The disruption and distress of Covid-19 still punish populations around the world, including ours. But Covid-19 also provided the opportunity for the community’s day schools to demonstrate their excellence and respective capabilities to turn quickly and effectively on disaster’s dime and to innovate meaningful learning.

Many parents noticed.

Enrollment increased this year for the first time in almost two decades. Tuitions, however, are still onerous despite the various emergency efforts of the community to abate the cost of sending children to day school.

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and The Julia & Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education are developing permanent, long term strategies to make tuitions affordable for the large swath of families wilting under the burdens of high tuition or unable yet to take the first financial step of registering their children in a school.

Thus, it was noteworthy that the Federation two weeks ago announced it was adding yet another arrow to its quiver of ensuring perpetual educational affordability. Specifically, the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto is partnering with the celebrated, Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation to acquire expertise and practical know-how to implement the latter’s LIFE & LEGACY® initiative.

LIFE & LEGACY is a four-year program that provides training, support, and monetary incentives to instruct and motivate Jewish organizations to help establish and grow endowment funds specifically through after-lifetime commitments. Fourteen UJA-affiliated Toronto Jewish day schools are participating in the program. Indeed, they have already started.

Thankfully, happily, community’s stewards and planners constantly acknowledge and affirm the irreplaceability of Jewish schools for Jewish permanence and diversity. In announcing the launch of the LIFE & LEGACY initiative, Ronit Holtzman, Senior VP, Philanthropy & Planned Giving and Endowments at The Jewish Foundation said “ensuring our day schools have the financial security to continue as pillars of our community is critical to the passing on of Jewish values to the next generation.”

Daniel Held, the Koschitzky Centre’s executive director said: “For a hundred years, day schools have shaped the Toronto Jewish community into what it is today—one of the world’s strongest communities characterized by high affiliation, strong engagement and a deep connection to Israel. Our day schools’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic proved their value once again. However, it also reinforced their financial vulnerability. Now is the time to ensure these important institutions are around for another 100 years.” (Our emphasis)

By joining forces through the LIFE & LEGACY initiative, the 14-UJA affiliated schools and the Jewish Foundation of Toronto are trying to ensure the long-term affordability and sustainability of Toronto’s day school community.

GAJE commends the initiative. All arrows in the community’s education affordability funding are welcome.

For more information about LIFE & LEGACY, individuals can contact Chani Greenwald at cgreenwald@ujafed.org.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Earlier this month, The Globe and Mail published an op-ed by Paul W. Bennett, the director of Schoolhouse Institute, entitled “Canada’s Bureaucratic School System Needs a Top-To-Bottom Overhaul”. This mini-essay was adapted from Bennett’s book The State of the System: A Reality Check on Canada’s Schools.

As the title of his op-ed makes plain, Bennett emphatically urged a revamping of the public-school system. The Covid pandemic, he wrote, revealed that “(T)he centralized and over-bureaucratic school system proved to be vulnerable and ill-equipped to respond to the massive pandemic disruption.”

Bennett chronicled some of the ways in which public schools failed their populations of students, families and teachers. He referred to the distance learning in the Toronto District School Board and elsewhere as “mostly an educational disaster. When it was over, at least one-quarter of all students went missing and were unaccounted for in Canadian public education.”

“Sizeable numbers of students and parents”, Bennett observed “are opting out of in-person schools and choosing online learning or gravitating to alternative school options, including home education “learning pods.”

He lamented the overall state of the country’s schools. They “have lost their way and become largely unresponsive to the public they still claim to serve… Today’s pandemic education crisis has alerted us to the need for systemic change. Saving the system may require reinventing it from the schools up. For all that to happen, the walls must come down, and those closest to students must be given more responsibility for learning and the quality of public education.”

Very noticeably, Bennett did not point to the overwhelmingly positive response by independent schools to the massive Covid disruption. This may have simply been an oversight. However, what is widely known and has been commented upon by objective “outside” observers, was that the independent schools in the Jewish community, for example, quickly, substantively and successfully pivoted to provide meaningful educational experiences to their student, family and teacher populations.

