It is likely that every Jewish community on earth, directly or indirectly, was the beneficiary of the vast goodness of the late Julia Koschitzky’s heart, of her irrepressible will and of her unequaled ability to help others. Such was her extensive involvement throughout her adult life in numerous local, national and international networks of charities, NGOs, and similar benevolent organizations, all of whose key purpose is to make life better for others.

As most people know, Julia passed away this week. The rippling, positive impact of her life will one day be chronicled. As of this writing, tributes continue to appear in a wide array of publications. The CJN published an excellent obituary, in which the breathtaking array of her communal and organizational commitments is discussed. (https://thecjn.ca/news/obituary-julia-koschitzky-was-a-generous-philanthropist-and-dedicated-leader-for-jewish-communal-causes/)

At Julia’s funeral, her daughter Sarena, told the world that hakarat hatov, (acknowledging the good that someone else does for you), was one of her mother’s high cherished values. And thus, GAJE dedicates this update to Julia in keeping with the importance of observing hakarat hatov, to acknowledge the truly immeasurable good that Julia Koschitzky did for us all.

GAJE’s debt to Julia is especially large. The unwavering focus of our activities is for the future of Jewish education. And of course, as Julia herself made plain on many occasions, it was a key focus for her as well. In many respects we are following the trail she blazed.

The CJN reported that throughout her storied career in public Jewish life, “her main passion was Jewish education.” She and her husband Henry, “in 2013, established UJA Federation’s Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education, which provides tuition assistance and a variety of programs for children and young adults.”

As further noted in The CJN, “at York University, where Julia was a trustee, she and her husband established the Koschitzky Family Chair in Jewish Teacher Education. With Henry’s brother, Saul and sister-in-law, Mira, the couple established the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, Canada’s first interdisciplinary research centre in the subject.”

The heads of the UJA-affiliated day schools and Dan Held, Chief Programs Officer, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto published a joint statement of condolences to Julia’s family in which they also movingly expressed their thanks to her for her “remarkable work to strengthen Jewish education and the indelible impact this has had on our community.”

The following is the centerpiece of the statement.

“The Greater Toronto Jewish community is one of the strongest and most exceptional in the Jewish Diaspora, thanks in no small measure to our dynamic, diverse, and accessible day school system. Through her tireless leadership, Julia has played an unparalleled role in strengthening this fundamental building block of our community. Her extraordinary work, including through UJA’s Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education, has empowered countless families to benefit from a Jewish education and enabled our cherished Jewish day schools to thrive. This has created positive ripple effects throughout our entire community, forging the next generation of Jewish leaders making a difference for the Jewish people in myriad ways. The future of our community depends to a great extent on the Jewish knowledge and pride we foster among our youth today. In this regard, few have shaped our shared future like Julia Koschitzky – and the school communities we represent owe so much of our success to her unmatched leadership. We would not be who we are, were it not for Julia. We will greatly miss her and take comfort in knowing that her impact will endure for generations – both within our schools and well beyond.”

Not surprisingly, Julia’s career in public Jewish life began in Jewish education as President of the Parents’ Association of the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto. That role was the springboard for her subsequent, varied, remarkably self-sacrificing activities and philanthropy on behalf of Jewish education, and on behalf of every manner of urgent, pressing causes in the wide Jewish world and beyond.

From ancient times until today, kohanim have chanted and continue to chant a very precisely-worded invocation before they extend their arms when blessing the community. The wording acknowledges that the kohanim are commanded “…to bless His people Israel, from a place of  love.” (Our translation) The words are as prescriptive as they are descriptive.

Julia Koschtizky was not a kohen or kohanit. But she did indeed bless God’s people Israel, (and the world) from a place of love. However, in all she did in her 78 years, for others – for the wellbeing of her people and for the wider community – she grasped deeply one of life’s most important treasures: loving means doing.

The debt we all owe Julia Koschitzky, we can only repay by emulating her.

As a final act of Julia’s commitment toward Jewish education, her family has asked that memorial donations in her memory be made to the Generations Trust at the Jewish Federation of Toronto. Please contact Jordan Glass at 416-635-5685 or 416-635-2883 Ext.5685 , or Sarah Raizel Avalis 416-635-2883 Ext.5184, tributecards@ujafed.org or savalis@ujafed.org.

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

March 25, 2022

The creative, generously philanthropic initiative some four years ago that drastically reduced annual tuition at CHAT proved empirically that enrollment is directly related to tuition. That program became the vanguard for other affordability initiatives by UJA Federation and participating day schools. The programs and results have been noticed in other North American communities. Following the communal will and the programmatic success of local GTA initiatives, other communities have embarked onto their own affordability paths.

For example, the media reported last month upon a series of affordability initiatives among day schools in the Boston area,

• MetroWest Jewish Day School serving Brookline and Worcester, Mass.

