Two weeks ago, in his comment on the Torah portion, Vayhi, Rabbi Marc D. Angel, founder of The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, pointed precisely and eloquently to the essential qualities that must typify the behaviour of would-be leaders.

Rabbi Angel reflected upon the unique deathbed blessing/instruction by Yaakov to his son Yehudah in light of the observable transformation in Yehudah’s personality.

All human beings, Rabbi Angel observes, face crises and confront problems in life. But “we need to learn from Judah’s example. We need to understand that leadership requires clarity of thought, unshakeable commitment to what’s right, and a lion’s courage to take action.”

When we examine the behaviour of the provincial government in perpetuating unfair, discriminatory educational funding, we do not see even the slightest commitment to doing what’s right. Alas, we see the opposite.

The failure by the government to do what is right does not absolve us from embracing the commitment to do so. As Rabbi Angel wrote, “the Torah calls on all of us to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We must be lions, not laggards.”

And so, we must find the courage to take action to do what is right to remedy the long-standing, discriminatory educational funding policies of the provincial government. Resorting to the courts is the next appropriate step.

Rabbi Angel’s article is available at:

https://www.jewishideas.org/lions-and-laggards-thoughts-parashat-vayhi

•••

Be safe. Be well. Shabbat shalom. 

GAJE, January 15, 2021

Before the end of last year, Paul Bernstein, CEO, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, published an article that was of a piece with many written in the latter part of the year calling attention to the excellence of Jewish day schools.

Educational experts and knowledgeable observers throughout North America, including in the GTA, marvelled at how well most day schools forged a relatively clear path through the dislocation, misery and fog of Covid-19. 

Bernstein noted the phenomenon of the increase in enrollment in many day schools during the pandemic. He then asked the important questions: “is the enrollment growth we observed a COVID blip, or can/should we see this moment as a launch point for sustained growth in Jewish day schools? And how do we support those schools and families who are struggling?”

“COVID has amplified the strengths of Jewish day schools – academically and communally – and has spotlighted the power of a (Jewish) values-driven education, and the focus on social and emotional health. Day school faculty and staff continually go “above and beyond” to maintain the best possible experience for students and families,” Bernstein wrote.

Bernstein’s real purpose was clear in the following words. “It is incumbent on all of us who care about day schools,” he writes, “to do all we can to ensure that [the increase in day school enrollment] is in fact not a blip, but rather a moment to catapult our schools forward.”

He answers his own question with a four-part solution:

• We need to double down on student retention. 

• We need to keep telling the amazing story of a Jewish day school education.

• We must keep focus on the tremendous financial costs involved in day schools. Affordability remains a critical challenge.

• We need to convey the inherent value of a Jewish day school education for our collective Jewish future.

Bernstein concludes by urging us to recognize and to acknowledge “just how “frontline” our day schools and teachers are for our current lives – and for the sustainability of our community for years to come.”

We agree with and reinforce Bernstein’s insights.

Bernstein’s article is available at:

Growing Jewish Day School Enrollment – a Blip or the Start of a Trend?

•••

Be safe. Be well. Shabbat shalom. 

GAJE, January 8, 2021

Turning the last page on 2020 reminds us that GAJE has been advocating for affordable Jewish education for more than five years. The overall condition of Jewish education in the GTA – tuition, enrollment, excellence – has noticeably improved these past years. Community professional and lay leaders have adopted new, restorative policies toward the infrastructure of Jewish education. School educators, administrators and boards responded to the unforeseen Covid incursion in eye-opening ways, confirming their respective schools’ excellence, importance and foundational value to Jewish families and community.

But the cost of sending their children to day schools is still far too high and a crushing financial burden for most families. Thus, despite the laudable progress, the task is still very much in front of us. Tuitions must become truly affordable. That continues to be our focus. And with unwavering laser precision it will be.

