Hebrew School Dilemmas

With the latest annual report of Jewish school funding having been released by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, my eyes are drawn to the rapidly changing enrollment numbers. Among the supplementary schools, on average, and relative to program grades offered, Sunday-only programs (admittedly owing largely to Chabad’s dramatic rise) are able to attract and sustain enrollment better than are the more intensive programs, with the enrollment of the most intensive supplementary school falling steadily.

 

Much of these enrollment patterns no doubt have to do with changing preferences and circumstances among parents. With many families now boasting two-working parents, transportation to an after-school Hebrew program can be a challenge. (Though one program offers a taxi service to help address this need.) Add to this the competing pulls of sports, drama, music and art, the idea that a Bar or Bat Mitzvah can just as easily be celebrated via a trip to Israel rather than in one’s shul, and afternoon Hebrew school can be a tough sell. Many of these points are documented in Ottawa-based, Jackie Luffman’s wordpress blog OttawaShtetl.

 

Yet at the same time, Jewish day school enrollment — whose model is premised on the idea that weekends and afterschool hours are free for other activities, is also on the decline in Ottawa, particularly among non-Orthodox families.

 

Here, as a supplementary school parent, I will share some frustrations and dreams.

 

First, I struggle with wanting to keep synagogue attendance on Shabbat morning as a regular part of my family’s rhythm (not every week, necessarily, but not never, either). But it is a scheduling conundrum. With Hebrew school on Sunday mornings (as well as on some weekdays), most Saturday mornings my family members are looking to engage other parts of their minds and bodies. Committing to Hebrew school also means leaving less time for kids’ activities; keeping 9-2 every Saturday free of extra-curricular lessons altogether is therefore an added challenge. Shabbat morning shul attendance need not be an all-or-nothing proposition, of course, but that is not the case with extra-curriculars: one doesn’t generally attend one’s swim, dance or piano lessons only “sometimes.”

 

Even if extra-curricular scheduling isn’t the problem, my instinct tells me that many, if not most, supplementary school families who take their kids to Hebrew school on Sundays have little desire to center their Saturday mornings around shul.

 

A couple of years ago, I was on a committee tasked with developing a “shul school” at my synagogue, one that would have avoided the Sunday morning crunch in favour of in-shul experiential learning on Shabbat mornings. For an array of reasons, that project didn’t end up launching, but certainly the landscape is still ripe for this kind of experiential learning.

 

Relatedly, I look at other models with great interest. Consider the Jewish Journey Project, conceived of by Rabbi Joy Levitt, head of JCC-Manhattan. Billed for students in grades 3-7, it’s a model that accounts for varying interests and which builds in inherent flexibility. The website describes JJP applicants as coming “to understand that Jewish learning takes place in many settings, not just the traditional classroom. JJP is a living classroom, a network of museums, community centers, synagogues, theaters, art galleries, parks, gardens, and your family’s home.”

 

Now, one can assume that New York City possesses just a “tad” more Jewish resources than does Ottawa. But we should realize how rich our own resources are relative to how much they are being used by the average Jewish child here: everything from the exploring the Jewish archives, to visiting Hillel Lodge, to attending Jewish music concerts, to mounting Hebrew plays, to witnessing an array of life-cycle events, to engaging in Jewishly-infused eco-gardening, to attending synagogues themselves, many of which struggle to fill their sanctuaries with youth on a regular basis.

 

My second concern relates to Hebrew. I have yet to be convinced that any of our local supplementary schools are necessarily committed to imparting Hebrew as a dynamic, living language. I have seen first-hand the incredible effects of being exposed to French for just a couple of hours daily in our city’s French immersion kindergarten programs.  Do any of our supplementary schools use Hebrew as a working language in the classroom?

 

Finally, I am concerned about the social splintering and wasting of resources that necessarily occurs due to there being five Jewish supplementary schools in Ottawa at the elementary level. With enrollment at some schools being as low as one or two students in a given grade, I urge our community to consider amalgamation. The kind of shared resources, economies of scale, and overall social capital that could be generated by merging two, three, or even all five supplementary schools could be tremendous.

 

Now I pass the baton to you, my fellow Jewish community members.

 

 

 

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