During my 30 years as an educational administrator and, most recently my 15 years as head of Denver Jewish Day School, I have come to appreciate the board and the lasting impact that an outstanding board can have on a school. Certainly, a school would never enjoy success without a dedicated faculty, a community that supports its mission, and donors who help make up the difference between tuition and the cost to operate the institution. I believe that an engaged, committed and reflective board is also critical to the long-term success of an independent school. 

#1 The key to success starts with the Committee on Trustees (COT).

The key to success starts with The Committee on Trustees, the subcommittee of the board that nominates board members in my school. The makeup of that committee is highly strategic. Our COT functions best as a small group that includes the current board chair, immediate past board chair, a committee chair who is well connected in the community, and an additional board member who is also well connected in the community. The head of school and director of development should also serve on the COT. One must be invited to serve, as it is not a committee you can join voluntarily.

The COT begins its work many months before the slate of nominated board members is made public. This allows enough time to make thoughtful and strategic nominations for board membership. The COT should work to balance board membership 50/50 between current parents and community members, noting that former parents and alumni often can be excellent community board members. The COT should also look to balance the board out with people who have expertise or skills in different areas including finance, legal, fundraising, buildings and grounds and a connection to the mission of the school. Nominees should be someone whom the COT could someday see becoming the board chair or president. That helps keep succession planning front and center.

#2 A board also needs members who can support the school financially, and some who will make leadership level gifts to major fundraising campaigns.

The COT needs to speak transparently with prospective board members about the expectation that all board members support the school’s campaigns at a level that is meaningful and appropriate for them. There is not an expectation that all board members will make major gifts. However, it is important for some board members to be amongst the strongest financial supporters of the school. In our case, 100% of our board supports the school financially, and one-third of our board are major donors. Having your most dedicated leaders step up and give leadership gifts to both the annual campaign and capital campaign helps put the school in the strongest possible position for success, as board members asking for gifts have already stepped up and demonstrated their belief in the school.

#3 Board member training and ongoing education. 

Once the COT has nominated new board members and those members have been elected to the board, it is time to begin training them. I have found that it is best for new board members to be contacted directly by the board chair and/or the head of school to talk one-on-one about their new role and answer any questions or concerns they might have. A board orientation session held with each new board member is also very productive in preparing board members for their first meeting. A board training, which typically includes board leadership and school administration, should cover expectations and the different roles and responsibilities of the head of school and school staff (operations) and board members (fiduciary). There is sometimes some overlap or gray area between the responsibilities of the head and the board, and the subtleties of these issues can be discussed so that board members begin to get a sense of these items before they come up for the first time.

Board education continues during the school year as well. There are often opportunities for training at board meetings, and an annual retreat is a useful opportunity to strengthen a board. To me, a retreat is simply a gathering of the board that is substantially longer than a typical board meeting. A retreat could last three hours or three days, depending on the goals for the meeting. I prefer to get a few months into a new school year and begin working with a new board before selecting topics for a retreat. That way you have a sense of what the issues or challenges are, and an agenda can be set for the retreat that will be most productive and useful for the board.

#4 A well-run board meeting goes a long way.

This is an important element I have grown to appreciate over the years. The board chairs with whom I have worked have been dedicated to setting a meaningful agenda and sticking to it. Side discussions are not permitted, comments that are off track are redirected, and a polite dialogue steeped in our school’s values is expected. Respectful disagreement over issues is permitted in the boardroom, but upon conclusion of the meeting, the entire board is expected to support publicly what has been decided.

#5 The board chair-head relationship is a key partnership and must function well.

I recommend that the board chair and head have a scheduled weekly meeting where current, strategic and long-term issues can be discussed. My current board chair and I also developed a list of promises we made to each other about the way that we will work together. This covenant is at the top of our weekly meeting agenda, so it is always front and center. Most importantly, work to keep an open, transparent, and friendly dialogue between the chair and head. Settle differences before meetings, be transparent and upfront about feelings, and try to prevent surprises.
 
The board chair and/or head must also be prepared to have difficult conversations with board members when necessary. Conversations must be held with board members who dominate meetings, push a personal agenda, have poor attendance or are not in line with the mission or strategic plan of the school. These conversations are ones that many prefer to avoid, but they are crucial to have if you want a highly functioning board.
 
These steps are not exhaustive, nor do they guarantee that your school’s board will always make the right decisions. However, when implemented with care and dedication, they can help cultivate and sustain a high-functioning, independent school board.

Living Our Lives 

Fifteen years ago, when I was the head of an Orthodox Jewish day school, there were the beginnings of whispers about equitable pay for female leaders, leadership pipeline challenges, leaders’ emotional and mental health, and the complexity of the role of head of school. Fast forward to today and those topics are front and center in our communal landscape. Some days, from my 10,000 foot perch here at Prizmah, I have the privilege of imagining what could be true of our field fifteen years in the future. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who once quipped, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying,” reminding us to live our values at each and every moment. I have the privilege of working in a field of Jewish day schools and yeshivas that continuously and passionately urges us to live out our values.

Hiring Trends 

However, I recently noticed a curious trend which calls into question whether we, as a day school and yeshiva field, are truly embodying the values that we hold dear. 

Over the past three years, the hiring practices at Jewish day schools and yeshivas shed an interesting light on ongoing conversations about gender parity in the field. In 2020, 44% of open Prizmah headships, including both long-term and interim positions, were filled by women. That number decreased in 2021 to 30% of open headships and held steady this year at 31%. Said in a different way, for the past two years approximately 1 in 3 Jewish day school and yeshiva boards who were searching for a new head of school hired a woman for the role. In addition, the percentage of women hired by Jewish schools across the religious spectrum has dropped in noticeable ways in recent years.

If our values suggest that women have the potential to be hired at similar rates to men in the field, then we’ve got work to do.

The Vision

At Prizmah, one of our strategic priorities is the work of Deepening Talent, investing in the current and future talent pool of Jewish day school and yeshiva leadership. As a data-driven organization, we compile research on fieldwide trends to enable schools to have critical context for their own leadership practices and decisions. And in our work supporting schools in hiring leaders, we help them to ensure that they find the best leader possible for their school. We know with certainty that communities ready for women in these roles benefit from female role models, who amplify the existing diversity of voices and range of leadership styles.

The Current Reality 

Within Prizmah’s network of schools, 43% of the Reform, Schechter, and Community day schools are headed by women. However, among Orthodox schools, the numbers are lower than in the field as a whole. Given the extremely high percentages of women working in education writ large as teachers, learning specialists, counselors, division heads and support team members, the overall lower percentages of women in senior leadership positions in this sector represents an opportunity for individual and communal growth. 