Without any apparent embarrassment or regret, the Government of Ontario perpetuates unfair, unjust discriminatory educational funding policies upon families that send their children to Jewish schools, indeed to all independent schools in Ontario. The government’s record is objectionable, even unconscionable.

•  Ontario supports the religious education of the children of one religion only, in preference to the religious education of children whose families’ religious faiths are different. How can such patently preferential support be justified in the year 2021 in modern Canadian society?

• Ontario differentiates in providing health support payments for children with learning disabilities to help them overcome their educational challenges. Learning disabled children in independent schools are not treated in an equal manner to learning disabled children in public schools. Surely, it is the need and the disability of the child that should be determinative for receiving standard payments for health support services rather than the address of the school in which the child is a student. How can such patently preferential support be justified in the year 2021 in modern Canadian modern society?

• Ontario has thus far refused to distribute federal funds to independent schools to help them defray the cost of the vital health and safety measures wrought by Covid to ensure safe learning environments for children and teachers. The federal government did not stipulate that the funds go only to benefit the public schools. The virus did not discriminate between children in public or independent schools. But the Government of Ontario did. We ask again: How can such patently preferential support be justified in the year 2021 in modern Canadian modern society?

Of course, Ontario’s behaviour is not justified. Nor can it be. Nor should it be.

As regular readers of this update know, Ontario is the only provincial government in Canada – where sufficient numbers of students create the need – that refuses to help fund independent schools even partially. GAJE has engaged the services of one of Canada’s renowned human rights advocates and constitutional law experts to try to remedy this entrenched injustice. Where moral suasion and public appeals to fairness have thus far failed to move the conscience of the government, perhaps the courts and the law will? In the weeks to come, we will write more about GAJE’s legal efforts. Your help will be needed. We hope you will support us.

•••

Be safe. Be well.

Shabbat shalom. And best wishes for 2021, free of pandemic, full of optimism, and renewed inspiration for collective purpose and good health.

GAJE, January 1, 2021

Covid-19’s effect on the delivery of education continues to generate a great deal of expert professional commentary.

Arielle Levites, Managing Director of the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, (CASJE) and Alex Pomson, Principal and Managing Director at Rosov Consulting, a mission-driven company that works with funders and grantees to inform and improve Jewish education and engagement, earlier this month contributed to the growing literature. They published an article on the eJewishPhilanthropy website entitled “How Essential is Jewish Education? COVID-19 Brings Some Clarity”.

Levites and Pomson offer certain conclusions from a recently released report by CASJE, conducted by Rosov Consulting, that studied patterns in career trajectories among Jewish educators.  The “report conveys how the labor market in certain sectors of Jewish education has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Through the lens of what the authors describe as the movement of “human capital” within careers in education, the authors provide some interesting observations.

“One key observation is the special status afforded to Jewish educational programs deemed essential and even the novelty of the very concept of essential as a framework for categorizing programs. Those sectors that provide services that people cannot do without, in particular childcare and day school education, seem to be emerging from the present moment in better shape than others. They have responded to the moment vigorously, although exactly what business models will prove sustainable for the early childhood sector is uncertain.

“These two essential programs, early childhood and day school, are core providers of education (both general and Jewish) and of care for children.”

Among the reasons these programs are deemed “essential” is that they enable parents to function each day with the minimal disruption to their previously “normal” lives. To be sure, this reason makes a great deal of sense. But we, of course, believe Jewish education to be essential for reasons that are far more encompassing than to help facilitate the relatively smooth running of a home and household.

Jewish education is essential because it is only through education that the promise of Judaism’s eternity will be fulfilled.

The full article is available at:

How Essential is Jewish Education? COVID-19 Brings Some Clarity

•••

Important reminder

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.

GAJE joins with Teach-On, the Jewish representative, and other groups, in a coalition of like-minded members attempting to convince the government to act fairly without discrimination. Please call or send an e-mail to your MPP, Premier Ford and Education Minister Lecce pleading with them to distribute funds for the sake of children in independent schools too.

