The cost of security for Jewish day schools and yeshivas in the United States has more than doubled in the two-and-a-half years since the Hamas-led terror attacks on Oct. 7, according to a new report by the Teach Coalition, which is part of the Orthodox Union.
The report surveyed 63 Jewish schools, whose student bodies collectively represent 10% of U.S. day school and yeshiva attendees. The coalition tracked security expenses at the schools from the academic year that preceded Oct. 7 through the 2024-25 academic year and found that such costs have risen 124%.
In comparison, non-security expenses—like salaries, textbooks and utility bills—rose 19% at the same schools over the same period.
“That is a shocking increase,” Gabriel Aaronson, director of policy and research at the coalition, told JNS exclusively, of the security costs.
Though the coalition is an Orthodox Union project, it works with Jewish schools across denominations, advocating for more government funding for Jewish education and helping Jewish schools access those monies.
It conducted the new study to bolster its case with elected officials, Aaronson told JNS.
Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah, a network of North American day schools and yeshivas, told JNS that “security needs and costs have long been a burden on schools, both because of fear of attacks on Jews and the history of incidents in schools in America generally.”
“In the last few years, attacks and threats on Jewish schools have grown many fold, magnifying that burden many fold,” Bernstein said.
Before Oct. 7, each Jewish day school spent about $180,000 annually on security, on average. That number increased more than two-fold by the 2024-25 academic year, during which each school spent an average of $400,000 on security, per the report.
That number was double on both per-student and per-school bases. Jewish day schools spend about $1,000 annually per pupil to keep students safe, which is quadruple what public schools need to pay per students, $250, Aaronson told JNS.
Recent security upgrades at American Jewish schools include buzzer systems for front doors, fortified windows and doors meant to resist gunfire, bollards out front to prevent ramming attacks and increased security camera system. They have also increased the number of security guards.
Schools are struggling to cover those costs, day school educators told JNS.
Westchester Torah Academy, a Modern Orthodox day school in New Rochelle, N.Y., previously had one security guard. Now it has two, its executive director Adi Rosenfeld told JNS.
A Prizmah report on day school metrics found that in 2024-25, security guard salaries ranged from over $58,500 to almost $70,000 annually.
Westchester Torah Academy recently added a buzzer system requiring parents to swipe their school ID to open the new parking lot gate and the front doors. And in the past few years, the school added a public address system, more cameras and wiring for extra phones and a new walkie talkie system, she said.
That adds up to the school’s security expenses doubling since Oct. 7, according to Rosenfeld.
“Every time we need to do something, we have to charge parents extra. We get some amount from the families, but that does not cover everything,” she told JNS. The school can sometimes find sponsors for specific projects that strengthen security, she said.
The Westchester day school has never had an antisemitic incident, but it is working to improve its doors and windows and add a closed circuit TV system, Rosenfeld told JNS.
The campus of the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland County is one of only two buildings in the heavily Jewish area to fly an Israeli flag, according to David Katznelson, executive director of the Modern Orthodox school, making it an obvious potential target of antisemites.
Just north of New York City, Rockland County is home to many Orthodox Jews, including Chassidic communities in New Square, Monsey and Wesley Hills. The school has 490 students in kindergarten through the eighth Grade, Katznelson said.
It is located just blocks from the synagogue where, on Chanukah in 2019, a machete-wielding man entered and stabbed five men, including a 72-year-old rabbi, who died of his wounds.
During the war against Hamas in Gaza, there were regular anti-Israel protests on the main street in the neighboring village, Nanuet, and people scream antisemitic things regularly from cars at residents walking to synagogue, according to Katznelson.
The school has strengthened its security systems continuously, Katznelson told JNS, including locking classroom doors in a way that requires a keycard to enter beyond times that classes are scheduled to enter or exit.
Anyone unfamiliar who approaches the school doesn’t even have the chance to enter the building, Katznelson told JNS. A security guard meets the visitor outside to inquire about the purpose of the visit.
The security measures have cost well over $1 million, and all been covered by federal and state security grants, Katznelson said.
Bernstein, of Prizmah, told JNS that “schools have had to do so much more in the last three years and have all had to invest in more security.”
“It puts an enormous strain on school budgets,” he said.
Schools “are fundraising from their own communities and having to make very difficult choices between making sure they have a safe environment and investing in curriculum and other school enhancements,” Bernstein told JNS.
Jewish schools also face the challenge of “making sure security feels strong but isn’t an impediment to a kid feeling welcome and having an amazing experience,” he said.
