GAJE is pleased to announce that along with ten individuals, GAJE is the lead applicant in an action that seeks a declaration from the court that the educational funding scheme in Ontario that is discriminatory and that the failure by the governments of Ontario and Canada to fully fund Jewish day schools in Ontario breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Our lawsuit was filed this week.

As readers know, GAJE has long maintained that circumstances have changed considerably and the law has evolved since the decision more than a quarter century ago by the Supreme Court of Canada that enabled Ontario to maintain its discriminatory educational funding policies. The time has arrived to attempt to remedy the fundamental unfairness of school funding in Ontario.
If our lawsuit is successful, it will relieve in large part, the financial hardship that so many Jewish parents now endure to pay day school tuition fees. Truly affordable Jewish education will help secure the future of our community.

Our legal team is excellent. Our hopes are high. Our resolve even higher. We owe this effort to our children and our grandchildren. We owe it also to our parents and grandparents whom we knew and loved or, alas, whom we may never have known except through faded photographs. Our forebears too had their hopes.  We have not – nor will we ever – lose hope.

Through the weekly GAJE updates, we will keep you up to date with progress in the case.

If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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),

February 11, 2022

We have already moved past the story of the Exodus from Egypt in the reading of the weekly Torah portions. Of course, daily Jewish life is such that we never move past that story. Indeed, it is the defining centre of our identity as a people. We recall it each day, every day, in our prayers. Each year we set aside a special holiday to commemorate that truly revolutionary story and to try to imagine ourselves there some 3,500 years ago at the fearful, awesome departure from Egypt to the equally fearful, awesome encampment around Mt. Sinai.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Stacks observed about Judaism that our key “stories are not engraved in stone on memorials, magnificent though that is. They are told at home, around the table, from parents to children as the gift of the past to the future. That is how storytelling in Judaism was devolved, domesticated, and democratised.”

Rabbi Sacks pointed to the story of the Exodus, especially as told on Pesach at the Seder table, as “the collective story that tells us where we came from and what our task is in the world. ” That task, he makes clear over and over again in his magnificent body of writing, is to build a society and a world that are moral. Thus, in his usual, precise manner, Rabbi Sacks has provided a thumbnail single sentence summary of the purpose of Jewish life and the purpose of Jewish education.

Rabbi Marc D. Angel makes the same point as Rabbi Sacks when he writes – as we have shared before in this space – “Our continuity as a people is inextricably linked to our historical memory. We bring the past into the present; we project the present into the future. This is one of the great responsibilities of Jewish parents and grandparents—to imbue the younger generations with a sense of belonging to, and participating in, the history of our people.”

And he shares Rabbi Sacks’ conclusion about the reason we participate in the history of our people, namely, to build a society and a world that are moral.

But our uniquely Jewish stories cannot be retold around the table at home, nor can the past be brought into the present without meaningful Jewish education that is affordable to all the parents who seek such education for their children. Helping to make such education affordable is GAJE’s purpose.

We must do our utmost to achieve that goal. However, we will never be able to say to our children and to our grandchildren that we did, in fact, our utmost unless we attempt to compel the government to change the unconscionable education funding policy that favours one religion to the exclusion of all others.

GAJE is planning to go to court to try to do that very thing. If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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),

February 4, 2022

Sholom Eisenstat, co-founder of ADRABA, the Jewish school for online, high school accredited courses, sent GAJE the following text last week dealing with the irreplaceable importance of Jewish education for the youngsters we hope to raise into fine, Jewishly-knowledgeable, caring, involved, confident Jewish individuals.

We reproduce Eisenstat’s text. It makes a very important point.

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“Consider the following thought experiment. Imagine if we had decided 150 years ago that a Grade 8 math and science education was “enough” for Canadians. Would we have insulin, pacemakers or handhelds today?

“Now imagine a Jewish community where, for 75% of our teens, a Grade 8 Jewish education is deemed “enough.” What would that community look like? You don’t have to imagine. We are living it right now.

“And yet, our community is anything but teetering on the brink. We are well educated. We are well established. We are the most prosperous Jewish community in the history of Canada. And yet, by other metrics, our community is hollowing out. I could call upon dozens of Jews in my contacts to help me navigate a legal issue or get sage medical advice. I don’t know if I could find as many to explain the difference between kiddush, kaddish and kadosh or why we have a Second Adar in the Jewish calendar.

