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Once an organization known to have assisted with opening and funding day schools in the 1960s. What do they really add today?
They are probably under some pressure after the recent announcement that a group of Satmer askanim had provided funding to increase compensation for rebbes/moros in their yeshivos by 30%.
Lakewhut, check out their fundraising video. That should answer your question
This is a very good question. In other words why doesn’t it create a fund to solve the tuition crisis. Any parent who earns below x times the poverty level for his family size should be able to get say 1k per child. (So maybe anyone earning less than 400% of poverty level or 450% and not receiving support). They’d also have to apply the value of govt programs. So let’s say you only earn income wise 200% but after programs you are receiving 500% of poverty level you wouldn’t get this grant.
I know this would be very expensive but if BMG can raise $80M per year why can’t they raise $100M? And use it to help struggling middle class ?
7This conversation is loshon horah & should be stopped. There’s no toeles discussing this.
Find another topic that doesn’t single out anyone.Chaim> In other words why doesn’t it create a fund to solve the tuition crisis. … They’d also have to apply the value of govt programs.
What you describe as “tuition crisis” is the fact that there are too many members of the community who do not earn enough and even rely on “govt programs” for poor people even when they are capable of working. Then, you expect someone else to raise $100M. Why not focus on teaching commuinty members to earn enough and organize schools that help that?
My takeaways from the video is that today Torah Umesorah is
Not at all involved in day schools (i.e. they only service chareidi yeshivos)
It’s a platform for school to work on (like Microsoft excel)
75% of Rabbeim in all Jewish schools have been trained in Aish Dos
Providing curriculum to schools
A vaad Rosh Yeshivos that guides schools what they should be doing and what schools should not do
Guardrails to keep schools in check
The gas that is keeping the chinuch world going
Does anyone think that is correct, accurate and clear?
Chaim 87 There are several problems with your suggestion
$1k per student would not solve the problem. It would be nice but it is not much of a help (ask middle income family paying $30k or more in tuition)
BMG is able to get a lot of money from pell grants, not all is fundraised. BMG also has a massive fundraising operation
If there are 400,000 children in schools and at least half would qualify, that still means raising $200 million every single year. If they had trouble raising $9 million for this last campaign how do you propose they do that
Most importantly, it does not help anyone to say “the OTHER guy should raise $100 miilion buck, no big whoop.” If you yourself said I will personaly raise $50 million, anyone out there to match me, now we are talking
Haimy: Not sure if it indeed does fall under loshon hara. TU is a public mosad that just ran a big fundraising campaign. It is a valid question to ask “what do they do?” If people understand what they do and like it they will give more. If people disagree with their public statements as to what they do then the public should be aware of that perhaps they are making false statements to raise tzdaka money.
Take for example their claim that 75% of male Jewish educators in the US are Aish Dos (their training course) graduates. According to their website 596 graduates have taken positions as educators. According to another article in the Yated, 980 graduates are currently teaching. That means (depending on which number you take) there are a total of 795 or 1,307 total Rabbeim in the US. This includes Modern Orthodox schools, Chabad, community schools and chasidishe yeshivos, (and arguably Judiac teachers in less heimishe schools). That number seems a bit off. I would guess that Kiryas Yoel alone has over 100 Rabbeim and I doubt too many were trained in Aish Dos.
As far as their statement that they no longer are involved in day schools (i.e. they only service chareidi yeshivos), I think that is unfortunately a true statement.
I am a bit confused about the rest of their statements defining what they do (platform like Microsoft excel, guardrails, gas on the pedal, etc.)
@Always_Ask_Questions,
Quite the opposite. those on Govt programs earn enough and should indeed be charged a higher tuition. After SNAP, HUD, Medicad, HEAP, CHS they come out ahead. The issue is for middle class earners who work and try to earn enough yet its impossible to afford tution even on a 200K salary. Thats where its time to create a scholarship fund for them
@Rocky,
None of the yingerlit receiving kollel checks get that from pel grants. Thats fully fundraised via Scheiner at $80m a year. via the aderi torah campaign.
