Fall 5766/2005            Vol. 66, No. 1 FEATURES   EDUCATION SECTION The Tuition Squeeze: Paying the Price for Jewish Education      Yossi Prager A Different Kind of Voucher                                                          S. Binyomin Ginsberg Thoughts on Giving                                                                          Rob Toren Who Should Pay for Jewish Education?                                        Micah Greenland Public Funding for Non-Public Schools                                          Nathan J. Diament Vouchers: A Case Study                                                                  […]

In the push to cram secular and Judaic subjects into an eight-hour day, many Orthodox day schools are leaving out one of the most important classes: gym. An informal survey of nearly fifty yeshivot (grades K-8) across the country revealed that most schools provide thirty-five to fifty minutes of physical education once or twice a week.

In the 1920s, a poor Jewish immigrant came to the United States from Greece and amassed a great deal of wealth over the course of his ninety-plus years. A little less than ten years before he died in 1994, he established a private foundation to continue his philanthropy, providing written guidelines for his legacy and entrusting his wealth and aspirations to a group of trustees.

Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman has written a brief, clear, wide-ranging and accurate description of the use of DNA analysis to trace the origin and dispersion of the Jewish people. And if that sounds almost self-contradictory, it merely indicates the magnitude of Rabbi Kleiman’s accomplishment.

Stuyvesant High School has long been regarded as the jewel in the crown of the New York City public school system, famous for its strong representation in such high-profile competitions as the Intel Science Talent Search

Jewish schools, in partnership with Jewish homes, have been responsible for the extraordinary and glorious continuity of Jewish tradition for almost 2,000 years. The Talmud in Bava Batra (21a) records that initially children were educated only by their fathers, condemning those without fathers to illiteracy.

This book comprises many letters that span the course of the Rav’s public life. Many pictures of the Rav emerge from these letters. For those who are historically unaware, the Rav’s domination of communal life during the post-war period emerges with great clarity.

One of Jerusalem’s most interesting and colorful neighborhoods is Meah Shearim, today the bastion of many Chareidi sects. The neighborhood was first established in 1874 by a group of daring young pioneers from the Old City who wanted to build a new Jewish settlement outside the city walls—the fifth such settlement.

The struggle to pay day school tuition is an albatross around the neck of the Jewish community. But a new program is helping Jewish families in Milwaukee pay their day school tuition bill. The program pays the full tuition for ninety-six out of the 606 children who attend Milwaukee’s three Jewish day schools. The remaining families do not receive any aid.

The Cincinnati Hebrew Day School Board, like all school boards, is charged with an important duty: making sure that there are sufficient funds to keep the school running. This is no simple task.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 ce and the subsequent failure of the Bar Kochba Revolt sixty-five years later, the focus of Jewish life in the land of Israel shifted from the devastated area of Judea to the northern region: the Galil and the Golan. This shift is captured in a Talmudic passage that documents the “exile” of the Sanhedrin (Rosh Hashanah 31a, b).

I was never one to be satisfied with the status quo or to accept the phrase “that’s how it’s always been done.” I believe change should be embraced and not feared as long as it has the ability to improve the current situation.

With research indicating that Jewish education is the key to Jewish survival, one would hope that the majority of Jewish children are enrolled in Jewish day school. Unfortunately, this is far from the case. Take Chicago for example.

There are a number of reasons why Jewish parents may choose not to send their children to a Jewish school. Tuition cost should not be one of them.

For more than forty years, securing government support for day schools and yeshivot has been at the top of the Orthodox Jewish community’s public policy agenda. We have not been alone in this; the Catholic community, as well as other population segments that use non-public schools, has worked in coalition with us to seek such support.

Festive and flavorful Fall recipes like Creamy Carrot Soup, Balsamic Lentils and Chicken Puttanesca.

Can you imagine a world devoid of people in wheelchairs and absent of the blind, deaf, developmentally disabled and hearing impaired? Easy—visit most synagogues, mikvaot and Jewish community centers in North America.

In the prime of life, Dayan Berel Berkovits, a dayan (judge) serving on the beit din of London’s Federation of Synagogues, was abruptly summoned to the Heavenly Academy on this past sixth of Nisan. That tragic event occurred during a short stopover in Jerusalem on Dayan Berkovits’ return from Egypt, where he was engaged in a mission associated with his communal responsibilities.

It is common knowledge that the Brisker method of Talmud study is difficult and complex. The terms “two dinim,” “gavra and cheftza,” “ma’ase and kinyan,” all freely used by adherents of this school of thought, show that seemingly simple concepts of Jewish law can be examined and explained dialectically, that is, in multifaceted and, at times, contradictory ways.

Imagine the shock and hostility that parents of Jewish day school and yeshivah students would express should it be suggested that current tuition rates are unreasonably and irresponsibly low.