The OU’s Living Smarter Jewish financial literacy textbooks, available at cost to any Jewish school that requests them, provide students with tools and experience in managing money. For more information, contact lsj@ou.org.
In our contemporary Orthodox world, financial stress is not confined to the margins. It’s keenly felt in the so-called “middle class,” where families earning upwards of $250,000–$300,000 still struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, money has been a difficult topic to discuss openly, leaving many to struggle in silence. The Orthodox Union has been steadily working to change that.
Living Smarter Jewish (LSJ) is a flagship financial literacy initiative founded in 2021 to address the “frum affordability” crisis head on.
“Living Smarter Jewish started during Covid when so many people were hit with unprecedented financial difficulties,” says Rabbi Simon Taylor, the OU’s national director of Community Engagement, who oversees LSJ. “Some visionary ba’alei batim wanted to do something to help individuals, couples and families achieve financial freedom in a community often bound by constricting norms.”
They dove right in: founding LSJ, seeding Kosher Money—a Living Lchaim podcast that discusses everything at the intersection of Judaism and finance—and developing a high school curriculum to give teens a financial toolkit. But perhaps the most impactful piece of the puzzle has been LSJ’s free financial coaching, which Rabbi Taylor says helps around 2,000 families each year.
Stacey Zrihen, LSJ’s senior director of coaching, oversees eighty volunteers who help singles, newlyweds, young families and retirees build personalized budgets.
“The biggest key to helping people manage money more successfully is keeping a written budget,” Zrihen says. “It shows you where you might trim, helps you plan for upcoming expenses like camp or simchahs, and keeps goals within reach. As Rabbi Moshe Hauer [the OU’s executive vice president, zt”l] liked to say, a bar mitzvah is not a surprise party—you know it’s coming, so plan ahead.”
Zrihen notes that starting young makes all the difference.
“Like learning a new language, the earlier you start, the better,” explains Zrihen. “I see plenty of couples in their thirties, forties and fifties who made a lot of mistakes. If we reach people sooner, we can prevent many of the challenges frum families face.”
Enter Rivka Resnik, who wrote LSJ’s high school curriculum and whose benchmark-based textbooks were adopted and approved by the state of Florida. “More than thirty years ago, I initiated a program in Chicago, so students could get hands-on experience saving and managing money, and I immediately saw how powerful it is to give young people financial skills they can use immediately,” recounts Resnik.
Wealth is much less about numbers and much more about mindset and behavior.
It’s a challenge, given that the average teenager feels far removed from managing finances, even in our community, where marriage and starting your own household occur at a younger age than in the general population.
“To make my lessons relevant, I used situations students can relate to, such as purchasing something trendy and expensive that everyone else seems to have, comparing phone plans, understanding their first paycheck, or thinking twice before swiping a credit card,” explains Resnik.
The OU distributes the textbooks at cost to any Jewish school that requests them—a move that, Resnik says, helps ensure financial education is prioritized in our community.
“The OU is showing what can be accomplished when we come together to address challenges like affordability with both vision and practical solutions,” she declares.
It’s All About Mindset
Helping change people’s mindsets is a key part of that, according to Eli Langer, host of the Kosher Money podcast. “The recurring theme is that wealth is much less about numbers and much more about mindset and behavior,” Langer explains. “Our guests, from Rabbi Daniel Lapin to Dave Ramsey, always remind us that financial peace comes from creating margin. The gap between what you earn and what you spend is where freedom lives.”
One practical way to widen that gap? Relocation.
The OU Savitsky Home Relocation Fair, created by former OU President Stephen J. Savitsky in 2008 and now run by Rebbetzin Judi Steinig, OU senior director of the Savitsky Growth Initiative, brings together communities across the country—think Albany, New York; Buffalo Grove, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; and Scottsdale, Arizona—and people interested in moving to places where they can more easily afford their religious Jewish lives while still enjoying traditional amenities.
“People need to examine their priorities—affordability and different communal amenities—and the OU’s role is to show them options,” says Rebbetzin Steinig, while noting that many hundreds of families have taken the leap. “We don’t tell anyone when or whether they should move. We help them navigate the options and make informed choices.”
This echoes Zrihen’s perspective on financial empowerment. “LSJ coaches, myself included, don’t tell people how to spend their money,” she says. “We give them the tools to make their own decisions about improving their budget and their quality of life.”
Tackling Tuition
It’s one thing to teach people to navigate a system that often feels unsustainable—and another thing to help change the system itself. For the OU, that means tackling one of the biggest-ticket items in the Jewish community: the cost of Jewish education.
Led by Sydney Altfield, the OU’s Teach Coalition is on the forefront of lobbying and grassroots advocacy at the state and federal levels for funding and resources for Jewish day schools, including STEM and security funding, universal free meals (recently adopted in New York), and an upcoming federal dollar-for-dollar tax credit program set to launch in January 2027. All these measures aim to ease the financial burdens for families by lowering schools’ operating costs, and putting money back into the pockets of tuition-paying parents.
“Now more than ever since October 7, people have realized that the continuity of the Jewish people depends on Jewish education,” says Altfield. “At the same time, tuition affordability is an existential threat to our community.”
A 2022 study by Nishma Research found that, across denominations from Chassidic to Reform, tuition affordability ranks as the top concern but historically has been a lower priority for Jewish philanthropy. However, Altfield notes that government funding is making a real difference.
“Thanks in large part to Teach Coalition, people now recognize that they don’t need to simply rely on private donations from the community, but they can leverage government dollars to affect budgetary bottom lines,” she says proudly. “We’re grateful to have important partners across government to help see all our children thrive.”
Affordability in the frum community often feels like a crisis, yet others argue that the pressures inherent to Jewish communal life are better understood as signs of strength.
“There’s a Yiddish saying: ‘Ken di kallah zayn tsu sheyn?—Can the bride be too pretty?’ That’s how I see our way of life,” says Steve Savitsky. “The system isn’t broken; it’s thriving. But with that blessing comes real challenges, and the OU is stepping up to meet them.”
Tova Cohen is a fundraising communications professional and college essay coach. She lives in New Jersey with her family.
More in this section:
Crushed by the Costs: The Hidden Financial Strain of the Orthodox Middle Class by Shalom Goodman
Financial Minimalism by Rivka Resnik
The Cost of Community: The OU’s Bold Effort to Make Frum Life Sustainable by Tova Cohen