Dear Sir:
In your issue of Sunday, December 11th, I find that you gave prominent place to a statement made by Mr. A. Goldblatt of Chicago to the effect that 90% of the children in Chicago are without Jewish education. This statement is quite untrue, and I believe that it unjustly casts aspersion on a large community.
In the city of Chicago there are estimated to be about 60,000 Jewish children of elementary school age. In the elementary schools (week-day and Sunday) affiliated with the Board of Jewish Education are enrolled 7,000 pupils. There are, besides, some 2,500 pupils in the Talmud Torahs affiliated with the Kehillah, and over 4,500 pupils in week-day or Sunday schools not affiliated with either organization. Exclusive, therefore, of private instruction and of secondary schooling, there are in the city of Chicago, at any one time, approximately 14,000 pupils in the Jewish schools, or about 25% of the total child population. This is approximately the same situation as exists in other large communities.
A. M. Dushkin, Executive Director, Board of Jewish Education, Chicago.
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.
