Former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch addressed the Statewide Charter School Board on Jan. 12 in Oklahoma City to present an application to open an online Jewish charter school in Oklahoma. The school, named Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School, is seeking to become the first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in the country.
The school’s application projected enrollment between 335 and 495 students K-12 in its first year as an online school. However, Deutsch wrote in a Sept. 30 email to a Tulsa rabbi that the school is preparing to launch in September 2027 as a high school with an “intentionally modest” enrollment goal of 10 students.
The Statewide Charter School Board could vote Monday on Ben Gamla’s application to open, according to its next meeting agenda. The board initially rejected the school because it would teach the tenets of the Jewish faith along with secular school subjects, but an Oklahoma City federal judge decided last month a charter school can’t be denied solely because it would provide a faith-based education.
The board’s attorney, A.J. Ferate, said, “The Statewide Charter School Board will consider the order of the court and may make their decision based on that order on Monday. I do not know and I cannot speak to what decision the board will make, but I do believe that a decision will be made on that.”
Rabbi Daniel Kaiman, who leads Congregation B’nai Emunah in Tulsa, said he was surprised to receive Deutsch’s message and an invitation to apply to be the school’s founding principal. Kaiman is part of a group of Oklahomans who sued to block the school from opening. In a statement through his legal counsel, Kaiman said the email signals how Deutsch and the proposed school are “completely disconnected from the Oklahoma Jewish community.” “It also shows how little our community wants this,” Kaiman stated. “Perhaps most importantly, it shows that this school is nothing but a Trojan horse for creating religious public schools. We don’t need or want this school. We want strong public schools and to keep church and state separate.”
Rachel Johnson, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City, said she isn’t aware of interest among the local community in enrolling or working for the proposed school. Rabbi Abby Jacobson, of Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma City, said she wasn’t surprised to hear the proposed school is expecting so few students. For years, Oklahoma’s Jewish community has repeatedly said “no thank you” to the idea of a religious charter school in the state.
