ḤeshbonCenter on Data and Jewish Life Sources Where to start

Ḥeshbon · חשבון · an accounting

What it costs to build a Jewish life.

Ḥeshbon follows the arithmetic underneath Jewish family and communal life: tuition, housing, food, giving, school budgets, salaries, aliyah, and the institutions that make the whole thing possible.

Read the latest season Explore the tools

Course-by-course build of a Shabbat dinner with its running total Groceries $10,839a year of hosting, food alone

What does it cost to set a Shabbos table every week, and to fill it with guests?

 US map of charitable giving intensity in Jewish-community ZIP codes Giving 4×the giving of matched-income neighbors

How much more charity do Jews give?

 Three bar panels comparing deficit rates, persistent deficits and reserve months across comparison, non-Orthodox and Orthodox schools School finance 65%of Orthodox school-years run a deficit

Which Jewish day schools are actually in financial trouble?

The Aliyah Ledger

Fifteen essays, one street.

A move to Israel resets the family ledger all at once: apartment, groceries, health care, salary, taxes, school, car, children, retirement.

The Aliyah Ledger, a Jerusalem street photographed on a weekday afternoon
  • Housing 2.33× Israel America the American house against the same family’s Israeli flat
  • Groceries $215.72 Beit Shemesh Teaneck a week for six, against $299.73 in Teaneck
  • Health care $5,549 Israel America a year of cover, against $26,993 in America
  • Salary ₪10,586 Median The guides the median monthly wage, against the ₪15,098 in the guides
  • Tax $48k where a single earner stops keeping more in Israel
  • Children 3.8× Israel New York what New York pays for the same six children

Enter the ledger

Where are you?

We’re newly married and planning ahead 14 pieces We’re a family looking for a more affordable community 15 pieces We’re weighing a move to Israel 16 pieces I sit on a school board, or fund one 13 pieces We’re deciding where to give 10 pieces Just show me everything 50 pieces

Instruments

Map of Orthodox communities, each marker colored by what a household pays to live there The Affordability Map Every community placed and colored by what it costs to live there. Open Comparison table setting four communities against each other on cost, tax, safety and schools The Affordability Comparison Tool Four communities, fourteen measures, one table. Open Scorecard ranking communities against eight weighted factors The Affordability Scorecard Eight factors on sliders. Move them and the ranking moves. Open The build-a-school interface: staffing and student-support questions on the left, a running cost ledger on the right showing $3,099,360 Build Your Own School Twenty-nine choices, priced as you make them. Open The report card interface: grade distribution bar, weighting sliders and a ranked table of schools School Financial Health Report Card Eighty-six schools, six financial pillars, one reweighted score. Open

One domain at a time

Aliyah What a move to Israel does to every line of a household budget. 16 pieces Giving and institutions Where communal money comes from, and what it costs to keep the buildings open. 8 pieces Communal affordability What a year of Orthodox family life costs, community by community. 14 pieces School finance How Jewish day schools are paid for, and which of them are in trouble. 12 pieces

    Every figure links back to public data, institutional documents, a price check, or a stated assumption. Sources · FAQ · About