$1K per student is a start. Just like it cost about $90-$100K to marry off a daughter and we have big bali Chasidim who built affordable wedding halls that save $5K. Its only 5% but it helps.To your last point, fair point. I don’t know that your math is correct and if all 400K children’s live in aeras with no govt vouchers etc. And lthe cahsdim already have such a system so we need not include them. If its 1000 then even 500 helps. And ues someone as established is torah umesora should be able to rasie $100M with alot of work
To your last point, I don’t think that’s a fair argument. I am not a fundraiser nor in that business. Torah umesora is here for that purpose. its purpose is to help the yeshivas. Its our “educational” go to center. They have their pulse on the frum yeshivas and bais yaakov system. What else should be their purpose if not this? I understand that this would be a huge undertaking. But so was opening up yeshivas in far out places in the 50’s. A mossad is ther to sweat and do hard work.
There is no way that 75% of Rabbeim in all Jewish Schools are trained by Aish Dos.
Chaim > After SNAP, HUD, Medicad, HEAP, CHS they come out ahead. The issue is for middle class earners who work and try to earn enough yet its impossible to afford tution even on a 200K salary
First, I agree that this is the problem. This is what Gingrich tried to resolve in the 90s – multigenerational families and whole communities find it easier to receive than to move up incrementally and be temporarily worse off … Maybe your suggestion on tuition will be a similar push. I do not know how tuition committees work – do they take into account all source of income and expenses?
Personally, my suggestion for working people is NOT to provide financial info to the schools, simply negotiate at a fair level that reflects your costs. I usually find it 40-70% of top tuition. What is your experience?
@Rocky,
Sorry for the typos
None of the yingerlit receiving kollel checks get that from pel grants. Thats fully fundraised via Scheiner at $80m a year. via the aderi torah campaign.
$1K per student is a start. Just like it cost about $90-$100K to marry off a daughter and we have big bali Chasidim who built affordable wedding halls that save $5K. Its only 5% but it helps.To your last point, fair point. I don’t know that your math is correct and if all 400K children’s live in areas with no govt vouchers etc. And the chasdim already have such a system so we need not include them. If $1000 is too much then even $500 helps. And yes someone as established is torah umesora should be able to raise $100M with alot of work
To your last point, I don’t think that’s a fair argument. I am not a fundraiser nor in that business. Torah umesora is here for that purpose. its purpose is to help the yeshivas. Its our “educational” go to center. They have their pulse on the frum yeshivas and bais yaakov system. What else should be their purpose if not this? I understand that this would be a huge undertaking. But so was opening up yeshivas in far out places in the 50’s. A mossad is their to sweat and do hard work.
Can anyone with accurate knowledge of a school post as to how many Rabbeim there are in their schools and how many have been trained by Aish Dos.
Crazy Kanoiy, that is not really a good way of fact checking. If the the figure is only referring to Yeshivishe schools in Lakewood that may be accurate. If you are a Chasidishe school in Wlliamsburg you will get a very different figure. A chabad school in New Orleans will give you something else.
The claim of TU was “all across the country”. My definition of “all across the country” includes schools outside of Lakewood
BTW, you don’t need to be a math genius if they also say there are 700 schools and 795 or 1,307 Aish Dos gardutes. That comes out to one or two Rabbeim per school (average)
Can anyone address the other statements from the video. What does all that mean? (Platform, guardrails, gas?) And why do they say they don’t care about day schools anymore? Have they just given up on them or have they handed the day schools over to another organization?
people who run schools dont spend time on the ywn coffee room
ard – you would be surprised
If the numbers don’t add up as some have pointed out above the people should call Torah Umesorah 212-227-1000 and ask them on what basis they make such claims. They should know that people want answers. Also last year’s Share Hammalos campaign made many claims regarding their impact on the work of teachers. It is only right that they explain the basis for their claims.
If anyone is interested in calling or emailing TU, here are some possible questions
1) When and why did TU officially give up on day schools? (as indicated in your self-defining video)
2) Is there another organization that has taken over your mandate to support Jewish day schools?