The first 15 students from new families who applied to MetroWest Jewish Day School (MWJDS) by March 15 and enroll for the 2022-23 school year will lock in a $15,000 per year tuition rate for two years, with only modest increases thereafter to account for inflation.

• Epstein Hillel School (EHS)

EHS announced three new grant programs for families of differing financial means and whose children are at various stages in their Jewish education. The programs are aimed at trying to cap tuition at a family-specific affordable rate to make tuition “within reach for all families

• Schechter Boston

Schechter is trying to attract qualifying families who are new to Jewish day school with a  $10,000 reduction off tuition in kindergarten through grade 2.

• The Rashi School

The schoolannounced two new grant initiatives to reduce tuition to qualifying families.

Of course, the details of each of the programs in each of the schools differ even as each of the schools differ in their various approaches to Jewish education. The key reason in pointing out these initiatives is not for their respective details but rather for the very fact that they are happening at all. GTA community leaders understand that Jewish education is the keystone foundation for permanently meaningful Jewish life. And to enable as many families as possible to have access to Jewish education, it must be affordable. That understanding, that eternal wisdom of Jewish life is increasingly making its way to other communities as well. The cause of educational affordability has become foundational in other places too,

•••

In relation to the application filed in court for fairness in educational funding, GAJE’s lawyers will be meeting soon with the government’s counsel to discuss next steps in the lawsuit. If you wish to contribute to the funding of GAJE’s lawsuit to achieve fairness and justice in educational funding in Ontario, 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.  Chag Purim Samayach.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 18, 2022

To say we have been living for more than two years in difficult, disquieting times abuses the term “understatement.” The global Covid pandemic, the occupation of downtown Ottawa and a handful of Canadian-American border crossings by a frightful confederacy of anti-democracy, grievance-shouting protesters, and now, Russia’s murderous invasion of Ukraine pile anxiety upon anxiety in our battered psyches. And those of us determined to help make Jewish education truly affordable in Ontario press on through the multiplier angst to bring fairness and just dealing to Ontario’s educational system.

The question begs itself: How should we, as individuals and as a community, approach our important challenges during such unsettling days?

Rabbi Marc D. Angel of New York suggests a possible path for us. He points for guidance to the words of the customary congregational invocation in some synagogues after the celebration of the completion of the reading of one of the Five Books of Moses.

“Hizku —strengthen yourselves, be resolute; ve- ye-ametz levavhem–and God will give courage to your hearts. First, you need to strengthen yourselves, develop the power of empathy and love. Then, God will give you the added fortitude to fulfill your goals. If we strengthen ourselves, we may trust that the Almighty will give us added strength.

“Be strong, unafraid, empathetic; if we hone these values within ourselves and our families, we may be hopeful that the Almighty will grant us the courage to succeed in our efforts.”

Rabbi Angel’s instruction is forever timely and deeply relevant for our times. The holiday of Purim that we celebrate next week reinforces it. For the festival’s key message resonates with that of Rabbi Angel: our strength multiplies when we come together, act in assembly, and unite in common purpose to achieve a true and worthy result.

That message – from Purim and from the unbroken, millennial cycle of reading of the Torah – is the inspiration guiding our approach and strengthening our resolve for the various challenges that lie ahead.

•••

If you wish to contribute to the funding of GAJE’s lawsuit to achieve fairness and justice in educational funding in Ontario, 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.  Chag Purim Samayach.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

March 11, 2022

The surest way to avoid indifference to Jewish life

Jack Wertheimer, professor of American Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary, published an article this week entitled, Which American Jews are most distant from Israel?,that appeared on the eJP website.

The article is part of a trend of inquiry, especially although not exclusively in the U.S., that tries to understand why so many younger Jews feel a diminished connection, if any at all, to the Jewish State. Prof. Wertheimer examines a number of recent surveys of the American Jewish community and draws this very simple conclusion: “[A]mong the rank and file of American Jews, those who are very attached to Israel also are far, far more involved with all aspects of Jewish life than those who claim no attachment to Israel.”

Wertheimer suggests that “two major circumstances” underpin the worrisome phenomenon of alienation from Israel.

“One is the limited Jewish education large numbers of American Jews receive. Surely it is not accidental that Jews who claim the weakest connections to Israel also are more likely to have missed out on immersive Jewish educational experiences…

“Second, and perhaps as a consequence, those who feel least connected to Israel in the aggregate also do not identify strongly with Jewish collective needs. When asked about feeling responsible for helping ‘fellow Jews in need around the world,’ the number who feel a great deal of responsibility drops from 53% for those very attached to Israel to just 8% among those not very attached.”

Distance from Israel, Wertheimer writes, is a symptom of indifference to Jewish life. Instilling in our children a lifelong desire to care for the Jewish people, for Jewish history and for Jewish life at home and abroad, therefore, is the most certain way to also instill in our children a lifelong desire to care for and about the State of Israel.

Prof. Wertheimer’s essay thus bring us back to the very heart of the matter concerning (affordable) Jewish education. But we state the proposition stronger than he did.