For more information on this important effort, please visit the site:

Supporting Students campaign (www.supportingstudents.ca)

•••

Be safe. Be well.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE, Dec. 25, 2020

With the winter school break soon upon all families, it is time once again to reflect upon the remarkably successful manner in which the Jewish day schools adapted through the Covid pandemic. Of course, we dare not be too self-congratulatory, nor celebrate a situation that is not yet resolved. But we can, indeed, we should acknowledge the good that the entire communal Jewish day school enterprise has conferred upon so many children, their families, and truth be told too, the Jewish future.

Three key administrative and lay leaders at the Kellman Brown Academy in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, this week published an article on the eJewishPhilanthropy website explaining “Covid’s silver lining” for their small school. In illuminating their own situation, they also cast light upon the situation of day schools in the GTA and in other jurisdictions.

Much has already been written about the quick, effective pivoting by GTA day schools as a result of the pandemic. It is worthwhile, however, to read the experiences of other day schools. For they reinforce the positive steps and the deep, intrinsic excellence of the Jewish schools in the GTA.

We reproduce the authors’ concluding remarks.

“Like many other outstanding Jewish day schools, we have longed for an opportunity to share what we’re all about with families who, under normal circumstances, would never have considered a Jewish day school. The COVID pandemic has given us this unique opportunity to do so, and we continue to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to leverage this opportunity to strengthen our school. This is our moment – and we are determined not to let it pass us by.”

Newly enrolled families at our day schools are discovering what so many families already knew. The schools are animated by their respective missions which are variations on the same theme: the education of our children is the pathway to a thriving, inspiring, inclusive, tolerant, creative, respectful, tradition-honouring Jewish future.

The complete article is available at:

COVID’s Silver Lining for One Jewish Day School

•••

Be safe. Be well.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE, Dec. 18, 2020

Dr. Daniel Rose, the educational consultant and content developer for the Office of (the late) Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, posted a thoughtful distillate this week on the eJP website of Rabbi Sacks’ core teachings on Jewish Education.

The author of the Ten Paths curriculum of Jewish education based on the thought of Rabbi Sacks, Rose wanted to mark the Shloshim of Rabbi Sack’s passing by beginning a conversation on what a system of Jewish education might look like if it were founded on the late rabbi’s ideas.
Rose called the Sacks’ distillate a Manifesto on Jewish Education.

Not surprisingly, there is a great deal in the Manifesto for us to read, learn, absorb and apply.

Rose propagates nine principles of applied Jewish Education. Each principle derives from a specific, typically inspiring, Sacksian teaching. Each principle is accompanied by a source reference, an elaboration, and a statement of related, core educational values.

The article is too long to reproduce in this space. We will, however, reproduce the first and the last principle (without the source references). Rabbi Sacks’ wisdom and his voice are discernible in every word.

1. A Nation of Educators
   “About to gain their freedom [from Egypt], the Israelites were told that they had to become a nation of educators.”

Universal compulsory education existed as a communal policy in Israel eighteen centuries before the western world. However, education as a core Jewish value was never limited to the framework and institutions of formal education. It was and is found in every aspect of Jewish communal life. But more than our great institutions of formal and informal Jewish education, the role of families is the most effective educational tool we have. Families must be encouraged to be seen as partners in and agents of Jewish education in their own right.

Core Educational Values:
• A Jewish education is the right of every Jewish child
• Jewish education should be at the heart of all of our communal institutions
• The family should be empowered and supported as partners and direct agents in Jewish education.

2. The Educator as Hero
   “Teachers open our eyes to the world. They give us curiosity and confidence. They teach us to ask questions. They connect us to our past and future. They’re the guardians of our social heritage. We have lots of heroes today, and they are often celebrities – athletes, supermodels, media personalities. They come, they have their fifteen minutes of fame, and they go. But the influence of good teachers stays with us. They are the people who really shape our life.”

