Being an observant Jew has always meant that an individual had to make financial commitments to support a synagogue, give charity, and when the time came, to provide a quality Jewish education to their children, not to mention the familial and other financial commitments that play a vital part of every person's life.   However, a troubling pattern has emerged during the past few years where many of our community organizations and educational institutions have relied on the observant Jew's religious commitments and begun to tax us in the name of G-d.

On an annual basis, our communal leaders and educators present us with a tax increase of nearly 20%.  The educational institutions send out letters with their contracts explaining how they must raise the tuition fees due to escalating costs.  The synagogues and schools are constantly seeking additional contributions for their operating budgets rather than traditional charitable causes, e.g., providing the basic necessities to those that do not have the means to obtain them.  The better educational institutions have been increasing their tuitions by nearly $2,000 per child per year for the past several years.  A person cannot enter a synagogue service without hearing an appeal for one cause or another, or receiving a solicitation for a Chinese auction or journal dinner to help raise funds for one purpose or another.  Once an individual finds a way to contribute to a cause, these institutions then seek increased support in subsequent years.

We are all thankful that G-d has sought fit to bless many members of our community with financial wealth and successful businesses so that they may be able to provide support to our very worthy institutions, however, these individuals do not represent the majority of our community.  The majority of us are best described as middle class families where both husband and wife must work to support the household.  Generally, our salaries increase at a rate of 2% - 5% per year.  We struggle to acquire homes for our families in our community, and then struggle to pay our mortgages, utilities, and food costs on a monthly basis.  When it comes to raising a family we must consider the costs per child of raising an observant Jewish child.  Facing such difficult realities, a middle class family seeking to maintain a middle class lifestyle, must limit their family size so that they can attempt to provide a quality Jewish education within an observant Jewish community to all family members.

A family with two children, in a Yeshiva Elementary school, must currently pay approximately $30,000 per year in tuition for one of the better schools.  If those same two kids attend a better day camp for the summer months, the family must pay approximately $5,000 per summer.  If this family is a member in a community synagogue, they are paying approximately $1,000 in membership fees.  If this middle class family is doing well, they earn approximately $150,000 per year before taxes and take home approximately $100,000 per year.  The average monthly mortgage payment per household in our community is approximately $4,000, and the average household expenses for utilities and food are approximately $1,500 per month.  At these rates, the household must pay $66,000 per year for their mortgage, utilities, and food.  If this family, joins the synagogue, enrolls their children in the school and camp, they have spent another $36,000 and have spent $102,000 of their $100,000 after-tax income.   During the subsequent year, this family's income has increased by approximately 3%, and they now have $103,000 income, however, the G-d tax acts to increase the cost of school, camp, and general community membership by at least $5,000 in that same year, resulting in $107,000 of expenses.  These calculations do not even include such extravagances such as a family car, shopping for clothing, or making any charitable contributions. Extrapolating the numbers just makes the future look extremely bleak for everyone other than the wealthy minority.  

A basic question that arises from analyzing the G-d tax is what is the underlying force driving these annual increases?  These institutions are pleading poverty and these increases are not being requested to improve infrastructure, rather these funds are usually sought to satisfy an institution's operating budget.   These institutions have neither demonstrated any undertaking to reduce their operating costs nor expressed any plans to control their operating budget.  Rather, these institutions have taken to taxing their communities in the name of G-d.  It is far simpler to tax a captive population than to somehow find a way in which to control costs. 

At this time we are asking all of our educational and communal institutions to cut the  G-d tax.  Furthermore, we ask those institutions that do not otherwise publicly disclose their financial affairs, to make available to their membership, student body parents, and constituents, all such financial and organizational information as would be required on the Internal Revenue Service's annual Form 990 – Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.  Making such a disclosure is not unreasonable in light of the nearly 20%    G-d Tax levied against us on an annual basis, and in light of the fact that our annual expenditures to such institutions amount to approximately 30% of a family's budget.

Help us understand your financial needs by showing us: how you are using our money; how you plan on implementing cost cutting measures; and eliminating any wastefulness.  Failing to implement these measures will force us to choose between insolvency and alternative means of meeting our commitments to G-d.
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A Group of Concerned Observant Jews
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