The Smarter Way to Pay

by Samantha Taylor

Student-loan debt looms like a dark cloud over a promising young career, and sky-high interest rates can put the brakes on any journey toward the American Dream. The interest rate on private student loans can be as high as 13.99 percent, costing the student tens of thousands of extra dollars in interest payments. Fortunately, for young men and women in the Jewish community, there’s a better way to pay for college.

The Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) provides qualifying Jewish students interest-free loans, and they’ve been doing it since the 1960s. JELF actually started in 1889 as a home for Jewish orphans. Over the years, the organization transitioned from an orphanage to a foster care agency, and then, in 1961, to a resource for Jewish students. In fact, some of the same money that was in use during the early orphanage years is still at work helping students today.

Tamir Galili, who recently graduated from the University of Tampa, is a JELF success story. After choosing the University of Tampa, and even with some scholarships, Tamir was still paying $15,000 per year, which was more than he could afford. After researching other scholarship and loan opportunities, he came up empty-handed. That’s when Tamir learned about JELF.

“I turned to Rabbi Yosef Konikov,” says Tamir. “He told me about JELF and their zero-percent-interest loans. It was a lot better than any other loan I was looking into, and it’s just for Jewish students. Everyone at JELF was so nice and helpful.”

Tamir, who graduated from Dr. Phillips High School, is just one of more than 4,500 students who have been helped in this way by JELF since its inception. In order to qualify for a JELF loan, students must live in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, or Virginia (excluding metro D.C.). 

The financial assistance can be used for all kinds of educational expenses, from undergraduate to graduate degrees, vocational school, or rabbinical school. The degree program must be located in the U.S., accredited, and students must be full-time. Once an applicant has met with a local JELF administrator, and the file is made anonymous, a loan review committee reviews each student’s need and decides how much assistance they are able to offer the student. The money goes directly to the student, not the school, so that it can be used for whatever the student’s needs are – rent, utilities, books, tuition, transportation, etc.

Once students have graduated, they begin paying back the loans after six months and are asked to pay the loan back within eight years. Even better, that payment plan is staggered to match a graduate’s growing income – during the first two years, graduates pay five percent back. As they grow in their careers, the amount they repay gradually increases. However, JELF recognizes that nothing is set in stone. If medical issues arise or the career path doesn’t go as planned, JELF works with students to adjust the payment schedule, as necessary.

“We are a nonprofit organization, not a bank,” says David Cohen, JELF’s marketing director. “Our whole mission is to help the students meet their educational goals and be successful. That’s what we are about. Obviously, we love to see everyone repay on time, but of course we understand that situations arise, as well. We call our graduates JELFies, and the saying around here is ‘Once a JELFie, always a JELFie.’”

JELF hopes that JELFies eventually become part of the organization by volunteering, mentoring, and/or becoming a donor so that they can help the next student.

That’s exactly what Tamir plans to do.

“If JELF hadn’t stepped in, I wouldn’t have been able to go to the school I wanted,” he says. “I wanted to excel in chemistry, and this school had the research projects my peers were working on. Once I make some more money and work towards paying the loans, I’m 100 percent giving back to JELF. It got me through college, and I think every Jewish student should have that opportunity.”