If the public-school system is to be reformed, as Bennett wishes, such reform should include the public funding of at least part of the general studies curriculum of Ontario’s independent schools. (Indeed, the six next largest provinces of Canada already do so.)

This should be the natural first step. It would broaden the scope of Ontario’s public school system and make it truly more accessible to all Ontarians by making it, as Bennett advocates, more responsive to the public they serve. And of course, it would help remedy the decades-old injustice and unfairness on which the funding of Ontario’s public-school system is based.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

In the past we have informed readers of the existence of ADRABA, an online Jewish learning experience for teens using cutting edge technology and best practices in education. Last week ADRABA announced that its Autumn program begins on October 19 by offering three online courses to teens across Ontario.

In keeping with GAJE’s mission to encourage and facilitate as many children as possible in having Jewish education, we bring the news from ADRABA to the attention of our readers.

The brainchild of three Jewish educators and curriculum, ADRABA is based on the belief that learning is “best enhanced when tech is judiciously – not perpetually.” ADRABA and its experience in online education pre-date the unwelcome arrival of Covid-19.

The online courses offered this fall are:

• Comparative Religion / Jewish History explores the birth and evolution of the three monotheistic religions.
• Chosen Food cooks up a healthy portion of Jewish history and culture through the flavours of our diverse cuisines.
• Philosophy prepares learners to join a millennia-old conversation about the biggest questions that face us as humans.

Each course meets twice a week – Mondays and Wednesdays – for one hour for synchronous online learning via ZOOM and is designed to create opportunities for learners to increase their Jewish literacy and engagement with our tradition and values. Through the use of technology, ADRABA aims to personalize learning goals to meet learner needs.

ADRABA is a recognized private school by the Ontario Ministry of Education and awaits inspection to secure its accreditation. We are also a CRA registered not-for-profit institution.

The fee for each course is $613. Tax-receipts will be provided.

For more information, visit the website at adraba.ca or send a note to info@adraba.ca.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom. Chag Samayach.

GAJE

Two weeks ago, we directed attention to the “remarkable achievement”, that despite — and in some way, on account of — the Covid pandemic, enrollment in our day schools had actually increased for the first time in 17 years.

Adam Minsky, the President & CEO of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, reflected upon this increase in enrolment in a short essay published this week by eJewish Philanthropy.

“Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly realized that (the financial hardship of middle class families sending their children to day school) would only accelerate this year due to the financial crisis. Here in Canada, nearly half of all households were impacted by job loss or reduced working hours – and the Jewish community was no exception. Without a rapid intervention, many would end up being permanently disconnected from day school and other key Jewish experiences.

“…The pandemic forced us to temporarily shift our focus from a long-term, systemic challenge in day school affordability to a short-term, situational crisis. While an endowment was right in the first instance, an emergency infusion of tuition assistance funds was now needed. Without rapid tuition relief, many who would leave day school due to the economic crisis would be unlikely to re-enrol in the future, even when restored to financial stability…

“This year, more than 350 students who previously paid full tuition are receiving emergency tuition assistance or interest-free loans, offered through a simplified application for families hit financially by the pandemic. Additionally, hundreds of students who previously received tuition assistance have qualified for an even greater subsidy this year, again due to the financial fallout of COVID-19.

“As a result, an entire cohort of students who were at risk of leaving the day school system have been able to remain enrolled. Retaining these students is not only invaluable in strengthening their individual Jewish journeys. It also helps ensure the stability and continued vibrancy of our day schools.

“…No less important, we will redouble our efforts to provide a long-term solution to day school affordability, so that the progress we have made this year marks a turning point, not a one-time initiative.”

The significance of the community’s emergency initiative and of Minsky’s explanation cannot be overstated. It is practical, dramatic evidence of the actual full-bodied embrace of the priorities that were always the supportive backbone ensuring the strength and permanent viability of our unique, diverse, Jewishly literate, caring community.

As Minsky points out, the response to the experience also shows us a path to help sustain the Jewish future.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom. Chag Succot Samayach.

GAJE

As planning for the start of the school year yielded to performing, many educators offered their reflections and insights about the lessons learned over the past six months of pandemic-related “revolution”.

