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

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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. 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.

•••

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. 

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

December 10, 2021

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk issued her annual report this week. Not surprisingly her staff discovered and uncovered sums of money that were spent ill spent.

Among her findings, as reported by CBC, Ontario disbursed more than $200 million to businesses that weren’t eligible for pandemic relief programs. Of course, we understand that errors will occur when government is called upon to deal with immediate human and business needs, especially during an unrelenting period of crisis (in this case public health) and when eligibility criteria may be vague or misapplied. The “loss” of so large an amount of funds is never to be condoned or justified.

What strikes us, however, as utterly unjustifiable is the juxtaposition of the $200 million mis-expenditure against the government’s unbending refusal to spend any funds to protect children in independent schools (including Jewish schools) against the very same pandemic perils for which they justified the expenditure of some $30 billion in Covid-19 relief.  According to the CBC, “pandemic programs for businesses totalled $11.2 billion, or about a third of the money allocated for provincial COVID-19 relief.”

Our quarrel is not with the attempt by Queen’s Park to aid individuals and businesses fight the pandemic. Our quarrel is with the heartlessness of the government in not spending even the smallest penny to protect children in independent schools from that same pandemic, as if these children were not also threatened by Covid-19.

And as we have pointed out in the past, even when the federal government gave Queen’s Park $763 million to spend specifically to help schools protect their children from Covid, the Premier and the Minister of Education disbursed none of it for the health and protection of the 150,000 children in the independent schools.

The government points with self-congratulations to its record of public assistance for pandemic relief and protection purposes. But we also know that Queen’s Park perpetuates discrimination in the education sector even, as we can now see, in relation to the health of our children during a public health crisis. In this regard, the government simply remains heartless in Ontario.

•••

Moral suasion, private lobbying, public advocacy and plain parental pleading have failed over the past quarter century and more to get Ontario to ends its discrimination in education funding. 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.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Chanukah samayach.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

December 3, 2021

As readers of this weekly update know, GAJE’s core mission is to try to help make Jewish education affordable for as many young families that seek it for their children. Our mission, of course, flows directly from the belief that Judaism is a blessing indeed for all humankind, not for the men, women and children who are Jewish. And that intense Jewish education is the best guarantor that our children will learn and know how to perpetuate Judaism for all generations to come. We support, endorse and encourage families that are able, to provide meaningful Jewish education to their children.

That is why we reproduce, in full below, an important message sent to the community this week from Daniel Held, Chief Program Officer, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. It is vital that as many young parents be made aware that the community will help share the financial burden – for certain families – of providing a Jewish education for their children.

•••

“We are excited to share that applications for the 2022-23 school year are now open for UJA’s newest Jewish day school affordability program – the Generations Trust Scholarship!

“Think your family won’t qualify for day school tuition relief? You may be surprised! Find out in just two minutes how much you could save through our easy-to use online calculator.

“We believe passionately that every community member who seeks to grow in their Jewish knowledge should have the opportunity to do so. Research confirms the power of a day school education to build future Jewish leaders – and ultimately to create a community defined by high levels of Jewish identity and connections to Israel. Our entire community is stronger when children benefit from Jewish learning.
 

“For more than 40 years, UJA’s Tuition Assistance Program has enabled thousands of students to benefit from a day school education. Unfortunately, many families have not previously qualified for tuition assistance, but have struggled to afford day school with the growing cost of living in the GTA. The Generations Trust Scholarship was launched this spring to fill the gap – and hundreds of families are already benefiting.
 

“We are tremendously grateful to the leading community philanthropists who have made this important program possible. Help us spread the word that day school tuition relief is available for more families than ever across Greater Toronto!

“We encourage you to share this email with family or friends who may be interested.

“Sincerely, Dan Held, Chief Program Officer, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.”

•••

We urge you to check into THE GENERATIONS TRUST SCHOLARSHIP. It might work for your family.

•••

We also urge you to let the Government of Ontario hear your disappointment, if not anger, with its ongoing discrimination against the children in Jewish and other independent schools. It is unfair and unjust that the government supports the education of only one religion in the province. But it is utterly inexcusable and deeply hurtful that the government is completely indifferent to the health and safety concerns of the children attending Jewish and other independent schools arising from the Covid pandemic.

No other conclusion is supportable in light of the facts:

• Ontario distributed not even one penny to independent schools of the $763 million Safe Return to Class Fund distributed by the federal government to Queen’s Park for the benefit of all Ontario children ages 4 – 18 attending school.

• Ontario is distributing rapid testing only to “publicly funded schools”.

Is there no Covid-related jeopardy to the some 150,000 children in independent schools? Of course, there is. The virus does not discriminate. But the government does. What message caring for them does the government of Ontario send to their parents, grandparents and friends?

Moral suasion, private lobbying, public advocacy and plain parental pleading have failed over the past quarter century and more to get Ontario to ends its discrimination in education funding. Now that we see Ontario also discriminating in matters touching upon the health of our children during a public health crisis, we understand that 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.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Chanukah samayach.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE),

November 26, 2021

Readers of this space know that GAJE is planning a lawsuit to try to end the Government of Ontario’s funding discrimination against Jewish (and other) independent schools. In the year 2021, in a society that cherishes its democratic rights and freedoms, it is deeply offensive that the Government of Ontario prefers and supports one religion above the others worshipped by Ontarians.

The historic founding agreement of 1867 by which the government justifies its ongoing support for the schools of only one religion is not a bar – nor was it ever intended to be – to the government from doing the right thing for Ontario children of other religious denominations learning in the province’s independent schools.  In contrast to the educational funding policies in Canada’s five largest provinces outside of Ontario, Queen’s Park perpetuates an antiquated, anachronistic system that perpetuates discrimination.