Five years ago, Nishma published a research profile of American Modern Orthodox Jews with nearly 4,000 modern and centrist Orthodox respondents. In that study, 93% of respondents agreed that women should have expanded roles in Modern Orthodox organizational leadership. If that research reflects newly shifted cultural realities and communal norms as it seems to suggest, then what are the factors which are preventing more women from being hired as heads of school? Prizmah’s early research uncovers a range of factors, including job descriptions requiring semichah, leadership expectations out of alignment with the lifestyle of Orthodox women, and a lack of intentional leadership pipeline. 

Beyond these factors, the impact of Covid has been disproportionately felt within the female workforce than with their male counterparts. A number of suggestions have been made for addressing the return of women to the workforce, including those articulated by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine:

1. " Supporting caregivers via financial help, improved childcare infrastructure, and family-supportive policies; and 
2. Supporting workforce development via training programs for women, greater access to male-dominated jobs, and mental health services." 

The Plan

Prizmah has made a commitment to design intentional, strategic interventions in order to support leadership development for Orthodox women, to explore their access and obstacles to leadership positions, and to share their wisdom, experience and creative thinking with the field. We are working to ensure that current heads of school and rising leaders receive support to strengthen their leadership capabilities and profiles through cohort-based programs, mentoring and access to consultants.

In addition, we have commissioned two research studies to explore both compensation patterns and the cultures and conditions which enable Orthodox women to flourish in senior leadership positions. It is our hope that through this portfolio of work, communities interested in working with Orthodox women in senior leadership positions will encounter a robust cadre of candidates, current Orthodox female heads of school will thrive in their roles, and the field will have access to the necessary data in order to undertake intentional strategies for change.

The Invitation

Join us as we imagine a healthy future for schools in the field. A future in which the roles of senior leadership are easily navigated together with family life and the mental, spiritual and physical health of our school’s leaders are of utmost priority. And one which includes a masterful, creative and diverse range of leaders, so that our students see that the Jewish future requires and benefits from the leadership strengths and styles of all its members.

In her pivotal work In A Different Voice, Carol Gilligan lays out the concept that women are “living at once inside and outside the framework”—an observation that absolutely resonates with me as an Orthodox woman leader and head of school. 

Orthodox women, even in 2022, in varying degrees and depending on setting, are still “the other” vis-à-vis communal life, whether within the confines of the synagogue—where there is separate seating, differentiated roles and ritual practice—or even in protocols or etiquettes in social settings, communal events, praxis and visibility during lifecycle semachot. This otherness is palpable.

Leading Through Otherness 

The feeling of being “other” is real. In the realm of school life, how might this complicated “otherness” inform school vision and practice positively? 

For me this otherness, integrated into my persona, to a very strong degree underpins my stance and leadership practice in my sixteen years as head of school of the Seattle Hebrew Academy. From the beginning, the school’s bylaws had to be changed in order for me to be allowed to serve as the first female head in the school’s history of more than six decades.

To “live at once inside and outside the framework” is to identify and feel for “the other,” to deeply know the experience of not being fully comfortable in postures of power, not at ease with and perhaps philosophically against having the coffee made, phone calls cued up or notes written on my behalf in the office, and absolutely not acculturated to a heavy-handed authoritarian stance as an educator, the common “sage on the stage” posture in the classroom or at the school assembly.

Upon reflection, I had begun to adopt a non-hierarchical, more democratic stance as a “boss,” as educator and as a colleague. To me, to be “other” is to feel deeply for the weak, to give space for all voices and to be sensitive to the potential hurt of the disenfranchised. 

Is this a purely a personal penchant or an adoptable ideology?

Finding Our Vision

Coinciding with assuming my current position, I had been invited in 2006 to participate to the Visions of Jewish Education Project, which sought to develop a “vision” for our own particular schools. Here is the way that the project articulated the notion of “vision” (as outlined in the introduction of Visions Of Jewish Education, by Seymour Fox, Israel Scheffler and Daniel Marom):

Vision, as we understand it, is not simply ideological preference. It implies both comprehensive understanding and guiding purpose. It places the work of education in the setting of a present that is an outgrowth of the past but that also contains within it the seeds of a future to be grasped creatively through imagination and effort.

With these words taken to heart, together with the guidance of the faculty of the MTEI Visions project, I set out to develop a Visions Project. 

I wanted so much for the school as its new head: growth for the teachers, a healthy involvement for lay people and of course a transformative and inspiring education for the students. My mind raced from ideas of hands-on learning to student leadership, from the need for rigorous academics and to schoolwide chesed initiatives and then to professional development and nurturing school culture and on and on. These are areas we desperately need, but what is the vision driving those activities that will happen in this school? What will be the ethos, the overarching idea that will provide a litmus test for our decision making?

Student Dignity

After soul searching and much self-reflection, I realized that the outstanding school that I wanted a share in creating was a school where the honor of each student was at the center of every conversation.  Whether the topic concerns school mission, parent culture, teacher growth, curriculum, hallway norms, differentiated instruction and certainly if it involved discipline, I knew that student dignity could be the framework for a fruitful outcome and the nexus for building out ripple rings of culture. 

What is student dignity? What does it look like and how does one have it permeate an entire school staffed with teachers with dramatically different backgrounds, sensibilities and preferences?

I began with a deep dive into the Jewish texts and then creating a study booklet with sources, questions and materials for our entire staff and board to consider through the year at meetings and in-services. This value of student dignity came alive; it was adopted into the new SHA mission statement, created by a six-month effort of a board and community task force:

1. We provide our students, families and community a school of excellence, founded on love of God & Torah and inspiring academics within an atmosphere of Kavod HaTalmid, student dignity.
    
2. We develop students of character and integrity through the pursuit of Torah knowledge and secular studies, connection to the State of Israel and commitment to our Ashkenazic and Sephardic heritage. 
    
3. We prepare future generations to lead lives of service and mitzvoth and to perpetuate our Torah and traditions in Seattle, Israel, and worldwide.

Kavod Hatalmid became the animating ethos for our social-emotional curriculum called Project SHAlom, leading to its adoption as a schoolwide approach to student behavior, with a 35-minute video documenting its adoption available on our website for all to view.

A Different Leadership Voice 

This stance from a place of “otherness” began to inform leadership actions that I am committed to assuming and implementing. Over the years, I have heard from staff that as a woman I lead differently: hands-on, less ego, attention to detail, caring about children’s happiness and creating an overall less authoritarian feel to our school.

