JTA — After decades of declining enrollment in non-Orthodox Jewish day schools, a new report from Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools found enrollment is now growing across denominations.

Within Prizmah’s network of 305 Jewish day schools, which includes 122 nondenominational schools and 153 Orthodox schools, enrollment increased from 94,008 students in the 2021-2022 school year to approximately 101,041 students in 2025-2026, marking an increase of 7,000 students, or 7.5 percent. In the 2025-2026 school year, overall enrollment grew by more than 1,000 students.

The report found that non-Orthodox school enrollment has increased by 3% from 2021 to 2024, while Orthodox schools have seen a 7% increase. Reform day school enrollment has also risen by 5%, reversing years of declining trends. The report marked the first time that Prizmah had reported growth across decades charting enrollment across the denominational spectrum of Jewish day schools.

Paul Bernstein, the CEO of Prizmah, attributed the growth to several factors, including rises in the Jewish population of some communities, the declining quality of education in certain public school systems and new philanthropic investments in Jewish day schools.

While Bernstein said that there had been an influx in enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic, spurred in part by parents seeking in-person learning, he said the continued enrollment growth in the years since had reflected a broader shift.

“We’ve had growth in enrollment every single year in the last five years, and that’s because the understanding of the quality of day schools and the value of having an education in a Jewish day school is really much clearer to families,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein noted that until now, enrollment had been declining consistently in the non-Orthodox systems. ”There were people out there who questioned whether day schools, and in particular non-Orthodox day schools, might have a future,” he said.

Indeed, the now-shuttered Avi Chai Foundation reported in its 2018-2019 census of Jewish day school enrollment in the United States that enrollment in non-Orthodox Jewish day schools had fallen by over 16% over a 20-year........

© The Times of Israel