My blog site is getting quite a few hits. There are more than 320 people who have read my story about the millions of dollars wasted by the Jess Schwartz Administration, which I posted on June 12. I am including a report that is generated by WordPress, the site host, that verifies that I am being truthful about the readership of my blog.

I appreciate the feedback and the questions that are being sent to me about the issues surrounding the merger of Pardes and Jess Schwartz Academy, the lack of financial disclosure at Pardes, and the mismanagement and change of mission at the Jewish Federation.  I have received ten emails that are framed around the question about what I think the parents should do about the merger of the schools.  Because the question of the school merger is most pressing, and because the merger is not completed, I am going to focus on that topic.

Rabbi Kahn’s article mourning the loss of the Reform School is a must read.  I do not want to take Rabbi Kahn’s words out of context because his article about the merger is both scholarly, insightful, and copyrighted. I do not have permission to reprint the blog here on my blog nor have I asked for it.  The following passage is a small portion of his writings on the subject of the merger and should not be taken out of the context in which it was written.  But clearly, he shares with many of us a profound sadness, and has his own misgivings about the wisdom of the decision.

I think that you should ask your Rabbi to publicly provide guidance on this matter, especially if your Rabbi is a Reform Rabbi’s whose Temples send kids to Pardes.  I think this is Temple Chai, Temple Solel, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Kol Ami and Temple Gan Elohim, and Kehillah of Arizona. These are learned men and women who have many years of learning and I do believe it is their place to provide commentary, for or against the merger, and to provide guidance.

Until the other Reform Rabbis come forward and we can have a consensus, or in the absence of the Rabbi’s coming forward, then the leadership void must be filled by parental action.  There is really only one parental action that is effective, and that is to withhold your re-enrollments until we get the answers that make us feel comfortable about what will happen at Pardes.  I know that withholding re-enrollments would be a very effective action because the Board Members with whom I have spoken have urged me to refrain from asking parents to withhold their re-enrollments if they are unhappy with the merger.  Due to the fact that there are ten parents brave enough to be writing me,  the witholding of $120,000 of tuition, until we get the answers we are entitled to receive as parents and supporters of Pardes, will put an unpleasant amount of financial pressure on Pardes. 20 parents doing this, withholding tuition until we get the openness and answers we are entitled to get, would certainly get the attention of the Pardes Board.  The Board’s silence in the face of so many questions, reflects an arrogance and a misunderstanding of their mission in leading the school.  Unlike a heavily traded corporation where the shares are heavily diluted, there are about two hundred families sending their children to Pardes. Without the tuition from two hundred familes, Pardes becomes Jess Schwartz Academy, a collection of empty buildings.  Moving the school into forced Pluralism, where the t’fillah is going to be designed by Rabbi Kanter (who I am sure is a very fine Rabbi), an ordained Conservative Rabbi, without consulting the Reform families, seems to be smug, misguided, and the kind of high handed action that I would expect from the Board of Jess Schwartz Academy, not Pardes. Certainly, the continual circular referencing of what this will mean to have PEJE and Ravsak (see blog of the 12th) on board and supporting the merger is very far from comforting.

It is clear, that the immediate way to help Pardes, and insure the future of the school, will be to enact the tough medicine of withholding tuition, pledges of support, gifts, and the like, to make sure this last Jewel of the Reform Jewish Community of Phoenix is not swallowed by the chronic mismanagement that has destroyed two schools and set fire to the educational assets of the community.

Until the Board understands their responsibility to the parents of the students who attend the school and decides to be open about Pardes’ finances, the exact reasons for the merger, and explains to us why abandoning the Reform Jewish affiliation that has served the school so well is smart, then the continual financial support is akin to enabling an addiction.  If the school fails, like JSA and King David did before, we will all regret, and be to blame for not holding the board accountable for their actions.

