A recommendation for the establishment of a $1,000,000 scholarship fund to help increase the number of Jewish children attending Jewish schools in the Metropolitan New York area was adopted here at the third annual Jewish Education Assembly following a report of a survey of Jewish education in New York. The survey established that of 407,000 Jewish children between the ages of 5 and 17 some 110,000 children are presently attending a Jewish school.
The survey, which took three years to complete and which was sponsored jointly by the Jewish Education Committee of New York and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, established that at some time between the ages of 5 and 17 four of every five Jewish children in the New York area attend a Jewish school.
The survey also revealed that $15,000,000 a year is currently spent on Jewish education in New York and the surrounding suburban counties, with all-day schools–mostly Orthodox–accounting for 20 percent of the total, week-day schools for 40 percent of the total and one-day schools for the remaining ten percent. The enrollment in all-day schools is 20 percent of the total, in the week-day schools 40 percent and the remainder attend one-day schools.
Half of all the pupils attend Orthodox-sponsored schools, one-quarter go to Conservative schools, one-fifth to Reform schools and about five percent to Yiddish schools. Of the nearly 700 schools maintained by the various Jewish groups, 60 percent are Orthodox-sponsored, 20 percent are Conservative, 10 percent Reform and 10 percent Yiddish. The survey was carried out under the direction of Dr. Israel Chipkin, vice-president of the Jewish Education Committee.
The recommendations of the assembly, which were referred to the Jewish Education Committee for study and implementation, included a suggestion that a large revolving community building loan fund be established to provide the means for building new schools and repairing and remodelling old structures. Also recommended were:
1. A concentrated effort to increase enrollment and provide adequate school facilities in areas of the city where the survey indicated an unusually low percentage of Jewish children attending Jewish schools.
2. The merging of small school units now operating in the same geographical areas, without sacrificing the ideological autonomy of the schools. Transportation facilities should be provided to facilitate such mergers.
3. The extension of the jurisdiction of Jewish teachers registries and licensing agencies in an effort to enhance the professional status of the Jewish teacher. Attention should be given to the problem of making the Jewish school teacher’s job a fulltime one and to the establishment of a salary scale in line with that of the public school system of New York.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
