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Ḥeshbon · חשבון · an accounting

What does a Jewish life cost?

What a Jewish life costs, one bill at a time: tuition, rent, groceries, camp, salaries, keeping a building open. Every number shows where it came from.

Read the newest season See the tools

A dark world map with amber dots for Jewish communities and pale routes arcing between them, the year 2026 in the corner New section 4,254every place Jews have lived, over three thousand years

The Atlas: where Jews lived, who taught whom, where they pray

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

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

 Isometric night city where every Jewish organization is a building, lit if it files a public return Giving 20,370Jewish organizations registered with the IRS, drawn as one city

The City of Jewish Giving

Three to start with. All 69 pieces

Your Town in the City of Giving

What does Jewish giving build where you live?

Every Jewish organization in America, twenty thousand of them, drawn as buildings in one city. Enter a ZIP code and the map narrows to the few miles around you. It lights the places you are likely to use and draws eleven years of federation grants between them.

Isometric night town with gold lines running from the federation to each building that receives its grants
  • The city 20,370 Jewish organizations on the IRS rolls, one to a building
  • Communities 380 American places with three or more synagogues
  • The middle one 11 The median The average organizations in the middle community, where the average is 44
  • On the books 2 of 11 Standing Filing of those eleven that file anything public
  • Brooklyn 4,769 in one place, close to a quarter of the country
  • The grant book 2,335 tax returns read, from 265 federations and foundations, 2014 to 2024

Show me my town

Where are you?

I’m a student thinking about yeshiva, seminary or college 10 pieces We’re newly married and planning ahead 16 pieces We’re a family looking for a more affordable community 16 pieces We’re weighing a move to Israel 19 pieces I sit on a school board, or fund one 14 pieces We’re deciding where to give 16 pieces Just show me everything 69 pieces

The Aliyah Ledger

What moving to Israel costs

Moving to Israel changes every line of the household budget at once: rent, groceries, health care, salary, taxes, school, a car, the 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 of groceries for six, against $299.73 in Teaneck
  • Health care $5,549 Israel America a year of health 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

Read the essays

Cutaway illustration of a house at sunset with the Shabbat table, the bedrooms and the family on the front path Season 2 · The Household Ledger Ten essays on what a household pays Each essay prices one bill a Jewish household pays: the Shabbos table, the kosher aisle, another bed, the walk to shul, the guard at the door, and the salary that has to cover all of it. The table: a year of hostingWhat is on it: the kosher premiumOne more bed: the marginal childThe walk: the price of the eruvThe block: what safety really costsThe desk: what the metro pays Open the Household Ledger
Season 3 · The Giving Ledger Your own town, then ten stories Jews give a lot to charity, and once the money reaches an organization almost nobody follows it. This season starts with your own town, then follows the money through the tax filings, from the funds that hold it to the buildings that spend it. Your town: the doors lit for youYour federation: its own returns, year by yearThe city: 20,370 buildings, one in five litWho gives: 1.16% against 4.34%Fifty foundations: two dollars in three leaveThe last mile: $87 of every $100 Open the Giving Ledger A slot machine whose reels carry the logos of Jewish federations, foundations, schools and camps, with a payout line across the middle
Color-coded floor plans of a Jewish day school, classrooms in red and offices in blue, across two floors Season 1 · The Day School Ledger Eleven stories on how a school is paid for A Jewish day school teaches two curricula in one day, so it costs more to run than any other kind of school. Tuition does not cover it. This walks the building room by room, and each room carries the number from the schools’ own tax filings. Reception: 74 cents of every tuition dollarThe CFO: two years in three in the redTwo classrooms: who pays for the secondDevelopment: five schools, 39% of the endowmentAdmissions: the aid does not followThe head's office: what sets the pay Open the Day School Ledger

Tools you can use

Isometric night town with gold lines running from the federation to each building that receives its grants Your Town in the City of Giving Enter a ZIP code and see the Jewish organizations near you. Open US map with a circle on every Jewish federation, sized by what it raises The Federation Finder Every federation on a map, with its own tax returns. Open Isometric night city where every Jewish organization is a building, lit if it files a public return The City of Jewish Giving Twenty thousand organizations drawn as buildings, lit by what they file. Open Map of the United States with a circle for every college in the database, sized by how well it matches the reader’s answers Campus Bracket Answer eight questions and 246 colleges narrow to four. Open Seventeen Israeli institutions ranked by what a year would cost, with the ones American aid cannot reach marked Israel Bracket Seventeen Israeli schools, priced one against another. Open Ranked cards for university cities scored on rent, the size of the observant community, kosher food and the strength of the program Best Graduate School Cities Forty-eight university cities, ranked the way you weight them. Open Map of Orthodox communities, each marker colored by what a household pays to live there The Affordability Map Every community on a map, 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 Put four communities side by side across fourteen measures. Open Scorecard ranking communities against eight weighted factors The Affordability Scorecard Move eight sliders and the ranking changes. Open Pixel art of a family of eight standing beside their car on a trail, with a school building ahead and mountains behind The Frum Family Trail Eleven choices over thirty-five years, with your net worth running beside them. Open Map of the United States with a dot at each Jewish overnight camp, larger and darker where a day of camp costs more The Camp Cost Map A hundred and six camps, each sized by what a day costs. 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 Run a school for twenty-nine decisions and see the bill. Open The report card interface: grade distribution bar, weighting sliders and a ranked table of schools School Financial Health Report Card Eighty-six schools scored on six measures, and you set the weights. Open

Everything, by season

Every number here links back to where it came from: a tax filing, a survey, a price someone checked, or an assumption written out so you can argue with it. Sources · FAQ · About