Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Perelman Day School Wins Fight With Union

The National Labor Relations Board dismissed charges against a Philadelphia Jewish day school that stopped recognizing its teachers union.

In an Aug. 22 letter to the attorney for the American Federation of Teachers in Pennsylvania, the NLRB’s regional director said his board has “lack of jurisdiction over” the case involving the Perelman Jewish Day School, the Jewish Exponent reported.

The AFT filed charges with the NLRB this spring after the Conservative day school’s board told teachers it would no longer negotiate with the union, which has represented teachers since 1976. The school leadership has defended its decision by arguing that as a religious institution, it is exempt from NLRB jurisdiction.

The AFT said it plans to appeal the decision; it has until Sept. 5 to file the appeal.

“It’s still immoral and unethical for a Jewish school to do this – it’s just wrong,” Ted Kirsch, the president of AFT Pennsylvania, told the Exponent.

Only a handful of Jewish day schools in North America have teachers unions. A number have been eliminated in recent years through board decisions or school closings.

A private school affiliated with the Solomon Schechter Day School Network, Perelman serves more than 300 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.