Los Angeles Reports Rise in Number of Children Attending Jewish Schools

An increase of 12-1/2 percent in the number of children attending 78 schools affiliated with the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education and a continued trend toward intensification of Jewish education during the current school year as compared with the prior one were reported today by the bureau.

The bureau reported that as of the start of the current school year, 26, 409 children were attending affiliated schools, an increase of 2,934 children over the prior school year. Enrollment in bureau-affiliated schools constitutes 94 percent of all children attending Jewish schools in the community.

Intensification of Jewish education was seen in the growth of enrollment in all-day schools which showed a gain of nearly 24 percent over the previous year. The number of pupils in bureau-affiliated Jewish high schools rose by 19, 2 percent. The bureau also reported a rise in the ratio of pupils attending week-day schools as compared with those attending the Sunday schools.

During 1961, four schools were added to the 76 affiliated with the bureau. Two schools were discontinued for lack of adequate attendance. A new day school in Alhambra absorbed children formerly attending the Los Angeles Jewish Academy on the city’s east side. Schools supervised and serviced by the bureau include kindergarten classes, primary schools and secondary institutions. During the current school year, II nursery schools with 431 pupils affiliated with the bureau.

The bureau reported that a supervisor had been working for more than a year with principals and teachers of the Nursery Schools Association, which was organized by the bureau, to develop standards for teachers on the pre-school level, as well as standards for the curricula of such schools. Staff members of the bureau also were assigned to work with area councils set up by the Los Angeles Jewish Federation-Council for suburban areas of the city.