“These concepts and questions are not necessary for success in Canada. They are building blocks in understanding key concepts and trends in Jewish history and culture. Knowing our history and traditions and literature are key to our success. Those building blocks enable us to live through both good and bad times.

“Our survival as a viable community is dependent on quality, engaging Jewish education. Better awareness of our history, literature and tradition leads to better community leaders. It’s fundamental to building Jewish community, locally and globally.”

Of course, Eisenstat sent the text to bring ADRABA,’s mission and work to our attention. It is part of GAJE’s message to our community that Jewish education – in all its forms – is vital.  Thus, we are happy to share Eisenstat’s missive with our readers.

Eisenstat added, “in its small way, ADRABA is working to create opportunities for Jewish teens across the province to acquire those building blocks – and more. Our online courses, for high school credit, are modelled on the Ontario high school curriculum and enhanced with quality Jewish content, interactive media, and challenging ideas. We add Jewish content infused with the best technological learning tools to deliver engaging and informative, live, interactive lessons and assignments. And we deliver it to teens from Cambridge to Kingston, and from Spadina Avenue to Sudbury.”

To learn more about ADRABA, visit their website https://www.adraba.ca

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GAJE is planning to go to court to try to bring an end to Ontario’s unfair, discriminatory, educational funding. We await the green light from our team of lawyers.

If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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),

January 28, 2022

The full frigid freeze of winter in the GTA fell upon us this past week. Our children have returned to in-school learning. May it be thus everlastingly. And may the day soon dawn in Ontario when independent schools- including Jewish day schools – will also receive funding for the 150,000 young Ontarians learning there from the public treasury.

In the year 2022, it strains understanding and belies Queen’s Park’s professed loyalty to the values underpinning our society that Ontario still refuses to do so, that Ontario even differentiates, during a public health crisis, between public and independent schools in protecting the health of students. The next five largest provinces have found the fiscal ability, grounded of course, out of a sense of fairness, to set aside such unconscionable differentiation. In addition, they understand that pluralistic, inclusive educational funding actually improves educational outcomes and is probably more economically efficient in the long run.

Ontario funds the schooling of only one religious denomination.

Ontario differentiates in the health support services it pays for children with learning disabilities depending upon whether those children attend publicly funded or independent schools.

Ontario needed to be prodded and shamed to distribute rapid Covid testing kits to independent schools.

Five months ago, in August, three independent schools – Toronto Cheder, Metropolitan Preparatory Academy in Toronto, and Woodland Christian High School in Kitchener – went to court to try to compel the Government of Ontario to distribute some portion, at least, to independent schools, of the $763 million Safe Return to Class Fund given by Ottawa to Queen’s Park for anti-Covid health and safety protections. It was hoped that a decision could have been made in the case in time for the September return to school. Alas, none has yet been rendered.

We stand at a possible turning point in Ontario’s educational road. Ontario refuses to do the right thing for the benefit of all of its people. We have failed to move the conscience of the government. But we must act nevertheless. We must try to persuade the courts to compel the government to do the right thing.

Our sages have always taught that we must not be bystanders in the face of injustice and unfairness. Rather, we must take a stand. As Rabbi Marc D. Angel has written of such situations,  “we must accept personal responsibility and not assume that others will solve the problem for us.”

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And so we do. As readers of this weekly update also know, GAJE will be going to court to try to bring an end to Ontario’s discriminatory, unfair, educational funding. We are simply now awaiting the green light from our team of lawyers.

If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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),

January 21, 2022

Prizmah, is a New-York based organization that supports North American Jewish day schools with all manner of services and resources to “help them grow their reach and impact and tackle the challenges on their paths to success.”Last week, on its website, the organization published an article by Dan Held, Chief Program Officer at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, that shares with readers the essence of the Federation’s efforts these past five years to help bring Jewish day school education within the financial reach of middle-income families.

Held introduced the mini-review of Federation’s initiatives by restating the first empirical principle concerning the connective tissue between thriving schools and thriving communities.  “Recognizing the profound impact that day schools have on the vibrancy and vitality of a Jewish community, we aim towards creating a day school system that is affordable and sustainable and offers an excellent education. Our work in building endowments—both a communal fund and individual school endowments—is a piece within our larger efforts to establish a culture of giving to day schools across the community.”

