Center for Cultural Judaism Pledges $10 Million in Support of Steinhardt Jewish Education Proposal

DECEMBER 2, 2003, NEW YORK, NY – The Center for Cultural Judaism announced today that it will be the first to join philanthropist Michael Steinhardt in his education initiative to offer free Jewish education to every Jewish child by equally matching his pledge of $10 million towards the $100 million dollar goal, with a grant from The Posen Foundation, provided there is a meaningful effort to serve secular and cultural Jews as part of this overall initiative, according to the center’s Executive Director Myrna Baron.

The $10 million commitment from the Center for Cultural Judaism and The Posen Foundation is contingent upon Mr. Steinhardt’s realizing his condition of $100 million to be raised in total, and, equally important, that the funds for this full initiative are distributed equitably among programming to serve the full Jewish population. According to Ms. Baron, “The Center for Cultural Judaism is committed to developing content, and supporting education and other programming for the largest portion of our population – the secular Jews – who are left mostly unserved by the broader Jewish community. We are eager to support a commitment to providing Jewish education, camp and college programs for our children, and want to make certain that secular Jews are not left out of the equation. We are very pleased to accept Mr. Steinhardt’s challenge and to ensure that these new programs are equally available for the underserved portion of our people.”

In his initial announcement during the GA in Jerusalem, Mr. Steinhardt correctly cited that “49 percent of American Jews identify as secular.” The source of his data is the American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS 2001), a major study conducted under the auspices of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and republished in 2003 by the Center for Cultural Judaism. (Note: The data was erroneously attributed to the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Study conducted by United Jewish Communities. NJPS has not, to date, released information on self-identification as found in AJIS.)

Details are still to be worked out on the program. The $10 million pledge to this initiative by the Center for Cultural Judaism is based upon approximately 49 percent of the total amount being earmarked to truly secular Jewish programming for children of the 49 percent of the American adult Jewish population who self identify as cultural, secular, non-religious, and Humanistic.

According to Ms. Baron, “For a true renaissance in Jewish life, cultural, secular, unaffiliated and disaffected Jews need to be engaged with compelling programs that address their needs – on their terms. Jewish continuity depends in part on reaching this population and enabling them to celebrate their Jewish identity and pass it on to the next generation. There are currently few suitable educational programs offered to this, the largest single segment of American – and indeed – world Jewry. The vitality of the Jewish people will be determined by how we engage the half of our population that is currently on the periphery of Jewish life.”

The Center for Cultural Judaism was recently established in response to emerging new insights into American Jewish demography, as cited in the American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS 2001). Salient among those insights is the emergence of a very large population of Jews – and for many their non-Jewish spouses as well – who do not find meaning in Judaism as a religion, but for whom Judaism as a culture is meaningful. The Center for Cultural Judaism is dedicated to supporting programs on behalf of this large, under-served population.

Back to Media Releases