3) According to the last census on Jewish schools ( last updated 2019, release by Avi Chai) there are 906 schools. How many of these schools are serviced by TU.? Keep in mind that only 312 of these schools self-defined as Yeshivishe. (172 Chasidishe, 91 community, 138 as MO, 78 chabad etc.). According to your self-definition video it seems that you only service the Yeshivishe schools. Do you have numbers for which schools you service?
4) In December 2021, you ran a campaign to raise Morah and Rabbeim’s salaries. Has that fund been replenished to KEEP the salaries the same amount for this year ?
5) According to the latest budget that you publicized, it costs you $600,000 for a “Lakewood Shabbos+ retreat” “shabbos of chinuch” is $300k and a total of $3.5 million on conventions. Why so much? Why is it that other organizations can run larger, similar events for a fraction of the cost?
6) According to your video, it says you primarily exist as a platform like Microsoft Excel; you are guardrails for the schools and the gas that keep the school running well. What does all that that mean?
For those asking why TU doesn’t raise $100m a year to supplement tuitions, they promised to raise funds to supplement the massive payroll increase for teachers and have been really struggling to come close to meeting their obligations there.
This has directly and indirectly led to schools falling behind on their payroll, to the point that I personally know families facing foreclosure, thanks in no small part to Torah Umesorah.
They are a barely functioning shell of what they used to be, trying to cling to the shadow of what they once were.
Until they come clean with the schools they are playing games with and set up a payment plan that will allow those schools to dig themselves out of this mess of TU’s making, I cannot respect them as an organization.Rocky – you raise important points. Conventions are not free either. Are these costs pre or post payment by attendees?
for those who are interested in effectiveness of non-profits, you can look up raw data at IRS form 990 and there also charity navigators that evaluate charities across multiple financial parameters (some may be not that important)
I think TU is 13-5564128 National Society for Hebrew Day Schools. Maybe it is only part of TU, I don’t know,
I see latest info on IRS siste – $54.2 mln income, of which $44.6 mln is spent on grants ($27M domestic, $17M foreign), $4.3 mln on salaries (of which 8 officers account for $800K), $4 on other expenses.charity navigator:
FY 2022 revenue $71M Program Expense: Ratio – 96% (pretty good)
no audit (expected from charities with $2M+)
website does not link 990 formI understand that conferences are not free, so TU sent out an email on Dec. 23, detailing their expenses. That is where I got my figures from. It does not say if that is gross or net expenses after revenue.
Does anyone else find it strange that they would advertise total expenses of $11.8 million but their 990 says total expenses of $71M? That is not a small discrepancy. Also $17Mon foreign grants?
Another question: According to the Dec. 23 email that TU sent out it says they spent $3.5 M on conventions. There is another day school organization called Prizmah, which runs the largest conference for Jewish day schools (about 1100 people). It says the total expenses for conventions are $967k according to their audited financial statements. How does TU spend close to 4 times that amount in a cheaper venue with less people?
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Perhaps someone with some inside knowledge from TU can weigh in.
It is clear from what the above trolls are writing, that they either clearly do not know what they were reading, or they have a slight understanding, but are intentionally skewing what it says. I’d say it’s both.
Nishtdaynegeshedt – Your comment has absolutely no intelligent content. The people above posted real data. You just engage in ad hominem attacks without any substance. It is easy to call names and say people don’t know have an understanding and then provide nothing to back up your statements. How about you actually answer the points raised above in this thread
TU used to be fairly broad in its scope and supported day schools, curricula, teachers, and administrators. But as it historically shifted to the right, it became more conflated with the Yeshiva World. Based on that, within the Modern and Centrist communities, the Association of Modern Orthodox Day Schools and Yeshiva High Schools came into being. Now there is Prizmah, which is admittedly more pluralistic and therefore even more dissonant with TU. On the other end of the spectrum, TU has become largely irrelevant to Chassidish and hard-core Yeshivish yeshiva Ketanas and Mesivtas. So, its sweet spot now includes Yeshivish-Lite schools and day schools in Kiruv communities whose leadership comes from the Yeshiva World. So, the number of its constituents is still probably larger than when it was broader when it started in the mid-1900’s.
