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American Jewry at Risk: “A Time to Act” and the Prioritization of Jewish Education

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Abstract

Twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Act, by the Commission on Jewish Education of North America (CJENA), we are in a position to evaluate this initiative with historical hindsight. At the time, the commission was heralded as an unprecedented communal undertaking and a signal that after years of perfunctory treatment and neglect by the organized Jewish community, Jewish education was gaining recognition as a vital concern. While accurate, this assessment benefits from contextualization both in the American and the American-Jewish situation of the 1980s and early-1990s. The CJENA and its report mirrored American anxiety during that same period about the state of K-12 education, while initiatives to address systemic weaknesses in Jewish education were concurrent with the spate of reform efforts spawned to address the perceived decline in public education. At the same time, A Time to Act exemplified a more general malaise within the Jewish community about the effects of rapid integration on Jewish ethnic and religious survival. Communal leaders became convinced that Jewish education could stem the assimilationist tide. The CJENA, which was funded by the Mandel Associated Foundations, also presaged a sea change in the funding of Jewish education, particularly the growing impact of mega-donors on the Jewish educational landscape. Among the commissioners were a number of the funders and foundation executives who emerged in the 1990s as formidable players in such areas as summer camping, adult education, leadership training, day schools and heritage tourism. Indeed, the greatest legacy of the Commission may be that it paved the way for the initiatives that followed. If A Time to Act was not a veritable voice crying out in the wilderness, its cri de coeur shaped the leading edge of a broad-based effort of reform and revitalization facilitated by an influx of family foundation funding. And while it is an exaggeration to claim that the commission generated the celebrated and fruitful mega-donor collaborations of the late-1990s and early 2000s, including the funding of Taglit-Birthright Israel and the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, it undeniably contributed to an environment that placed a premium on such partnerships.

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Notes

  1. “Strategic Directions for eJewish Life: A Call to Action,” eJewish Philanthropy (October 1, 2015). http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/strategic-directions-for-jewish-life-a-call-to-action/, accessed on February 12, 2016.

  2. Annette Hochstein, interview with the author, January 30, 2014; Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 4, 2014.

  3. Annette Hochstein, interview with the author, January 30, 2014; Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 4, 2014.

  4. Thank you to Kristen Cherwin for preparing this information and to Jehuda Reinharz for sharing it with me.

  5. Morton Mandel, interview with the author, June 3, 2014.

  6. Barry Shrage, interview with the author, January 5, 2015.

  7. Morton Mandel, Interview with the author, June 3, 2014.

  8. Morton Mandel, Interview with the author, June 3, 2014; Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 4, 2014; See, also, Arbel (2001), p. 211.

  9. Morton Mandel, interview with the author, June 3, 2014.

  10. Aryeh Davidson, interview with the author, August 11, 2015.

  11. Aryeh Davidson, interview with the author, August 11, 2015.

  12. Aryeh Davidson, interview with the author, August 11, 2015; Daniel Marom, interview with the author, February 20, 2014. Fox did not complete his doctoral dissertation until 1965, and he published relatively little thereafter. His Visions of Jewish Education volume (2003), which he co-edited with Israel Scheffler and Daniel Marom, was decades in the making. According to Marom, Fox’s own chapter was delayed by his perfectionism and was ultimately birthed through a process of critical response and editing, supported by Nessa Rapoport.

  13. Morton Mandel, interview with the author, June 3, 2014. Later renamed the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows, the Jerusalem Fellows ultimately became a program of the Mandel Associated Foundations until it was discontinued in 2011.

  14. Lee Shulman, interview with the author, April 10, 2014; Daniel Marom, interview with the author, February 20, 2014.

  15. The elitism of the Jerusalem Fellows program was telegraphed, among other ways, in the rigorous selection process, the insistence on a multi-year commitment (without the promise of a degree), the exposure of participants to leading thinkers in the fields of general and Jewish education, and the decision to conduct the program entirely in Hebrew.

  16. Morton Mandel, interview with the author, June 3, 2014.

  17. Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 4, 2014.

  18. Barry Shrage, communication with the author, December 31, 2014.

  19. Barry Shrage, interview with the author, January 5, 2015.

  20. Scholars Press published Schoem’s dissertation in 1989 under the same title. See also, Colloquium on Jewish Education and Jewish Identity: Summary Report and Recommendations (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1976). For a critique of Bock and Himmelfarb, see Cohen (1988), p. 94.