I have seen a very odd trend. While the Phoenix Federation Health and Fitness Company and their VOS JCC have increased their censorship of dissent and deleted me as a friend on Facebook (a type of censorship for sure, preventing me from posting on their site, which is a wee bit infantile to me), the number of hits to my little paean of protest is increasing. The bad news for the management of Federation H&F and Pardes is that the more I get deleted, the more I write, and the more I write, the more hits I get. I am not sure that stifling dissent is going to solve the myriad of financial issues at Federation H&F or at Pardes, but it is worth a try. It is working a bit in Syria. My house did get egged a few nights ago but that has more to do with my son’s choice in girlfriends than my opposition to the Pardes merger. Oh well.

This morning, when I woke up, I went to look at this blog to see how many people read it the day before. There were 137 people who read it yesterday and over 152 people who read it today. Now maybe some of those are people who have read it more than once, but I doubt that it represents a majority because my writing is neither profound nor particularly witty, so I can’t see it as a “must” read with a lot of repeaters.

When I picked up my phone, I had a text message from a member of the Board of Pardes. I have a few friends who serve on Pardes’ Board and I know them to be very good people. I just disagree now with the merger and with Pardes becoming a Pluralistic school because I do not have enough information to make a good decision about whether or not I support it. However, that does not mean that I do not respect these directors as people, they are my friends and it just means I disagree.

The text message said that the word-on-the-street was that I was advocating for parents to take their kids out of Pardes. I told the director to read the blog and judge for himself. The director texted back ten minutes later and said I was doing exactly what he said I was doing. I called the director and said that I disagreed and simply thought the school should be transparent, explain the reasons for the merger, disclose their finances, and not hide behind the oft repeated refrain that “this merger is good for the community.” So, the director said that I should not be suggesting any actions that would be harmful to the school and that telling parents that they should explore their options if they are unhappy is harmful to the school. The director went on to say that Pardes would make their financial statements available to anyone who wanted to review them. I told the director no one should have to ask for this and as a matter of course it should be made public (like the Federation’s information or Jess Schwartz’ information), and that making people ask for the financial information puts many of them in an uncomfortable position. Many people who depend on the Jewish trade for their livelihood can not speak out in the manner that I have, and if I was the owner of Yonah Shimmel’s Knish Factory, I can assure you I would be more circumspect.

Later in the afternoon, I got another text from the same director saying that CBI did not make their financial statements public and that religious non-profits do not make their IRS 990’s public. The point in fact is that Houses of Worship, Churches, Synagogues etc. are exempt from filing IRS 990’s, and Pardes obtained a waiver many years ago because they were originally part of Temple Solel and therefore exempt. I doubt, if the issue was pressed, that Pardes would hold onto their exemption. But, if Pardes does not want to be transparent, that will be to the detriment of Pardes and it will hinder financial support for Pardes. In general, it is very difficult to offer advice to the Captain of the Titanic and doubly hard, if you are like me and viewed as the leper with the most fingers.

I would think that the quickest way to end this discussion once and for all about Pardes’ financial situation would be to make their financial statements available online, like Jess Schwartz does, like the Federation does. Their mortgage is public, so what we know for certain is there is a 4.8 milliion dollar mortgage on Pardes’ current campus. I think that sending a board member of Pardes, who is my friend, on a fool’s errand to tell me in the morning that the statements are available to anyone who asks, only to have that same board member come to me in the afternoon to inform me that religious institutions do not make their financial information public, does not make Pardes more transparent, and the board position on this is both misguided and reflective of the back of their hand that they show to the parents and supporters of Pardes. Pardes is not a house of worship, and certainly now, with their new and improved Pluralism, they are not attached to a Synagogue. This semantic obfuscation just increases the specter of doubt on the whole merger mystery even more and makes everyone wonder what is Pardes hiding?. Markets do not like uncertainty, and either do parents who are thinking about spending $12,000 a year on tuition. My wife asked me the following question today: If Pardes was an Orthodox or Conservative School with 270 kids and merging with a school of 40 Reform Jewish Kids, would the school become Pluralistic to accommodate the 40?

