“If you do the math, a religious family has to effectively be among the top 3-4 percent of earners in the United States in order to keep up with the costs of living,” said Zvi (not his real name), an activist for financial education in the Orthodox world. “Basic Jewish needs cost a lot of money.”
A seminal 2024 survey of nearly 3,000 Orthodox Jews in the US, conducted by Langer’s podcast, offered a detailed look at the scope of the problem. Some 78% of respondents said finances were a major source of stress for them, and only about half of the respondents earning $250,000 to $300,000 said they felt like they were “making it.” Even above $300,000, more than 30% said they felt financially strained.
At the heart of the financial challenge is Jewish day school tuition, by far the single largest and most defining expense for most Orthodox families.
“We’re not talking about a situation where you can simply tell people to spend less to live within their means,” Zvi said. “You can always point to someone taking a nicer vacation or making a more expensive wedding. But even if you strip all of that away, you’re still left with a very high baseline.”