Seven acknowledged experts in the fields of Early Childhood Education, Part-Time Jewish Education, Day Schools, Jewish Camp, Teen Engagement and Education, and College Engagement and Education, published a synopsis article last week on the eJewishPhilanthropy website entitled “What’s Going on in Jewish Education? Answers from Leaders in the Field.”
The article is worthy of our attention due to the collective expertise it gathers in one place.

We shall reproduce but a few of the authors’ conclusions. All of the educational fields discussed in the article are vital in and of themselves as well as for how they fit together to form an integrated, inter-dependent communal system matching families and children to appropriate learning format, where the diversity of approaches adds strength and where all parts understand that the sum is the surety for the individual.

From the three overarching themes identified by the authors, we note:
“The last six months have affirmed that Jewish learning can play an important, even vital, role in people’s lives. Demand for Torah study and other educational offerings shows that people want these opportunities especially at difficult times in life. Some look to Jewish learning for deeply personal reasons. Others look at these learning experiences as ways to create or strengthen a support network of peers. Whatever the reason, Jewish education is part of many people’s lives right now.”

From observations about day school education:
“Perhaps the most poignant lesson to emerge is the fundamental understanding of the role teachers play in creating a vibrant community. We all know that our educators do much more than teach a subject – they build connections with our children to Judaism, to learning, and to their community. Faculty, true front-line heroes, have become role models of resilience, flexibility, and hope.”

From observations about college students:
“Young Jews are clamoring for meaning, friendship, and community. They will hungrily participate in the study of Torah if invited through a warm, giving relationship. Even as our classroom shifts, from the quad to the Zoom room, the demand for Jewish learning endures.”

There is much in these observations for us to consider and take to heart and on which to continue building the infrastructure – education – that is the best guarantor, in perpetuity, of the future of the Jewish people. It falls to us to help ensure that all families can afford to find their place in that infrastructure.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom. Gmar chatimah tovah.

GAJE

The self-reflection and the purposeful soul-searching that are the individual, private gateways to Rosh Hashanah compel us to dedicate this last missive of 5780 to the diverse, caring, giving Jewish community of the GTA. We do so in keeping with the always-important value of hakarat hatov, i.e., acknowledging the good that others do for us.

Covid-19 has indiscriminately and relentlessly swung a scythe of harm, sorrow and anxiety throughout the world. After absorbing its initial shock, our community assessed, planned, resolved and responded. Not perfectly of course, but successfully, with constantly refining adjustments, driven by the belief that we cannot retreat from finding the answer.

We will direct our comments to matters of education – the core of our mission – though praise should be cast in a far wider net.

It is a remarkable achievement for the community that for the first time in 17 years, enrollment in our day schools increased. Enrollment is 2.5% higher today than this time one year ago. There are two reasons for the increase:

• More parents noticed the excellence of the day schools. As the pandemic debilitated public school, the day schools quickly pivoted, innovated, adapted and guided their students through the Covid-caused disruptions. The remarkable performance of the schools was even noticed by the general media. Some parents decided to move their children from the public to Jewish day school.
• The decisions of the Federation and the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education to focus on the immediate needs of families whose sources of income were impaired if not ravaged by Covid. The Federation/Centre introduced two new financial programs – emergency scholarships and interest free loans – that attempted to abate somewhat the widespread financial hardship on young families especially and make tuitions more affordable.

The increase in enrollment is a tribute to parents, schools and the Federation/Centre leadership. We would be horribly remiss were we not to acknowledge their collective fine effort. We urge more families to consider enrolling their children in the school system next year and in years to come. This system sparkles with excellence, devotion to its children and as Covid-19 proved, the ability to respond quickly to unforeseen dire pressures.

Well done.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom. Shana tovah techatevu vetechatemu.

GAJE

From time to time we have referred readers to educationally related research from Cardus, an Ontario-based think tank studying – inter alia – “the institutions, communities, beliefs, leaders, and intricacies of civil society that collectively compose the social architecture of our common life.”

Cardus recently concluded a three-part, pan-Canadian investigation into the perceptions by Canadians of independent-school parents. The study examined perceptions in BC, Ontario and Alberta.