The guessing game: Since we know nothing of the details of the merger other than a vague statement that the school was thinking about strengthening their t’fillah, I am left guessing. So my first push on the buzzer has me guessing that Mitchell Ginsberg offered the JSA Campus to the Pardes Board with the sole condition being that the school drop its Reform Affliation to accommodate the 40 conservative students. I guess that Pardes’ board is so enamored with the prospects of a new campus, that they are going to increase their mortgage load to almost $7,000,000 dollars to move to a school, turning their back on a perfectly good campus, with the vague idea in mind that the mortgage holder will just eat their losses, to be publicly made fools of, jilted for a newer model. I will now select Renaissance painting for a hundred.

No room for debate: I received emails from friends who were teachers, or spouses of teachers, and the refrain was the same; “your writing is on point, but I can not post a comment on your blog because my spouse needs a reference from Pardes.” I know that when I attended the curriculum meeting at Pardes, I was told by a senior Pardes Administrator that I should be kind, shut up, and not say anything against the merger because Pardes had done a lot to help my youngest son. It is precisely because Pardes helped my son so much that I began the blog in the first place.

The myth of hundreds: I have been told that hundreds of people support this merger. I have been told that the Reform Rabbis support this merger. I have not seen one public show of support for the merger. I would love for the Reform Rabbis to step forward, in their position of leadership and from their position of scholarship and advise us as to whether a Pluralistic school is something that is supported by the Reform Movement and whether or not they believe this will be successful here. There is a short article here at this link from Hillel at Ohio University that is a pretty fast read.

Have a great Shabbat.

Last week I attended a seminar of college directors and Jim Ward, the Interim President of the Phoenix Symphony and John Graham, the president of Sunbelt Holdings, and a board member of the Phoenix Symphony, the ASU Foundation, and dozens of other boards, spoke on the topic of development, fundraising, and the importance of transparency in the financial dealings of the organization that one is trying to raise funds for.

The basic recipe for success in fundraising is based upon building trust with donors by showing them a detailed picture of the financial status of the organization one is trying to raise funds for, making everyone understand the needs of the organization, and explaining why the organization is important, vital, to the well being of the community.

Pardes’ failure to be transparent in their financial dealings, their failure to make their IRS 990’s available to donors, means that the donor has no idea what is going on and it is possible that the donor may be donating to an organization that may well be on its way out of business.  Now in practicality, I am sure that Pardes makes this information available to a major donor who would want to see this information.  But the fact of the matter is, the giving matrix is a pyramid, with very large donors (usually one or two) near the top of the pyramid, and then the base is made up of many mid-level  and smaller donors.  By not being forthright about their financial status, the smaller and mid level donors are disconnected from the process, and generally, the apathy about giving is accompanied by the thought that if one does not know what is going on, the the one or two larger donors will step forward and therefore, my money is not needed.

Four years ago, when I served on the Pardes development committee (before I stepped down over the corruption at the JTO and Pardes’ continual membership in the JTO), I, and several other members of that group brought up the need to initiate an endowment campaign, but this was not a priority at that point in time, and it was a mistake made then and really sad that no progress has been made on that front.  The FAQ that came home last week is the first time that I have ever even seen the concept of an endowment mentioned publicly.  My guess is that Pardes probably lives hand to mouth, hanging by a thread financially, and the reason that they do not disclose their financial status is that they are fearful of what people would think if they knew the truth.  Unfortunately, all private schools are having a difficult time, and I think that if Pardes would be more transparent about their finances, they would have an opportunity for everyone to understand their needs and for everyone who loves Pardes to step forward and contribute.  Otherwise, aside from that warm fuzzy feeling you get from giving to a Jewish School, donating to a school that hides its financial status is like giving money to a marginalized individual who is panhandling and tells you he won’t spend the money on drugs.

As a note, JSA and the Federation disclosed their IRS 900 forms, and they should be commended.

