The notion of a tuition-free quality Jewish education for children at the yeshiva of their parents’ choice may seem like a pipe dream to some.But in a move it hopes will guarantee an education for future community children, a Midwood-based Sephardic group has taken a bold step toward that goal.The Sephardic National Alliance has called upon its members to bequeath five percent of their net worth toward an educational fund. “Everyone, and I repeat, everyone must donate five percent to this Yeshiva Fund,” writes Rabbi Saul Kassin, chief rabbi of the local Sephardic community, in a letter recently sent to members.“We want every boy and girl to attend yeshiva,” Rabbi Kassin told The Jewish Week. “A yeshiva education is essential.”Organizers hope the trust, entitled the Sephardic Educational Fund, will be able to assist community members immediately and pay the tuition of every Sephardic child within 20 years.“Our goal is to assist and encourage every Jewish child with a quality Jewish education, one that will recognize and respect the rich Sephardic culture and heritage that our community takes pride in,” says Ben-Gurion Matsas. The president of the Sephardic National Alliance, a social and cultural organization that represents the Syrian community, mainly concentrated in Midwood, Matsas calls the effort “a historic campaign that can be the answer to many problems facing our young generation.”By bequeathing the five percent to charitable organizations such as the Sephardic Educational Fund, an individual can bequeath money to the fund and save his or her inheritors several forms of taxes. According to Matsas, the fund has financial advisors that can assist donors in their contributions.The fund is modeled after similar programs springing up across the United States and first conceived by the National Jewish Day School Scholarship Committee established in Chicago in 1997. Similar programs have thus far raised some $5 million in both Chicago and Detroit and $1 million in Minneapolis. Last spring, after a meeting of representatives from various Long Island yeshivas and day schools, many of these institutions created individual trust funds and began promoting the 5- percent program among parents and alumni. The representatives of the Long Island schools also met with John Ruskay, chief executive officer of UJA-Federation in New York. UJA pledged to offer technical and legal advice to the schools and assist them in structuring the various endowment funds. UJA has also offered to manage the various endowment funds, free of management fees.“We support this initiative and we are offering our services to enable for this program to be successful,” says Alisa Rubin Kurshan, executive director of UJA-Federation’s Jewish Continuity Commission.The chairman and founder of the National Jewish Day School Scholarship Committee, George Hanus, also salutes the initiative.“Rabbi Kassin is a man of great strength, vision and integrity,” says Hanus. “If other rabbis and lay leaders around the country would unite and mandate for their own community a five percent obligation to any educational endowment fund, day school funding would be available to all children.”Hanus sees the rising cost of tuition as putting Jewish education out of the reach of many families. “It is a crisis beyond everyone’s imagination,” says Hanus. Even among Orthodox families who will only send their children to yeshiva, the cost “is destroying shalom bayit [family relations]. “If leadership takes the position [to support the donation], and says it loud enough and often enough people will take action,” says Hanus, who was recently in Israel trying to win the support of current Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi Doron and former chief rabbi and Shas leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef for the five-percent program.Under Rabbi Kassin’s plan, Sephardic children will be able to apply the funds for tuition at any of the various yeshivas that serve the Sephardic community including Magen David, Shaarey Torah, Ateret Torah, the girls school Ahi Ezer and Yeshivah of Flatbush. “It is a necessary and noble endeavor that can be emulated across the entire Jewish continuum,” says Chaim Lauer, executive vice president of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. If Sephardic Educational Fund cannot make Jewish education free for its members, it will “lessen the burden on parents who are dedicated to passing on their heritage.”
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