In our view, caring for Israel is indeed – not merely “perhaps” – a consequence of Jewish education, namely, “immersive Jewish educational experiences.” But we also add that caring for the State of Israel is not the reason to seek Jewish education for children. Rather, caring to lead a meaningful Jewish life is. And as history teaches us, leading a meaningful Jewish life inherently includes caring for the State of Israel. And that is why GAJE’s mission is to try to help make Jewish education in Ontario truly affordable.

Prof. Wertheimer’s article can be found at:

Which American Jews are most distant from Israel?

•••

If you wish to help underwrite GAJE’s lawsuit to achieve fairness and justice in educational funding in Ontario, 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),

March 4, 2022

Last week we reported on news that a group acronymically called O.P.E.N. is suing the Government of Ontario to compel it to defund the Catholic school board within our provincial educational system.

In response to the news of the O.P.E.N. lawsuit, David Hunt, education program director at the Hamilton-based think-tank Cardus, wrote a strong rebuttal of the stated reasons that underpin that lawsuit under the headline ‘Expand religious school funding in Ontario’.

Hunt’s response is compelling. It enables readers to understand clearly the differing approaches and values that animate the competing visions for the delivery of education to the children of Ontario. In addition, it provides empirical information that can help educational policy decision makers arrive at sound, proper, correct decisions.

GAJE supports Hunt’s point of view because we earnestly strive to help facilitate a Jewish education for as many children of our community as possible. But overarching all of the competing visions for Ontario education, the minimum requirement for Ontario’s educational system should be fairness, the absence of discrimination and just treatment for all Ontarians, let alone all Ontarian taxpayers.

We reproduce Hunt’s article in its entirety. It was published in the Hamilton Spectator on February 18. It is available at: https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2022/02/18/expand-religious-school-funding-in-ontario.html

•••

“Should Ontario defund Catholic separate schools? This perennial question is at the forefront of a legal challenge launched in Hamilton.

The plaintiffs claim funding Catholic schools is unconstitutional, violates separation of church and state, contaminates worship institutions, and is an inherent conflict of interest. The people funding the lawsuit also claim a single, centrally-administered public system will provide more options for students and teachers, promote diversity and save money.

Every single one of these assertions is wrong. Does one monolithic public-school system increase options for students? No, eliminating diversity does not create diversity. Should we worry about the separation of church and state? Again, no. Section 93 of the Constitution Act of 1867 mandates the public funding of Catholic separate schools in Ontario. 

The very existence of Section 93 is a clear rejection of what Americans call “separation of church and state.” We do not have an equivalent to the Establishment Clause of the U.S. First Amendment.

What about the concern that funding religious schools creates a “conflict of interest” that “contaminates worship institutions?” To make these claims is to thoroughly misunderstand what schools are and why we publicly fund them. Schools are social goods. Education forms us — and not just those in the classroom. The education of my neighbours’ kids — or the lack thereof — profoundly shapes the whole neighbourhood. In other words, education has spillover effects that benefit more than just the recipient. This is why we fund schools. 

However, just because all children ought to be educated does not mean they all learn the same way, fit in, or thrive in the same environments. Every child is unique, and the more educational pathways we afford them, the better. 

The research bears this out. Religious-school students matched to schools of their own faith outperform their unmatched peers. This also helps explain why Islamic schools are more effective than state-run schools at integrating Muslim students into Western societies. 

Schools are not merely of interest to society, they are also a function of society. As social goods, schools most naturally — and efficiently and effectively — emerge out of society, not from a command tower.

This is why rather than defund Catholic schools, we should expand such funding to students at other religious schools — including independent schools.

Would this be prohibitively expensive? There are 70 empirical studies to date that examine the costs and potential savings of independent-school funding programs in the U.S. Only five find that publicly funding independent schools generates net costs for taxpayers. More than 90 per cent of all methodologically defensible empirical studies find that independent-school funding generates taxpayer savings.

How is this possible? Monopolies remove incentives to maximize every dollar, attract students and improve quality. This results in mass waste and inefficiencies. So, it’s not surprising that school-district consolidations haven’t led to cost-savings.

Democracy assumes a diversity of perspectives. Educating for a strong democracy requires no less. This is why 100 countries — including every OECD country except Greece — fund a wide variety of different types of schools and school systems, including religious schools. And they’re better for it. The preponderance of evidence bears out overwhelming evidence that religious schools strengthen social cohesion.

Rather than abolishing taxpayer-funded Catholic schools, let’s let funding follow all students to their best-fit school — including religious independent schools. It would cost less than you think! A recent peer-reviewed economic analysis estimates the Ontario taxpayer expense to be the equivalent of 0.3 to 0.8 per cent of the provincial budget — a minimal cost for substantial benefit.”

•••

If you wish to help underwrite GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness and justice, 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),

February 25, 2022

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

“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

•••

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.

•••

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.”

•••

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.

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

January 21, 2022