Life of U.S. Jewry As Reflected in Late Despatches

For the first time in four years, Jewish education in Philadelphia is on the up-grade, and leaders in Jewish educational endeavor are considering what steps they might take to encourage this wholesome manifestation.

Figures compiled by Ben Rosen, executive director of the Associated Talmud Torahs, and counselor-at-large to the other educational institutions in the city, show that in six of the conservative congregational schools there was an increased enrollment over last year of 433 pupils, representing a gain of 24 percent over that of 1932. In the Associated Talmud Torahs there has been an increase of about 200 pupils, or a gain of approximately 9 percent. The Hebrew Sunday School Society, the oldest institution of its kind in this country, having been founded by Rebecca Gratz, reports similar progress.

The present enrollment in the Jewish schools of this city is estimated roughly as follows:

Elementary schools, including weekday, Sunday and Yiddish schools… 11,890

Secondary schools, including Hebrew High Schools and the High School Department of the Sunday Schools… 290

Extension education, including children, adults and youth… 5,450

Teacher’s Training Schools, including training departments and general or academic departments… 100

This makes a total of 17,730 children receiving one type or another of Jewish education through organized channels.

It is estimated that the total cost of this education is $318,000 a year. Towards this sum the Federation of Jewish Charities contributes approximately $90,000.

There is another aspect of the problem revealed by these figures that is disconcerting. Estimating the Jewish child population at approximately 50,000, it means that 35 percent of the children are at a given time found in the Jewish schools. Though this percentage is said to be larger than in previous years, it is felt that the third largest Jewish community in America should not permit a condition where approximately 30,000 of its young people are growing up without receiving any Jewish education whatsoever.

Commenting on the condition obtaining in the Associated Talmud Torahs and in some of the other schools, Mr. Rosen stressed the fact that the availability of funds determines the size of the enrollment. There is not the slightest doubt, Mr. Rosen maintains, that if greater funds were available, the number of children attending communal schools would be greatly increased, more so now than in recent years. Conditions somehow seem to be favorable to Jewish education. Parents who remained indifferent in the past seem to be awaking to a realization of the importance of Jewish education in the lives of their children.