Some of the above comments question the financial aspects. When you are dealing in such large numbers, questions of transparency, cronyism, and nepotism are certainly fair game for scrutiny.
Crazy,
They did not provide any real data. They posted stuff that was completely misread. Just like any troll. And I am not going to provide any additional details, because I have no interest in feeding the trolls including you.
It took me about two minutes to understand the 990. Perhaps it’s because I have experience reading a 990. And that experience is why I said what I did.
Nisht – You are the first one to introduce name calling to this thread. All others have been respectful. Casting everyone as trolls is a juvenile tactic. If you have something of substance to add please do. But if all you can do is claim you know better than everyone and can explain everything in two minutes but don’t do any of that then please spare us the comments..
Crazy,
I do not have to answer for TU. However I can say that those above who are intimating that there is something wrong going on with TU and they are trying to bolster their claims using the 990 are wrong. I call them trolls based on the myriad comments posted by them on this inane forum. Many of their comments are worded no different than Candace Owens saying “I’m just asking questions”.
As a reminder, TU is responsible to its stakeholders. Which are the schools it serves, its board of directors and rabbinical board, and contributors. They have no responsibility to open every facet of their books and operations to every schmegegi who spouts off demanding a detailed accounting for every penny. They file a 990 even as they are exempt from doing so based on their registration status.
For some lo yitzlach on YWN to start making baseless claims intimating that TU is misspending and involved in “cronyism and nepotism” to then complain they are called a troll is the height of irony.
The board members are professionals who are very directly involved in the organization. And a good portion of the funding comes from them. Do you think that suddenly they are not manning the till, when they do so so professionally in all their other ventures?
Nisht-The way you are a point is to say, “I read the 990, and what you said they report as _____ is actually_______. When TU released their budget as _____ they actually said _______.
When they said they are a platform like Microsoft Excell, they meant ________
When they said they are the guardrails to keep schools in check, they meant ________
When they said they are the gas that is keeping the chinuch world going, they meant ________
Keep in mind that we are basing our questions on the messaging and the numbers that Torah Umesorah THEMSELVES are advertising! They say please give us money because we are ______ and our financials are ________. It is fair to question what that means and why your numbers do not match those reported to the IRS.
It is also fair to point out a blatant lie to say that 75% of all Rabbeim across the country were trained in Aish Dos. It’s a LIE! Why are they raising money based on sheker? If you want to say 75% of Rabbeim in Lakewood are trained in Aish Dos, we could examine the truth to that, but that is not what the head of TU said in their own promotional video!
If you respond with insults and just say “well I’m smarter than you, nah nah kish kish” that does not say much about you. Argue about substance not personal attacks
Agree with Crazy here.
I was finding this thread interesting and informative.
@Nishtdayngesheft, While I did not check the 990 (as I am not planning to donate to TU- I’d faster give more to the teachers and Rebbeim directly), I’m sure many would appreciate if you would explain what you saw that discounts what the other posters wrote.
I’m sure there are many others (along with readers that aren’t posting) that would appreciate that as well.Excellent meta-discussion. I neglected to put a caveat that I am not an accountant and just refer others, hopefully more knowledgeable, to this data.
I don’t think the charity navigator grades are always relevant. For example, they take points of for not having 990 info on the website, something that might be forgivable for a small hemeishe organization whose target population does not live off twitter. Also, their grades may be based on some automatic harvesting of info that might not always correspond to reality. For example, it grades lack of external audit. I won’t rely that it is true or true for all years … again, someone who knows something about accounting should say something.
Let’s take a step back and think about how this started. TU ran a fundraising campaign (translated as asking money from it’s stakeholders) and part of that campaign they proudly shared their expenses and also a video that was meant to clearly define what they do and why they need to exist. You could contribute without asking questions, not contribute and say I will give my money elsewhere, or ask legitimate questions AS RESPONSES to what TU proudly said about themselves.