Held provided a brief summary of the four-component initiative by the Federation aimed at reinvigorating enrolment at our Jewish day schools. He concluded the short article by articulating some of the lessons that lay and professional communal leaders learned through the five-year education boost experience.

Held’s article is worthy reading.

Despite the harsh, compounding effect of the many difficulties of the past few years, enrolment in Jewish day schools has increased. He explains how that has been achieved and how the labour of the perpetuation of that achievement will go forward and continue. 

The full article is available at:

https://prizmah.org/blog/communitys-role-fostering-day-school-endowments

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On Wednesday of this week, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health participated in a press conference with the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce to announce the intended, imminent return to in-school learning in Ontario on Monday January 17.

Dr. Moore provided a concise description of how he views his mission as it relates to ensuring the health and safety of children attending school during the pandemic.

“In-person learning is critical to the mental health and well-being of our children and youth,” said Dr. Moore. “In light of the unique challenges posed by the Omicron variant, my team and I will continue to work with the education sector to review all of our guidelines and all environmental, health, cleaning, and ventilation standards to ensure our schools remain as safe as possible for all.”

Dr. Moore did not differentiate between the health risks faced by children in public and the very same risks faced by children in independent schools. Nor would he. For his first priority is to preserve life – all life – against the encroachments of the Covid virus. In fact, he emphasized this very point with clear, precise meaning by categorically stating his goal is “to ensure our schools remain as safe as possible for all.”

As of this writing, the day after the joint press statement, it is unknown whether Minister Lecce shares Dr. Moore’s view that the government’s highest priority in these horrible Covid circumstances, is “to ensure our schools remain as safe as possible for all.” Will he – the government – make available to children in independent schools the same protections he has promised to children in public schools?

As readers of this weekly update know, GAJE has decided to try to end the discrimination in the province’s educational funding by resort to the courts. If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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),

January 14, 2022

The new year brings news that more parents have decided to mobilize to try to end the provincial government’s discrimination in its educational funding policies against independent schools.

GAJE was advised that a new group called Parents of Ontario Independent School Students (POISS) has been recently formed “to access government funds for our schools”.

The founders of POISS have organized at this time as part of the run-up to the upcoming June provincial election. “Now is an ideal time”, the POISS organizers wrote, to let the Legislature’s incumbents and the many candidates for election know that the continuation of Ontario’s funding discrimination is unacceptable.

POISS advises that it “has networked with organizations representing about 1,500 independent Ontario schools. Its goal is to unite all parents and members of independent schools in Ontario.” POISS is asking interested individuals to correspond with the Premier and with Education Minister Stephen Lecce to convey our displeasure with the current state of educational funding. POISS urges the premier and the minister to “rectify existing inequities” in the government’s funding policies. A proposed letter to the premier and the minister appears on the POISS website. POISS also encourages interested individuals to get involved in its campaign and to share the organization’s message widely with family and friends.

The Vaad Harabonim of Toronto has endorsed POISS and has published a letter to that effect.

For more information about POISS please visit their website:

https://parentsofontario independentschoolstudents.ca.

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GAJE endorses POISS’ objective. But as readers of this weekly update know, GAJE has decided to try to end the discrimination in the province’s educational funding by resort to the courts.

If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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.

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

January 7, 2022

Despite the unceasing medical, economic, emotional, psychological and physical stresses of the past 21 months, the institutions of our society remain intact. The democratic underpinnings of our way of life are strong and unyielding. That is not the case, as we sadly know, in other jurisdictions.

Within the larger society, our Jewish community has been exemplary. Responding to crisis with compassion and a plan, the community’s intervention has been based upon the reasoned hierarchy of urgent needs. The community – “ordinary” members, lay and professional leadership – has attempted to give real-time, contemporary meaning to the catchword “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh.” (We are guarantors and responsible one for the other.)

Hardships and suffering in certain pockets persist. How could they not? But caring for each other is no mere slogan in Jewish GTA. It is, rather, a guiding value. For example, it was during the early stages of the pandemic, that the community launched the Generations Trust Scholarship Fund to help middle class families afford day school tuition.

Three years ago, Adam Minsky, president and CEO of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, referred to Jewish education as “the backbone of our community”. He said at the time that UJA Federation would devise a plan to place the affordability of Jewish education “at the forefront of [the community’s] efforts.” The Generations Trust Scholarship Fund is an imperfect instrument. But its creation is evidence that the community has been true to its word.

