Jewish day-school enrollment surged across North America in the last five years, with growth across all religious denominations, according to a new report from Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools.
“The trends in this report demonstrate the vigor and success of Jewish day schools across the religious spectrum, the increase in their perceived quality and value and the impact of incredible investments in excellence, leadership, and teaching and affordability across our schools,” Paul Bernstein, founding CEO of Prizmah, stated in the report.
The report, released on June 24, analyzed enrollment at 305 Prizmah-network schools in the United States and Canada, including Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, community, pluralistic and nondenominational schools.
Most Chassidic, Chabad, Hareidi and yeshivish schools are not included in the report.
The data covers the 2021-22 to 2023-24 school years, during which there were seven new school openings, one school merger and four closures.
Enrollment growth was driven largely by existing schools, with new schools accounting for only 13% of the overall increase.
Since the 2021-22 academic year, enrollment in Jewish day schools and yeshivas in the Prizmah network rose from 94,008 students to a projected 101,041 students in 2025-26—an increase of more than 7,000 Jewish students, the report states.
The data highlights a “reversal” from a decades-long decline in non-Orthodox Jewish day school enrollment, previously documented in a 2020 census report by the Avi Chai Foundation, Prizmah wrote. Avi Chai’s census did not include Canadian schools.
Enrollment numbers were highest in Florida and the New York metropolitan area, with a 15% and 4% increase, respectively. Ontario also recorded record numbers, adding 306 students—a 4% increase.
Prizmah said that growth may have been helped by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Generations Trust Scholarship, a long-term tuition relief program launched in 2021 for families that had not previously qualified for aid.
Bernstein told JNS that Prizmah wasn’t surprised by any of the major enrollment increases in Florida and New York, but given talk of people moving from the Northeast to Florida, some might not have anticipated the growth that took place in New York.
Across the United States, Prizmah schools added 4,222 students from 2021-22 to 2023-24. Canadian schools added 433 students.
Orthodox schools saw the largest increase with a 7% rise in student enrollment, which may be attributed to “birth rate,” the report states.
As a group, community, Conservative, Reform, pluralistic and nondenominational schools grew by 3%.
JNS asked Bernstein how Prizmah measures the significance of enrollment gains. He said that birthrates among non-Orthodox Jews have remained essentially flat since the last major American Jewish population data was released.
“The fact that day school enrollment has increased during that time really speaks volumes to the strength of the day school field,” he told JNS.
High enrollment numbers were recorded during the pandemic, as many Jewish day schools offered in-person learning at a time when many public schools were remote, according to the report. Still, Prizmah said that trend has continued beyond the pandemic years.
“Based on this analysis, Jewish day-school enrollment in North America is no longer just a pandemic-era spike,” the report states. “It is increasingly a sustained upward trend with a number of contributing factors.”
Other factors include heightened fears about Jew-hatred after Oct. 7, increased interest in Jewish identity, migration to areas with growing Jewish populations, like Florida, and the expansion of nonpublic-school scholarship programs, Prizmah wrote.
Since Oct. 7, families are “moving closer to Jewish community, enrolling children in Jewish schools and seeking out institutions that offer both belonging and confidence,” the report states.
“Families are not only worried about the increase in antisemitism, they are also choosing deeper Jewish connection through schools, synagogues, camps and community institutions as a proactive way to strengthen identity, continuity and resilience,” it said.
‘This is such positive data’
In addition, after Oct. 7, 95% of 110 surveyed schools received inquiries about temporary Israeli students, with more than 2,000 inquiries logged between October and December 2023.
At least 1,037 Israeli students were enrolled in Prizmah schools during that time period, the report said.
Bernstein told JNS that the organization has “no concerns” about the data.
“This is such positive data,” he said. “Of course, we always want enrollment to continue trending upwards, and we’re driven by this to ensure our day schools have as large an educator pipeline as they need to draw from.”
“We need to continue scaling our proven educator training and support systems to meet this need,” he said.
Prizmah also hopes that “the growth will be experienced by all schools,” Bernstein said.
“In this regard, there is work to do to spread the positive appreciation of the quality and value of Jewish day schools in places that have not yet seen the expansion experienced by the majority,” he added.
Prizmah collected enrollment data from public databases, federal private-school data, its own benchmarking tool and surveys and direct outreach to school leaders.
Because some sources provided only total enrollment numbers, rather than grade-by-grade breakdowns, the report analyzed each school’s total enrollment from preschool through 12th grade.
