A yeshiva is a religious school whose purpose is to preserve the religious tradition of Biblical and Talmudic texts. Such schools cater to the Jewish community and are quite frequently strongly supported by the community above and beyond the tuition and other basic fees. Customarily, notable businessmen will undertake to support these schools, particularly those attended by their families or which they themselves have attended as little. For instance, Yeshiva Ateret Torah in the city’s Borough of Brooklyn is a singular favorite of local success story Robert Toussie, who also helps the neighboring Yeshiva Ateres Yisroel, two day-schools that prepare children for university in the secular world along with a parochial instruction.
Indeed, Yeshiva Ateret Torah has been able to pull in the charitable largesse of many a local businessman for its stellar track record, with eighty-seven percent of its students moving on to higher education, many times above the average statewide rate at only fifty percent of all secondary school students doing likewise. Budgetary assistance allows the school to indulge in extracurricular programs such as forming partnerships with like-minded organizations around the world, organizations such as Oorah that aspires to help Jewish families sign up for yeshivas by defraying some or even all of the expenses involved.
Like many such schools, Yeshiva Ateret Torah serves up instruction from pre-kindergarten through high school. While different grades are often to be found on the same campus, if not within the same building as well, the more religious the yeshiva the more likely it is that boys and girls will be separated for most or even all of the day. And since the religious schools serve a comparatively thin demographic, especially when one considers sectarian preferences (that is, Reform versus Conservative versus Orthodox versus Ultra-Orthodox – with even further variations possible), tuition and fees are likely to be high, which is why the philanthropy of community businessmen and women are so necessary.