The issue of transparency extends to other areas as well.  How many parents of the 40+% of the students who are Reform Jews are in favor of Pardes becoming Pluralistic?  How many Rabbis in the Reform movement here in Phoenix think this a good idea?  Where is the public display of support for this?  Why does debate, which essential for the success of Pluralism to succeed (as identified on the Ravsak site), find a deaf ear at Pardes?Why does Pardes, which has, with their JSA merger, done everything to stifle debate?  Is debate only healthy when the debate goes your way?  I continue to urge all parents who want more information about this, or members of the donor community who have question, to vote with your pocketbooks, withhold donations, tuition payments, and re-enrollments (and evaluate the many fine public school alternatives) until the community gets a better picture of what will go on at the new, improved Pardes.

I think it is fair to say that it is very easy to point out the mistakes that our Federation, JTO, Pardes, and the JSA have made.  They are a mile wide and pretty tall, so it is like shooting fish in a barrel.  I have been asked, and I think it is only equitable to offer an alternative vision of what might be a better plan for our community.

1) It is safe to say that unloading the Federation Health Club, campus et al. would be step in the right direction.  I know this would be a crushing blow to our leaders who have donated money to this “Golden Calf” of “VOS Judaism”, but it would be better to cut our losses and plow whatever money we can get back into the Federation.  This would allow them to fund their programs and get back to the core mission of being a Federation and not a health club.  To assuage the egos of those whose vision fell so valiantly short, and who parted with so much cash to fund this structure, I would propose a dramatic statue, like the one at the Marine Corp. Memorial depicting the raising of the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima.  You could have all principles involved in this fiasco depicted doing very noble things, or on horses, or putting cream cheese on a bagel for a small child, or whatever, but at least these leaders and donors would be memorialized.  Each synagogue could give a child on the occasion of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah a small copy of the statue, so that the efforts of our ancestors will never be forgotten.  This might cut into the mini Torahs handed out, but I think it will promote healing.

2) Dismiss the board of the Federation in its entirety.  Have the Presidents of the Jewish congregations in town (all congregations welcome, voting rights to be apportioned to the size of the congregation’s membership) form an interim board of directors of the Federation. It seems to me that if a successful congregation has 1,000 members, their President might just know a thing or two about how to engage Phoenix Jews and he should therefore have voting power that is greater than a a congregation that has ten members.  Have this new board hire professional management to run the Federation in keeping with the best practices as established by the Nonprofit Board Best Practices, a document from the 2007 National Directors Institute put together by the Chicago law firm Foley & Lardner LLP.

3) Sell the JSA Campus.  Take the money from the sale and retire the debt from the current Pardes Campus. It is embarrassing to sign contracts, mortgages, etc., and then approach donors and ask them to write off our obligations.  It detracts form the willingness of people to treat the community seriously and work with us in the future. It is a blemish on the whole community, tarring us as deadbeats.  Pardes’ strategic vision of growth is great, but unproven, and if JSA and King David could not operate from that building, I seriously doubt that changing the character of the school to become Pluralistic, is going to make matters easier.

4) Utilize the infrastructure that the Jewish Community has at its finger tips.  The Congregation I belong to seems to have a ton of space.  I know many of the other Synagogues also have quite a bit of capacity to host events. They also have vacant fields that could be lined for sporting events, outdoor events, etc.  I do not think they have swimming pools, but I know that the Village Sports Clubs have swimming pools, basketball courts, etc., so I am guessing that there is a way to pick up the fitness slack. And, for those events that can not be held at a Synagogue because the crowds would exceed the Synagogue’s capacity, I think it is possible to rent facilities to host these events.

Relieving the financial pressure that our Golden Calf has created, while enhancing our sense of responsibility and survivability, might get the community thinking about things other than solar panels at the JCC.

Breaking News – Tom Sylvester, one of the most respected admission counselors, development officers, and private school educators west of the Mississippi, is joining the new merged Pardes/JSA school. This is like signing Babe Ruth to your little league team. I do not have the space to list his myriad accomplishments but he is a huge asset to any school and it is a feather in Jill’s cap that this is happening. Congratulations on this.

