The Minnesota JCC has partnered with Smith Jewish Academy to offer a transportation program for K-8 students traveling between the JCC’s Capp Center in St. Paul and the Sabes Center in St. Louis Park. The initiative is designed to strengthen students’ access to and connection with Jewish education.
Named for the Hebrew word meaning ‘bridge,’ Gesher Express links St. Paul families to Smith Academy in Minneapolis.
“Reducing barriers that limit kids’ ability to get to school, so transportation and just the logistical time of parents having to drive, you know, distance is a barrier, right? If you live in Mendota Heights or Eagan, and you’re thinking, ‘Wow, that school seems like a great school; I’d love to send my kid there,’ but I don’t have time in my day to drive there and back. So that becomes a barrier.”
Ari Parritz, a St. Paul Jewish Federation board member, helped develop a solution: a dedicated bus running between the two campuses to transport students. He called the initiative a collaborative effort to make Jewish day school education more accessible to families across the Twin Cities.
“If people live too far away from the campus to access the school in a way that’s convenient for them and their families. How can we make that distance a little shorter?” he said. “In this case, you know, there’s a population of kids who we know are either currently at Smith or would like to be at Smith, but the transportation getting to and from is a challenge for them.”
He said the bus will ease transportation challenges for families unable to drive their children from St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs in the East Metro across the river to the Barry Family Campus.
“For years, the school and the JCC and Talmud Torah and other community partners have been working to figure out the most efficient way to make that barrier less of a barrier, and having the bus run between the two JCC campuses emerged as the best idea,” he said. “So it’s just anything that we can do to make it easier to get kids to school what we’re about, and that’s definitely what this bus is doing,” said Parritz.
Supported by Talmud Torah of St. Paul, the St. Paul Jewish Federation, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation and Smith Jewish Academy, the partnership highlights the Minnesota JCC’s role as a central hub connecting Jewish institutions, families and community resources.
“Getting more kids to school in a way that’s convenient for them and their families is a universally good thing to do. Part of our mission is supporting lifelong Jewish learning, specifically in day school settings. And so anything that we could do to make it easier for kids to get to day school and a very simple, straightforward thing for us to support,” said Parritz.
The J’s Gesher Express is about more than transportation. The program is designed to bridge the Twin Cities by connecting JCCs, easing logistical barriers for families, and expanding access to Jewish education for students across the region. Parrtiz calls the initiative an all-around win.
Registration is open for the remainder of the 2025–26 school year, with service having started Jan. 26, 2026. Participating families pay $3 per ride, and students may also qualify for a discounted rate for Club J, the JCC’s after-school program at the Capp Center in St. Paul.