What It costs to be Jewish

MICHAEL BELLING

Taking the example of a Jewish family – husband, wife and two children, a boy of 16 in grade 10 and a girl of 13 in her final year of primary school in grade 7 – the expenses can be considerable.

Jewish day school fees take a substantial chunk out of any family’s budget. These fees come to a combined total of almost R15 000 a month for the two children – around R8 330 a month for the boy and R6 645 for the girl. The total cost over the year comes to almost R180 000.

The costs of non-Jewish private schools are similar, if not higher than those of Jewish day schools.

Public schools, such as King Edward and Parktown are, of course, much cheaper, but still not insignificant, at around R5 500 a month for the two children (around R62 000 a year). But it is not easy to get white Jewish children into these schools, as some parents who have tried unsuccessfully to send their children to a public school, have discovered.

Another unavoidable area of additional costs for observant Jews is kosher food. Kosher chicken costs R64,99 a kilogram, compared to R39,99 a kilogram for non-kosher birds. An average kosher chicken (say 1,6 kilograms) will cost R104, while a similar non-kosher chicken will sell for R64. Ignoring any further additional costs of other kosher food that might be purchased for a meal, the difference of R40 a day over a year amounts to R14 600.

This figure rises sharply if we use lamb chops as an example. Kosher chops are R184,99 a kilogram, compared to R99,99 for the non-kosher version. This would provide around 10 – 12 chops, probably enough for one meal for the family. The annual difference on this basis would be around R30 000.

Another substantial amount is spent on the Jewish festivals, particularly Pesach. Buying kosher food for Pesach and conducting two Pesach seders at a conservative estimate will come to well over R10 000. Having large dinners on other festivals will increase this over the year.

We all belong to shuls, a further cost of being Jewish. Annual membership and seat charges vary from around R550 a month (R6 600 a year) to almost R700 a month (R8 280 a year). This will be higher if seats are purchased for the children as well.

Then there are the costs of various Jewish rites of passage – from a bris to a barmitzvah or batmitzvah to a wedding and a funeral.

To begin with the last, a Jewish funeral costs in the region of R20 000, which compares well with the costs of a non-Jewish funeral, so there is little additional outlay involved in being Jewish. There is one significant difference in the case of a Jewish funeral – if the family cannot afford to pay, the full burial is done without question and any amount the family cannot afford will be covered by the Chevrah Kadisha.

Barmitzvah and wedding costs are not standardised. A modest bar-/batmitzvah, limited to a small meal and close friends and family, is likely to come to around R50 000. An “average” bar-/batmitzvah of a Jewish day school pupil will probably cost some R200 000 while an ostentatious function can cost in the millions.

The same applies to wedding costs; while they probably start at around R100 000- the sky is the limit. The sums paid for a bris and the accompany function also vary hugely from family to family.

For the average Jewish parent, knowing all these costs brings a nice Jewish song to mind – “If I were a rich man…”