In the past, and quite clearly at present as well, Ontario politicians have argued that educational funding fairness will lead to the shredding of the province’s multicultural fabric or to the ruination of the public school system. These arguments are specious, empty of all substance, and proven to be so by the positive experiences of other provinces. Moreover, the Ontario politicians who continue to shield behind the arrangements and conditions of 1867 have turned experience on its head. For in truth, by standing on the hard rigid edges of discrimination, it is they who tear away at the full potential of our diverse societal fabric, actually diminishing the rich tapestry of the mosaic that is the Canada of 2021 the spirit of which is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (S. 27).

And speaking of doing the right thing and standing for truth, we must question the judgements of officials at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in relation to decisions that allow the State of Israel to be vilified under official TDSB sanction.

The CJN carried a story last week describing the fallout from a nasty lunch hour rally on November 12 at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, at which students chanted “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and carried signs displaying the same malevolent message.

Educators with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) say they will work to ensure that students and staff understand the “multiple meanings” of expressions about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In response to complaints regarding the rally’s import, an executive superintendent and a superintendent of education, signed a letter in which they wrote:

“Those expressions mean different things to different people because of different lived experiences…Some members of the Jewish community have experienced these phrases as antisemitic and hateful. Some Palestinians use the phrases as a statement of their rights as people.”

The CJN reported that the school board said it “will work with staff and students to ensure they understand these multiple meanings and ensure hate is not part of the discussion.”

Of course, everyone in our society has the right to publicly speak their minds and to express opinions however factually incorrect, thoughtless, insensitive or plain galling. The rallying cry at Marc Garneau however were far more than thoughtless, insensitive and galling. They were a call to genocide. And, indeed, they were profoundly hurtful to members of the Jewish community.

That youthful organizers of the rally might be unaware of the truths underlying their public statements or the pain and anger they cause to others may not be surprising. But the educators and board members who authorized this form of verbal brutality should have known better.

The CJN reported that Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) pointed out to the TDSB the harm created by such exceptionally frightful public displays by the students.

“It’s time the TDSB step up and take responsibility for allowing such a toxic environment to fester through its inaction on previous incidents of antisemitism, creating an atmosphere in which lashing out against the Jewish community is acceptable and Jewish staff and students are left feeling attacked and voiceless,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy at FSWC.

The board “needs to take urgent, concrete action to address systemic antisemitism,” said Noah Shack, CIJA’s vice president, GTA. The incident at Marc Garneau is the most recent in “a series” of antisemitic incidents that have not been fully addressed by the board, Shack said.

Nothing will more blatantly and harshly shred the province’s multicultural fabric or lead to the ruination of the public school system, than allowing one of the storied and splendid communities  – in this case, the Jewish community – within the province’s multicultural structure to be constantly attacked, disparaged and reviled.

The right thing to do – for us and for the province – is to champion truth and fairness.

The full CJN article is available at:

https://thecjn.ca/news/tdsb-will-explore-multiple-meanings-of-slogans-following-pro-palestinian-rally-by-students/

•••

To help underwrite the 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)  

November 19, 2021

More than in most weeks, many of us sanctified some of the hours in our lives this week in the remembrance of “things past” – specifically, Kristallnacht and Remembrance Day. In truth, of course, what we remember is never merely drawn from the past but part of the immediacy and sustaining fibre of our lives.

Jews understand this deeply because our collective memory is the forge in which our links one to the other have been fashioned through the millennia. Memory is enshrined in our Holy Books. Our Holy books enshrine our values and traditions. Our values and traditions are who we are.

And it has been in the classroom by virtue of the love and the hard work of our teachers that our children – we – have learned precisely that: who we are. Irrespective of the locale, of the community, of the circumstances of our lives, the living stream of education and teaching has always nourished the Jewish people.

Even in the 11^th century, in correspondence to a Jew in Yemen aimed at providing comfort and empathy to a community in extremis dealing with the spectre of forced mass conversion, Maimonides still emphasized the preeminent importance of education.

“Now, all my fellow countrymen in the Diaspora, it behooves you to hearten one another, the elders to guide the youth, the leaders to direct the masses…It is imperative, my fellow Jews, that you make this great spectacle of the revelation appeal to the imagination of your children,” Maimonides wrote.

Thankfully, our community has an excellent teaching infrastructure and excellent teachers who know how to make “the great spectacle “of our religion “appeal to the imagination” of our children. Maimonides would be pleased to see this. But – if we are permitted to speculate – he would not be pleased to see that, despite the ongoing efforts of our community elders, the cost of educating our children is still beyond the reach of many young families.

•••

In the upcoming week the Government of Ontario will be “offering take-home polymerase chain reaction (PCR) self-collection kits to all publicly funded schools across the province.” (Our emphasis).  The health and safety of children in independent schools are once again ignored by the provincial government. We urge all readers of this update to bring their disappointment if not anger to the attention of their Members of the Provincial Parliament

•••

GAJE will soon launch a lawsuit to try to end the Government of Ontario’s funding discrimination against Jewish (and other) independent schools. We are deeply appreciative of the many individuals who have to date joined our cause, who have contributed in helping underwrite the legal effort. Thus far, we have raised half of the amount needed. Please encourage your friends to also join in our effort. If we do not care, who will?

To donate to the cause, 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.

•••

Be safe. Be well. Shabbat shalom.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)  

November 12, 2021