For Anna Levin Rosen, the decision to send her children to Jewish day school is deeply personal. She looks forward to her four kids moving to Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School during the 2024-25 school year, emphasizing the school's commitment to bringing together families of diverse Jewish backgrounds as an especially appealing factor.
"Having students from different Jewish backgrounds, communities, and synagogues across the spectrum in one place while seeing ourselves as one is very important to our story," she said. "We're really grateful to send our kids to such a strong school with a commitment to Israel."
Rosen, who is Executive Director and Rabbi at the University of Chicago's Newberger Hillel Center, and her husband are able to send their children to Akiba Schechter thanks to the Tuition Accessibility Partnership (TAP) Fund. Made possible by Crown Family Philanthropies, the TAP Fund makes the dream of sending children to Jewish day school for families like Rosen's come true. This alternative tuition model is for families currently enrolled or interested in enrolling their children in one of five Jewish co-educational day schools. The fund seeks to make a co-educational K-8 Jewish day school more accessible by capping a family's total tuition at 12% of its household annual adjusted gross income (AGI).
"Those of us who are dedicated to Jewish education feel this will be a gamechanger and have a tremendous impact on increasing our enrollment, as well as helping our families who are currently enrolled," said Judy Finkelstein-Taff, Head of School at Chicago Jewish Day School (CJDS). "Jewish day schools are playing a pivotal role in Jewish life and in helping families feel that sense of belonging and build community together."
In addition to CJDS, Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School, and Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago are among the schools participating in TAP.
"My great hope is that this program becomes a feature of Jewish Chicago that will attract more and more families to Chicago," said Rabbi Menachem Linzer, Principal at Hillel Torah. "While each school has their own style, culture, approach, and curriculum, our goal is the same: Jewish education for the Chicago Jewish community."
The initiative emerges at a time when national Jewish day school participation is down. However, interest has climbed since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when the day school system nimbly shifted to online learning, and reopened their physical buildings well before most public schools.
Prizmah, a national network for Jewish day schools, reported that day school enrollment climbed 3.7% during the pandemic, and that 80% of those families remained at day schools in 2021. TAP's pilot program, which emulates other similar regional programs across North America, will impact roughly 250 local day school students in its first year.
Linzer adds that the TAP program has also resulted in an influx of funds for the school. "There is a requirement for certain funds to reinvest in the school, which is great because it's forcing us to be disciplined about articulating the targeted strategic areas that we want to reinvest in." he said. "We have already begun to develop a new STEM lab that will greatly enhance our student experience."
"We really believe that the community's investment in day schools is going to help the school grow," added Rosen. "And we want to be part of helping it grow."
Determinations for the TAP Fund are based on eligibility requirements-which include AGI between $200,000 and $350,000-not on a first-come first-served basis. To learn more, visit TAPFundChicago.org.
