Bound to come up, so let's start this now. On one of the the excellent listservs of Bar Ilan's Lookstein Institute, Mifgashim, (the other one is Lookjed ) a mother writes an anguished plea that she cannot afford to send her son to Jewish High School in Toronto. 90% certain she is talking about CHAT. After a little confusion, I post a response (see #3 in the issue). What can we do about the rising cost of being Jewish (of which Day School tuition is a huge component)? It is simply getting beyond the means of the average family. It is a difficult spiral - as the standards of Jewish schools rise (thereby attracting more students into the system), the costs of operation go beyond what non-govermental funding can support. My concern is the rising 'social cost' of being Jewish -- synagogues (especially Orthodox) seem to be clustering more and more in the most expensive suburbs. There are real pressures to "keep up with the Cohens" - in dress, in simchas, in 'hiddurim' etc etc. When i was a child, each shul had three sets of arba minim - one for the Rabbi, one for the Shaliach Tzibbur, and one that was passed around the shul. Now everyone, and their sons (save that for another day, please!) have to have a set. A couple of years ago, Emanuel Feldman wrote in 'Tradition' (can't find a link) about a non-Jewish colleague whose daughter had a quiet wedding on a Saturday afternoon, accompanied by a classical ensemble, followed by tea and sandwiches for (if I remember) about thirty guests. A young, frum mother told me recently that she and her friends had all determined to "stop' at three, rather than four children, because they wanted to be able to put them through Day School. If that is a pattern, it means an immediate 25% population drop straight away ..... What is the answer??
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