Two years ago, in July 2021, we wrote how “Ontario’s anachronistic, unfair, discriminatory educational funding policies” were attracting the attention of scholars and students at home and abroad. Specifically, we pointed to an essay by Prof. Randal F. Schnoor of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University, entitled Jewish Education in Canada and the United Kingdom. Prof. Schnoor’s essay appeared in anthology No Better Home: Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging, (University of Toronto Press, 2021) edited by Prof. David S. Koffman of York University.
Prof. Schnoor wrote about the funding of Jewish education throughout Canada – historically and currently. He paid particular attention to the day school situation in Greater Toronto, focusing on the crisis of affordability. In gathering the information for his essay, Prof. Schnoor relied upon information provided by GAJE.
Two months ago, Prof. Schnoor and Robert Brym, a professor of sociology and an associate of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, co-edited The Ever-Dying People?:Canada’s Jews in Comparative Perspective, (University of Toronto Press, 2023).The book “compares Canada’s Jews with other Canadian ethnic and religious groups and with Jewish communities in other diaspora countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. It also sheds light on social divisions within Canadian Jewry: across cities, sub-ethnic groups, denominations, genders, economic strata, and political orientations.”
In addition to co-editing the work, Prof. Schnoor has authored one of the book’s essays, The Centrality of Jewish Education in Canada. Typically, he provides a well-researched, well-written, informative discussion about Canadian Jewry’s approach (historically and presently) to what it has always considered to be essential to developing our identity and to ensuring our survival, namely Jewish education.
In his discussion, Prof. Schnoor writes about the “affordablity crisis and response.” Once again, he refers to the work and to the writings of GAJE. We are proud to be part of this important discussion. But we are especially gratified to help enable the discussion among experts and scholars.
“While Jewish day schools and summer camps have a positive effect on Jewish identity, their cost is a barrier to access. Between 2001 and 2011 average household income in Toronto rose 11 per cent. Jewish elementary school tuition rose 61 per cent. The average elementary Jewish day school tuition in Toronto was $16,737 in 2019-20. (Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education [GAJE] n.d.). This is a major financial commitment for non-affluent families, especially when there is more than one child attending school. The Jewish community provides substantial tuition subsidies for low-income families, but middle-class families are financially squeezed. (Brym and Lenton 2020; Kotler-Berkowitz, Ad let, and Kelman 2016). They may want their children to be exposed to Jewish life and culture and to develop a strong Jewish identity through Jewish schooling, but high and rising costs are prohibitive. When added to the onerous cost of home ownership in Toronto, especially in a Jewish neighbourhood, and maintaining a Jewish household and Jewish way of life, the cost of day school tuition is increasingly out of reach for many families.”
GAJE has been involved for more than 8 years in the discussion concerning the crisis in Ontario of the affordability of a Jewish education. We will remain involved, until the discussion can be closed with the knowledge that truly affordable Jewish education has been secured for Ontario families in perpetuity.
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We still await the decision of Judge Papageorgiou on the motion brought by the governments of Ontario and Canada to strike our application. As soon as we know her decision, we will share it with you.
If you wish to support GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.
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Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
June 30, 2023
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 