From the CEO: The Sacred Work of Jewish Education — and a New Way to Support It

Rosh Hashanah asks us to imagine who we might become. There is no better place to watch that imagining happen in real time than in a classroom — ours, in Nashville, filled with children who are, quite literally, becoming who they will be. 

Jewish tradition does not treat education as a nice-to-have. It treats it as an obligation, and a communal one. The Torah instructs us to teach our children diligently — v'shinantam l'vanecha — not occasionally, but “when you sit in your home and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up.” 

Education, in other words, is not a program. It is a way of living. The rabbis of the Talmud went further still. Nearly two thousand years ago, in a story our tradition still tells, the sage Joshua ben Gamla instituted something radical: a system of schools and teachers, paid for by the whole community, so that every child could learn Torah — not only the children whose parents could afford to teach them, or pay someone else to. That decision is often credited as the beginning of universal, communally-funded education in Jewish life. It is also, I think, the founding idea behind everything a Jewish Federation strives to do: that a child's Jewish education should never depend on what their family can pay. 

That idea is alive and well in Nashville today, and it deserves to be said plainly and often: our schools are doing extraordinary work. At Akiva School and the Nashville Jewish Academy, our students begin their education grounded in Jewish values and joyful learning from their very first years. At Kehillah, that foundation deepens into the kind of rigorous, values-driven education that sends young people into the world as confident, literate, proud Jewish adults. And in our congregations across Nashville, our supplementary schools carry out some of the most quietly important work in our community — meeting children and families where they are, often on evenings and weekends, to make sure Jewish learning has a place in lives that are already full. None of this happens without extraordinary teachers, administrators, clergy, and volunteer lay leaders who show up for our children year after year. On behalf of our whole community, thank you. You are doing sacred work. 

Supporting this work is our responsibility too, and this year we have an extraordinary new tool to help. Beginning January 1, 2027, the new Federal Education Tax Credit will allow any taxpayer to contribute up to $1,700 to a qualified Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) and receive the full amount back as a dollar-for-dollar credit against their federal taxes, making the net cost to the donor zero. Because federal law permits SGOs to use up to 10% of donations for operating expenses, the Federation movement, together with Prizmah and the Orthodox Union and with broad support across the Jewish communal and religious world, is creating a single national, mission-driven SGO for Jewish day schools: The Opportunity Fund for Jewish Education. Its goal is to ensure that more of every donated dollar goes toward a child's tuition rather than administrative costs. 

This credit is not only for day school families, and I want to be clear about that. Most Jewish children in Nashville, like most Jewish children nationally, attend public school — and the same scholarship funds can support them too, through tutoring, disability services, and other educational supports. That is exactly the spirit of Joshua ben Gamla's original idea: education is a communal responsibility, not a private transaction, and this new tool is generous enough to reach nearly everyone. 

The reason the day school piece matters specifically for us, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has already opted our state into this program — one of 31 states to do so as of this summer — which means our Jewish schools are positioned to benefit the moment the credit takes effect. And the part I want you to understand most: this is a national fund, but your gift does not have to leave Nashville. When you give, you choose where your dollars go. Designate a local Nashville Jewish school by name, and one hundred percent of your gift funds scholarships for children right here in our community — not somewhere else, not a national pool, but a Nashville classroom. If you would rather not name a specific school, undesignated gifts are allocated by our own community among the schools we support, so even a gift given without a school named can still come home to Nashville.  This means that a grandparent living in another state who wishes to support their grandchild’s school can make their contribution to the Opportunity Fund and designate their grandchild’s school here in Nashville. 

Here is my ask to you, beginning January 1, 2027, when you make your gift to The Opportunity Fund for Jewish Education, designate a local Nashville Jewish school as the recipient — or, if your family relies on public school, watch for how to direct support toward tutoring and other services your children can use directly. It will cost you nothing beyond taxes you already owe, it will take a few minutes, and it will turn a routine tax payment into direct, dollar-for-dollar support for a child's education in Nashville. If you already support our schools, this is a way to do it again at zero net cost to you. If you have never been able to help with day school tuition before, this is your chance to start. I hope you will talk to your accountant or tax preparer this year, so you are ready to act the moment the program opens. Every family who takes advantage of this credit expands what is possible for a child down the street. 

The U.S. Treasury Department is still finalizing the rules, with proposed regulations expected by the end of this month, and our Federation is working closely with our national partners to be ready the moment the program launches. In the coming months, we will share the exact steps for designating your gift to Nashville's schools through The Opportunity Fund for Jewish Education. For now, my ask is simple: plan for this gift the way you plan any other part of your giving, mark January 1, 2027, on your calendar, and watch for more from us as the details become official. 

Joshua ben Gamla's insight was that Jewish education is too important to be left to chance, or to individual family circumstance. Two thousand years later, that is still true, and it is still our job. Thank you for everything you do to make Jewish education possible in Nashville — and I hope you will join us in this next chapter of that work.