Being “other” led me in many directions.

Thinking deeply about the experience of anyone walking onto our campus building. How does that feel for a first-time guest? What is experienced from the parking lot, to the walkway, in the hallway, into the restrooms and on into classrooms. What kind of welcome will they receive?

We created a checklist for all events seeking to anticipate all needs, and there are always warm greeters along the welcome route. 

Are all families comfortable at SHA, no matter their spot on the Jewish spectrum?

The creation of a Jewish values-driven parent "Working Together Handbook" was created addressing these sensitivities.

How do middle school girls feel when they stand on the sidelines as their male peers lead in the morning minyan?

We moved our middle school girls into their own tefillah space after I spent a year at morning minyan. 

What about songs and textbooks with pictures where there are consistent depictions of the nuclear family of abba, ima, yeled, yeldah? How does the child not in such a family feel?

This one is tough, with so many materials coming from other places. We did change the lyrics of the children's "Shabbat Angel" song though: "First we light the candles, then we go to shul!" 

Must students stand when a rabbi—in the Orthodox world, a man—walks in the room, but never for a female scholar?

We sidelined this practice, thinking that if learning must not be interrupted to greet the Messiah, we would be okay to allow students to remain seated. 

I believe that if you work in a school you are a teacher, meaning every adult in a school is a teacher. Therefore, every adult—the office staff, the custodial staff—in the school is part of our learning community.

We all sit together. We study Torah and pedagogy, we plan activities, we consider our values and their implementation together as a community. 

The seeing of "the other" leads to the belief that as a head I cannot not expect others to do anything that I am not ready to do myself. That includes sweeping the floors, shoveling the walks and if necessary, cleaning up accidents in the kiddies' washroom. 

This kind of stance truly builds bonding moments and memories that last a lifetime. 

How to address this issue of "otherness"? Let the words of Emmanuel Levinas guide us as we encounter the "other"; they offer a truly compelling value for educators: "In the face the Other expresses his eminence, the dimension of height and divinity from which he descends." 

Debra Shaffer Seeman, Prizmah's Network Weaver, sat down with Ann Baidack Pava and Jeremy Pava to discuss their  philosophy, their personal backgrounds, and their vision for the field and community.

Debra:

What has motivated you to support programs designed to help women in Jewish day school and yeshiva leadership, such as Prizmah's Orthodox Women in Leadership portfolio? 

Ann: 

We have been supporters of Prizmah since its founding, because the work Prizmah does is essential for everyone in the Jewish community, for men, women, boys and girls. We believe that the entire community is stronger when all members can participate more fully.

Jeremy:

 In leveling the playing field by helping women gain the skills and knowledge they need in order to assume leadership opportunities in the Orthodox Jewish community, we hope that women’s talents can be utilized by more of the Orthodox community. I believe that if we’re not utilizing all of our talent, we’re handicapping ourselves; we’re playing with one arm behind our back. We want to release the potential, energy, power and creativity of 100% of our community.

We know that one size doesn’t fit all, and what works for one part of the Jewish community may not work for other parts of the community. Therefore, we invest our philanthropy across the religious spectrum and are not trying to impose change on anyone. Ann and I see ourselves as philanthropists who are here to support our community in taking the next step, when they are ready for that step.

Debra:

Where does your dream to support women in Orthodoxy come from?

Ann: 

When I graduated from college, my sisters made me a T-shirt that said, “Save the female whales in Ethiopia,” a nod to my passion for working on behalf of those who deserved to be supported. I was a feminist through and through, though less familiar with the Orthodox community. There was a moment for me which embodies the story behind the story.

We have three grown children, two sons and a daughter. I watch my sons who, to this day, love shul, davening and leyning. They still share their pride and a little bit of competition about who “does more in shul,” with all of us. Our sons learned this from being raised in a community that created spaces for them to shine in these ways.

However, our daughter Devorah as a child didn’t love sitting behind the mechitzah with me, since there was nothing for her to do. She was hurt by multiple experiences of being and feeling left out. I wanted her to feel the same love of Judaism as her brothers. 

There was a particular moment when she was excluded from receiving a tikkun that all the boys received, when I decided that I wanted to make a change. I understood at that moment that she needed to see other girls and women who were Torah scholars. Seeing my daughter being left out made me realize how important it was that there were strong smart role models for women in the Orthodox community.

Fast forward a number of years and we can point to the moment when our daughter began to feel connected. It happened when she was in high school. Devorah had a Gemara teacher, a woman named Elana Weinberg, who had studied at Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud Studies (GPATS). The girls absolutely loved her even though, or perhaps because, she was known as the hardest teacher in the school. We saw what a difference it made that the girls had a female Talmud teacher who was really smart and held her students accountable.

Seeing how my own child flourished when she had a female role model helped me solidify my resolve to support Jewish women in leadership.

Jeremy:

Thanks to my parents, growing up I experienced firsthand the power of a warm, loving, halakhic lifestyle to give meaning and purpose to life - to create strong family and community bonds, to lead a life filled with concern and care for others through chesed and tzedakah, and to live a life of love and connection with Hashem. To me, it seems like common sense that if women are not being given the same opportunities for engagement and connection as men, and if I value and love my community, I have to do whatever I can to correct these inequities so that my community will be strengthened, and more lives can be spiritually enhanced.

As important as it is for the girls to have female role models, it’s just as important for the boys to experience women as leaders in our community. Within the fabric of the Orthodox community, there’s an implicit grounding that it’s better to be a man. All of our rabbis and talmidei chachamim are men. Through the stories we tell and the texts that we study, we have been signaling to our community that men are destined to be leaders and women are intended to be followers. 

When we put women in leadership roles, we are teaching that women have as much to contribute, are as smart, dedicated and devoted, and can provide similar spiritual enrichment to their male counterparts. It’s crucially important to change a mindset that might be implicit in our tradition. And that is true for both our boys and our girls.

Debra: 

Ann, you’ve been invested in leadership development and women’s philanthropy for decades. Tell us about a choice that you made which was a catalyst in impacting the way that other women lead.

Ann: 

I was the founding chair of the board of Hebrew High School of New England, now the New England Jewish Academy. When we started that school 26 years ago, I was pregnant with our daughter, and there was no Jewish high school in the region. Rather than sending our own kids away for high school, as was standard in our community, we wanted our children to attend a local regional Jewish high school. So I was invested in the creation of a Jewish high school in our area. I coordinated the effort in which New Haven, Springfield, and Hartford all came together to get the school off the ground. This included hundreds of hours of work, traveling to each community, meeting with families, rabbis, funders and local Jewish organizations. It was a huge full-time volunteer position, and the endeavor was incredibly successful.

