Ensuring Jewish Education For Every Jewish Child

As Jewish educators throughout America prepare for “back to school,” Boston is one of the few communities to have achieved across-the-board integrated education within existing schools for the overwhelming majority of Jewish children with special needs in its area.

The Initiative for Day School Excellence at the Combined Jewish Philanthropies is a communitywide school improvement project situated in CJP’s Planning
Department. The project was funded initially through the $45 million Peerless Excellence Grant by visionary donor-families who believe that Jewish day school education is a key to a vibrant Jewish present and future. The initiative aims to benefit all 14 Jewish day schools in greater Boston, which vary in size, structure, financing, educational philosophy, and religious ideology.

In 2006, the grant also funded the merger of two area special-education organizations in Boston, Etgar L’Noar and the Jewish Special Education Collaborative, creating Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, which provides essential special education services for the community, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and specialized reading and learning support to assist children in the Jewish day schools. Gateways also
provides assistance to children in Hebrew Schools and other supplementary Jewish education programs, as well as professional development services to teachers and volunteers.

The educational initiative is a partnership of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) of Greater Boston and the Ruderman Family Foundation, for whom this has been the primary initiative.

The breakthrough success of this one-of-a-kind program, begun in Boston just five years ago, has been well-documented:

• Twelve schools received direct grants for qualified personnel, professional development, and direct student services. Each of these participating day schools now has a basic infrastructure for ensuring that students with special learning needs are served with better quality and more in-school coordination than ever before.
  
  
• Each participating school has a designated coordinator for special education, at least one special educator teaching identified students, a school mission that includes the admission of students with special needs, improved space for special-education services, greater capacity to support students with special needs and/or their teachers, more inclusion classrooms, and programs for students whose needs cannot be met in the regular classroom.
  
  
•  A broader range of options is now available for serving students with special needs, including substantially separate classes for small numbers of students at the elementary and middle school levels; co-taught classes that rely on support from Gateways therapists; and reduced course loads at the middle and high school levels that were not considered acceptable in the past.

“When our second child was ready for day school,” recalled one parent of a child with identified learning issues, “we spoke to many of the day schools near our home and were very surprised to find them unable to accommodate his learning needs, which were relatively mild. It would have been a horrible situation if one of our children could not have a Jewish education. This child always had a Jewish soul and naturally gravitated to Jewish topics. He will one day be a valuable contributor to the Jewish community.”

CJP President Barry Shrage observed, “If we want a universal experience in education, then we need to include students with disabilities. Donors knew that Boston was a place that has focused on Jewish education, and CJP was able to bring together the resources needed to make their dreams—and our dreams—come true.”

Major funding arrived five years ago in the form of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “We have been totally committed to expanding the reach of education to children with special needs and found particular resonance in CJP’s work in this area,” said Jay Ruderman, the foundation’s president. Over four years of the program thus far, the nearly $3 million budget as funded by the Ruderman Foundation has grown from $663,240 in 2006 to $784,175 in 2009, adjusted to the growing size of the program.

“Uniquely, we brought more than funding to the table,” Ruderman emphasized. “We are creating nothing less than a new paradigm of philanthropy in which noble social objectives are implemented through remarkably demanding, effective management approaches drawn from the business sector.”

From early involvement with three model schools, this initiative has blossomed into one of the American Jewish community’s premier working efforts to provide every Jewish child, including those with special needs, a strong Jewish education within existing schools and resources.

“Our children have become a part of the fabric of the school,” said another participating parent. “My son has never felt any different from the other kids. Every child deserves the tools necessary to achieve their full potential. Through this program, they can get whatever they need.”

What’s next? According to Ruderman, “We’re now looking for a ripple effect. We have demonstrated just how well this approach can work and now want other communities to replicate our venture. We want so many more young lives to be touched and involved, including those with the most significant disabilities. It’s time for funders in ten more communities to step up to the plate and say, ‘Hey, let’s bring this to our town.’ ”

The Ruderman Family Foundation is a Boston-based foundation that seeks to support the disadvantaged, focusing on people with special needs in the Jewish community in the Greater Boston area and Israel. The Foundation believes that supporting scholarship in the Jewish community will help advance Jewish continuity and that a strong Israel is vital to the future of the Jewish people. The Ruderman Family Foundation also works to aid people with autism and alpha 1 antitrypsin disorders.