Funding for Europe’s Jewish schools boosted by £2m in donations

Jewish schools across Europe are to get more than £2 million in donations after a continent-wide call for help following the financial pressures Caused by Covid-19.

The money for the 13 schools in countries such as Greece and Spain came from five of the seven donors who support Educating for Impact, a London-based non-profit organisation that “promotes strategic change in Jewish schools to secure and strengthen Jewish communities in Europe”.

Among the schools to benefit will be the Lauder Athens Jewish Community School, the Jewish school in Tallinn, Estonia,and the Ibn Gabirol School in Madrid.

 “With parents struggling to pay tuition as well as regular donors unable to support the schools at previous levels, the situation has become dire,” the statement read.

The five donors, plus two external donors, put the money into the  European Jewish Community Day School Crisis Fund, which was established to support the struggling Jewish schools.

The donors include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Philanthropic Foundation, the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, the Maimonides Fund and the Russian philanthropist Mikhail Fridman, plus another anonymous donor.

 It comes after several big Jewish secondary schools issued financial warnings earlier this summer, with the financial squeeze caused by the pandemic leading to less private money to pay for subjects such as Jewish Studies. 

A round of emergency fundraising  has raised more than £1m in recent  months.