The time came when we were ready to hire a head of school, start a board, and become a 501(c)3. After all the successes that we had accumulated under my coordination, when it was time to decide upon the board’s presidency, I assumed that everyone would turn and ask me to fill the role. That was not at all what happened, however. In our meeting to discuss the school’s board of directors, community leaders in the room offered the role to two men, one after the other, who each had full-time work and politely declined.

Not understanding what was getting in the way, I raised my hand and offered to fill the role. This was met by total silence. After the passage of some awkward time, one person quietly and reluctantly said, “Okay Ann, you can be the chair of the board.” I didn’t understand what was going on. I knew that these people loved and appreciated me. I knew that I had just successfully laid all of the groundwork for our school. What could possibly be getting in the way of them enthusiastically and wholeheartedly inviting me to assume the mantle of leadership?

What I learned the next day was that women in our community weren’t supposed to serve as board chairs. They were allowed to do all of the work, but community members assumed that giving the title to a woman was unacceptable. After significant resistance from a local rabbinic authority, who later moved out of the community, I experienced a truly pivotal moment in my life and the life of our community. I moved forward as the chair of the board, the first woman to ever hold that position in our Orthodox community.

Debra:

Where do you see signs of change or progress in women's leadership today?

Ann: 

In the 26 years we’ve been involved in this work, we’ve come so far. We’re ordaining Orthodox women through Maharat, training Orthodox women through Ohr Torah Stone. We’ve got yo’etzot halakhah filling so many roles that some would even consider them “commonplace,” and GPATS, a two-year master’s program in advanced Talmud at YU, is teaching women Talmud in ways that were unheard of a few decades ago.

Jeremy:

In addition, the physical design of the Orthodox shul has changed. We now have models for a women’s section in the synagogue as something other than the “penalty box,” with equal access from both sides of the mechitzah. Megillah readings and women’s tefillah groups that used to be controversial are much more accepted today.

Ann:

And the JOFA Devorah Scholars Program, which we are proud to fund, provides funding for Orthodox synagogues in North America to hire their first Orthodox woman in a spiritual leadership role. There’s tremendous progress. We feel very hopeful about the direction that women’s leadership is heading, especially in the realm of Jewish day schools.

Debra: 

Given your investment, what do you hope to be true for women in Jewish day school and yeshiva leadership that is not yet true today?

Ann:

We hope that more women are able to take on senior leadership positions in Orthodox Jewish day schools. We believe very deeply that, at this moment in history, women are more likely to rise to the senior-most leadership positions in schools than anywhere else in the Orthodox community. 

Outside of Jewish day schools, we are not seeing women as the number one leaders in our Orthodox organizations, and the community is grappling with that perceived ceiling. Knowing that approximately 15% of Prizmah’s Orthodox schools are headed by women tells us that there is precedent upon which we can build. Seeing that 39 women were accepted into Prizmah’s Rising Leaders program is a fact on the ground.

Jeremy:

We see our role as being here to give this process a boost, in order to help overcome the obstacles. We are hoping to accelerate the process in this way.

We are also trying to build the pipeline of Orthodox women leaders by supporting multiple educational institutions so that more women consider Jewish day school education leadership as a viable and compelling job. One way that we’re working to level the educational playing field is to invest in early learning infrastructures aimed at girls.

Ann:

For boys who are interested in Torah learning, there are middle school educationally oriented “camps” and learning programs. However, to date, those programs haven’t existed for girls. Given the extra time boys spend in these extracurricular learning experiences, female students who arrive at Yeshiva University, for example, are said to be behind the skills and years of learning experience of the boys. For the first time, we are pleased to fund a middle school learning program through Drisha, in an effort to give girls those same opportunities and help them start their own intensive study at an earlier age.

Debra:

For individuals who see themselves as allies in this work of supporting women in leadership, what do you recommend they do? 

Jeremy:

I recommend two approaches. First, support the institutions that are creating opportunities for women to rise into Jewish communal leadership through your own philanthropy. Second, for those who are on search committees, use your voice to knock down artificial barriers which get in the way of 50% of our community being considered for leadership roles. This includes removing semichah from school leadership job requirements and editing school bylaws to be sure that women have the opportunity to rise to senior leadership positions.

Debra: 

Any final thoughts that you'd like to share with our readers?

Ann:

With more women in leadership roles, we will be exposing more of the community to women’s unique thinking and perspectives. That will strengthen the entire community and the Torah that we’re teaching. We will become a more inspirational community with women in leadership, maximizing our potential to present a Judaism that is relevant, accessible and meaningful for the entire Jewish community.

Jeremy:

During my decades as a trustee of the Grinspoon Foundation and Ann’s time as chair of National Women’s Philanthropy in Jewish Federations of North America and chair of the board of Prizmah, we have been involved in the broader Jewish community for a very long time. We see that Orthodoxy can offer so much. There are so many who are looking to join the Orthodox community for all that it has to offer in terms of guidance, spirituality and engagement opportunities.

Our dream is to harness the opportunity to attract more people to all that traditional Judaism has to offer. In order to do so, we support the enhancement of women’s roles within Orthodoxy. We embrace an Orthodoxy that provides maximum halakhic opportunities for women’s engagement, participation and spiritual growth to that end.

Imagine yourself, for a moment, as a veteran, experienced teacher who has been invited to become the assistant principal. Other than being an effective, well regarded teacher, and having served under an array of administrators, you have had no training or preparation for this job. You may have a real sense of the changes that the school needs, but questions and challenges loom large:

• Who am I to assume this leadership over others?
• How will more senior teachers, ones I had as my own teacher, or those who are friends, accept me in this role?
• Can I do this job and still take care of my family?
• Can I actually be a boss? 

Over the last ten years of our work in the Jewish New Teacher Project's (JNTP) Administrator Support Program (ASP), we have worked with administrators new to the profession across all denominations and geography who ask these very questions in some form or another. In response, we provide them with non-judgemental spaces, a cohort of colleagues and professional development to support them as they navigate, together, this difficult transition. 

Notably, about 70% of the 120 administrators we have supported are women. Some of the challenges they all encounter, especially the women, include: 

• Balancing authority, power and compassion 
• Balancing family, self and work 

The impact of Covid has, of course, exacerbated many challenges. School communities have not been immune to society's 
great resignation" culture. Some teachers have left the profession; others remain but feel burned out. That, coupled with a dearth of people entering the field, has created the perfect storm. Administrators are exhausted. 

