News of the funding from the Keren Keshet foundation was released this week.
“It’s amazing. It’s a gift. It’s an incredible gift to the Jewish community, Jewish continuity and Jewish education,” exclaimed JCHS founder Nancy Zimmerman Pechner. “This community is blessed that somebody would want to come in and develop exciting Jewish and academic education for our teens and for the future.”
The tuition offer is another significant investment for Keren Keshet, which already spent more than $20 million obtaining the California College of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco for the school. It will turn over the campus’ deed to JCHS if the school can meet fund-raising and/or enrollment stipulations over the next several years.
The school’s 2001-2002 tuition had been $16,500, with a $2,500 rebate to parents. Keren Keshet’s donation to cover the costs of this year’s entering freshman will be at least $346,500 and will be more if the enrollment increases.
Larry Fischer, JCHS’ head of school, said the initial class still has room for up to eight more students. School officials were unsure exactly how much longer enrollment would be open for this school year.
If, as Keren Keshet’s co-founder and trustee Mem Bernstein predicts, JCHS’ student body reaches 120 within three years, and if the tuition remains constant, then the foundation’s investment could reach roughly $825,000 by next year and $2 million the year after that. However, Noah Alper, JCHS board president, predicts tuition may reach $20,000 within six years.
For at least JCHS’ first year, Keren Keshet will cover students’ book and activity costs as well.
After the free tuition offer ends, a 10-year Keren Keshet scholarship fund kicks in.
“One of the wonderful side effects of this effort on the part of Keren Keshet is it boosts not only the Jewish high school, but Jewish education in general,” said Rabbi Edward Harwitz, JCHS’ principal. “I’m excited and delighted they’ve made this sort of investment into our community and want to applaud the first-year students and families that made the choice to come and be pioneers.”
In addition to unexpectedly rewarding the school’s initial class, Alper predicts the free-tuition offer could induce wavering students and families to opt for Jewish secondary education.
“My initial reaction was that this program would help to accelerate the high school’s maturity. Because I think people who were perhaps a little recalcitrant to try something new but were interested will get an incentive that make it a desirable place,” he said. “A lot of parents on the borderline between this and another option, I feel this may push them over the line.”
Keren Keshet is a private foundation established two years ago through a bequest from the will of Bernstein’s late husband, Zalman. Bernstein adds that once a student’s two free years are up, he or she is under no obligation to stay at JCHS — not that she’s worried anyone will jump ship.
“We have no concern about students staying in school. We feel very strongly that both the head of school, Larry Fischer, and the head of Judaic studies, Ed Harwitz, will be able to provide for the students,” said Bernstein, who helped to hire both men. “With the excitement of both secular and Jewish learning, the students will have no desire to go anywhere else.”