  21. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, August 1, 1988, MF-IA.

  22. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, August 1, 1988, MF-IA.

  23. See especially the introduction to the 2000 edition, pp. x–xxxix.

  24. This is a revision of a paper of the same title presented at the 1984 annual meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Guelph, Ontario; Leonard Fein, “From the Editor,” Moment (October 1984), p. 2.

  25. Audio Recording, CJENA meeting, August 1, 1988; Audio recording, CJENA meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  26. Audio recording, CJENA meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  27. Lee Shulman, interview with the author, April 10, 2014.

  28. Chaired by Lewis M. Branscomb, vice president and chief scientist at IBM, the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy task force included, among others, United Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker, National Education Association President Mary Hatwood Futrell, New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt, California State Superintendent Bill Honig, and Michigan State University College of Education Dean Judith Lanier. Lanier also served as chair of the Holmes Group.

  29. Lee Shulman, interview with the author, April 10, 2014. While there was no minority report, A Nation Prepared included a comments section with a “Statement of Support with Reservations” by Futrell and a “Statement of Support” by Shanker. See A Nation Prepared, 117–118.

  30. Lee Shulman, interview with the author, April 10, 2014; Annette Hochstein, communication with the author, July 7, 2015.

  31. Josh Elkin, Interview with the author, November 7, 2014.

  32. See appendices A and B of A Time to Act, 79–86. The senior policy adviser title was something of a catchall in that it included the commission’s directors, senior researchers, and strategists as well as an advisory cabinet. Aside from Hochstein, who served with Fox as the commission’s chief strategists, the inner advisory circle included Hoffman; executive vice president of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America Arthur Rotman; Case Western Reserve University provost emeritus Herman Stein; former executive vice president of the Council of Jewish Federations Carmi Schwartz; executive vice president of the Jewish Education Service of North America Jonathan Woocher; and former executive vice president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland Henry Zucker. Arthur Naparstek, former dean and professor of social work at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University was recruited as the CJENA’s director. In addition, Fox consulted with Shulman and Cohen; with Michael Inbar, former dean of the faculty of social sciences at the Hebrew University; and with Israel Scheffler, professor of education and philosophy at Harvard University. Staff members included Joseph Reimer, an assistant professor at the Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University; Mark Gurvis, director of research and social planning at the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland; and Virginia Levi, program director at the Premier Industrial Foundation. Estelle Albeg and Debbie Meline of Nativ-Policy and Planning Consultants provided administrative support in Israel.

  33. Morton Mandel, interview with Annette Hochstein, June 27, 1988, File 1939, MF-IA.

  34. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  35. Ismar Schorsch interview with Annette Hochstein, April 3, 1989, box 1, folder 10, MF-AJA; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 14, 1989, MF-IA.

  36. Haskel Lookstein to Arthur Naparstek, August 8, 1988, box 3, folder 1, MF-AJA; Jack Bieler to Seymour Fox, October 16, 1988, file 1938, MF-IA; audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, August 1, 1988, MF-IA; audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  37. Irving Greenberg to Morton Mandel, January 3, 1989 (the date is printed mistakenly on the letter as 1988), box 1, folder 7, MF-AJA.

  38. Annette Hochstein, interview with the author, March 23, 2014.

  39. Joshua Elkin, interview with the author, November 7, 2014; Barry Shrage, interview with the author, January 5, 2015.

  40. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  41. For a full list of CJENA papers, see A Time to Act, Appendix C.

  42. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  43. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, August 1, 1988, MF-IA; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 12, 1990, MF-IA.

  44. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988, MF-IA.

  45. Annette Hochstein, correspondence with the author, December 22, 2014.

  46. Irving Greenberg to Morton Mandel, June 20, 1989, box 5, folder 15, MF-AJA.

  47. Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 4, 2014.

  48. http://www.jesna.org/about-us/over-view/our-mission.

  49. Joseph Reimer to Arthur Naparstek, March 16, 1989, box 5, folder 10, MF-AJA.

  50. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 14, 1989; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, October 23, 1989, MF-IA.