What follows are some of the many challenges facing new day school administrators and ways in which heads of school can support them. 

Balancing Authority, Power and Compassion 

Let’s first define the difference between authority and power, as referenced here. Authority is grounded in expertise, knowledge and skills such as communication and collaboration, and is at the core of a successful leader’s practice. Power is the ability, and responsibility, to ensure that there is enforced accountability for policies, procedures, systems and expectations.

Many new administrators bring solid pedagogy and are eager to learn how to adapt their knowledge and skill set to lead and share with others, thereby establishing their authority. When administrators invest time in building trust and positioning themselves as value added, many teachers respond with appreciation for the support offered. Other teachers may be resistant, whether to authority in general, the new administrator in particular or to any change.

Many new administrators, especially women, view power, on the other hand, as out of their comfort zone. Some experience the “imposter syndrome,” some are “people pleasers,” some are intimidated at having to administer consequences to adults, and some take every reaction personally. Many resist having hard conversations and struggle with their inner voice that counsels sympathy and enabling. As one female administrator in our program explained: “My compassion can get in the way.”

An area of compassion that does need to be encouraged in new administrators is compassion for themselves.

Balancing Family, Self and Work

These past few years have forced many of us to reevaluate and realign how we balance our home lives with our jobs. Even before Covid, administrators frequently worked long after the school day was over or on weekends. Not only is the volume and complexity of their role overwhelming, but, additionally, new administrators may not have yet mastered the skills of delegation and time management. 

Compounding this, new administrators, especially women, are frequently concerned that they may be perceived as “slacking off” if they attend to family matters during the day, despite the fact that many work on school issues in the evening. The recent years have only intensified the frenetic pace of administration, and for those who are new, it has been extremely challenging to maintain a healthy balance of work and home life.

What Heads of School Can Do

Heads of school can provide invaluable support in helping new administrators establish their authority and power, as well as balancing their work with home. A rich, growth-minded relationship with a head of school can be the major determining factor of a new administrator's success. Based on our experience, these areas can be high impact for new administrators.

Role clarity

During the hiring process, be clear about the roles and responsibilities. Name some of the challenges. Offer support.

Connect them

Formally introduce the new administrators to the whole school community. Be clear about the roles and authority of the new administrator. Publicly express faith and confidence. 

Protect their time 

Provide a schedule that enables new administrators to do teacher observations and give feedback. This may mean keeping a teaching load to a minimum. 

Coach them

Schedule regular meetings so they can share data from their teacher observations and other aspects of their role. Spend time together looking for patterns in the data and identifying strategies for support. Offer help in dealing with challenging cases. 

Communicate 

Communicate transparently and directly. Include the administrator in the team meetings. 

Give authority 

Provide a healthy balance of autonomy and support. Be open to possible changes the new administrator wants to make. Anticipate some of the challenges and look for areas for them to lead. Encourage self-advocacy. 

Give feedback

Give constant, consistent and honest feedback. Research shows that leaders, especially women and minorities, do not get sufficient feedback necessary for their growth. Consider scheduling meeting times specifically to recognize accomplishments and discuss areas of needed growth.

Balance

Heads of school can be a source of guidance in the area of balancing home and school. Sometimes the head needs to be the voice of reason telling administrators, especially female ones, that they need to take time for themselves. Consider dividing up responsibilities such as arrival, morning routines, and dismissal that most directly conflict with family needs. 

In addition to the internal support provided by the head of school, we have found that new administrators need to be fortified with external support in establishing their authority. This includes arming them with structures, standards and tools designed specifically for the job of day school administrator, preparing them to handle the many situations that arise. External coaching also helps them demonstrate their leadership in ways that are gradual and achievable, even if it feels like a stretch, as it does for many women. 

Additionally, connecting with other new administrators who are experiencing similar challenges is validating and enables them to extend their own thinking and examine their assumptions. New administrators are most successful when they give themselves permission to lead and launch their transition by building trust and credibility within their school community. When empowered to become reflective leaders and continue their growth they, in turn, will be able to support new administrators in the future.

During a girls’ high school Chumash class that I taught a number of years ago, one of the assignments was for each student to craft a dvar Torah on the weekly parashah, following a graphic organizer we created together. It went quite well. Each girl orated her five-minute dvar Torah, and then her classmates would politely raise their hands to ask questions related to the presentation.

This went so well that when I began teaching a boys’ Chumash class, I followed the same paradigm. Then came the Friday of the initial dvar Torah. After the first sentence out of the boy’s mouth, four hands assertively went up, and three students called out comments to challenge and confront. At that point, I thought of an old adage from one of my Bible professors: “The Torah was written to civilize our young men.”

This anecdote illustrates one reason that we need Jewish day school leadership comprising both men and women. Men and women bring very different perspectives and attributes to the table. It has always struck me that in the haftarah for Parashat Beshalach, which includes the Song of the Sea, Devorah, in her song, adds an element completely absent from Moses’. Devorah invokes the mother of Sisera, standing at the window, wondering why her son is so long in returning home. 

To me, this is an archetypal mother’s response, one that emanates from a uniquely female perspective. Our female educational leaders and classroom teachers should not attempt to simulate what their male counterparts do; they should create a distinctly female paradigm for education and leadership. Boys and girls should be exposed to male and female teachers and administrators in order to benefit from the multiplicity of views and approaches unique to each gender. That way, they can experience the “same” and the “other” as models of behavior and can benefit from diverse connections with which they can resonate.

The Importance of Leaders as Models 

Further, we have heard frequently in the recent past in connection with Olympic athletes, government officials and others, the phrase “I can’t aspire to that which I cannot imagine because I have never seen it.” We need to model for our girls what it means to be a responsible, compassionate, intelligent, motivated, adult female so that they can aspire to become such a person. Men need to model the same for our boys. Perhaps even more importantly, our boys need to be inculcated into the great heights that women can achieve and the excellence they can attain—perspectives that will help them develop proper respect and regard for women as these boys get older and mature. The same can be said for our girls in developing their view of men they can trust and depend on.

Optimally, a 50-50 split between genders should be achieved in each Jewish day school for which it is consistent with their hashkafic approach. What this means is that while I am propounding the optimal situation of both genders in administration and in classroom teaching, I also believe that each school should self-determine its worldview. If mixed-gender educational leadership is inconsistent with the notion of, for example, only men teaching boys and women teaching only girls, then that school must remain true to its own values, whether the majority of the Jewish day school field agrees with them or not.

