Tellingly, one of the largest individual Jewish philanthropists, Michael Steinhardt, has launched major multimillion-dollar initiatives for day schools and Israel experiences but has steered clear of congregational schools.
“Afternoon Hebrew school has been an extraordinary flop,” he said in an interview last spring.
Despite the lack of mega-gifts, however, foundations and federations are investing modestly in Hebrew schools. One such program is the Reform movement’s Experiment in Congregational Education, a program working with 14 synagogues around the country. The program is funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Covenant Foundation, the Mandel Foundation and the Gimprich Family Foundation, philanthropies that devote some of their resources to Hebrew schools.
The Cleveland-based Mandel Foundation has invested money in training community leaders to provide teacher development programs, primarily for religious-school teachers.
One community, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, is trying to raise a $10 million endowment for innovations in local Hebrew schools and is investing $700,000 to equip them with computer technology.
But the common denominator among all the gifts is change. While Jewish day schools generally receive funds for capital costs and scholarships, most grants for congregational schools are earmarked for innovative projects.
“Where there’s energy and vision, money will follow,” said Chaim Botwinick, executive vice president of Baltimore’s Jewish Education Center. “Foundations are not interested in funding the same-old, same-old.”
Isa Aron, a professor at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the coordinator of its Experiment in Congregational Education project, agreed.
“When people have a good project they usually find donors,” she said.
“I don’t think the beginning of the problem is money — the problem is when you don’t have people involved enough or don’t know exactly what your vision is. Once people are together with a vision and have planned programs, they may well need money, and my guess is they’ll find it. The Jewish community is affluent and there’s money available.”
Federations throughout the country provide money to local Jewish education agencies for teacher-training programs. However, few congregational schools receive direct allocations or even scholarship funds from their federations, according to Paul Flexner, the staffer at the Jewish Education Service of North America who is overseeing a task force on congregational schools.
Citing “ongoing tension between the synagogue world and the federation world,” Flexner said the situation is starting to change, with a number of communities exploring federation-synagogue partnerships.
In the San Francisco area, both the Jewish Community Federation’s annual campaign and the federation’s Jewish Community Endowment Foundation have helped finance a number of congregational education programs, according to Steve Toth, the JCF’s director of marketing and communications.
The JCEF Newhouse Fund, for example, is providing grants for family education programs to Congregation Shir Shalom in Sonoma and Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame.
In addition, the JCF’s annual campaign is providing funding for classes and programs for emigre families at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, for a Shabbat coordinator of family and teen programs at Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, and for social and educational programs for youth at Palo Alto Orthodox Minyan.
The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay also makes grants for synagogue-based religious-education programs through its Jewish Community Foundation and its annual campaign Family of Funds
“The East Bay federation is expanding its support to synagogues in general and synagogue education in particular as part of our mission to strengthen synagogues as a central gateway to Jewish life,” said Ami Nahshon, executive vice president.