As central as Jewish education was to the thought and work of Rabbi Sacks, his appreciation of the noble profession of education was clearly communicated. He dedicated his energies over many years to elevating the prestige of educators and the field of education in the community, and made great efforts to support educators in various ways (including investing in the creation of educational content based on his thought for educators to use as a resource in their work). Rabbi Sacks was also a role model par excellence in his private and public life, reminding us of the importance of exposing children to the influence of strong Jewish role models. These are our educators.

Core Educational Values:
• Jewish educational communities must value in real and practical ways the educator as the lynchpin in everything they do
• Educators make an impact not just through delivery of content and programming, but by being role models. This impact should be carefully considered in educational strategic planning.

From manifesto to blueprint to construction to realization…it is all in our hands.

Dr. Rose’s full article is available at:
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/a-manifesto-on-jewish-education-based-on-the-thought-of-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks/
•••

Be safe. Be well.

Shabbat shalom. Chag Chanukah samayach.

GAJE, Dec. 10, 2020

(Dedicated to the memory of Gidon Grundland)

This time next week we will have already lit the first Chanukah candle.

Screenwriters, speechwriters, theologians, poets, even greeting card writers often use an iteration of the image of light-piercing-penetrating-conquering-casting aside-darkness. With good reason. It conveys rich imagery. It is relevant and very tangibly applicable to our lives, indeed to all human life, at any number of literal and metaphorical levels.

As we know, the name for this holiday,Chanukah, derives from the noun for the rededication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochan Hellenists. Lighting the oil of the menorah was a core part of the Temple ritual. Lighting the candles of our respective chanukiyot for the eight days of the holiday, replicates this part of the Temple service.

The late Rabbi Joseph Kelman would often remind congregants that the etymological root of the Hebrew word Chanukah was the same as that for Chinuch, ie, Education. The homiletical connection, he sagely pointed out, was obvious: Education is – and has always been – the light by which every Jewish generation has kept alight and aglow the eternal flame of Judaism. This is no mere rhetorical flourish. It is an observable truth that all of us – in some form and at some time – have witnessed and understood deeply in our hearts.

The responsibility of ensuring Jewish continuity is only partially fulfilled in holding dearly onto what we received from our forebears. Its fuller realization is in passing forward, before the end of our days on this earth, the values, traditions and beliefs our parents and grandparents attempted lovingly, as best they could, entrust to us.

•••

We remind readers of the need to make our voices heard with the government of Ontario asking for equal treatment for children in independent schools with children in public schools regarding the federal funds sent to the province specifically to help abate Covid-based costs in schools.

The Federal government has already disbursed $371 million dollars to help Ontario schools contend with unforeseen pandemic-related expenses. Another $371 million is scheduled to arrive in January. Yet, the provincial government distributed none of the first tranche of these funds to non-publicly funded schools, even though the amount Ontario received from Ottawa was based upon a calculation of all school-age children in the province. 
 

Please visit the site: Supporting Students campaign (www.supportingstudents.ca)

In addition, please contact your members of the provincial parliament and share this information with friends and family.

•••

Be safe. Stay safe. Be well. Stay well. Be strong. Stay strong.

Shabbat shalom. Chag Chanukah samayach (next week).

GAJE, Dec. 3, 2020

Last month we wrote about a public education initiative, No Child Unprotected, by Edvance Christian Schools Association, an Ontario-based association whose mission is to foster excellence in Christian elementary and secondary schools. The initiative calls attention to the need for fair and equitable distribution of federally granted Covid related funds for the benefit of all school children in Ontario, not only those attending publicly-funded schools.

Building upon that initiative, a coalition of independent schools in Ontario has launched the Supporting Students campaign to address the inequities of the Ontario government’s response to COVID-19. Indeed, some of the day schools have explicitly joined the campaign and urged the involvement of their respective parent bodies.

As we have pointed out and as others have as well, helping schools contend with the unforeseen, onerous costs imposed by Covid is, at its core, a public health issue. It is not merely an educational issue.