There is more to do.  And we must all try – in our own way- to do our part.

Last year, in the final GAJE update of 2020, we wrote: “There is still time to move the provincial government to act fairly in distributing federally funded Covid relief funds for the benefit of all of Ontario’s school children. Next month Ontario will disburse the second tranche of some $400 million from the federal government designed to help make our schools Covid safe. Independent schools received none of the monies from the first federal allocation even though the funding Ontario received was based upon a formula that included all school-aged children.”

As we all know, Ontario distributed not even one penny to independent schools of the $760 million from the federally funded school Covid safety funds.  We do acknowledge and thank the province for making rapid testing kits available to independent schools. But isn’t that the right thing to have done all along?

There is no denying however, that Ontario continues to discriminate against secular and denominational independent schools in relation to educational funding. GAJE believes that the best way, at this stage, to end that discrimination is by appealing to the courts.

There is so much in our heritage, our wisdom literature, our history, our customs and in our traditions from which to find inspiration. Indeed, we also find inspiration in the many kindnesses that people do for each other and have been doing for each other during these nearly two years of confined, confounding pandemic.

Helping to make Jewish education affordable to our many Jewish families is not a matter of kindness. In Ontario, alas, it is a matter of fundamental justice.

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If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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. And best wishes for a healthy, Covid-free new year.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

December 31, 2021

The “other” calendar year is now winding down. Two Fridays remain in 2021. Once again, we must find our resolve to “lift” ourselves to ward off – as much as we are able – the harm from the ever evolving, oppressive pandemic. Who would have thought that we now begin a third year under Covid’s shadow? Let us not lose our way, our strength, or our goodness to do what must be done to protect as many people as our hearts can reach.

In seeking that strength and resolve, there is no better source for the energy we need to sustain us on an ongoing basis than in the first principles of Jewish education whose essential task is the transmission – across all time – of the “manual” of a meaningful Jewish life that of course includes caring for the betterment of all humankind.

The clear-eyed, thoughtful insights of Rabbi Marc D. Angel, the founder of the New York-based Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals can help us. Some of the nuggets from his commentary on the two preceding Torah portions, can serve as guideposts to help us navigate through our many modern distresses, and to help us find the strength that comes from knowing who we are.

• Jewish identity and values are not transmitted automatically.
• Each individual must assume personal responsibility for the flourishing of Jewish life. Our homes should reflect our Jewish ideas and ideals, our traditions and our values.
• We need the wisdom and commitment to create vibrant Jewish lives for ourselves, our families and for our entire community.
• Setting up schools and study halls, creating an environment for religious learning and exploring, transmitting the essential ingredients for a happy and identified Jewish life, have been hallmarks of the Jewish people since earliest time.
• We need to understand without any equivocation that Jewishness lives and is transmitted by means of memory, by feeling a living connection with our past. The study of history should lead us to expand our memories and our identification with our people’s past; it should help us to feel that we are part of the long chain of Jewish tradition.
• We bring the past into the present; we project the present into the future. This is one of the great responsibilities of Jewish parents and grandparents—to imbue the younger generations with a sense of belonging to, and participating in, the history of our people.
• To build a Jewish future is an ongoing challenge and responsibility. It is also an ineffable privilege, a source of infinite delight and a source of our deepest fulfillment as Jews.

The memories, traditions, values and the embrace of Judaism start in and emanate from the home. But community schools are where they are reinforced and come alive. Readers of this weekly update know, helping make those schools become more truly affordable to the majority of our young families is the task that GAJE has taken upon itself.

But as moral suasion has failed to move the Government of Ontario to end the discrimination in education funding in Ontario, we will seek a remedy from the courts. To that end, we hope to be able to announce early in the new year, the launch of the lawsuit seeking to compel the government to provide funding for independent Ontario schools as well.  

If you wish to help underwrite this lawsuit, 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.

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

December 24, 2021

Last week Ontario agreed to make Rapid Covid Antigen Testing Kits available to families of independent schools. In light of the rising tide of the Omicron variant, it could hardly have done otherwise. Protecting children’s lives should be high on the provincial government’s priorities irrespective of the schools the children attend.

