In Caron Rice’s role as a parent and as director of operations at the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study, she has both personally felt and witnessed the financial weight of being an engaged Jew.
As a member of the West Side Orthodox Jewish community and mother of three children who all attended Jewish day schools, she knows the monetary challenges that parents face as they lead, and engage their children in, Jewish lives.
But Rice, like many other Jewish families, has always taken the costs in stride.
The families in her community are not the ones who “take elaborate vacations or dress ostentatiously,” Rice said. These are families who don’t eat meat during the week and drive older vehicles to reduce costs. In fact, she has seen women so desperate they will “cut sponges in half to save money.”
However, “there is a holiness in the way that we live,” she said. And “education has always been my top priority. I grew up in a household that always valued education.”
It is easy to see why families are putting a priority on making sure they are engaged in Jewish life.
According to a 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey report on the effect of childhood Jewish education on adult’s Jewish identity, Jewish schooling, camping and a trip to Israel are the top three experiences in ensuring a strong Jewish identity and attachment to Israel as an adult.
But all of these activities come at a price — in addition to the ongoing costs of kosher food, synagogue membership dues, religious school and tzedakah.
In an effort to find out what an average Jewish family spends on the cost of Jewish living and how they deal with its financial challenges, The Chronicle recently interviewed several parents about their current situations.
We also contacted local Jewish schools, synagogues, camps, and the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center to discover exactly how much a Jewish family can expect to spend on their Jewish community involvement.
Making choices
Whatever the cost may be, “I’m not a believer that you give up Jewish things,” says Ed Rosenthal of Glendale. He and his wife Michal, who both work, have five children, four of whom currently attend day school, and one who will soon begin.
For Rosenthal, the reasons for Jewish involvement and education for his children are clear.
“There is a difference in the values that Jews place on different types of education. Values that we get at a Jewish school are stressed in a way that would never be stressed in public school,” he said.
In addition, he believes a Jewish day school education provides “a safe, less stressful environment” for children that will give them a “good solid Jewish identity” and will result in “solid practices as they get older. If you provide kids with good positive experiences growing up, those carry over into adulthood.”
But “all of these things have a cost associated with them,” Rosenthal said, which, for his family is “multiplied by a larger number.”
According to the 2000-01 NJPS, in the baseline findings between formal Jewish education and Jewish identity indicators, those who attended Jewish day school for 7-12 years reported an in-marriage rate of 96 percent, as opposed to those who had none at all, who had an in-marriage rate of 33 percent.
Eighty-six percent of those who attended day school also reported that being Jewish was very important to them, and 67 percent said they were very attached to Israel.
Similarly, 77 percent of those who experienced Jewish camping in-married, compared to a national intermarriage rate of 47 percent. Fifty-six percent of former Jewish campers felt being Jewish was very important, and 41 percent felt attached to Israel.
“You do without lots of things so your children can get these experiences,” Rosenthal said. But, “it’s important Jewishly, it’s not an option. It’s just the way it works.”
‘Our first challenge’
When Greg Dorf and his wife Dana’s three children were young, they decided to send each of them to the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center preschool.
“At that time we had relatively small income,” Dorf said, and “the simple requirement to be a JCC member in order to send your kids to preschool was our first challenge.”
But “as kids get older, the cost of living jumps incrementally,” he said. And with three children now attending the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, those costs continue to rise for his family.
With the addition of a synagogue membership, Dorf said, other activities, such as Jewish camping for his children in the summer, have become “luxury items.”
Though Dorf said that his family “has been incredibly fortunate that our income has grown pretty consistently” since his children were very young, and it “has enabled us to be able to do all of the things we’re doing,” he added that “it’s absolutely still a challenge to keep up with our full involvement in the Jewish community.”
“If it weren’t for Jewish education, we’d be able to afford all kinds of things that we don’t currently do,” Dorf said.
However, he and his wife have made “a commitment to raising our kids with a Jewish identity,” he said and they chose MJDS for their children because it is “a small, nurturing environment with strong Jewish values.”
At the same time, asked Dorf, “At what point do you consider something to be a luxury … or a valuable investment?” He said he often jokes that when asked if his family is a member of Brynwood Country Club, his typical response is that “we belong to the [Milwaukee] Jewish Day School.”
Everyday Jewish living
Jewish families also face higher costs with the purchase of kosher food and holidays.
“I can tell you Passover can cost $1,000 in one week,” Rice said, though some families “spend more than that. You have to think of it — Passover is about 10 Thanksgiving meals,” she said.
