12/03/2025
Jewish Day School Initiative Raises $49M; Another $30M ‘In Process’
Photo by Pixabay
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News.
by Casey Couch
With calendar year 2025 coming to the end, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland is nearly halfway through its challenge to raise $90 million in matching funds for the Jewish Day School Initiative driven by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, which announced the grant challenge on Jan. 21, 2025.
Erika B. Rudin-Luria, president of the Federation, told the Cleveland Jewish News that its major focus throughout the year has been to raise the matching funds – a challenge that she believes they are set to achieve well before their goal of the end of 2026.
Rudin-Luria
“I do anticipate that a number of the schools will raise more endowment dollars than they had initially projected because when people understand the impact that these funds will have on their schools, then they’re motivated to give and that’s really what this is about,” Rudin-Luria said.
As of November, Rudin-Luria said $49 million has been raised in signed agreements and another $30 million of in-process agreements for a total of just under $79 million. Rudin-Luria said she believes that they are doing “exceptionally well” on both the funds raised and the timeline.
“The Mandel Foundation’s challenge really gave people the motivation to make the investment today that they’ve thought about making and considered making in the future because of the impact that the schools and community will experience in a shorter period of time,” she said.
The Jewish Day School Transformation Initiative is a partnership among five area day schools – Fuchs Mizrachi School in Beachwood, Gross Schechter Day School in Pepper Pike, Hebrew Academy of Cleveland in Cleveland Heights, Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood and Yeshiva Derech Hatorah in Cleveland Heights – with the Federation and the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland.
The endowment funds will help the schools improve their caliber of studies, extracurriculars, specialized programs such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics and fine arts, internships, academic support and enrichment, intervention services, mental health initiatives, expansion and more, according to Rudin-Luria.
Putting a focus on recruiting and retaining the best teachers, administrators and educational professionals, she said that another benefit of the initiative is that it will allow the day schools to put together competitive packages for its staff.
“We want to make sure that our Cleveland Jewish day schools are the best and most attractive so that they can attract the very best professionals, and we know that will then attract even more students than we have today in all five of our day schools, which are continuously growing,” Rudin-Luria said.
The capital funds that have been raised will go to schools immediately to help them with their transformations or initiatives. The reaction of the community has been “amazing” as people are moved to donate when they see the immediate impact that it has on the schools and their students, Rudin-Luria said.
“People are very excited about the initiative and the schools have been really excited by the generosity of the communities,” she said. “People have stepped up, oftentimes without even being solicited, to participate in this initiative. We anticipate raising the funds over calendar years 2025 and 2026, and we are very much well on track to finish and complete our goal earlier.”
