As we reimagine the future trajectory of our Jewish day school and yeshiva community, I can’t help but reflect on the current state of affairs which these institutions enjoy and experience. In fact, it is against this backdrop of reality that I write this blog and formulate several thoughts and ideas about the future of our Jewish day school community.
My father z”l, of blessed memory, would often say that knowing where you are going in the future is inspired and informed by our past. In other words, know, understand and appreciate the yesterday and today, in order to inspire and achieve the tomorrow.
In order to envision or re-envision the future of our Jewish day schools and yeshivot, we must first understand, appreciate, and celebrate their current impact, status, and disposition.
Over the past many decades, our Jewish day schools and yeshivot have experienced a wide array of academic, social, and communal successes and positive accomplishments and achievements.
From increasing the effective teaching of limudei kodesh and chol in the classroom, to inspiring students with different learning styles, these institutions have truly succeeded in challenging the intellect and minds as well as touching the hearts of thousands of students committed to Torah learning and study; and, enriching their knowledge and understanding of secular subject areas.
What began as a grand and bold Jewish communal experiment in 1886 with the establishment of Etz Chaim of New York, the first all-day Jewish day school, has now evolved into one of the most successful Jewish educational entities and milestones in history.
Although it is essential that we celebrate these amazing successes, our day schools and yeshivot are currently confronted with a variety of very serious and somewhat daunting challenges of monumental proportion and magnitude.
From a day school administrative and operational perspective, they include, affordability, the cost of operations and competitive fundraising and philanthropic challenges. From an educational perspective, they encompass the paucity of high-quality teaching personnel, the provision of special learning environments for students with varying learning styles, and the lack of high-quality c-suite trained senior educational leaders, to name a few.
In spite of these aforementioned challenges, many of our day schools and yeshivot are indeed growing and flourishing with increased pupil enrollment, albeit in the face of ever-changing, evolving, growing challenges and concerns.
The question, however, which many of us may be asking (or should be asking), is whether this current status or matzav is sustainable and what do these challenges suggest for the future of this critically important communal institution.
Finally, it is important to note that these challenges do not include today’s zeitgeist or cultural milieu which include the growing disintegration of the nuclear family, increased child rearing challenges and the variety of exigencies stemming from the lack of parental role modeling for our children exacerbated by the waning of laudatory middot and derech eretz on the part of a growing segment of our youth (again, just to name a few).
Yes, there are leaders who will posit that our Jewish community is just a mirror image of our society, and that we should be satisfied and grateful for the status quo. To these individuals, my response is relatively simple and straightforward – as an am kadosh, mamlechet kohanim and as an ohr la’goyim, our Jewish community has a much higher calling, and we can and should do better, much better!
Let’s respectfully keep in mind that offering excuses that we are just a mirror image of the general community or society is not a very satisfying, convincing or even compelling consolation or argument. They are just common and convenient excuses which enable people to kick the can down the road instead of confronting and dealing with today’s realities as well as facing and confronting the future head-on.
In light of these realities and the accepted notion that the status quo may in all probability, not be sustainable, I pose the following question – as Jewish communal and educational leaders, if we were to have our druthers, what changes would we begin to introduce and how would we envision or re-envision the future of our day schools and yeshivot in order to responsibly and strategically ensure their vitality, viability, impact and effectiveness; and, what type of strategic thinking and planning must our community now engage in order to prepare for their future?
Reimagining and Re-Envisioning our Day Schools and Yeshivot by 2040
First and foremost, I respectfully and humbly suggest that we create a paradigm shift in the manner we structure and organize our Jewish day schools and yeshivot.
Although the concept of institutional mergers and consolidations of our schools were briefly explored in the early seventies by a few bold communities, it was a premature concept, and it ended up getting bogged down in communal politics, institutional ego, and the lack of incentives or carrot/stick opportunities.
Unlike public education, the Jewish day school/yeshiva community is voluntary in nature. This makes the formulation and enforcement of communal educational standards and requirements a bit more challenging. This includes the autonomous nature of these institutions and their compliance to specific requirements in order to qualify for state/federal funding, local federation and foundation grants, and adherence to the variety of new and emerging ideologically anchored accreditation standards and requirements. But at the end of the day, we all know and recognize that each of our Jewish day schools and yeshivot may choose to ”make Shabbos” as they please.
These are just several overarching realities which impact the reimagining or revisioning of these institutions.
My attempt to encourage and re-envision the concepts of mergers and consolidation is inspired in part by the current DOGE movement now sweeping the United States and an exploration of what a system or network of Jewish day schools and yeshivot would look like if economies of scale were to be in place, adjusted or “right sized”.
Although the jury is still out regarding the impact of DOGE, preliminary findings suggest that its future trajectory will benefit our economy in numerous positive ways.
As envisioned, my proposal is divided into two broad, discrete, and at times overlapping challenges.
One relates to the physical and material nature of our schools. They include structure, administrative and non-educational strategic operational aspects of day schooling; the second focuses upon the educational dimension impacting our schools, including the teaching-learning process – the manner in which we teach our students and the ways in which our students learn.
The Operational and Administrative Domain
As envisioned, concerted efforts should be attempted or encouraged to incentivize the consolidation and merging of day schools and yeshivot that are in close geographic proximity to one another and with those that share the same stakeholder demographic as well educational and religious hashkafa.
