Why NYC jewish families are choosing catholic and christian schools

A great report by Alina Adams about the changes she has seen since October 7th

This July I am traveling with my boys and trying to pretend that NYC is not about to be taken over by a socialist-Hamas sympathizer. But here is a great report by Alina Adams about the changes she has seen on Jewish parents since October 7th. She is a great resource for parents in NYC and has previously helped me choose a school for my son.

NYC is home to some of the best schools in the country – including internationally recognized high schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and LaGuardia School of the Arts – but the tragic fact remains that little more than 50 percent of seniors graduate college ready. There are elementary, middle and high schools where not a single child is performing at grade level.

Other than a handful of exceptions, acceptance to most NYC public schools is lottery-based. A student who’s been declared “gifted” and/or with all A’s on their report card might still be placed at a school levels below them academically. 

For those with lottery numbers that doom them to a failing school, alternatives are limited. One parent groused, “Public schools suck and private schools are outrageously expensive!”

There is, however, an in-between option: Catholic and Christian (often Jesuit) schools.

These schools have long been a safe haven for non-Christian families. A Hindu mom told me, “I went to a Christian-ish school in India. My mother and grandmother went to Catholic schools. We all remain scrupulously observant Hindus.”

One key appeal is that Catholic and Christian schools are not as expensive as NYC’s independent schools – costing in the area of $20,000 a year versus $65,000 – and offer merit scholarships on top of that. They are also more traditional in their approach to education.

“The ethos of the Jesuit schools is AMDG – men for others, go out and set the world on fire,” Manhattan mom Janie Hwang shared. “As a Buddhist, this sounded hokey, but the school community weaves this philosophy through its curriculum, sports programs and service missions. This creates a strong identity, a sense of community, and a straightforward curriculum.”

Jewish parents, however, have been historically reluctant to send their children to Christian or Catholic schools. Even when public school academics were substandard, even when private school price tags were steep, they’d still try to wrangle an education without resorting to non-Jewish, faith-based schools.

“But then October 7 happened,” a Sutton Place mother who asked to remain anonymous sighed, “and the world changed. The NY Post published an article about a Pre-K teacher at our public-school who was offering a class on Sunday to young children called “P is for Palestine.” As a family with a Jewish last name, we were worried about our child’s safety. Protests were already happening throughout NYC. As members of our community and liaisons to the 17th Precinct of the NYPD, we had an obligation to alert our community officer about the teacher and the article. We were concerned about protests happening in front of our school. What we experienced next was shocking. The school administration remained silent. The school and the DOE [Department of Education] were so tolerant of the teacher that they put our children’s lives in danger. The Principal hid behind the DOE and wouldn’t take a stance about the impact of the teacher’s outside activities. When we requested a meeting with the Parent Coordinator because the Principal wouldn’t speak to the PTA board members, we were told to “take a back seat and be quiet.” We were very concerned that by pressing the issue further, our Jewish child might be ostracized if we continued to speak up. That’s when we decided to look at Catholic schools. In the Catholic school where we enrolled, the environment is warm and family oriented. The head of the school is professional and leads by example. We could not be happier with our decision.”

Such accounts weren’t limited to a single school or teacher. I heard from parents about educators who marched through their classrooms, chanting, “Israel is going to get what they deserve,” of swastikas carved into walls and desks, of teachers wearing keffiyehs to class and organizing walk-outs and field trips to anti-Israel protests while principals threw up their hands and designated it all self-expression, thus out of their control.

The sense that, as a Jewish family, they felt more comfortable in a Catholic or Christian school than in a public one, was a theme I heard over and over again.

“After nine years as a public school parent, it was a not so difficult decision to pull both my children out of public schools and send them to classical, parochial schools,” said Natalya Murakhver, founder of the parent advocacy organization Restore Childhood. “The year that followed Oct. 7 exposed so much Illiberalism and antisemitism in our public schools. There was an attitude of moral equivalence from school administrators – between the Hamas massacre in Israel and Israel's war of self-defense and hostage extrication that followed. The attitude was even worse at the upper levels of the DOE, especially with former schools chancellor Banks, who would not even mention antisemitism without attaching it to Islamophobia, even in very clear situations like the Queens high school where the students hunted the teacher and Origins High School where the same nearly happened again. At my daughter’s Catholic school, we found a welcoming environment for students of diverse faiths. Over the summer, all students were required to read a book about the Holocaust.” 

“For the first time, I finally felt like my family really belongs here at this school,” said an East Village mother who only wanted to be identified as Sarah. “I never felt that sense of home in the public schools. The religion classes at my son's Jesuit school are really philosophy classes. They encourage each student to explore and describe their own relationship to a higher power. Various books are assigned to encourage discussions around moral and ethical topics. I was very happy to see that Viktor E. Frankl's book, “Man's Search for Meaning,” about finding a source of strength to survive while in a Nazi death camp, was assigned reading. I remember touring the history room at Xavier and there was a poster up with the JFK quote, "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future." I'm a Jewish mother who's so grateful for the Jesuit education of my son. Who knew!”

Some parents even saw an advantage in their choice. Alessia S. reasoned that sending her son to St. Peter’s Prep would help him with “learning about Christianity in depth, which will bring a different perspective to his Judaism,” as well as offer a lesson in resilience. “Being a minority student in the majority environment can help develop leadership skills (e.g. becoming the editor of the Jewish publication), as well as teach the student to adjust.”

“We hope that by sharing our experience,” added the Sutton Place mom, “We can encourage other families like ours to consider Catholic or other faith-based schools as supportive and inclusive environments for all students.”

Alina Adams is the author of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” and “Getting into NYC High School,” and a school admissions consultant. She writes about education – and a whole lot more – at Alina’s Susbtack Newsletter.