Now, back on point:

1. I donated money to Pardes because I wanted to support the Reform Jewish Day School in Phoenix.  Now that Pardes, without parental input, has decided to become a pluralistic school, which I am not interested in supporting, I would like my money returned to me so that I can give it to to my Reform Congregation (which will not be becoming pluralistic).  How can Pardes make that happen?

2. In the FAQ that Pardes sent home this week, it states that:  The potential tuition implications of a change in campus or the school’s debt structure are unknown, though our goal is to develop a plan that ensures no dramatic tuition increases are necessary.  Most people do not merge businesses or buy houses without knowing their debt structure or mortgage obligations.  Why is Pardes willing to take this risk with the school?

3. What will happen if Yeladeem Gan, who holds the mortgage on the present campus and is owed $4.8 million dollars, does not agree to write off a substantial portion of the mortgage?  How will Pardes survive?

4. Since Pardes is a 501c3, no longer sheltered by being part of a Synagogue, will Pardes make their financial statements public, as is required?  JSA makes their financial statements public, even the mighty Jewish Federation complies with this law, so why does Pardes not make this information public?  Would Pardes rather have these inquiries addressed to the IRS?

5. Since the parents were not consulted about this merger and the rush to embrace Pluralism and drop the Reform affiliation, how do we know that in six months Pardes will not decide to drop Pluralism and become a Yeshiva?  How can you guarantee to a donor what their money is actually going for?

6. What Reform Rabbis are supporting this merger?  Since more than 40% of the kids at Pardes are reform, I am guessing that their support for this is critical.  If the reform Rabbis do not support the merger, can the school survive without the Reform base?

7. Why are no reform Rabbi’s mentioned by name in the discussions of t’fillah?  I notice Rabbi Kanter is mentioned  so prominently, and she was ordained as a Conservative Rabbi.  Why did the Judaics department turn to Rabbi Kanter prior to talks about consolidation, as is written in your FAQ’s?  Was the management of Pardes upset with the Reform t’fillah?

8. In 2009, JSA merged with King David, moved to the JSA Campus, and both schools went out of business before the year was out, losing enrollment of 200 tuition paying students.  You are following on their heels within a year of that merger disaster.  What are you doing differently?  Do you even know if you are doing anything differently?

9. As a courtesy to parents who do not share your vision of Pluralism, will parents be given their deposits back and released form their contracts?

10. If this merger does not according go to plan because of the inherent difficulties in creating a pluralistic school and the unwillingness of Yeladeem Gan to be made a fool of, do you have a plan B?

11. There is tremendous talk of how willing the Federation of Phoenix is to work with Pardes/JSA and allow Pardes/JSA to use their facilities, but times are very bad for health club businesses like the Federation.  What will happen if the Federation continues to operate their fitness enterprise at a loss and is forced to sell their fitness holdings to focus on their core competency (I have no idea what that is and would like some guidance on that if you know)?  Will the JSA campus, without these athletic facilities, still be a good idea?

Answers coming Tuesday.

Hopefully everyone has had an opportunity to digest the Q&A memo that was sent out by Pardes in response to questions that the parents asked at the town hall meeting at JSA. If you have not had an opportunity to read this Q&A, the link to it is here.  It appears there are no directors from JSA who will be on the new board, yet that leaves me again wondering why the current board of Pardes feels that it is a necessity to become a pluralistic school?

In 2009, the Jewish News published a story about the newly announced merger between Jess Schwartz College Prep and the King David School.  At the time of  the merger, KDS’s head of school, Nammie Ichilov was quoted as saying,  “I think it’s important that the community understand that although this is financially the smartest thing for us to be doing, especially in economic times like this, this is truly an opportunity for educational improvement,” Ichilov said. “Sometimes, out of necessity you get an amazing product, and I think this is one of those cases.”  So my curiosity is piqued because the head of the KDS school felt that the community should understand that the merger between KDS and JSA was the financially smartest thing to do and that the resulting educational product would be amazing; yet within a year, both schools lay in ruins.