The details of these mergers and consolidations will require a shared vision and an inordinate amount of time, grit, commitment, passion, and communal planning, as well as a true sense of urgency and a willingness on the part of school leadership and their stakeholders to merge and consolidate. It will also require the “parking” of institutional ego at the door, a reality which many of our schools and communities will have some level of difficulty realizing and accepting.
Remember, the purpose of these mergers and consolidations are not to diminish the role, visibility, or institutional ego of these institutions, but rather to create strong, viable, and healthy schools with sustainability and unlimited capacity. We must put our students first.
The exact details of how to effectuate these mergers and consolidations from a political, communal, educational, and structural perspective requires a well-developed vision, blueprint, and a comprehensive plan.
One final thought…..
Even if a community embarks on this initiative with a small cluster of day schools and yeshivot, there will be much to be learned and gained. It can serve as a potential replicable model for other communities to emulate.
Building a Jewish day school community culture which necessitates, inspires, and motivates greater economies of scale, can only serve these institutions well as we move forward into the future.
Consolidation of Administrative and Back-Office Responsibilities
As we move into the future towards 2040, another economies of scale opportunity may include the sharing of technology and human resources in the areas of fundraising and financial resource development.
This can include the planning and implementation of mega fundraising events, the proceeds of which will be allocated, shared or apportioned based upon a per capita formula or other creative methods of disbursement. .
In addition, grant writers can be jointly hired and engaged to work with groups or clusters of schools in order to leverage local, state, and federal funding as well as from family and private sources of funding.
Eventually, I envision the establishment of a “2040 National Jewish Day School Philanthropic Roundtable” in order to help identify needs and resources on the national, regional and local levels and catalyze future plans for consolidated day school and yeshiva fundraising programs, initiatives, and opportunities.
Again, the name of the game will be to create consolidated communal and institutional partnerships, the sharing of resources and an equitable distribution of resources and proceeds…..all based on trust and a shared communal vision.
Beyond these two significant opportunities, the future viability of our day schools and yeshivot, their future viability, effectiveness and efficiency may require joint purchasing, payroll administration, plant maintenance, contract negotiations, consolidated insurance programs, shared IT and technology via networking, and joint/consolidated human resources in the areas of teacher-sharing, cross-curricular learning and other specially designed and modeled environments which enhance cost-saving opportunities.
The Teacher-Student Learning
As we move towards 2040, the Jewish day school community will be challenged to reinvent itself as never before imaginable.
Yes, this is a bold statement. But it is one which is anchored in today’s and tomorrow’s realities, unmet needs and demands..
With the meteoric growth and expansion of AI technology and its educational applications and implications, it will be imperative for our Jewish day schools and yeshivot to learn how to best utilize, exploit, and apply this technology to these institutions.
To be sure, AI has become so ubiquitous that it will be virtually impossible to ignore, circumvent, or diminish its application and significance. This is where comprehensive and extensive PD (professional development) programs will be essential and indispensable for our administrators, teachers, educators, and communal training institutions.
It is therefore imperative for our day school and yeshiva leadership, administration, and faculty to understand and appreciate its use and utility as well as its impact and relationship to the student-learning process and to the domain of effective teaching and instruction.
The challenge will be which state-of-the-art AI technology presents the best and most dynamic and personalized learning opportunity for our students.
These modalities will include greater flexibility in developing lesson and unit plans, more immediate feedback regarding student academic performance, the development of “personalized” learning platforms, more sophisticated blended learning programs, the engagement of AI substitute teachers and tutors, student remediation, teacher, instructional and administrative performance assessments and corresponding metrics based upon AI generated algorithmic measurements, the creation of non-traditional classroom environments making teaching and a host of other AI learning opportunities more conducive and student-centered, and a variety of other 21st century educational advantages – way to numerous and detailed for this blog.
Implications for Moving Forward
It should be quite obvious that the impact of a re-envisioned day school and yeshiva community by 2040, as presented in this article, will have very significant ramifications and implications on a variety of levels.
In order for these ideas, suggestions, or potential models to succeed in our schools, we will need a paradigm shift in the manner in which we educate children. This shift will not only require moving out of our comfort zones but to begin investing the time, energy, thinking, and reconceptualization of how we educate our children, and with what resources. It will also require greater laser-focused attention to curricular goals, objectives, and outcomes.
We know full well that there will be many who will resist these ideas because of the foreign or unknown nature of what is being proposed or suggested. This reality is expected, and should be respected. But, for those communities and institutions who do pursue these paths, it is almost certain that they will benefit and serve as trailblazers and pacesetters for future modeling and replication.
The bottom line is that it may be wiser for our communities and their schools to proactively approach these future challenges than it will be for these challenges and changes to be hoisted upon them. This is not about “disruption” but rather about strategic creativity, visioning, and bold proactive leadership.
Irrespective of whether we explore and embrace school mergers, consolidations, joint ventures, economies of scale,and opportunities for the use of AI technology, it will be far better for us to be strategically prepared for their eventuality than to always play “catch-up” with the current and future educational zeitgeist.
May all of our communities, schools, students, and families be blessed to flourish and benefit from today’s realities and wisdom with an eye towards a future of hope, meaning, promise, and success.
The future is now and it begins today…