But of course, even in schools that would agree with the notion of mixed-gender educational leadership, we know that is not in fact the case, with a majority of lower school Judaic studies teachers and administrators being women and the converse for upper schools. How might we achieve such a balance?

Hiring and Training Teachers 

Two advancements need to occur. Firstly, cultural attitudes need to evolve so that those doing the hiring have a greater appreciation for the benefits of a diverse teaching community and recognize that women, even those with young families, can do a proficient and even stellar job at their educational institutions. The schools need to advertise broadly in a way that enfranchises female as well as male candidates, and to publish a transparent job posting which includes not only responsibilities but compensation in terms of salary, paid time off and benefits in ways that create equity, no matter what the gender of the applicant. In addition, the stature of teaching and leading a lower school needs to be raised so that men feel comfortable applying for such positions and working in those schools.

Secondly, we need to continue training high-quality teachers of both genders in an equivalent way so that both men and women have the content knowledge and pedagogical skills to teach boys’ classes, girls’ classes or mixed classes. Fortunately, women’s Judaic education has grown exponentially even within my own professional tenure. When I began teaching some 40 years ago, almost no women, especially within the Orthodox movement, were capable of teaching Tanakh or rabbinics on a high level. Today, there are multiple training programs for both classroom teachers and Jewish day school administrators, open to all who want to join. As we progress further into the 21st century, I imagine that the disparity between trained female and male Judaic studies teachers will resolve. 

Of course, we need to place the best person, no matter what their gender, in any given role in order to maximize our children’s Jewish education. But perhaps, if there are two equally qualified candidates of different genders, schools can make their decision based on creating a diversity of approach and perspective in their hires.

Children need both men and women who will–metaphorically–wait politely till the end and raise their hand and those who will jump into the fray at the beginning. This is the best way to create a well-rounded experience for all of our children.

When I sent an email to over three dozen female colleagues asking if they would share their challenges, successes and guidance for other aspiring women leaders, I did not imagine the overwhelming reaction. Within minutes the responses came, diverse and eloquent, but unified in one sense. Every woman who responded thanked me for reaching out, expressing deep gratitude that women in leadership would be discussed and a feeling of honor that their voice would be included.

The ideas represented here are certainly from a skewed sample. I relied on my personal contacts - colleagues largely from the Orthodox day school community, alumni and students from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University where I serve as dean. Their experiences suggest important themes and compelling opportunities for change for our field at large.

Leadership is Leadership

Several of the respondents asked whether I was interested only in experiences unique to women, or leadership challenges in general. This prompted me to question whether we ask male leaders about gender-specific leadership challenges. Lisa Stroll, head of school at Denver Academy of Torah, commented, “In our current climate with issues centering around gender differences (and all the polarization that this has created), it’s critically important to keep the focus on our leadership, being a professional, and simply doing a great job.” By not limiting responses to gender-related issues, many of the challenges cited are universal. This should not minimize the challenges that gender presents for women in day school leadership, especially in the Orthodox world.

Issues of Kavod 

At Azrieli, I routinely hear women describe the roadblocks they encounter in advancing professionally. More times than I can count, their rationale for obtaining a doctorate in Jewish education includes the need for a recognizable title, doctor. One school leader noted, “There is just such a tremendous advantage men have because of their halakhic status, and that spills over into parts of life that have nothing to do with Halakhah.” Men’s rabbinic title carries not just status and stature but authority. By no means do women pursue advanced degrees only for the title, and I certainly endorse the knowledge and skills developed through doctoral study as an important contributor to leadership success, even while I can hope for leaders to be respected for their skill regardless of title or gender. 

Among the amazing women leaders who responded to my query, there was a range of gender-specific roadblocks experienced, from those who felt largely positive, including the sense that only a “handful of men had difficulty answering to a woman, or preferred that ‘these things’ be handled by a man,” to those who felt so extremely stifled or limited by leadership opportunities for women in existing settings that to create space for their leadership they felt new programs, schools and certainly leadership models need to be developed.

Balance, Boundaries and Satisfaction

Some challenges were more personal. A common theme was the difficulty with boundaries and balance: creating space for oneself, for socialization and even for private time. One school leader explained that since she is “introverted... and interacting with people all day is exhausting,” she schedules meeting-free days where she can be in her “own head a little more.” Another commented on women’s inclination to nurture and invest emotionally, “to the point where... we may overextend ourselves and lean towards burnout and compassion fatigue, and guilt ourselves when we need to take a step back.” 

Family-work boundaries and balance entered into virtually every response, whether it involved the challenge of having one’s own children in the school, or the guilt engendered in feeling you are not serving either family or school as fully as you would like. Raizi Chechik, head of school at Manhattan Day School, wonders if the limited number of women seeking leadership roles may be partially a result of “the enhanced sensitivity women often have toward family/work balance.”

Leaders offered direct evidence of success in specific programs. Dr. Tamara Beliak described how she and two women colleagues at Oakland Hebrew Day School engaged middle school students to design the school’s Beit Midrash program, which has excited boys and girls about Torah learning. Others spoke of the joy in seeing smiling faces back in school and continued connection with students. A repeated theme was the crucial role of bi-directional respect and support. Not only was it seen as a critical component of success to surround oneself with colleagues and people who share your values and those of the school, but ensuring the continued growth and satisfaction of those around you animated much of the leaders’ efforts.

Advice for Young Leaders 

I asked those responding what message or advice they would have for other women leaders and aspiring leaders, and among the gems of wisdom, Esther Tokayer, associate principal at Magen David Yeshiva, balanced a focus on the future with self-care: “Look ahead. Seek opportunities or create them where they don’t exist. Create opportunities for others to rise to the occasion and accept responsibility. If you need the day, take it. If you’re not enjoying it, it’s time to move on.” One woman echoed the spirit of many, stating, “Don’t be afraid to reach out of your comfort zone. At least that’s what I tell myself!” 

Many responses spoke to leaders’ role in supporting the growth of others, both men and women. Another response suggests that even as we may become overly concerned about how we are seen by others, we “need to remind ourselves that we get to write and own our own narrative.” And the advice of Danielle Bloom, Tanakh department chair at Naaleh High School for Girls, “Don’t feel like you have to figure everything out on your own,“echoed others’ endorsement of coaching and mentorship.

