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News Brief

December 9, 2005
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Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, outgoing chancellor of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, proposed free Jewish education for every child whose family belongs to a JCC or synagogue of any denomination. Announcing his “bold entitlement proposal” Thursday at the end of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s biennial convention in Boston, Schorsch described it as a strategy to combat the Jewish community’s growing attrition rate. Every Jewish child has a “birthright to a serious Jewish education,” Schorsch said, but that doesn’t come automatically — the family must actively affiliate, with some denomination. Schorsch proposed that Jewish federations pay most of the cost, referring to the “immense legacy funds” at federations that “could be earmarked” for the project. Such a move would strength the denominations and the relationship between the synagogues and federations, he said.

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