  51. Henry Zucker to Arthur Naparstek, May 4, 1989, box 1, folder 10, MF-AJA.

  52. David Finn to Morton Mandel and Seymour Fox, February 17, 1987; David Finn to Henry Zucker, January 25, 1990, box 4, folder 17, MF-AJA; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, February 14, 1990, MF-IA; Finn (2005), 50.

  53. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 14, 1989, MF-IA.

  54. The project culminated with the publication of Seymour Fox, Israel Scheffler and Daniel Marom, eds., Visions of Jewish Education (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

  55. As the commission was getting underway, President George H.W. Bush was heavily criticized in the media for allegedly belittling the significance of what he derisively called “the vision thing.” This criticism resurfaced throughout his presidency and in the midst of his unsuccessful reelection campaign.

  56. David Arnow to Morton Mandel, July 25, 1990, box 4, folder 6, MF-AJA.

  57. Fox was sufficiently enamored of Twersky that he later invited the Harvard don to participate in the visions project.

  58. David Arnow to Morton Mandel, July 25, 1990; notes from David Arnow-Seymour Fox phone conversation, June 22, 1990, MF-IA; Joseph Reimer, interview with the author, March 3, 2014.

  59. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 12, 1990, MF-IA.

  60. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, June 12, 1990, MF-IA.

  61. Mark Gurvis to Perry Davis, March 30, 1988, box 4, folder 11, MF-AJA.

  62. The methodology used to arrive at the 52% interfaith marriage rate for 1985-1990 was subsequently criticized. Utilizing narrower criteria for inclusion in the Jewish pool, the 2000-2001 NJPS revised the 1985–1990 intermarriage rate downward to 43%. Nacha Cattan, “New Population Survey Retracts Intermarriage Figure,” the Jewish Daily Forward (September 12, 2003).

  63. Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, October 23, 1989, MF-IA.

  64. See, for example, Heilman (1995).

  65. Annette Hochstein, communication with the author, July 7, 2015.

  66. Sara Lee, interview with the author, October 28, 2014.

  67. Report of meeting between Seymour Fox and Eli Evans, n.d., box 4, folder 16, MF-AJA.

  68. Sara Lee, interview with the author, October 28, 2014.

  69. Arguably, the trend began in 1987, while CJENA was still in the planning stages, with the inauguration of the Wexner Foundation’s Wexner Graduate Fellowship.

  70. Renamed the Gruss Life Monuments Funds in 1991, it doles out about $15 million annually to bolster yeshiva day school education, by offering grants for building renovations and scholarships, and by augmenting teacher benefit packages.

  71. See, also, Jack Wertheimer, “Jewish Education in the United States: Recent Trends and Issues,” American Jewish Year Book 99 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1999), 99–108.

  72. On the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 on foundations, see the Internal Revenue Service document, “The Deficit Reduction Act of 1984—Private Foundations and Miscellaneous Provisions,” accessed at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopica85.pdf. See also Kathleen Teltsch, “Foundations Held Aided by Tax Bill,” the New York Times (July 1, 1984).

  73. Gail Dorph, interview with the author, April 10, 2014.

  74. Annette Hochstein, interview with the author, February 23, 2014.

  75. Daniel Pekarsky, interview with the author, May 19, 2014; Barry Holtz, interview with the author, March 10, 2014.

  76. Irving Greenberg to Morton Mandel, January 3, 1988, box 4, folder 20, MF-AJA; Audio recording, Commission on Jewish Education in North America meeting, December 13, 1988; Florence Melton, interview with Annette Hochstein, n.d., c. 1989, file 1939, MF-IA.

  77. Arthur Naparstek, Seymour Fox, and Annette Hochstein, “Minutes,” March 28, 1989, file 1950, MF-IA; Arthur Naparstek to Morton Mandel, April 12, 1989, box 3, folder 10, MF-AJA.

  78. Annette Hochstein, interview with the author, January 30, 2014; Carol Ingall, interview with the author, November 9, 2014; Stephen Hoffman, interview with the author, April 11, 2014.

  79. Morton Mandel, interview with Annette Hochstein, June 27, 1988.

  80. Morton Mandel, interview with Annette Hochstein, June 27, 1988.

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  1. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Jonathan Krasner

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Krasner, J. American Jewry at Risk: “A Time to Act” and the Prioritization of Jewish Education. Cont Jewry 36, 85–123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-016-9167-4

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