Setting Women, and Men, up for Success

It is clear to me, from this limited sample and from my broader experience, that Jewish education is populated with amazing professionals, many of whom are women. We need to support the growth of more leaders, women and men, if we want a vibrant, healthy field of Jewish education. As one respondent urged, “we need to make leadership more inviting to those seeking to serve,” addressing issues of job security, high work demands and boundary blurring.

Nevertheless, we need to attend to the unique hurdles Jewish women in or aspiring to leadership may face. As one woman painfully related, “The title of rabbi confers a legitimacy that women have to try to earn in ways that twist us into pretzels and leave us frustrated because we simply don’t know how to prove ourselves and end up feeling that we never really will.” 

We need to support women’s growth in leadership for the women who have untapped, unrecognized or underutilized talents that our field desperately needs. Even more so, we need to grow women’s leadership in our schools to benefit our students and our future. Becky Troodler, principal at Kohelet Lab and Middle Schools, shares the poignant hopes that “female leadership will look and feel different when I retire 20 years from now than how it felt when I began 20 years ago, that all leaders, men and women, continue to work to find support and success in creating and living a healthy work-life balance, and that women will be considered and seen as obvious candidates and options for HOS positions in the Orthodox community and not as a risk, or outside the norm.”

Pathbreaking 

Consider the powerful messages two heads of school send through their words and actions: 

Just being a woman doing the things that a man usually does creates an implicit message: Yes, women belong in this role. Yes, any student can have a woman as a principal, and women can be principals - even of coed, or dare I say it? boys’ schools. Those possibilities shouldn’t be outrageous. Tikvah Wiener, head of school, The Idea School

As Modern Orthodox Jews who strive to inhabit the tensile space between tradition and modernity, I think students seeing a female leader address them about world issues or giving a dvar Torah before Tefillah, and then stepping to the other side of the mechitzah when prayer starts, is silent but eloquent testimony to that balance. Raizi Chechik, head of school, Manhattan Day School

The responses I received were both realistic and optimistic. Esther Salomon, previously a day school administrator and now the director of the Hidden Sparks Parent Education Center, wrote, “Successful women in traditional yeshiva environments are unicorns. Expect to work harder than anyone else in the building. Know your value and don’t be afraid to advocate for fair compensation. Your voice should give you a seat at the decision-making table. Lead with love, not fear.” 

At the same time, many leaders at all levels found a “welcoming and embracing experience” greeting them in their leadership. They have reported that many schools seeking leaders feel positive about hiring women, and that sentiments such as “this is a man’s role” have not been encountered. This welcoming environment is important to note, especially as we hope to encourage more women to consider and expand their leadership. 

There is reason for hope - and there is also work to be done. In our very challenged, very divided world, can we afford not to support and cultivate the wisdom and leadership capacity of any group? How can we move our schools and our students forward with messages of limits and closed doors? Considering the generous, experienced, intelligent, caring voices of women leaders in the field, I am confident of what we gain when they are given room to lead, and how much we all grow when we create space and opportunity for all.

In Tractate Megillah, Reish Lakish teaches that God doesn’t afflict the Jewish people without first creating a remedy. That idea doesn’t justify bad things happening. But when we face complex challenges, we might already have helpful insights within and around us.

Like the entire Jewish nonprofit field, Jewish day schools have a gender equity problem. But they also have a vital piece of the solution.

Inequities 

This problem manifests most measurably in salary data, where men are generally paid more than women for similar roles. When it comes to school leaders’ genders, we don’t have precise data, but we know that women and people who are transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming are significantly underrepresented.

This isn’t unique to day schools. As Leading Edge reported, out of 376 Jewish nonprofits surveyed between 2016 and 2021, 55% were led by men, 45% by women, and none by anyone openly trans or nonbinary. Among organizations with the highest budgets, 92% were led by men.

This issue matters for schools - for students now, and for our future later. It matters if the people making key decisions don’t adequately represent the entire Jewish community. It matters if students who aren’t male, and/or aren’t white, and/or aren’t cisgender, don’t see themselves reflected in the identities of their principal, head of school, or rosh yeshiva. That impacts how hard students try and, more importantly, who they feel they can become.

My Experience 

But day schools also uniquely have the opportunity to widen the leadership pipeline.

As an alum, I credit Jewish day school for deepening my Jewish literacy and helping me cultivate a clear and confident leadership voice. I was chosen to sing and lead holiday celebrations, pushed academically in Jewish and secular subjects, and recognized for my leadership in classrooms and in sports. I know what it feels like to be seen and noticed for my talents, challenged to reach my fullest potential, and encouraged to speak up about my and others’ needs. I benefited tremendously from role models of all genders who nurtured my growth and magnified my view of my power, while modeling the centrality of humility and constant learning in effective leadership.  

And yet, not all of me was seen or noticed. As a Jewish Woman of Color, I only saw part of myself represented in leadership (though rarely at the highest ranks), and I missed an opportunity to develop an integrated and holistic sense of self that values all parts of my identity rather than solely prioritizing one. I know day schools, like many Jewish institutions, have more work to do.

Keystones

Today, day schools might be missing an opportunity to help students develop character in ways that advance gender equity and equity more broadly - but that’s within our capacity to change. Day schools already know how to weave values and middot (character traits) into everything from curriculum to lunch menus, from classrooms to tetherball courts. We have an opportunity to make gender equity, along with other kinds of equity and inclusion, part of, and central to, visions of character development. 

Leading Edge identified “keystones” for gender equity progress, including developing DEI talent strategies, shifting perceptions around leadership and caregiving, and the importance of men speaking up around gender inequity. These factors can absolutely inform how we educate tomorrow’s heads of school while they’re children today.

Some questions day schools can consider:

Are our curricula representative? 

Whose stories are we telling? What images depict our ancestors? Surely the Israelites in the desert looked more like me than we typically see illustrated. In my day school, there were many Persian Jews in the student body. Yet we rarely learned anything about Persian Jewish culture or history. What might it look like for all students to see themselves represented in what they are learning about who we are as a people? What might it look like for all students to see what our community really looks like regardless of whether or not that diversity is present in their immediate class?

Are our exemplars representative? 

Who do we hold up as heroes - present or past? Is it always men? There are many women, People of Color, and people of various gender identities—both historical and contemporary—whose stories belong in our canon of exemplary Jews.

How do we model male allyship?

When we do showcase men, what behavior do we elevate? Are we exemplifying male allyship, showing men leading in ways that name injustice and courageously and humbly make space for others to shine? Is being an advocate for equity part of our vision for what it means to be a “mensch”? A strong leader? A proud Jew?

Is our mentorship and leadershop development inclusive? 

