In my community of Chicago, the layout and design of much of our wonderful downtown, fabulous waterfront and enviable green spaces were envisioned by an urban planner some 120 years ago named Daniel Burnham. He looked at our fetid river, overcrowded slums, and ignored lakefront and developed the Burnham Plan of 1909 which laid out a bold vision of how to turn a squalid outdated model of a city into a modern urban community that we enjoy today. Many thought his ideas fanciful and unrealistic, but he articulated his value of tackling seemingly insurmountable challenges when he said “make no little plans. They have no magic to stir [people’s] blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” I find that quote, and the risk and reward it implies, to be not only inspirational but apropos to the field of Jewish education, specifically supplementary education. Supplementary education needs a Burnham plan of its own, and it will take the entire community to make it happen.
Supplementary education in North America is still largely provided by congregations using an outdated model largely unchanged since the post-war urban migration of Jews to the suburbs in the 1950s and 60s. It has become a synonym for failure amongst American Jewry and it is, unfairly in my opinion, blamed for many of the troubles facing our community. It is, however, still the most common choice of Jewish education for families that choose to educate their children.
The challenges facing supplementary education are daunting. Non-Orthodox Jews are disengaging from synagogues and synagogue education at unprecedented rates. The recent study released by the Jewish Education Project (JEP), From Census to Possibilities: Designing Pathways for Jewish Learners, reported that total enrollment in North American supplementary schools has decreased at least 45 percent since the 2006-2007 school year. While that data point is disheartening, it is certainly not surprising to most Jewish educators working in the congregational space. Looking at this author’s community of Chicago, for example, the trend highlighted by the JEP study can be borne out by a documented overall enrollment decline of 5% a year in local congregational schools from 2016 through 2020.
So, who should facilitate the next Burnham plan for supplementary Jewish education? I propose that federations undertake that duty. I can already sense the eyerolls from many readers of this piece at that suggestion as many perceive them as stilted legacy institutions that impede more than facilitate solutions. Given the challenges we face though, federations are built for this task for the following reasons.
- Jewish education at its base is a local challenge, especially supplementary education. There is no national equivalent to Prizmah for day schools or Foundation for Jewish Camp or Birthright Israel in the supplementary education space, and the denominational movements have yet to recover their pre-2008 recession capacity to support their congregations educationally. With the post-recession demise of over half of the Bureaus of Jewish Education in North America, it has increasingly fallen on the local federations to engage with supplementary education in their communities and they have a vested interest in the provision of Jewish education there as well. Burnham’s plan worked for Chicago in part because he knew Chicago, and local federations can bring that local knowledge to the table.
“So, who should facilitate the next Burnham plan for supplementary Jewish education? I propose that federations undertake that duty.”
- Federations have the power of convening. Successful federations are trusted gatherers of community stakeholders to look at issues facing the community and can access important voices beyond the community itself. For example, there are a number of entrepreneurial and unique non-congregational programs of successful supplementary education that have evolved across the country such as Atlanta’s Jewish Kids Groups, Philadelphia’s Makom Community and Chicago’s Jewish Enrichment Center of Hyde Park to name just a few. How can they be brought into conversation with congregational education so the congregations can learn from their success? Federations have the capacity to organize and facilitate forums and working groups at various levels to dive deeply into both the challenges and potential solutions that would result from such a process. Burnham brought together Chicago’s elected and civic thinkers with technical experts like architects and engineers to generate and actualize the plan, and federations can do that as well regarding supplementary education for our Jewish communities.
- Federations, working as trusted local partners with funders, were instrumental in both the quality improvement and capacity expansion of local day schools, summer camps, Israel experiences and youth programming. If that partnership can be activated with serious intention for change in the supplementary education space, and with a committed attitude of “can-do” rather than “don’t bother,” then success can be replicated in this space as it was in the others. This will require the recognition by federations and funders that congregations are communal institutions as well and need communal support to make real change at this point. Federations at their best are equipped to push important initiatives forward for the betterment of the community and can be the partner all stakeholders need to implement real change and solutions. Burnham persuaded local businesses and philanthropists to invest in the plan’s vision and potential in part because he was a trusted actualizer of Chicago’s development, and federations ideally have the same credibility in their own communities as well.
“Federations at their best are equipped to push important initiatives forward for the betterment of the community and can be the partner all stakeholders need to implement real change and solutions.”
- Federations can provide the underpinning for external assessment and evaluation of brave ideas when they are attempted in real life. They have the resources to engage and administer outside evaluators and garner community input on the impact and long-term feasibility of new models. Not all parts of the Burnham plan got off the drawing board because they were not practical in the long run. Federations can help ensure the data is gathered to make the choices necessary to ensure the best use of resources in service of the ideas generated.
Federations will need to gear up for undertaking such a task and they will have to own it. Local federations will have to task planning professionals to organize a process for their communities and work to really understand the state of local supplementary education. After all, Burnham’s plan for Chicago would not have solved the urban woes of Detroit or Los Angeles. The Jewish Federations of North America umbrella network could convene the local planners to ensure they are fully informed about both the challenges facing supplementary education providers and to provide access to both congregational and non-congregational models that are succeeding. The ultimate task, though, is a local one. It will take time and commitment to generate and support actual models in the community. It will need the same level of investment, commitment and ownership that federations give to other aspects of local community such as caring for the elderly, supporting Israel and funding day schools.
Supplementary Jewish education, the most chosen form of Jewish education among non-Orthodox Jews, needs a paradigm shift. That can only happen through a process of unprecedented scale. Federations are the right resource to convene and commence this daunting process and keep all the stakeholders on task and in sync. The results will hopefully be Burnhamesque, with the magic to stir people’s blood and realize long-lasting solutions that will benefit our community for generations to come.
