The costs associated with participation in Jewish community life can be prohibitive for a substantial minority of Baltimore’s Jewish community, according to a 2020 community study.
The 2020 Community Study, commissioned by The Associated and conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, examined the financial well-being of Baltimore’s Jewish community.
According to the study, 10% of households included someone who was constrained by financial issues from participating in the Baltimore Jewish community within the last year with financial constrains being more common for Orthodox households and families with children.
“Families are trying to figure out how to stretch their income to meet all of their needs and if your needs outstrip the funds that are available, sometimes it’s Jewish life and Jewish education that families decide is not a financial priority,” Addie Lewis Klein, executive director of the Jewish Connection Network, said.
Klein said JCN is conscious of the financial barriers that might affect a family’s ability to participate and feel connected to their community. To keep barriers to Jewish programming low, JCN hosts many events in parks or greenspaces to reduce or eliminate the venue costs.
Klein also said that while many of their programs are free or low cost to participate in, that doesn’t mean they’re free to run.
“We utilize funding from The Associated to make all of this possible for the community — it’s not free to provide, it’s just free to access it,” Klein said.
Grants are also an important source of funding for synagogues and other Jewish community organizations, according to Sarah Jacobs, the executive director of Bolton Street Synagogue, who has more than a decade of experience in grant writing and fundraising roles for Jewish organizations.
Grants have helped Jewish organizations offset the cost of increased security in recent years, Jacobs said.
Synagogues, day schools and other Jewish organizations are having to weigh the cost of enhanced security software, hardware and guards — but securing funding through state and federal grants has helped some of these organizations continue to operate safely while providing a Jewish home their communities, Jacobs said.
“Money should never be the reason why you can’t participate,” Jacobs said. “Yes, we do have financial costs and overhead, you know, we need to keep the business running, but we also want to make sure that you can be there.”
Jacobs said that it isn’t unusual for people in the community to come to her with uncertainty about their ability to contribute financially and that the number of people who express this concern “depends on what’s going on financially” on a national scale.
According to Jacobs, some ways that organizations work with community members is by offering different payment structures, navigating what they feel comfortable giving and providing service opportunities.
“Be willing to ask for all of our resources. Here in Baltimore, people are willing, people want to step up and help and we don’t know what the community needs until somebody asks,” Jacobs said.
The financial barriers to participation take on an added layer of complexity for Orthodox households.
Orthodox households typically must navigate higher housing costs because they need to live near synagogues and kosher food, Rabbi Yanky Baron, director of Chabad of Ellicott City, said.
Historically, kosher food has been more expensive — especially when it comes to the cost of meats. However, Baron believes this has started to change in recent years.
“A lot of companies are removing any animal contributions and making it vegan, therefore a lot of stuff is becoming kosher, so really that’s going to be something of the future to look at that isn’t that big of a financial burden,” Baron said.
Beyond the housing and grocery markets, the costs associated with an Orthodox lifestyle extend to the classroom.
The average number of children per household is four times higher for Orthodox households than it is for Reform households, according to a 2020 demographic profile of Jewish Americans by Pew Research Center.
For many Orthodox families, having more children means spending more on tuition.
“A very important thing, which we’ve seen historically, is that our community has invested in a proper Jewish education — the reason is because we believe that continuity of our people and the future of Judaism really depends on providing a Jewish education,” Baron said.
According to Baron, this means providing children with a Jewish upbringing from preschool until high school or as much as possible for their formative years.
Some Orthodox families navigate these costs with the help of scholarships and financial planning initiatives through organizations such as the Orthodox Union, Baron said.
