Hebrew Day Schools Chart 10 Year Program; Seek Federal, State, Communal Aid

Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky, National Director of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, has announced the initiation of an intensive 10-year “crash” program to provide the Jewish communities in the U.S. and Canada with an additional 200 Hebrew Day Schools. As the first step in the Day School movement’s 10 year plan, Torah Umesorah will attempt to raise $300,000 in 1971. At the present time, Torah Umesorah has a network of some 425 schools in 31 states and 5 Canadian provinces. For the next decade it projects 125 new elementary schools and 75 high schools, 20 of which are scheduled to serve such regional areas as the Southeast, Mid-West and the West Coast. Speaking at the 27th annual dinner of Torah Umesorah held here last week, Dr. Kaminetsky declared that every Jewish community in the U.S. with a Jewish population of 7,500 or better, “with one exception,” already has a Hebrew Day School. He did not identify the “one exception.”

Plans for the next decade, he added hopefully “will see the establishment of a Hebrew Day School in at least every community with a Jewish population of 2,500 or better,” and also urged the establishment of a central educational agency similar to Torah Umesorah in England. He stated that future partners in-aid in his agency’s massive effort would probably be the Federal and State governments as well as the communal funds of the Jewish community. “The government must make freedom of choice in education a viable option. Hence we expect more involvement in terms of state aid for the secular portion of the Hebrew Day School effort, and we also think that the Jewish community and its welfare funds must reorder its priorities away from social welfare and recreation and towards the crucial question of ‘to be or not to be’ Jewish by increased funding of Hebrew Day Schools,” said Dr. Kaminetsky. At the annual dinner, a sum of $150,000 towards the projected $300,000 was pledged.