Category: Tikkun Olam (Winter 2013)

Ira Bedzow is a PhD student at Emory University and is the author of Halakhic Man, Authentic Jew: Modern Expressions of Orthodox Thought, a comparative study of Rabbis Soloveitchik and Berkovits.

Ira Bedzow proposes a dramatic idea seeking to address ecological and educational concerns at the same time.

Imagine living in a home that pays its own bills, where the food at the local store is fresher and cheaper than at the regional supermarket, where your shul doesn't have to hire a collection agency to recover membership dues, and where the idea of not giving your child a Jewish education due to the expense of tuition never enters your mind. Is it only a dream? The Talmudic sage Rava, when faced with a difficult question, prayed, "May it be God's will that I see the answer in a dream (BT Menahot 67a)." Isn't it time that we take Rava's advice for the difficulties of our present situation?

In 2003, Shalom Lamm wrote the following about the effects of sending our children to Jewish day schools:

The dirty little secret of the success of the Jewish day school movement is that the parents of these budding scholars are, to a large degree, in a state of crisis. The anecdotal evidence is commonplace to any Orthodox parent. Wherever they meet, parents of school-age children bemoan their inability to make ends meet. Retirement savings or current investing is a distant dream. The frustration is compounded because many of those fearful are professionals, whose peers, not bound by artificially inflated home prices and the need for private schools, are enjoying lives reserved for the comfortable upper-middle class. Many have reached levels of earnings unimaginable to the average American, yet they have nothing left for savings or comforts that they have, by all other rights, earned. (“How To Make Yeshiva Day School Tuition Affordable,” The Forward, April 4, 2003)

How different is our situation today? Not only has tuition continually risen in the ensuing years, but recently so has the unemployment rate. According to Lamm, if either the numerous schools consolidated so as to lessen competition for donations, or the UJC increased its support, tuition costs may not continue to be the issue it has become. However, as fewer dollars are being earned and donated, the idea of a philanthropic white knight is relegated to wishful thinking. On the other hand, the ideas that he mentions in the continuation of his article, such as utilizing the public school system or levying a Jewish community tax to fund, or at least to subsidize, Jewish education, while at first blush may seem to either abandon or universalize the problem, has as its underlying basis our solution.

The core purpose of Jewish education is to promote proper living. It is not enough to amass knowledge; the significance of learning is only achieved when it leads to action (BT Kiddushin 40b). Furthermore, the values of Judaism are not solely individualistic; proper Jewish conduct also encompasses the manner in which one relates to his or her community and to the world at large. Therefore, because all Jews are guarantors for one another, we must find a way to solve the problem of Jewish education in a manner that embodies the Jewish values of community and the human values of “serving and protecting” our world (Genesis 2:15). The manner in which to do this is to create a “Torah Interdependent & Extrovertive Community,” or a TIDE Community – to steal a popular acronym.

Like so many housing communities in the country, a TIDE Communitywould consist of a number of houses, townhomes, and/or condominiums surrounded by a central amenity-rich facility where part of the association fees would be put towards maintaining the amenities. However, unlike other communities which are centered on a golf course or an exercise facility, a TIDE Communitywould be centered around a Jewish day school and community center, which would provide all the necessities for observant Jewish life. A portion of the homeowner association fees would help to subsidize the costs of the amenities for those who live in the community.

I am not advocating for a housing project which has religious commitment as a criteria for entry, nor am I advocating for a modern form of isolationism. People choose where they want to live for a number of reasons, and, when deciding on a home, benefits are always measured against costs. People can buy a home in any community (a TIDE Community need not be a housing cooperative) and would be willing to do so if they believed that what they are buying is worth the cost. For example, it is generally known that housing prices are higher within an Eruv, or within a certain radius of a synagogue, than outside of that line, yet even people who do not use the Eruv still buy houses within the given area if they think it is worth it to do so. Similarly, people buy homes in a community whose amenities may not be of use to them (such as a gym or a school) if the location meets other needs or desires that they may have. Also, the TIDE Community school need not be a Hebrew charter school, or any type of publicly-funded school for that matter. Private schools, given zoning and other requirements, can serve those who are willing to pay for it. Nevertheless, communities tend to be self-selecting, due to the fact that people with similar interests congregate where those interests can be met most affordably.

Moreover, people who live within a TIDE community need not send their children to the school, nor do they need to work and play solely within the community's borders. TIDE Communities would also not be built in the middle of nowhere. Rather, they would be integrated into city plans, just as any other residential or mixed-use development. For example, as housing developments continue to be built in places such as Denver, Colorado or Orlando, Florida, the availability of land, and the rate of growth of the Jewish population, may allow for a new residential section with a private school as part of the existing master plan. TIDE residents would then work and play throughout Denver or Orlando, or whichever city they live.

The first question one usually hears when such an idea is proposed is, “Why would people who do not have children live in a community where they have to pay for other people’s kids?” The second question is typically, “How have you alleviated the costs of tuition? Haven’t you just displaced it to different types of payment?”

