Surce: The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
The Helen Bader Foundation is creating a permanent endowment to help low- and middle-income families afford Jewish day school in Milwaukee. The foundation will give at least $10 million over the next 10 years to create an endowment for the Helen Bader Scholarship Fund, which will be administered by the Milwaukee Jewish federation. When the gift is complete, it will be the largest ever received by the federation.
As the endowment is built, the foundation will continue to fund scholarships on an annual basis. In recent years, the scholarship fund has provided $500,000 annually to local families, for a total of more than $6.1 million.
Each summer, the scholarships are awarded under the guidance of the Day School Grant Allocation Committee of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. This advisory body determines the levels of tuition assistance based on anonymous application criteria, including income, number of school-age children and other life circumstances.
To determine the greatest need, the federation works closely with the five schools that participate in the program: The Academy (Hillel), Milwaukee Jewish Day School, Torah Academy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study and Yeshiva Elementary School of Milwaukee.