history

Mission
Statement

History

Who's Who

NJCL's History

In 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, he delivered a speech in which he proposed that we define the ability to read by the end of third grade a “national goal.” (Many educators do agree that knowing how to read by the end of third grade is a powerful litmus test for a child’s prospects in later life. Know how to read, and odds are you’ll be ok, you’ll make it; don’t know, and you’re headed for a life of trouble.)

Leonard Fein, a veteran social justice activist, had for many years used a massive Jewish tutoring program as an example of how Jews might usefully engage with the larger society. Upon learning of President Clinton’s proposal, Fein decided to convert the hypothetical into the actual. His first move was to check with the appropriate people in Washington to learn whether the president’s proposal was merely a campaign throw-away line or whether, in fact, it had a programmatic application. He was informed that the Department of Education was embarked on an effort to mobilize one million Americans as tutors in the K-3 class range.

Fein’s response was to establish the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy, intended as a framework that would enable the mobilization of Jews as volunteer tutors. His first step was to contact the offices of 17 major national Jewish agencies to invite their endorsement of the idea; all agreed. He then sought and obtained start-up funding, including a major grant from the Righteous Persons Foundation (Steven Spielberg) as well as a number of smaller grants from other foundations and individuals.

During the 1997-1998 year, the program was piloted in Boston. The Boston Jewish Community Relations Council, in cooperation with Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, began with a feasibility study to determine both the need for the proposed program and the Jewish community’s readiness to respond to such a need. Once satisfied on both counts, the JCRC convened a meeting with representatives from virtually all Jewish organization and synagogues in the metropolitan area. The program was received with enthusiasm, and was immediately established in Boston and then “rolled out” to other communities.

So far, 47 communities across the country have mounted tutoring programs. Roughly 12,000 volunteer tutors spend at least one hour a week working one-on-one with public school (typically inner-city) children in the K-3 age range. Among the more remarkable – and unanticipated – aspects of the program is its appeal to the senior citizen generation as well as to 8th grade (and older) youngsters, especially those attending Jewish day schools. As to the seniors, while exact numbers are not available, we estimate that as many as a quarter of all our tutors are older than 65, with many in their 70s and 80s – and even a few in their 90s. A significant number of these are themselves retired teachers of reading, thrilled to be “back in harness.” And each year, the number of day schools that become involved with the NJCL grows,

In our 47 affiliated communities, the local coalition includes a large (as many as 65) number of Jewish organizations – often the largest coalitional effort, save for pro-Israel activity, in the community’s history. Typically but not always convened by the local Jewish Community Relations Council, synagogues of the several Jewish denominations, local chapters of national organizations such as Hadassah, the American Jewish Committee, and the National Council of Jewish Women (to name only a few) are the key coalition members, each recruiting volunteers from its own ranks. Funding for the local effort is, in all cases, provided locally. The local Jewish federation usually takes the lead in providing start-up funds, and assigns its staff the task of raising such additional funds as may be required. In some communities, the effort is managed almost entirely by volunteers, with overhead costs being absorbed by the federation or CRC. In other communities, full-time staff has been hired to organize and manage the program. If in-kind contributions are included, the aggregate cost of all the affiliated programs is well over one million dollars a year.

The national office of the NJCL is charged with an array of responsibilities. It is the “sales force” for the program, determining which agency should be asked to take the lead in a particular community and then contacting communities and helping them understand the challenge and the opportunity; Leonard Fein, who remains actively involved in the day-to-day affairs of the NJCL, typically visits with a new coalition in its formative stage and again when the program itself is being launched; NJCL provides rough guidelines to the affiliates; it establishes contact and communication among the coalitions, enabling them to share ideas and to learn from each other’s experience; it publishes an eight-page newsletter, “Litbits,” for distribution to tutors across the country; it convenes an annual institute for professional and lay leaders of the affiliates, held in conjunction with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. In its first years, it negotiated successfully with the National Service Corps for the award of America’s Promise Fellowships. (It has since discontinued its association with the NSC.)

NJCL does not itself develop tutoring programs. Our principal contribution is the mobilization of large numbers of tutors. In most cases, affiliates develop a working relationship with an established and agency that can provide training to our volunteers. In some cases, that agency will also connect our volunteers to receptive schools; in others, we make the necessary arrangements. The most prevalent arrangement is to work in the school during school hours, although we continue to seek “in-school after-school” programs, since they have the additional virtue of providing children with a constructive after-school experience. Volunteers commit to at least one session per week, and the affiliate makes arrangements for back-up replacements to cover a tutor’s absence.

In addition, NJCL affiliates have found that some volunteers who cannot, for one reason or another, be part of the central effort are eager to engage in related activities. These range from mounting book drives to reading aloud to young children (often pre-school) in neighborhood health centers.

Aside from these broad guidelines, each affiliate is free to shape its own program and strategy.