As Jewish day school education enjoys increased enthusiasm and support -- with our area schools spotlighted in national ratings -- there’s a new initiative in town devoted to helping forge a community of schools, where any Jewish child has the opportunity to enjoy a top-quality Jewish day school education.

The Initiative for Day School Excellence is the natural evolution of the Peerless Excellence project which made headlines more than a year ago with the announcement of $45 million earmarked to boost the performance of area schools to even higher levels. Coordinated by Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Initiative is a newly raised umbrella designed to pull all parties together to promote excellence and ensure access to Boston-area Jewish day schools.  In addition to specific school-based and community-wide education projects, the Initiative aims to cultivate a vibrant community of diverse day schools supported by the entire Jewish community.

“With 14 schools, families have a huge range of formats, locations, sizes and philosophies from which to choose,” says David Cohen who, along with George Krupp, chairs the Initiative. “As we focus on creating a community of excellent and accessible day schools throughout Greater Boston, the Initiative will provide both an engine and a central address for the entire undertaking.”

The Initiative, powered by the initial Peerless Excellence grant, has already emerged as a national model, encouraging creative new partnerships among donors, schools and federations. “What’s remarkable about the entire program is its community-wide approach to school improvement,” says Susan Kardos, who directs the Initiative for CJP. “Seeing a constellation of schools all enjoying community support is an inspiring change on the local and national scenes.”

The Initiative is taking a multi-pronged approach to day school advocacy and improvement.  Some of the programs include:

• Investing heavily in three “pilot” schools -- the area’s largest schools in each of the main denominations (Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox);
• Convening a task force to study potential solutions to the challenge of affordability;
• Helping children with a range of disabilities, from mild to severe, receive a full Jewish education;
• Enabling the Orthodox schools to engage in careful strategic planning;
• Providing professional development for administrators and teachers; and
• Building bridges between day schools and early childhood centers to create smoother transitions from preschool to kindergarten.

This kind of integrated, multi-faceted approach to growing a vibrant community of Jewish day schools resonates with parents, educators and students alike.

“Such generous community support is enabling us to achieve excellence in all aspects of our school,” say Lisa Wallack of Natick, who this fall will have three children at The Rashi School. “Now, when your children go to day school they get everything they’d get from a secular education plus so much more. Their enjoyment of their Jewish heritage becomes integrated into their education -- and their future. These kids literally have it all: a top-flight education, a powerful Jewish background, a strong moral compass and an understanding of their role in repairing the world.”

They also receive a powerful sense of community, says Jacob Kriegel, a Columbia University junior who’s a graduate of Gann Academy – The New Jewish High School and South Area Solomon Schechter Day School. “In college, we’ve begun to realize that not everyone has that same sense of Jewish communal purpose and unity we were given,” he says. “It’s something we never would have gotten in another kind of school.”

That sense of community is one positive outgrowth of the Initiative’s work, says Rabbi Mendel Lewitin, Head of Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon, “The Initiative for Day School Excellence is not only challenging us to raise our bar of excellence in meeting the diverse needs of our community, it’s enabling us to continue our growth alongside the other Jewish day schools of Greater Boston.”

All of which provides further motivation to the Initiative’s organizers. “Excellent and accessible day schools are key to CJP’s vision of building a vibrant and viable Jewish future based on learning, caring and social justice,” says Cohen. “Now, working together as a community through the Initiative, that vision is becoming a reality.”

Photos courtesy of JCDS