The government’s ultimately correct decision regarding the rapid testing kits reinforces the remarkable, puzzling indifference of its resolute refusal to distribute any of the $763 million (Safe Return to Class Fund) from the federal government specifically earmarked for helping Ontario schools better cope with the Covid health crisis. Indeed, Ontario’s testing kits decision is a tacit acknowledgement that its unyielding recalcitrance regarding the (Safe Return to Class Fund) was wrong, especially in light of the fact that the federal government arrived at the sum of $763 million by counting all Ontario children ages 4-18 in Ontario schools. Ottawa’s calculation included the 150,000 children in independent schools. The logic directing Queen’s Park to share rapid testing kits should also have compelled it to distribute a pro-rated, fair portion of the Safe Return to Class Fund to the independent schools.

But, as we know, when it comes to the funding of schools, the Government of Ontario’s refusal to direct public funds to independent school is entrenched in reflexive, unthinking policy that many experts, educators, parents and observers view as anachronistic and simply wrong.

As the Cardus think tank pointed out, however, in new, landmark research entitled Funding All Students released three months ago in September of this year, “Ontario’s lack of equitable funding—entirely excluding the independent-school sector from public funds—is out of step with global and even Canadian norms. At least partially funding students in independent schools is the basic standard in democracies and advanced economies, as well as in Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.”

The research disclosed that in Canada outside Ontario, 75 percent of independent schools and 84 percent of independent school students are partially publicly funded. More to the point, Cardus points out, that the cost of finally making Ontario’s public education system truly inclusive, diverse and equitable would cost, at most, less than 1% of the current provincial budget.

“Partial funding of students at independent schools in Ontario could cost as little as $535 million, with independent schools receiving 50 percent of the per-student operating funding rate that public schools get. That would be the equivalent of 0.3 percent of the Government of Ontario’s $186 billion annual budget. Even offering full operational funding to Ontario independent schools would cost less than one percent of the annual budget at an estimated $1.5 billion.”

As Cardus persuasively asserts, the government’s financial ability to do the right thing is not really at issue. Rather, its political will is the stumbling block.

In the absence of such political will at Queen’s Park, families of children in independent schools must appeal to the courts to compel the government to do the right thing.  GAJE is planning precisely this. To help underwrite the lawsuit that GAJE is preparing, 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),

December 17, 2021

Heavy-handed, oppressive, cynical and self-serving behaviour by governments around the world have created, over the years, a healthy scepticism for the notion that human rights universally carry meaning and weight and a measure of importance countries and societies other than as high-minded ideals embossed on thick paper resting on a pedestal or lining a waste basket.

And more is the shame. For respect for human rights is the bedrock of a society that rests upon the belief in the sanctity of human life. Where such respect is absent, governments (rulers) tend to rule arbitrarily with the clenched iron fist for the benefit of the few rather than with the outstretched hand of the rule of law for the benefit of the many.

Equally is the shame that, since the proclamation and adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 73 years ago this day, the Declaration has itself been ignored, disregarded, and even scorned by individuals and governments alike. For the ideals and the principles it enshrines flow from the deepest fountains of the human heart. We ought never disregard them nor ever cease to reach for them.

The Declaration was intended to affirm the complete, utter rejection by the civilized world of the Nazis and Axis ideology of racism toward and disdain for the lives of others. The Declaration – recognizing “the inherent dignity in all human beings” – marked a high point in humanity’s advance. December 10, 1948 is indeed a date worthy of celebration.

Thankfully, ours is a society, where respect for human rights is enshrined into our laws and into our way of life. Sadly, however, there are occasional breaches in the application of our wide societal respect for human rights. Ontario’s failure to provide equal treatment for all Ontarians in the funding of religious education in its public school system is one such breach – an egregious one – that we hope to remedy. Moral suasion, private lobbying, public advocacy and plain parental pleading have failed over the past quarter century and more to convince Ontario to end repair the breach. The courts now are our only option to compel Queen’s Park to do the right thing. To help underwrite the lawsuit that GAJE is preparing, 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.

•••

Finally, we imagine in light of the rising pandemic numbers among schoolchildren, Queen’s Park this week made Rapid Covid Antigen Testing Kits available to the families in independent schools. All independent schools in Ontario received a communication from the Ministry of Education at the end of the school day on December 6 stating that if they wished to receive the rapid voluntary testing kits for use over the Christmas holidays, they were required to complete the requisite form by 3:00 pm the next day, December 7.

There was a grudging sense of obligation to the government’s decision. But at least it did the right thing. 

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Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

December 10, 2021