I believe the community should be interested in finding out what happened that caused the Jess Schwartz/King David merger to fail because after all, the King David School had been in business for over twenty years in 2009.  So, to see the school wiped out, reduced to rubble less than a year after merging with Jess Schwartz is confounding.  At the time of the merger, Jess Schwartz had 85 students and KDS had approximately 180.

The Q&A from Pardes contained the following statement:

We have always sought to provide the highest level of Jewish and secular education in a school that is financially stable and has the ability to grow.

As the Pardes JSA Community Day School, with our combined resources, we are now better positioned to do each of these things. We are now, more than ever, well positioned to attract the most talented teachers, pursue additional local and national philanthropy, and create best practices among the national Jewish Day School community.

We hope this consolidation will not only improve the quality of our school; it will help reduce some (sic) the division and fragmentation in the broader Valley Jewish community.

Again, another statement of platitudes,  similar to the 2009 statement from the JSA/KDS merger that stressed the importance of the community being able to understand that the merger was in the community’s best interest. Does this mean that the byproduct of that merger, which was the ruination of both schools, was in the community’s best interest?  Again, we are being asked to accept something without adequate explanation, only this time by Pardes’s Board and JSA’s Board, who have decided that this is both good for the community and Pardes, all without empirical evidence and following disastrously close to the footsteps of the previous failure.

When I asked a board member of Pardes about the reasoning for the merger, and the necessity of becoming a pluralistic school, the board member told me that this was a condition that was necessary to stop Jess Schwartz from going ahead with their plans to become a Hebrew Language Charter School.   In other words, merge with JSA or we will start a Hebrew Language charter school.  I told the board member that this implies a certain level of thuggish behavior on the part of JSA’s board (which would at that point be only Mr. Ginsberg and Ms. Steinberg), and it implies a certain amount of absurdity on the part of the Pardes Board.   I told the board member that from my standpoint, this was a threat akin to me calling the Vikings and telling them that if they did not sign me to a contract, I would offer my services as a cornerback to the Cardinals for the coming season.   In fairness to the board member, I was informed that what I  did not understand was that it is proven that when a Hebrew language charter school opens up in an area, it destroys the private Reform Jewish Day Schools in an area because the parents will send their kids to the charter school to avoid paying tuition. I can find only two Hebrew language charter schools in the United States, one in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and one in Brooklyn, NY.  I can find no evidence that the opening of these schools caused the closing of the surrounding Reform Jewish day schools in those areas. Yet, even if I could find evidence of this, two schools do not create a valid statistical sample.

So, completely discounting the threat of a Hebrew Charter School, I am again asking, why is Pardes School becoming a pluralistic school? Why does abandoning their successful model as a  school affiliated with the Reform Judaism make sense?  The Q&A does not in any way address these questions. Instead it is filled with platitudes about the hopes and dreams of what will be good for the community. Merging the schools to be a bridge, which will magically end whatever divisiveness in the Jewish Community that is perceived by the Pardes Board, brings to mind that great rhetorical question, posed by the humanitarian (and recipient of savage police brutality), Mr. Rodney King, who pleaded, “Can’t we all get along?”

On the Ravsak site, as I noted in an earlier post, it says that Community (i.e. Pluralistic) Day Schools are the only growing segment of Jewish day schools besides Orthodox schools.  So, if there are five community day schools in the country, and schools like JSA and KDS merge to become a pluralistic school, then the growth rate for that year is 20%. The description of pluralistic schools should be explained in a way that is meaningful. I think it is more important to look at how many pluralistic schools have failed and why have they failed? The board should be asking why did JSA/KDS fail?  Was it community divisiveness that did in JSA? Does Pardes believes that the merger will end this divisiveness? Were donors squabbling and was this was the reason that the JSA/King David merger failed? Can the campus be operated in an economically efficient manner? Does the addition of 52 students really make it possible for Pardes to attract the most talented teachers, as the Q&A states?