Setting aside for a moment the communal value of living in a community where everyone is responsible for maintaining Jewish life, both questions are answered with the second component of a TIDE Community, which also emphasizes the value of “serving and protecting” our world. A TIDE Community would be a completely sustainable community, which would not only lower the cost of living for residents and raise their property values (thus making the purchase of a home in the community more appealing) but also the “green” technologies used to service the community would be revenue producing. This revenue would further subsidize the costs of the Jewish school, making a community that is both affordable and one that drastically reduces the carbon footprint. Developers and city planners are already beginning to think creatively about how to use the environment to build a better living environment for ourselves and our children. For example, one international development company, Groupe Pacific, is transforming a golf-course in Montreal into a sustainable mixed-use project under the "One Planet Living" initiative, and companies, such as FoodMachine™, are working on ways to integrate different types of farming in scalable, profitable, environmentally responsible ways.While the intricacies of building such a community is best understood by those experienced in the field of eco-development, hopefully two examples of revenue-producing infrastructure would allow the reader to understand the potential this type of community has.

“Mayim Hayyim” & “The Living Machine”

For most of us who live in urban environments, we receive our access to sewer and water from municipal pipes. We pay economically and ecologically for the water we use and waste, and whose prices continually rise due to the demands of urban density and the costs of wastewater treatment. However, for more than a decade, Dr. John Todd and Ocean Arks International have been developing a wastewater treatment technology that mimics the natural processes of a wetland ecosystem. The technology, called “The Living Machine,” incorporates many of the same processes of traditional wastewater management, yet it does so through the use of biomaterials that could be further harnessed for revenue or for aesthetic maintenance of the community. For example, towards the end of the treatment process the water is sufficiently restored to be able to grow tilapia. Tilapia is mainly vegetarian, so it will not cause contaminants to deleteriously collect in the water as the fish consume the waste particles held therein. Because this type of technology could work in any densely populated area (the Solar Aquatics System in Weston, Massachusetts treats the town’s business center), proximity to markets means fresher fish and lower transportation costs, making the tilapia farm a market-competitive business. If anyone has gone to the kosher fish market recently, one could readily see the value one’s own sewage treatment system could have. Furthermore, fish are not the only products that one could harvest through “The Living Machine.” Various flowers and vegetables could be grown through hydroponics, and solid mass can be sold as fertilizer. Without considering potential revenue, the EPA has found “The Living Machine” to be cost competitive to conventional wastewater treatments systems, which means its implementation in a TIDE Community would not affect maintenance costs and would allow all the benefit to go to the community. When implemented in the initial stages of community development, infrastructure costs diminish allowing for the water of the community to become a source of natural and economic life.

“The Blessing of the Sun” & Photovoltaics

Many of us leave certain lights on during the Sabbath, and, if we are conscious about it, mark the cost as one of the sacrifices we make to enjoy Friday evening. If, however, the electricity used to power our lights, HVAC systems, etc., was from a renewable energy source instead of coal or petroleum, the cost of our Sabbath enjoyment may be reduced significantly.

Building-integrated photovoltaics, or what we typically know as solar panels, can now replace conventional building materials, as opposed to being appended to the building, to become part of the roof, skylights, or the façade of the building. Photovoltaics not only can offset, or even replace, the use of conventional electric power, the implementation costs can be offset by the reduction of building materials and labor needed for traditional construction. Excess electricity produced can be stored for a future “cloudy day.”

Even though the costs of building-integrated photovoltaic implementation is reduced with economies of scale, tax incentives and government subsidies, and more efficient technology, a developer may want to still allay costs, while insuring set electricity prices for a period of 15-20 years, by conducting a Solar Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA) with a local utility company. A Solar Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA) offers the opportunity to install solar power without paying upfront costs or worrying about system operation and maintenance. This type of agreement has already proven successful with companies who use solar power, such as Kohl’s and WalMart department stores, as well as numerous airports and water districts, and have been financed by firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. It is no secret that the use of petroleum and the emission of greenhouse gasses heats up our world through the continuous reflection of the sun’s rays upon the earth. Hopefully through the use of the sun’s own power, our communities may be cured through the blessing reserved for the righteous and not suffer from sun’s detrimental heat.

Home, School & Classroom Participation

For a community such as a TIDE Community to be successful, however, it is not enough for there to be an infrastructure that can benefit the economics, education, and quality of life of the community. Each person must see himself or herself as part of the greater whole from which he or she benefits and must understand the importance of participating in achieving the goals of the community. I do not mean that a TIDE Community should be an American kibbutz. People who live around a golf course do not personally maintain the greens; they are doctors and lawyers and businessmen who work outside of their residential community and hire professionals to oversee the course. They do, however, play the course from time to time and take an interest in making sure that it is upheld to the standards they demand for a golf course for which people pay membership. Similarly, parents should consider that a child’s education is a 24-hour endeavor, consisting of what he or she learns at home as well as what he or she learns at school. Comparing the complementary roles of the home and the school to those of husband and wife, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes:

Even as it performs its own specific educational functions, the school must always act, albeit on a different level, as an ezer k’negdo, as the most loyal, devoted helpmate to the home also in the task of character training. By its own attitude, by the recognition it accords to the moral conduct of its students, by the role that morality plays in its consideration of people and things, the school should tacitly place the whole weight of its prestige behind the practical character training given to the child at home. (Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Collected Writings VII. New York, NY: Feldheim, 1984, p. 111)

This educational partnership, however, is not one-sided in focus. Just as the school must recognize its role in the moral education of its students, parents must also recognize the importance they have in insuring the intellectual development of their children. Therefore, parents must be much more personally involved in their children’s school. It is not enough to solve only the economic aspect of Jewish education,. We cannot think that lower tuition will ensure that future generations will grow up to be self-actualizing Jews, for it takes an eco-village to raise a child.