$15 M Allocated by 210 Jewish Communal Groups This Year for Jewish Education in the U.S.

A total of $15 million was allocated this year by 210 Jewish communal groups throughout the country for Jewish education in the U.S., It was reported by I. Jerome Stern to the 2500 communal leaders from the U.S., Canada and abroad attending the 43rd General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. The money raised this year, he said, was double the amount allocated for Jewish education in 1966.

Stern, chairman of the Committee on Federation Planning for Jewish Education, said the funds, raised by communal groups affiliated with the CJF, were used to maintain and enlarge programs dealing with cultural enrichment and Jewish Identification. He reported that some 60 percent was used to subsidize Jewish elementary and high schools while the remaining 40 percent was utilized by 74 Federation-supported boards of Jewish education and committees for audio-visual material, curriculum aids, texts and consultants.

Allocations for Jewish day schools. Stern said, are currently above $4 million. Figures he provided showed that about 75,000 children attend Jewish day schools in this country, 200,000 attend week-day afternoon schools and 125,000 attend Jewish Sunday schools.

Stern noted that Jewish Federations and welfare fund organizations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Toronto and New York are allocating $1 million or more for Jewish education. However, he said, “allocations to all-day Jewish schools continue to grow at a faster rate, and in our large cities already represent 22 percent of all funds expended for Jewish education.” The Assembly adopted a resolution calling for expansion of support for Jewish education.

EFFORTS TO MAKE CJF MORE REPRESENTATIVE

The five-day Assembly, which ended yesterday, focussed on priority measures to strengthen the quality of Jewish life in North America and to re late it to the diverse concerns of American cities as well as to that of Israel and world Jewry. More than 100 meetings were held during the five days, including early breakfast sessions and past-midnight meetings.

Raymond Epstein, who was re-elected president of the CJF, stated that the Council has begun to scrutinize itself “in an effort to make it more representative, more responsive to the interests of its constituent Federations.” He noted that ” we not only seek to faithfully respond to those constituent interests but we must venture at times to lead them or at least to expose them to new, emerging, relevant concerns and solutions. We see our role today not as one of passive response but an acceptance of responsibility for initiating these actions which will best serve Federation goals”

To accomplish the objective of acting as “a collective community” a number of actions will be taken, including a restructuring of the CJF board and a schedule calling for more meetings throughout the country to make the CJF more accessible for participation by all, Epstein said.