Responding to Gershon Distenfeld’s, “A Viral Opportunity,” (April 23, 2020) one of the positive signs I have seen amidst the COVID craziness is the spirit of cooperation in our community. In the early days of the pandemic, the schools worked together to make a joint decision about when and whether to close down. The RCBC, presenting a united front, gained national recognition for their early and decisive actions to keep our community safe. Let us build on these glimmers of hope in a difficult situation to take positive steps to improve another difficult situation.

Schools, I have no doubt you are looking toward next year and seeking ways to cut costs or increase donations for what is sure to be a difficult school year funding-wise. Working together with the other schools you could find opportunities to share teachers, vendors and other resources to reduce costs for all without impact to the quality of education. This could be the year to pare down the open house extravaganzas—no food and no swag—without risk of being judged on irrelevancies. This could be the year to consolidate special services at one or two of the schools and leverage what you have learned about remote classes.

RCBC, this is your moment to guide the community toward the sustainable model in Jewish education that is so critical to our future. You have shown yourself to be at the forefront of protecting our community from the present threat. Now is your moment to be at the forefront of protecting our future. You can be guiding the schools on finding the right balance between necessities in Jewish education and nice-to-haves. You can be using your influence with local businesses and leaders to find additional sources of funding for the local schools. You can be promoting non-academic paths for inclusion of all children in the Jewish community; children who are in public school because they cannot benefit from the dual curriculum or because their parents that are not in the top 2% of earners can and should still be part of Jewish life.

The first step, as Gershon pointed out, is to recognize that there is a problem, but the second step is to take action. We have been slowed in our progress toward sustainable Jewish education by our search for the one magical solution to the problem. There is no one solution; we need to make progress on multiple fronts if we are to continue Jewish life in Bergen County as we know it.