To help with the costs, Rice started purchasing items she knew she would need for Passover, like wine and aluminum foil, “back in January,” she said.
“Shabbos is also important,” Rice said. “What we spend for Shabbos…it adds up.”
But, she said, it’s a matter of “putting different priorities on things.”
In addition to these expenses comes the question of Jewish philanthropy, which is considered by many to be a mandatory part of Jewish life. “At what point do you start to support the [Milwaukee Jewish] Federation?” asked Dorf.
“It’s really important because there is not only an expectation, but you really want to give.
And that’s just one source of charity, that’s just staying within Jewish life. If you are a philanthropic person you want to give to others — if you’re Jewish, that’s part of what we’re meant to do.”
Just the cost of living in an area near other Jews can be expensive. According to Howard Loeb, of Shorewest Realtors, though Jews live everywhere, those areas that “are closest to facilities that serve Jewish needs” tend to be more expensive.
For example, in 2005, the average cost of homes sold in Glendale was $211,181. In Fox Point it was $376,874, and in Mequon it was $414,545. The average home price in Milwaukee was $146,754.
Getting assistance
Almost all of the agencies that spoke with The Chronicle offer scholarships or base their fees on a sliding scale commensurate with family income. Several synagogues could not provide membership prices, as such fees are always determined on an individual basis.
But when it comes to education, “it’s the middle income that gets squeezed,” Rice said. “Lower income people get scholarships” while “wealthier homes are able to be involved.”
Dorf agreed. At the upper-middle income level, “you don’t want to consider a scholarship” because “it should be available for people with much less means. You don’t even want to broach the topic.”
According to MJDS, about 40 percent of its students are currently attending school on scholarship.
These scholarships, and those for other Jewish day schools, are awarded based on need by a committee through the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the federation.
According to Steven A. Baruch, Ph.D., executive director of CJL, families apply through their school of choice and the committee receives the applications without applicants’ names.
The committee then awards scholarships “according to different situations,” Baruch said. CJL then distributes funds from the Helen Bader Foundation directly to the schools.
The foundation recently expanded its day school scholarships, according to Tobey Libber, program officer for the foundation’s Jewish Life and Learning area. It increased the amount offered from $400,000 to $500,000 annually.
There are also separate scholarships for Jewish overnight camping and Israel experiences available through the Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the federation, according to Caren Goldberg, associate executive director of the foundation.
Another way that some families are able to send their children to a Jewish day school is through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program that is offered through the State of Wisconsin at Yeshiva Elementary School.
The program is for residents of the City of Milwaukee who meet certain income requirements, and allows children to attend designated private schools at no cost.
According to Rice, the program has been a “huge draw in bringing families to Milwaukee and stabilizing the West Side community.”
But, said Baruch, the program “in essence underwrites the whole community,” as it extends the availability of the rest of the scholarship funds to other students.
Though some are opposed to the Choice funding, when they realize this fact, Baruch said, “it give them cause for pause,” because “it does have an impact on the rest of the Jewish community.”
No profits for agencies
Libber, who has spent a great deal of time reviewing the budgets of Jewish agencies, said it was important to note that despite the high cost of involvement in Jewish institutions, “none of them are making profits. They’re not rolling in the dollars.”
He said there are “scholarships all over the place” and agencies can’t adjust their fees, as it would result in a decrease in program quality.
About two years ago, the Helen Bader Foundation and the federation conducted a study of two focus groups that analyzed barriers to participation in Jewish life, one of which was affordability.
Libber said that the groups were presented several of what he thought were “outstanding and creative ways” for people to be able to more easily afford participation in Jewish life.
However, the ideas, which included a community loan fund and a discount program, among others, were determined to be short-term solutions that didn’t fix the problem of high costs.
Since then, Libber said, the foundation has switched its focus from a “community wide” approach to looking at individual agencies, program by program.
“Our board has made some significant grants to help reduce barriers,” he said.
One of the things the Helen Bader Foundation grants have secured is the addition of development directors at several Jewish schools.
“The goal behind that,” said Libber, is to add professional expertise to the schools’ staffs to “raise dollars in new and creative ways.”
Despite these rising costs, said Rice, “I do not believe there is an institution that will turn away a student because of lack of ability to pay.”
“My big concern,” said Rosenthal, “is that raising your kids Jewishly with the benefits of Jewish camp, Jewish day school and high school are unfortunately going to become available only to the rich and that is not acceptable.”
“We still need to keep the lights on, feed the kids, pay the rabbi’s salary,” said Rice. “It’s a tremendous balance.”
Loading ...