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Decline in local Jewish students raises questions

By Leon Cohen

February 18th, 2010

Or is there a general Milwaukee-area community decline in the numbers of school age children that is reflected in the local Jewish community?

Either or both of these possibilities may be reflected in the 2009-2010 Annual School Census recently released by the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

But absent a more up-to-date study of the local Jewish population, the meaning of these numbers is difficult to determine, according to three Jewish community officials.

This census compiles enrollment numbers provided by four area Jewish nursery schools, five area Jewish day schools (three elementary schools, two high schools), and 10 area synagogue religious schools or independent supplemental religious schools.

The totals show that the total population of school age children enrolled in Jewish educational institutions declined by 5.3 percent from the previous school year to this – from 2,079 in the 2008-09 year to 1,968 in 2009-10.

Steven Baruch, Ph.D., CJL executive director, said he believed the “main factor” in the decline has been “a general decline in the school population overall. It seems reasonable that the Jewish community would reflect that also.”

“I’d say that’s the main factor, but aggravated in some small degree by the economy,” Baruch said in a telephone interview Feb. 8.

Nevertheless, “in some respects all this is speculative… We do the census and compile the numbers, but we don’t have the time or the staff to delve into everything that is going on,” he said.

On the other hand, Mark Shapiro, executive director of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, believes that “these numbers directly reflect the economic times.”

There are some local Jewish families in which one or both parents have lost jobs, and therefore are now “getting their needs met in the public schools at no cost,” said Shapiro in a telephone interview on Feb. 11.

Shapiro also said he believes that is the reason for the decline in enrollment at the JCC Gan Ami pre-school programs: the one in Mequon (down from 67 last year to 50 this year) and at the JCC campus (down from 219 last year to 195 this year).

However, Shapiro said that the numbers provided to CJL “are only a snapshot in time.” Even since the numbers were sent to CJL, they changed, Shapiro said.

Moreover, these numbers say nothing about why local parents are making the decisions they are, and that subject needs to be studied directly, Shapiro said.

Sheryl Primakow, director of community planning for the federation, said in a telephone interview on Feb. 9, that the federation is planning to do demographic research to find out what the declining numbers mean.

The last MJF study of the Milwaukee Jewish population took place in 1996, she said. The MJF has convened a “Jewish community research group” to “start the process of exploring what we need to know and how we need to go about getting that information,” she said.

Primakow said the committee began meeting during the week of Feb. 7-13, and she hopes it will have recommendations “in a few months.” It is likely, she added, that a new study “won’t be as comprehensive” as the one in 1996.

“We feel that with today’s technology, there are a lot of opportunities for Internet demographic research” and in that way “we can find out what we need to know about the numbers, where people are living, what the priorities are for the Jewish community, as well as how many children of school age we have,” she said.

The one local school that has grown significantly in the number of students enrolled this year is the Milwaukee Community Cheder, a program of Lubavitch of Wisconsin. The census states that it has 66 students this academic year, up from 44 last year.

Cheder director Rabbi Avremi Schapiro said in a telephone interview on Feb. 8 that he attributes this growth partly to the school’s decision to drop its Wednesday classes. Its classes now only meet on Sunday mornings, and the school offers an option for additional, specialized study on Wednesdays, he said.

He also attributes the growth to the school’s efforts to have parents participate in the children’s education and the school’s efforts to make everybody feel welcome, with “no questions about where [in religious observance] you come from or where you are going,” he said.

Schapiro said he is not sure about the effect of the recession on enrollment. The school does charge tuition, and 65 percent of the families pay it in full, with most of the rest paying 50 to 70 percent of the charge.

He said that last year “a couple of kids” came to his school from area day schools, but this year the school has no students who were in a day school last year.

Formerly op-ed editor, Leon Cohen has written for The Chronicle for more than 25 years.