Open Day Schools To Non-Jewish Students

Jewish day schools are in very serious shape. To be perfectly blunt about it, they are going out of business. I see it happening locally, where I live in New Jersey. And it seems to be a national phenomenon.

It seems to have hit Solomon Schechter schools particularly hard. Schechter schools lost 25 percent of their students during the the last five years. Since then, Schechter has lost seven schools. “>http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/beit-rabban-pilot-cap-tuition-costs. But there are other issues. Demographics are challenged. Jewish identity has become attenuated (all that interesting Pew stuff).

I have a suggestion – and, no, it is not tongue-in-cheek.

Let’s open Jewish day schools to non-Jewish students.

I am not merely talking about the recent news that Schechter schools are considering admitting students who are Jewish according to patrilineal descent – a definition of Jewish identity that the Conservative movement has long rejected.