I am also wondering where the public support is from the Reform Rabbis whose congregations have traditionally supported the school?  According to the Q&A: Our Judaics department began conversations with Rabbi Elana Kanter prior to talksof a consolidation. We are very fortunate to have Rabbi Kanter as part of our Judaics team. She has an extensive background in teaching, curriculum development, and coaching both on a local and national level.   For whatever reason, the memo fails to mention that Rabbi Kanter is an ordained Conservative Rabbi.  Maybe there is a shortage of Reform Rabbis in Phoenix to give input into “Judaics.”  I think the way that this is written basically tries to convey a message that the school decided before the merger that they were going to give up their Reform affiliation and that we, as parents, who obviously have no say in such matters, are just to swallow this.

I wonder why we don’t ever see pluralistic Christian Schools.  I wonder why there is no Methodist/Catholic/Pentecostal Community Day School?

As I had mentioned in one of my first memos, I am withdrawing my son from Pardes, but that decision was made long before I had news of the merger.  Pardes did a great job of getting my son up and running, helping him overcome his ADHD and dyslexia, and I am grateful for that.  I decided to move my son because I did not want 9th grade to be his introduction to public school.   My oldest son is a graduate of PCDS and Swarthmore College.  My middle son is at Arcadia High School and he has had a very positive experience there.  The facilities at the public schools in the Scottsdale Unified School District are impressive, and they have impressive academic standards in their honors programs.  I would encourage all parents who are uneasy about these decisions to look at the alternatives that are available, both in the public and private sector, so that they are aware of their options.

All comments are welcome and will be posted and left up for review.

What does the board of Pardes Jewish Day School know that we don’t know? Pardes is affiliated with the Reform Jewish Movement. Their mission statement on their web site says that “Pardes Jewish Day School prepares students to become outstanding members of society through a rigorous secular and Judaic education, a nurturing community, and a foundation in Reform Judaism that welcomes all Jewish traditions.” Under the tab for affiliations, accreditation & grants, Pardes lists the Progressive Association of Reform Jewish Day Schools and the Jewish Day Schools for the 21st Century as affiliations, as well as the Partnership for Jewish Education (PEJE). The Pardes web site does not list RAVSAK. I have heard this name mentioned quite a bit by Jill, so I visited their website to learn more about what it is that RAVSAK does.

The Ravsak website is located here, http://www.ravsak.org/about and accordingly, their mission is to strengthen Jewish Community Day Schools. Community Day School is a term that is used interchangeably with the word Pluralistic Day School, but seems to be less controversial. Barbara Davis, the Editor of HaYidion, a Ravsak publication writes: The mission statement of RAVSAK, the network of Jewish community day schools throughout North America and abroad, speaks to the lofty goal of “fostering authentic Jewish pluralism.” I would say I am very unacquainted with Pluralism to the point of being uneducated about it, but there are many good articles about it on the Ravsak site and I would encourage all Pardes parents to look at the site. I do know that when I friended the site on Facebook and listed my blog site, they yanked it down immediately. I am guessing that like the leadership of Pardes and JSA, they are not fans of debate, or maybe me. All I know from Pluralism is that when Kind David School dropped it’s affiliation with the Solomon Schecter Day School Network and joined the Pluralistic world of JSA, it failed, and so did JSA.

There is a great article on the Ravsak site written by Michael A. May called Threefold Pluralism: A Strategy for Building “Hybrid” School Community. Because it is copyrighted material, I can not reprint it it without Mr. May’s permission, but I can include excerpts that merit some contemplation.

Mr. May writes: Twenty-first century pluralistic Jewish schools face a perilous task: to craft school communities that are “hybrids,” at once modern and postmodern. Like Jewish institutions throughout history, they seek to emphasize a degree of homogeneity and sameness—the cultural, religious, and historical heritage that unites Jews across expanses of space and time. At the same time, they endeavor to honor the diversity that exists within this heritage and to promote the presentation of multiple perspectives as a foundation for learning. Leadership in pluralistic schools is fraught with complexity, as tensions between the “modern” and “postmodern” elements of the school mission can engender conflict, pedagogic difficulties, and seemingly unreasonable expectations for community engagement.

