The days of a white knight in shining armor in the form of the Associated “riding” into a bleak fiscal situation and bailing out a Jewish school in trouble I feel are over.
It was not two weeks ago that I interviewed three key Associated agency heads who talked to me about how the economy has made life so much more difficult for its clients and for some who at one time were donors, but are now clients.
So here we have Yeshivat Rambam. There is rumor, there is speculation. But one thing for sure, it has recently parted company with its executive director, a professional and a person who knows this community. I’ve seen it part company with other staffers as well.
At a local restaurant last week, a parent asked me to sit down with him. I knew nothing of this person’s concerns for the school, yet he spared no detail in his concern for the institution’s future.
My worry is quite simply this. At a time when the Associated is going to be working hard to literally keep Jews fed, housed and employed, how can any Jewish educational institution facing management and fiscal challenges possibly expect a dime out of the Associated, especially since all of this is happening not long after the Associated and Weinberg Foundation handed our schools cold hard money to help them.
Perhaps Rambam should consider eliminating at some point its high school. Perhaps it should work its way back to the original mission and vision that attracted so many Centrist Orthodox Jews to begin with. But if you ask some of the school’s original founders, they will tell you that they don’t recognize the place anymore.
Rambam needs new leadership if it is to survive. There are many strong leaders in the Rambam community. It is my hope that they can cut through the distractions and guide this very precious and needed school back to a path that has a real future to it.
I’ve seen Jewish schools disappear in my career or approach the brink of failure.
Usually, the symptoms are a poor business plan, an attitude of defensiveness, the toxicity of inter-group politics, a lack of transparency from its leadership and a failure to prepare itself for tough economic times.
I hope and pray this isn’t the case for Rambam.
It doesn’t have to be.

Rambam should never have opened a high school.  The high school has been a financial sinkhole since the day it opened.