
In response to my last column in Jewish Action (“Making Orthodox Life More Affordable,” summer 2011), I received a flood of responses—some critical, others positive—from Jewish Action readers. Obviously day school affordability is on everyone’s minds. Irv Cantor from West Orange, New Jersey, wrote that I painted the tuition problem with “too broad a brush,” […]