10 Years of Believing in Jewish Day School Education

5. “Link the Silos” for Quality Synagogue Education
Congregations remain the most widespread and beloved form of Jewish affiliation. No wonder they’re at the
heart of strategies to “link the silos” (a concept coined by Jack Wertheimer), which maximize the impact of
each Jewish experience. But for Jewish life to flourish, we must create a unified vision of synagogue-based
Jewish learning—integrating formal and informal experiences and including family and adult learning,
intensive Jewish summer camping, and Israel experiences—as part of warm, caring, and just communities
that are fully engaged with the wider community and the broader needs of humankind. Cut off from a
living and vital Jewish community, Jewish education is meaningless talk with little connection to values,
culture, or purpose. Great synagogues must be a central component in any effort to fill our day schools as
part of a general revitalization of Jewish life.
Expand Day School Enrollment
A serious expansion of day school participation is only possible with the kind of renaissance in American
Jewish life that is indicated by the growth of these initiatives. We are in a time of opportunity, and if these
initiatives are brought to scale, we can expect day schools to reap essential and long-lasting benefits as part
of what might well be a golden age for American Jewry. That said, there are two issues directly related to day
school education that demand our attention:
• Although recent increases in tuition challenge recruitment, fees are unlikely to drop because of the
demands for better facilities, teachers, and extracurricular activities. Therefore, vastly increased scholarship
funds must be a communal funding priority. Increases from unrestricted federation resources are unlikely,
but federations can and must take greater responsibility for this challenge. As federations change (and
they will change!) from campaigns based on unrestricted to designated gifts, day schools should be a
priority for endowments, planned gifts, and greatly expanded pools of scholarship resources.
Celebrating 10 years of believing in Jewish Education 13