School is often students’ first exploration of leadership, whether in student council, a club or a project. Are teachers and administrators aware of who is—and isn’t—being encouraged, mentored and developed for leadership? I am incredibly grateful that my potential was seen and cultivated, that my voice was amplified, and that my leadership was prioritized. All students deserve to feel empowered and invested in - to know that their skills and talents are a gift, and that the community is incomplete without their perspective. This point also extends to teachers: Is the teacher pool diverse? Are there inclusive development pathways and mentorship opportunities for teachers of every identity to advance toward becoming school leaders?

Do we model leadership coinciding with caregiving?

Countless educators balance caregiving with their careers, but are they talking about it? Do heads of school in particular, who are major examples of leadership for students, showing the time and energy they put into family and caregiving roles alongside their careers? Do we talk to students of all genders about caregiving being part of their future, or only some of them?

These questions are just starting points for longer processes of reflection and change. Progress isn’t solely possible on the timescale of generations. There are things day schools can do today to advance gender equity. And as a proud day school alum myself, I hope this movement will take the opportunity to see generational change as something they are uniquely positioned to lead. If they succeed, the whole Jewish community will reap the benefits.

As a data-informed organization, Prizmah invests considerable time and resources uncovering the trends and best practices in the Jewish day school world. Our newly released Development Pulse Survey Report is the most recent collection of data from the field to help day school leaders and philanthropists make informed decisions that are based on facts and measurable outcomes. From our network of 305 Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America, we received 118 responses to our survey, representing a diversity of school sizes, geographies, and religious affiliations. In reviewing this extraordinary data set, it’s clear that there’s good news for day schools.

Here are three things I learned about day schools:

1. The results from this survey portray a shift from reactionary fundraising early in the pandemic to resiliency and future-focused philanthropy.

   In the early days of the pandemic, many Jewish communal organizations went into crisis mode. How will we meet our mission at a six-foot distance? What will it take to ensure that we can continue to serve the families who rely on us? In day schools in particular, this meant a huge investment in technology and infrastructure to be able to serve students in virtual classrooms and socially-distanced in-person classrooms. The immediate need to upgrade technology, refurbish air filtration systems, invest in cleaning and maintenance staff, hang plastic dividers, and build outdoor learning environments seemed overwhelming. But with the support of generous donors, emergency resources, and reserves, schools were able to put in place the systems necessary to continue the teaching and learning. In fact, for many, day schools became hallmarks of successful pandemic experiences, thinking creatively to ensure that their missions were met even in the most difficult of circumstances.

   Now, as we move beyond the acute stresses and change created by the pandemic, schools feel buoyed by the relationships they created in their crisis mode. Rather than an emergency need, schools are talking to their communities about the kinds of support that will help them serve their students in the long-term, and endowment funds are finding their way to the top of that priority list. Seventy-eight percent of respondents, representing 92 schools, reported that their school has an endowment fund. Of the 27 schools that reported not having an endowment, nearly 50% are planning to launch an endowment campaign in the next five years, while an additional 41% are interested in doing so in the future.

   Endowment valuations have increased significantly from last year. This is the result of both strong stock market performance and schools securing additional endowment funds. Reporting schools raised approximately $26,638,000 in new endowment gifts in FY21*, gifts which fund categories like scholarships for families, salaries and professional development for faculty, technology, innovation, expanded learning programs, and school facilities upkeep. Endowment funds are the very definition of future-focused philanthropy. Like retirement funds, the investment today ensures that long-term planning is supported and that the financial health of schools is on track.




2. Donors are maintaining (if not increasing) their gifts to schools, helping schools more confidently raise funds.

   There are many models through which schools set their budgeted income for fundraising each year. Throughout the pandemic, development professionals worked together through weekly meet-ups facilitated by Prizmah to learn from and with each other in setting metrics and building campaign plans. What could we expect in such an unpredictable year? Could schools rely on donors to come out of the woodwork? Could they build new relationships or expand on existing ones if they couldn’t meet in person?

   In the end, more than half of schools reported increasing their annual campaign goals from FY21* to FY22*. Thirty percent of schools kept their goal at the same level as FY21 and 14%, representing 17 schools, decreased their goal. When asked this question last year, 43% of schools had reported decreasing their annual campaign goal from FY20* to FY21*. It seems that after choosing the safest path for school sustainability in a turbulent FY21*, schools were able to use the lessons they learned and the successes they modeled to lean into their fundraising for FY22*.

   Eighty-one percent of respondents reported that they project their schools will meet or exceed FY22* fundraising goals. When comparing responses to this time last year, there is a five percent increase in schools that projected they would meet their fundraising goals. At the same time last year, 20% of schools reported they were unsure if they would meet their fundraising goal, while now only 13% of schools aren’t sure, a decrease of seven percent.

   Given the circumstances of the pandemic and the way donors saw schools respond to student need, it wasn’t surprising that just under 75% of respondents reported that parent participation has either remained steady or increased compared to FY21*. A quarter of respondents even indicated that the number of parents participating in their annual campaign has increased by over 10% since the last fiscal year. With a growing base of donors and dollars, development departments are working overtime to strengthen those relationships and build long-term support.




3. More schools are beginning to think on systems and communal levels to address financial sustainability and affordability.

   The affordability of Jewish life is a regular topic of conversation amongst communal leaders. Day schools are better able to tackle affordability and sustainability issues when communities work together to address the holistic needs of families.

   A communal endowment fund, defined as an endowment for the benefit of two or more schools in a community, allows families a greater choice in selecting a school that meets the needs of their individual students. At least 25% of schools solicited for and/or received funds from a communal endowment in FY21*. This number may be underrepresented due to how various communities define a communal endowment and how schools attribute their revenue, but that number is growing. Schools that reported being part of a communal endowment fund are located in nine regions across the United States and Canada.

   Beyond the bounds of the survey, Prizmah is also working with more and more funders and community leaders to design communal affordability models. Be it middle income tuition models or Jewish communal professionals discounts, endowment campaigns or cost savings measures across multiple schools, more and more voices are being raised to understand the work that’s being done across North America that could address some of day schools’—and the Jewish community’s—most pressing needs.

With these learnings in hand, along with the findings from Prizmah’s most recent Enrollment Pulse Survey Report, it’s fair to say that Jewish day schools are trending positive. Through growth in admissions and development and continued focus on meeting the needs of the whole student in the classroom and beyond, day schools have proven that a period of challenge and can indeed lead to a strengthening of the Jewish future. *Throughout the report we use the abbreviation FY to refer to the 12 month period of the school fiscal year.