There have been a lot of conversations recently about the decline of synagogues. Alarmist articles and panels that issue dire warnings about the end of the synagogue era and North American Jewry as we know it. While I acknowledge the concern and the validity of some of the less-than-ideal statistics, those of us who work at or belong to successful synagogues see and experience a different story. We are part of thriving, robust, and yes, growing communities that are contending not with empty classrooms or pews, but instead with a lack of space to accommodate the hundreds of families that walk through our doors. So rather than join the chorus of questions about what’s going wrong, I’d like to take an appreciative inquiry approach and ask “what’s going right” in these communities? Why are certain congregations growing?
While there are of course multiple variables that account for a synagogue’s growth and success, the number one variable responsible for a growing synagogue is the health and effectiveness of its congregational school. This may sound surprising, but it shouldn’t. The majority of new members to congregations are families, and the majority of families join a community to give their children a Jewish education. There are additional reasons that draw a family to a congregation, but a synagogue’s education program is almost always the driving force. Contrary to the ever-pervasive and enduring myth that congregational schools are a financial drain on the synagogue’s budget, they are in fact the very fountain of life that sustains it. When you consider the number of members with children enrolled in the school, or those who originally joined for the school, it is plain to see that it is the school that is sustaining the synagogue and not the other way around. Show me a growing synagogue, and I’ll show you the exceptional educational program behind it.
Once we understand the critical role that congregational schools play in the growth and success of a synagogue, it follows that one of the most important positions in any community is that of the congregational educator. You cannot have an effective school without an impactful educator. We would expect then that the professional in such a vital position would earn a salary proportional to the value of their role to the organization. In this case, we would be wrong.
A number of colleagues have made a practice over the years of sharing educator job descriptions with me so I may share them with my professional network. As I reviewed the stack in my email inbox this year, several concerning patterns emerged. The first was the sheer volume of duties expected of a congregational educator. Contrary to popular belief, an educator’s role is not limited to curricular and educational responsibilities. Educators are a human resources team of one, hiring and managing dozens of staff, often more than any other role in the organization. Educators often oversee payroll of their teachers, the budget for their programs, membership and community engagement, communication and marketing, the physical and emotional health and safety for hundreds of students, emergency protocols and organizational systems, training and professional development, operations, event management, and pastoral care. In addition, over the last three years, they also took on the roles of medical and epidemiology experts, social workers, and online learning facilitators. They are the executive directors of a business within a business.
The second and even more alarming pattern I noticed from these job descriptions was the inadequate salaries that most congregational educators are being paid relative to other leadership roles in the organization. Following the pages and pages of job expectations and responsibilities were shockingly low salary ranges, described as “competitive,” that were in no way, shape, or form, proportional to the jobs they are expected to do and the value that they bring. It’s also notable that many of these jobs were for synagogues based in some of the most expensive cities in the country. Educators have more responsibilities and supervise more people than everyone else in the organization; why are their salaries not reflective of that?1
“Educators have more responsibilities and supervise more people than everyone else in the organization; why are their salaries not reflective of that?”
How can we address the discrepancy between the value educators add to their synagogues and the value their synagogues place on them? The first step is to better understand and address the reason behind it. I cannot bring myself to believe that my educator colleagues are simply less valued. I know enough synagogue leadership staff that value and respect their educators. However, valuing someone and understanding the actual value they bring to their organization are two different things. I believe that most senior leadership staff and board members do not fully grasp the scope and volume of an educator’s role, nor their impact on synagogue membership and engagement. They need to take time to learn about the daily responsibilities and tasks of their educator, the scope of the work they oversee, and the impact their work has on the health and growth of their synagogue.
The second step is to identify appropriate comparables for educator salaries. When the Association of Reform Jewish Educators released their most recent Compensation and Benefits Survey Report in January, I watched my colleagues clamber to compare their salaries to others in the field. Many were eager to share this information with their boards and supervisors to show a clearer picture of where they stood. It was then that I realized our very premise was wrong. The comparables we currently use are warped and unhelpful because educators are comparing their salaries to other educators. Looking to other inadequately paid colleagues to determine if our salary is better than the worst paid among us will not elevate the field, nor will it result in salaries proportional to the value we bring. In many synagogues’ defense, when they describe an educator’s salary as “competitive,” they’re not wrong; but competitive with what? We need to identify a comparable leadership role within the synagogue with similar levels of responsibility, accountability, and impact. It is not other educators with whom we should be comparing our salaries; it is clergy.
When we compare the educator salary information with the 2019-2020 Study of Rabbinic Compensation, a partnership program between the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism, it becomes clear that the educator salaries are far from competitive. As an example, educators with more than 20 years of supervisory/managerial experience were earning almost the same average base salary as Assistant Rabbis, most of whom have a maximum of 3 years of experience in their roles, almost all of which are not supervisory in nature. The average base salary for those educators with 10 years or less of supervisory/managerial experience was significantly lower, despite the years of experience being higher. It is also worth noting that 80% of the educators surveyed held a master’s degree. When you compare educator salaries with those of Associate Rabbis, the picture becomes bleaker. I want to be clear that it is not my intention to diminish the value of my rabbinical and other clergy colleagues who are doing critical, difficult, and holy work; it is my goal, instead, to advocate for the equal value and valuation of our education colleagues. We can no longer look to other education roles as comparables for congregational educator salaries; we must look to associate clergy roles. Congregational educators should be paid as much as Associate Rabbis, commensurate with experience. That should be the bar we set and the scale that synagogues use.
Of all of the conversations we can be having about the future health and sustainability of the Jewish community, why have this conversation now? Because congregations are at an existential inflection point. Every year, the number of congregational educators entering the field diminishes, and the number leaving the field increases. The stress and all-consuming nature of the job paired with inadequate and disproportional salaries are making these roles unattractive, inhospitable, and uninhabitable. A colleague who graduated in the last 5 years shared that 90% of her educator classmates have already considered leaving the field altogether. Without qualified and effective congregational educators, and subsequently successful education programs, the main draw for synagogue membership disappears. What will synagogues do without congregational educators? Do we risk finding out?
“Without qualified and effective congregational educators, and subsequently successful education programs, the main draw for synagogue membership disappears. What will synagogues do without congregational educators?”
It is time to align the value we ascribe to congregational educators to the value they bring to our communities. It is time to match their valuation with their value added. It is time to make these roles worth the effort and excellence they require. It is time to ask what price you are willing to pay for the future of the Jewish community.
