November 15, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
A serious personnel crisis faces Jewish federations, community organizations, and schools, reports the Jewish magazine Moment (October).
The shortage has been acknowledged since the mid-1980s, when the Council of Jewish Federations formed a special committee to examine the problem. And, ironically, it has been exacerbated by a Jewish cultural revival in the 1990s, the magazine says.
The revival manifested itself foremost in promoting Jewish education, resulting in frantic school building. While from 1946 to 1990 only six non-Orthodox Jewish high schools were built, in the 1990s 11 were built. And by 2005, an estimated 17 more will be built, according to a report by the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education.
But the schools have not been able to recruit enough teachers and principals. Moment reports that of 27,000 Jewish educational positions in North America, 3,000 are vacant. In some instances, non-Jews have even been hired to run Jewish schools.
Moment also examines similar shortages in other areas of the Jewish nonprofit world, such as fund-raising and community services. Though some graduate programs specialize in training people to work for Jewish nonprofit groups, such as Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service, they do not turn out enough graduates to fill the vacancies.
Two related factors — burnout and low pay — also contribute to the problem. Many young Jews who are attracted to what the magazine calls the “helping professions” gravitate toward better-paying jobs in areas like occupational therapy and speech therapy. Still, pay could be on the rise: Some Jewish federations are now so desperate to attract talented professionals to raise money and manage programs, says the magazine, that they are engaged in bidding wars.
