We’ve all heard various proposed solutions to the chronic yeshiva and day-school tuition crisis: government vouchers, Federation support, Operation 5% (collecting five percent of assets from the estates of deceased Jews), and, most recently, Jonathan Isler and Kenny Gluck’s Lawrence Plan, which would require the government to pay the salaries of secular-subject teachers.
Each of these ideas has merit, but also practical and legal drawbacks (or at least hurdles). Moreover, the implementation of one or more of them is unlikely to provide any immediate, significant relief to overburdened Orthodox parents. While the Lawrence Plan appears, in my opinion, to be the most promising, church-state legal issues clearly constitute an issue that must be dealt with.
Is it possible, however, that we have overlooked one solution commanded to us in our holy Torah? It certainly is, and the solution – though not without its own hurdles – is one that has been utilized successfully by Muslim countries, various religious groups, public and private schools – as well as by Jewish communities in pre-war Europe.
The solution is tzedakah and maaser – charity and tithing – giving 10-20 percent of our wealth to Jewish education as well as other worthy causes. We Jews are the caretakers of God’s world, and that includes our wealth. “Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold – the word of God, Master of Legions” (Chaggai, 2:8).
The commandments oftzedakah andmaaser are the manifestation of this lofty principle. The Rambam states that it is our duty to be more scrupulous (“l’hazir“) in the performance of the mitzvah of tzedakah than any other positive commandment. (See The Laws of Tzedakah and Maaser by Rabbi Shimon Taub, Mesorah, 2001.)
The question, of course, is how exactly we do this. On a communal basis, how do we effectuate the mitzvot of tzedakah and maaser so that our yeshivas and day schools are securely funded and Jewish parents are given some tuition relief?
The solution is three-part. First, a Jewish Tax Return; second, a United Yeshiva and Hebrew Day School Fund; and third, the establishment of the National Association of Yeshiva and Hebrew Day School Parents and Friends.
The Jewish Tax Return
Currently, every modern nation pays for its educational system through taxes. And the children in those nations get educated. It wasn’t always this way. In medieval times only the children of royalty and other elite classes were educated. The founding of the U.S. in 1776, with its ethos of democracy and egalitarianism, mostly changed that. Compulsory, universal education followed and gradually became the norm here and nearly everywhere else.
For Jews, it has been this way for millennia – until now. V’shinantam l’vanecha, you will teach your children, has been the secret of our survival, our prosperity, our happiness – and our disproportionate share of Nobel Prizes.
As practiced in America today, however, Orthodox Judaism has made v’shinantam l’vanecha a financial exercise in torture except for the rich. Our high tuitions scare away countless American Jew who might otherwise consider a day school education for their children. Little wonder, then, that American Jewry suffers from a 52 percent intermarriage rate.
A Jewish Tax Return might change things. A few knowledgeable rabbis and accountants need to hammer out a form and worksheet, not unlike IRS Form 1040, detailing income, assets, liabilities, expenses, deductions, and all other relevant financial criteria, and the bottom line would state an amount to be paid as tzedakah and maaser – a nice chunk of which would go to Jewish education.
