Women Advance in Jewish Education

Women are moving into the field of Jewish education at an unprecedented rate, not only as teachers, but also as supervisors and administrators. Before the 1960’s, more than 90% of the management positions in Jewish education were held by men. Today, many women are serving as principals or educational directors of schools, as administrators in central agencies, and as faculty members or administrators in institutions of higher learning.

This assessment was made by Dr. Eliot Spack, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) following the most recent CAJE conference this August.

(No figures are available to document this change. The last such survey, conducted by the American Association for Jewish Education and reported on in LILITH #6, 1979, revealed that only 10 percent of women educators in metropolitan areas were working as principals, supervisors or education directors.—Ed.)

Spack cited as evidence of the emergence of women on the Jewish educational scene, the fact that approximately two-thirds of the almost 4,000 members of CAJE are women, as were 74 percent of the nearly 1,700 people who attended its latest Conference.