Further in the article: No school leader is a stranger to conflict; one study from the early 1990s indicated that school administrators spend approximately 40% of their time engaged in “conflict management.”3 Nevertheless, what makes conflict in pluralistic schools particularly threatening is that the issues that are likely to be the subject of the most vigorous debate within such schools constitute the very essence of what the school is all about: What are our central educational goals? What should we teach, and using what methodologies? Who should teach in our school, and how should those teachers be trained? How should Jewish ritual be observed? What religious principles, if any, should we take into account when devising school policies? … A second source of tension that challenges school leaders is the complexity associated with instruction in a community school. As the expanded notion of community gains traction within the Jewish world, it is now simply expected that a teacher will master several different perspectives on a particular issue, understand each perspective well enough to answer questions about it, and present all of the perspectives fairly without giving preference to any one. … A Jewish day school’s mission of identity-building can be a third source of complication in a community school. The notion of bringing together individuals representing a diversity of perspectives and promoting thoughtful interaction among them works well when the participants already possess clear understandings of their own beliefs and practices. But what about day school students who are only just beginning to develop their own Jewish identities? Can a school foster substantive interaction among diverse identities while at the same time working to develop these identities, in many cases from scratch? … A final challenge that community school leaders are likely to face is a lack of ideological diversity or ideological passion within their school communities. For one thing, many of our community schools simply do not boast sufficient breadth to consider themselves truly representative of the Jewish community at large. …

This I particularly like: And in the realm of conflict, it is important to note that the most effective way of addressing this source of tension is not through the suppression or avoidance of discord, but rather through the recognition of the existence of diverse opinions, respect for an individual’s right to express her/his opinion, and careful management of a process by which these opinions can be voiced. As Albert O. Hirschman noted in his book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970), an atmosphere comfortable for those who wish to voice dissent is a crucial feature of a healthy organization.6 An individual who feels that such an atmosphere does not exist is liable to respond by simply withdrawing from the organization, which would be crippling for a school that seeks diverse perspectives as a component of its raison d’être.

I would highly recommend reading the whole article, because I have only highlighted a fraction of the passages that point out how unbelievably difficult it is to pull off a successful Pluralistic School. There is a fact that is quoted in the article that states that Pluralistic Jewish Day schools are the only schools showing growth, other than Orthodox schools in the US. I wonder if that is because there are a lot of Conservative Schools that have failed and trying to make an educational sausage of what is left is driving this trend? I am not educated enough to know the answer to this question.

So, back to my basic question about why there is a “merger”? You would not normally see a huge corporation merging with a corporation that is 6.5 times smaller unless the smaller corporation was bringing something to the table. Let’s just say that the “something” they are bringing to the table would be the JSA campus, which, according to the real estate experts at JSA, has a a value that is many multiples higher than the 1.7 million dollar mortgage owed on the campus. Is that a great reason to create a merger? If the board feels that they are landlocked and can not expand past the numbers of students that are presently attending Pardes, is there any statistical evidence to show that the Jewish population of Phoenix is increasing and for this demographically based reason, expanding the campus is smart? Does a thriving school with a bad mortgage on its campus merge with a poorly run school because they have a favorable mortgage? Does the bad school’s board of directors stay on and give their input on how the new school is to be run? Does anyone on the Pardes board wonder, “Gee, the last time there was a school merger involving King David and JSA under the umbrella of Pluralism, it failed. Why will our merger be different? Why will our attempt at Pluralism succeed? Why is changing from a successful Reform Jewish Day School to a Pluralistic School to accommodate the needs of 42 potential students smart? I hope that when the Q&A that comes out tomorrow, in written form, it will answer many of the questions and do a very transparent job of explaining why this is a sound decision. I hope that the “its good for the community” truthiness is backed up by facts that will help this proposed merger be successful.