The Federal government has already disbursed $371 million dollars to help Ontario schools during the pandemic. Another $371 million is slated to arrive in January. The provincial government distributed none of the first tranche of these funds to non-publicly funded schools, even though the amount Ontario received from Ottawa was based upon a calculation of all school-age children in the province.

We join the coalition in urging individuals to make your voices heard on this subject.
Please visit the site: Supporting Students campaign (www.supportingstudents.ca). In addition, contact your members of the provincial parliament. Please also share this information with friends and family.

Once again, we confront a challenge of simple fairness and equity of treatment from the government of Ontario.

Let us not be passive. Let us not be silent. After all, as we know from our ancient sages and from modern experience, “if we are not for ourselves, who will be?” Moreover, by calling for equal treatment for independent schools, we are at the same time championing the need for equal treatment for all minorities within our broader society. And if we don’t do so now, then we will have missed an important moment for the advancement of equal treatment and equal rights for everyone.
•••
Be safe. Stay safe. Be well. Stay well. Be strong. Stay strong.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE, Nov 27, 2020

Readers know that GAJE follows day school “affordability” initiatives in other North American communities. One of the initiatives on which we have written from time to time is the Open Door program at San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA). An update of the program appeared last week in Del Mar Times.

Open Door is aimed at attracting more children to the school by “removing cost as a barrier for a world-class private school education.” According to the story in the paper, the program reduces tuition “by at least $10,000 at San Diego Jewish Academy for kindergarten and 9th grade, and maintains that reduction for those students for four years.

“Now more than ever, we are so happy to provide this certainty in uncertain times,” said Zvi Weiss, Head of School at SDJA. “Families who may have felt a private school was out of reach can join SDJA and know what the next four years will look like for them with a high-quality education and meaningful community experiences…”

GAJE followers will immediately recognize the similarity of the Open Door program at SDJA to the revolutionary tuition reduction initiative by CHAT in our own community some three years ago. As a result of the CHAT initiative, enrollment skyrocketed there.

The key conclusion for our purposes from the SDJA experience and more poignantly from the CHAT experience in our own community is that there is a direct inverse correlation between tuition costs and enrollment levels. As tuition is lowered, enrollment rises. It is an indisputably telling relationship.

The story about SDJA in the Del Mar Times is available at: https://www.delmartimes.net/lifestyle/events/story/2020-11-13/san-diego-jewish-academy-continues-tuition-affordability-program-for-2021-2022-academic-year.

•••

In further elaboration to the reference in last week’s update regarding provisions in the most recent Ontario budget pertaining to Jewish day schools, Noah Shack, Vice President, GTA, The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) provided the following information:

“The Support for Learners initiative announced in the 2020 Ontario Budget will deliver important financial relief to parents with children enrolled in Jewish day schools. This program builds on the Support for Families grant provided by the provincial government toward the beginning of the pandemic. Combined, these two grants will provide $400 per child or $500 per child with disabilities directly to parents. CIJA advocated for the inclusion of day school families in the initial grant, and lobbied for further payments to address the prolonged challenges facing parents due to COVID-19.

“In addition, CIJA successfully lobbied the federal government to open up the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program to Jewish day schools. This subsidy, which the government has committed to extend through to June 2021, provides significant government relief to Jewish day schools, which public educational institutions cannot access.”

•••

Be safe. Stay safe. Be well. Stay well. Be strong. Stay strong.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

The shock of the news of the passing last week of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks still resonates, still leaves an aching sorrow. His teaching and wisdom will echo through the generations even as his memory will bring countless blessings to those same generations.

It would be morally unthinkable therefore not to republish at least one of Rabbi Sacks’ many stirring statements about education. The following were his remarks in the House of Lords on Friday 7th December 2017, during a debate on the role of education in building a flourishing and skilled society.

