GAJE has reported upon the increasing enrolment this year throughout the day school system in our community. No analysis has been released linking this increase in enrollment to the wide-spread perception that some public schools are inhospitable – sometimes even hostile – environments for Jewish students.
Last week, November 28, Ellin Bessner of The CJN reported upon a disturbing situation in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board concerning one of the Board’s trustees. The situation involved overt anti-Israel as well as anti-Jewish behaviour. Some people took objection and acted to declare such behaviour objectionable and out of bounds and to try to prevent such behaviour from recurring.
The report in The CJN and related public school educational stories can be accessed at:
“Donna Blackburn, a long-serving trustee on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, has been formally censured by her peers and must take antisemitism training. The vote came on Nov. 26, following an official complaint accusing Blackburn of using slurs about Jews being powerful bullies. While the OCDSB stopped short of suspending Blackburn outright, as others in similar situations have been, Jewish leaders are applauding the school board’s somewhat unexpected stand against antisemitism. The OCDSB has long been accused of treating Jewish students and staff differently than other equity-seeking groups. In this latest example, Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, a trustee on the board, lodged a complaint this summer after a dispute over the Capital Pride Parade. She and Blackburn, a long supporter of the parade, clashed when the school board pulled out of the event after organizers openly supported the Palestinian cause, blamed Israel for a “genocide” in Gaza, said Israel was pinkwashing the war, and called for a boycott of sponsors who were Zionists.”
(Bessner recorded local Ottawa Jewish reactions on the November 28 podcast, The CJN Daily, to the anti-Jewish manifestations occurring in the public school system there.)
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The reason GAJE calls attention to this development in the public school system in Ottawa is because it bespeaks an important change in the circumstances of the Jewish community of Ontario – specifically in relation to the education of Jewish children in Ontario – since the era before and including 1996 when the Supreme Court decided the Adler case.
It bears repeating that the Adler decision did not preclude Ontario from funding other denominational schools beside the Catholic schools. Nor did the decision preclude Ontario from funding any independent schools in the province. But the province has steadfastly, resolutely, stubbornly and unfairly refused to even permit the discussion about fairness in educational funding in this province.
Queen’s Park continues to refuse the possibility of funding fairness even in the face of the wide surge, since October 7, 2023, in many public schools of aggressive, abusive, highly intimidating anti-Jewish hatred directed to Jewish students.
This documented open hostility to Jewish students in public schools is a significant, worrisome, door-knocking change in the circumstances of public education from the days of 1996 when the Supreme Court decreed that it was legal for Ontario to fully fund only Catholic schools to the exclusion of all other denominations or other independent schools.
This change in circumstances is deeply alarming. As mentioned above, it stands to reason that parents are withdrawing their children from public schools to find an alternative educational home. But not all Jewish communities have access to local Jewish day schools. For example, there is no Jewish day high school in Ottawa.
We appeal to Queen’s Park to show it cares truly – in the core, citizen-building realm of education – for all the children of the province. We appeal to Queen’s Park to bring fairness for the benefit all Ontario children in the public funding of their respective educations.
In a very real sense, when they champion anti-Israel and anti-Jewish behaviour, some public schools and their school board enablers, betray their sacred duty to the boys and girls of our in their charge and they betray the province itself.
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If you wish to contribute to 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. Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
December 6, 2024
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 