A severe staffing crisis gripped American Jewish education in the 1970s as trained educators abandoned their positions for allied professions or emigration to Israel. Drawing from Educators Assembly Executive Board minutes and demographic data, the phenomenon of professional defection among Conservative movement educators revealed a startling pattern: approximately one-third of Assembly members actively pursued aliyah, with most abandoning Jewish education entirely upon reaching Israel. Analysis of institutional practices and educational goal-setting across major Jewish religious movements uncovered a fundamental contradiction driving this exodus. Schools routinely established grandiose, unmeasurable objectives—such as "imbuing children with love of God" and "developing spiritual sensitivity"—that far exceeded their institutional capacity. While schools demonstrated success in teaching discrete, limited skills, they proved unable to reliably program values, appreciation, or commitment. The resulting professional demoralization stemmed directly from impossible goal-setting that guaranteed failure. The findings suggest the need for a revolution in educational thinking: implementing painful priority-setting, focusing curricula on achievable objectives, and fostering honest dialogue with communities about realistic school capabilities. Moreover, American synagogues must recognize and respond to their constituencies' nationalist rather than purely religious motivations, potentially requiring a shift toward ethnically-oriented programming that better aligns with intrinsic community interests in Jewish peoplehood and Israel.