“My Lords. I am grateful to the most Rev Primate (The Archbishop of Canterbury) for initiating this debate on a subject vital to the future flourishing of our children and grandchildren. My Lords, allow me to speak personally as a Jew. Something about our faith moves me greatly, and goes to the heart of this debate. At the dawn of our people’s history, Moses assembled the Israelites on the brink of the Exodus.

“He didn’t talk about the long walk to freedom. He didn’t speak about the land flowing with milk and honey. Instead, repeatedly, he turned to the far horizon of the future and spoke about the duty of parents to educate their children. He did it again at the end of his life, commanding: “You shall teach these things repeatedly to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.”

“Why this obsession with education that has stayed with us from that day to this? Because to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilisation you need schools. You need education as the conversation between the generations.

“Whatever the society, the culture or the faith, we need to teach our children, and they theirs, what we aspire to and the ideals we were bequeathed by those who came before us. We need to teach our children the story of which we and they are a part, and we need to trust them to go further than we did, when they come to write their own chapter.

“We make a grave mistake if we think of education only in terms of knowledge and skills – what the American writer David Brooks calls the resume virtues as opposed to the eulogy virtues.
And this is not woolly idealism. It’s hard-headed pragmatism. Never has the world changed so fast, and it’s getting faster each year. We have no idea what patterns of employment will look like in 2, let alone 20 years from now, what skills will be valued, and which done instead by artificially intelligent, preternaturally polite robots.

“We need to give our children an internalised moral Satellite Navigation System so that they can find their way across the undiscovered country called the future. We need to give them the strongest possible sense of collective responsibility for the common good, because we don’t know who will be the winners and losers in the lottery of the global economy and we need to ensure its blessings are shared. There is too much “I” and too little “We” in our culture and we need to teach our children to care for others, especially those not like us.

“We work for all these things in our Jewish schools. We give our children confidence in who they are, so that they can handle change without fear and keep learning through a lifetime. We teach them not just to be proud Jews, but proud to be English, British, defenders of democratic freedom and active citizens helping those in need.

“Schools are about more than what we know and what we can do. They are about who we are and what we must do to help others become what they might be. The world our children will inherit tomorrow is born in the schools we build today.”

•••

Paul Bernstein, CEO, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, wrote a poignant acknowledgment of Rabbi Sack’s dedication to Jewish education. It was published by ejewishPhilanthropy.

These words are from Bernstein’s article:

“What is the greatest honor that we can possibly confer on anyone in the Jewish community? The greatest Jew we ever had was Moses. We called him Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our teacher. For us, teachers are the most important people there are.”

“Rabbi Sacks believed not only in the need for great educators – he spoke passionately about the need to support schools with resources as well. He told me, “The people who build and support Jewish day schools – they are the heroes of the Jewish world, because they are the builders of the Jewish future. … The very success of the Jewish people and surviving and thriving through all circumstances, some good, and some not so good, was due to the fact that we put education as the first of our [communal] priorities… The Mesopotamians built ziggurats. The Egyptians built pyramids. The Greeks built the Parthenon. The Romans built the Colosseum. Jews built schools. That’s why we’re still here, still strong, and still young while all those super powers in their day have been consigned to history.”

•••

The best, most everlasting way we can repay Rabbi Sacks for all the goodness and inspiration he imparted to us is by ensuring the everlasting permanence of Jewish education.

•••

In last week’s update we urged readers to pay close attention to the contents of Ontario’s 2020 budget in relation to remediating the structural unfairness in educational funding for the children attending independent schools.

The province did announce once again pandemic payments to Ontario families of $200 per child aged 12 and under and up to $250 for children who have special needs and are 21 years old or younger. The payments are intended to help parents cover costs like workbooks, school supplies, and technology. Education funding for this year will be $31 billion including COVID-19-related funding.

The question of funding fairness, however, is still unanswered.

•••

Be safe. Stay safe. Be well. Stay well. Be strong. Stay strong.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE