Abstract
This chapter documents the composition and growth patterns of Orthodox Jewish education in America and the population of schools in that field. It then argues that, situated within a competitive marketplace of ideologies and institutions, Orthodox schools both reflect and shape contemporary dynamics within American Orthodoxy. Analysis at the field level begins by recognizing what may be the most salient twin circumstances of contemporary American Jewish schooling in the Orthodox sector. First, Orthodox schools comprise a decentralized organizational field operating in a competitive market environment. Second, these schools carry, perpetuate, and shape the cultural-reproductive aspirations of a number of ideological movements and strands within contemporary Orthodoxy. These circumstances interact to produce a variety of institutional and educational pressures upon schools. This chapter argues that they have shaped a field that has grown more diverse, more competitive, more ideologically differentiated, and also more innovative than ever.
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Notes
- 1.
Conversation with Rabbi Dovid Bernstein of Torah Umesorah.
- 2.
Any attempt to count schools must grapple with the problem of the diverse organizations and structures characterizing Orthodox schools. Given the market orientation of this chapter and the need to create comparable numbers across categories, each division was counted as a school. Thus if a community had one boys’ elementary school, one boys’ high school, and one boys’ K-12 school, it was counted as two boys’ elementary and two boys’ high schools. Similarly, a school with separate girls’ and boys’ divisions in different buildings and with different principals was counted as two schools.
- 3.
All numbers in this section are based on publicly available documents. Even in these documents, details such as founding dates, identification, and educational structure are not available for each school.
- 4.
The largest American Hasidic groups are Belz, Bobov, Satmar, Skverr, and Vishnitz.
- 5.
Information based on list provided by The Merkos Chinuch Office run by Rabbi Nochem Kaplan, Director. See http://www.chinuchoffice.org.
- 6.
Such as schools for outreach to new immigrants from the former Soviet Union or to unaffiliated Jews.
- 7.
Schick (2009) devised six ideological identifications for Orthodox schools; I have chosen to refer to all Religious Zionist schools, whether modern or centrist, as Modern Orthodox to reduce the interpretive nature of these categories. All of these categories aim to capture the most salient dividing lines among Orthodox day schools, but it should be recognized that the boundaries between even these categories are blurry, and that within each category there exist distinct subgroups. Additionally, many schools have shifted in emphasis over the years, which is why these categories are broad.
- 8.
This analysis is necessarily limited by its reliance on schools’ self-reports of dates of founding to Torah Umesorah; by lack of information from at least 28 schools that were not included in the directories; by missing data on location, gender composition, identification, and dates of founding among some of the schools in the directories; and by the lack of information on schools that closed before 1993.
- 9.
Some would list Chabad-Lubavitch as a third strand, as they are not identified with Agudath Israel or the Orthodox Union and have a separate international organization.
- 10.
Based on observational and anecdotal evidence; the numbers are not available.
- 11.
A kollel is an institution in which men may continue their Talmud study for several years after marriage. Ferziger describes three stages in the development of Haredi kollelim in America, which at first existed almost exclusively in the core communities of New York/New Jersey; the second stage beginning in the 1970s with the establishment of somewhat traditional kollelim in smaller communities; and the third stage beginning in 1987 with a distinct focus on outreach beyond the Orthodox community.
- 12.
At the time the manuscript had not yet been published.
- 13.
The statement reads, “The creation of the State of Israel is one of the seminal events in Jewish history. Recognizing the significance of the State and its national institutions, we seek to instil in our students an attachment to the State of Israel and its people as well as a sense of responsibility for their welfare” (http://www.avi-chai.org).
- 14.
“Eyes on Israel” is a free curriculum for middle-school and high-school students created by CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) to help students develop a critical approach toward what they see, read, and hear about Israel in the media.
- 15.
For example see: http://www.timessquarerabbi.com, http://www.rabbihorowitz.com, http://www.abrahamtwerski.com.
- 16.
- 17.
This chapter does not explore the role of economic prosperity in the 1980s and 1990s in the explosion of founding of new schools . While increased wealth was certainly necessary to this development, it is not sufficient in itself to explain spending choices, although see Diamond’s (2000) argument to the contrary.
- 18.
There ought to be considerable research on the causes and history of breakaway schools because of their tremendous economic impact; but it does not appear that this phenomenon has been the subject of any scholarly inquiry.
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Bechhofer, S. (2011). Day Schools in the Orthodox Sector – A Shifting Landscape. In: Miller, H., Grant, L., Pomson, A. (eds) International Handbook of Jewish Education. International Handbooks of Religion and Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0354-4_41
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