COMMUNITY
W H AT ' S H A P P E N I N G I N N O R T H E A S T F LO R I DA
HOW DO WE KEEP LIVING JEWISHLY FROM BECOMING EXPENSIVE AND LONELY?
By Kellie Smith, Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida
I recently read an article that suggested two of the most urgent priorities facing the American Jewish community are making Jewish life more affordable and revitalizing the Jewish dating scene. This got me thinking—with Jewish life being rather expensive and the constant challenge of meeting Jewish singles, are we standing in our own way of having a thriving Jewish community? We must work to make Jewish life more affordable, and in the absence of your Jewish mother living down the street to fix you up, we must make it easier for Jewish singles to connect!
Financially, the cost of Jewish Day School is one of our greatest challenges. Thankfully, our local Federation Annual Campaign provides funding to assist families with tuition. However, we must still consider that the price of tuition to attend a private Catholic K-8 school locally is roughly $8,000, while it costs nearly double that to receive a Jewish education—a reality of which I am very aware since I send my son, an only child, to a private Jewish Day School. In addition, the cost of Catholic religious school in Jacksonville is approximately $200 per year, while Jewish religious school can cost up to five times that amount. Since only an estimated 2.4 percent of U.S. adults are Jewish and since we are a community that shuns active proselytizing, we must rely on a
high Jewish birthrate to sustain. In order to sustain our Jewish identity in a secular, American culture, we must ensure our children are given the highest standard of Jewish education in both day schools and religious schools. To help parents make the decision and feel financially confident with their decision, we need the community's help to make this happen, from generation to generation, by being partners and sustaining Jewish education.
Culturally, the Jewish dating scene is in crisis, as more Jews than ever remain single in their thirties and forties, holding out for someone who is Jewish but unable to find anyone. It’s proven difficult for young Jewish singles to meet and fall in love, especially when families are so spread apart, separated geographically by parts of town that are labeled “more Jewish.” One of the many missions of our local Federation is to provide ample networking opportunities. Programs like our Young Professionals & Families and Shalom Northeast Florida exist to serve a diverse and modern cross-communal and unaffiliated community. But, we must continue to do more to provide a lively Jewish social scene into the future to keep our next generation engaged and connected. We must shift our focus from capital projects to investing our