We have discussed the discrepancy between the budget TU produced during the fundraising campaign and the 990s and I don’t see anyone offering a possible explanation. We have discussed clarity on the vague self-definition video that TU proudly sent out (more than once) and I have not seen anyone offer a translation. Let’s move on to the next question- the day schools
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz zt’l founded TU with a mission: to establish a day school in every community across the country with a population of over 5,000 Jews. While he was incredibly successful, I think it is accurate to say that this goal has been achieved by 85-90% ( a bit less if you count non-Orthodox schools as day schools). I think it is safe to say that his goal was not just to get a building up in these communities but also to maintain the schools with students, teachers, principals, curriculum, direction support, etc.
In the video that TU put out a few weeks ago , they essentially said that they have given up on the day schools. They have “shifted focus”. That sounds like they are only focused on the Yeshivishe schools. That essentially means they are no longer serving the Modern Orthodox schools (188 schools, 50,000 students), community schools 91 schools, 20,000 students), Chabad 78 schools 15,000 students)and Immigrant/Outreach schools 17 schools 2,300 students). I understand that TU never represented the reform and conservative schools but they are only about 40 schools with 10 k students and getting less each year. As long as everybody is OK with that shift, there is nothing to talk about. Just realize that although R Shraga Feievel was busy also helping establish and yeshivos and chadarim in NY, he placed a large focus on the day schools. He did not say “we need to focus on the chareidi population.”. He saw the spiritual holocaust that was happening in his time, and he addressed it with all his might. That spiritual holocaust is still going on. If R. Shraga Feivel was alive today would he say “the heck with the day schools, times are different”?
one last point to nisht-just because many yeshivos do not file a 990 because they claim they are a church/synagogue does not justify every Jewish organization the same loophole. No, they do not need to open their books to everyone, but they do so voluntarily. And to think “well some really smart business people are on the board so they must know what they are doing” is not a very logical argument. I could easily say that they are too busy with their own business and perhaps no one asked them any legitimate questions about the organization they support.
My information abouthe schools is from the census put out by Avi Chai in Aug 2020 and the classification of what type of school tye are is based on the schools own answers to the census. Almost all schools including Chassishe chadorim responded to the census. The video TU put out is called “Our Story, Unscripted” and can be found on the TU website and on Vimeo
I am not sure which video some of the above are specifically referring to, I can only speak to the 990 info, NFP reporting and the video I did see. Perhaps link the video that has you all atither.
1) They did not say they are no longer involved in day schools. Their focus has shifted to be for all yeshivas.
2) They did not say 3/4 of Rabbeim are Aish Dos graduates. They said they have Aish Dos training. Huge difference. I find it plausible that they have offered training to most teachers. Think professional days and such.
3) The category for conferences includes all training. And I don’t find it so difficult to belive their budget and the actual trainings, conferences and the like far exceeds what Prizma does. The costs included in conferences and the like is much more than just food and venue.
4) I know that they provide resources for many schools not in the typical NYC or Lakewood schools. Even this you might categorize as more MO.
5) The real MO and Lubavitch schools would not join TU.
6) They are most definitely involved in kiruv schools.
7) As far as the perceived difference in expenses, schedule D should give a hint, as well as the supplemental schedules.
8) A classification as a religious institution exempt from filing a 990 is made IRS examination of application and approval. They determination letter will specifically inform the organization if they are required to file or not.
9) I stand by my identification of various posters as trolls. This is evidenced by their baseless claims of cronyism,neopotism and hints of malfeasance.
I have nothing do with TU, I am not employed by them and I do not have any insider knowledge. I looked at the video on their site and the 990s available on Candid.
Rocky, thanks for the information.
As to disclosing info, one of my local chabad-affiliated very small schools posts 990-like info in their bulletins, together with ratio of funds coming and going attributed to different types of activities. So, it seems that even a small organization is capable of providing some info to the public.
As to TU focus on chareidi v. other schools, I found this in 1945 speech by R Soloveitchik in the process of developing ideas of early day schools, paraphrasing:
Some of those deep in NY boroughs assume that there are two types of youngsters: ones in yeshivah, and the rest immersed in materialism. As I live in “real world” town, I can attest that there is another group – youngsters who are deeply interested in spirituality, religion, philosophy – but not having right information and environment. We should not cut them off, and the most successful way to address them is through schools.
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