VIEWS ON JEWISH‐MRELIGIOUS EDUCATION BY AMERICAN ORTHODOX‐JEWISH LEADERS

Abstract

The educational system of the Jewish community in the United States consists of three divisions: The Sunday school; the week-day late afternoon school; and the all-day school. There is about an equal division between the number of children who attend the one-day-a-week Sunday school and those that attend the threeday-a-week afternoon Hebrew school or Talmud Torah. A much smaller percentage of the total Jewish school population, about 8%, attend the Jewish all-day school or Yeshiva. The Jewish all-day school today is, by and large, under the auspices of the Orthodox-Jewish community. (In recent years, the Conservative-Jewish community has organized some all-day schools.) Even though there are Orthodox supplementary afternoon schools throughout the United States with a total school population of approximately 56,000 students, these afternoon schools are comparatively small and do not receive prime attention from the Orthodox-Jewish community. The Orthodox community is directing most of its energy and resources into the