GAJE pointed to the Ontario study when it appeared a year ago September. Cardus has just published the third, final, paper of the series in relation to its findings of perceptions in Alberta. The study used the same research question and methodology as in the BC and Ontario studies.

The findings from Alberta are applicable – as they were from the BC and the Ontario studies – to GAJE’s efforts. It is important that the general public and the government of Ontario have an accurate understanding of who comprises the independent-school community. The Cardus findings contribute significantly to painting an accurate portrait of this community.

We shall reproduce only a handful of the key conclusions from the executive summary of the Alberta study. We urge readers to read the complete report of the findings at:
https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/who-chooses-alberta-independent-schools-and-why/

“Independent-school households are more likely to be community-oriented, married-couple families than Albertans in general. For example, Alberta independent school parents are:

• 40 percent more likely to be active in a group, organization, or association, and are involved on average in two.
• 30 percent more likely than other Alberta households with children to be married-couple families.
• Considerably more likely to be people of faith or religiously affiliated. Even in non-religious independent schools, the overwhelming majority of families—70 percent—identify as religious.
• Considerably more likely to vote in every municipal, provincial, and federal election (86 percent compared to less than half of Albertans).

“Independent-school parents in Alberta are also better educated, but their occupations and income do not reflect “elite” socioeconomic stereotypes. [They] work middle-class jobs and earn less income than their middle-class peers, despite having more education. In addition, there are at least two more reasons to dismiss myths of elitism:

• 85 percent of non-religious independent schools’ parents went to government schools.
• Only 1.7 percent found it very difficult to enroll in their preferred school, while 93 percent report it being very or somewhat easy. Put plainly, they are not socially exclusive establishments.

“However, affording tuition can be a challenge. Specifically:

• 88 percent of parents have made financial sacrifices to afford the cost of independent schooling.
• Over 20 percent have made major financial sacrifices—as defined by working multiple jobs, changing jobs, taking out a new loan, or moving or downsizing their house.”

The Cardus studies provide empirical findings that independent-school families are not the privileged elite of our society. Moreover, independent-school families tend to be the sorts of community-minded, volunteer-oriented and charity-giving people on which strong, caring, multi-cultural, democratic societies rely.

•••

As we did last week, we consider it appropriate to include in this update the inspirational words from the prophet Jeremiah. They are the concluding words of the Haftarah reading on the second day of Rosh Hashana (31:16-17). His words are quite Covid-relevant as we anxiously receive our children each day back home from their day at school.

“Weep no more. Our hard work will be rewarded, God says. Our children will return from harm’s way. There is hope for our future. Our children will return safely to where they belong”. (Our free translation)

•••

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

Shabbat shalom

GAJE

One year ago, at this time our key parental/grandparental concerns before the children’s return-to-school were schedules, carpools, backpacks, school supplies, new shoes, class designations and extra-curricular activities. This year, we still have those concerns. But Covid-19 arches over and envelopes all of them.

All our concerns for the return-to-school are reasonable. We make no effort to make light of them or to look past them. In a truly significant manner, in their loaded backpacks this year, our children also carry the aspirations of an entire society, hoping that the transition to in-person learning will be safe and a harbinger of better, Covid-free days ahead.

In advance of next week, we call readers’ attention to an article written by Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, a New York-based network of North American Jewish day schools for professional development and the sharing of leading practices.

The article is akin to a pep talk ahead of the imminent restarting of school and a tribute to the schools that will soon reopen – in effusive welcome and undiminished embrace – for the children entering their buildings.

Bernstein writes: “Even in the face of all of these [Covid-19] challenges, as the school year begins there is cause for great hope. The determination of so many schools to open in-person, if they can do so safely, means that Jewish day school students will begin this year with the richest possible education, social environment, and powerful community around them. In addition to the tireless work on practical matters of re-opening, schools have invested huge amounts of time and energy this summer in training and preparing for an adaptable in-person and on-line curriculum for the year, as well as strengthening their mental health supports for faculty and students.

“The challenges, particularly financial, for Jewish day schools and their families are substantial, yet we tackle them – as we do all the issues we face through COVID-19 – with determination, empathy, and a undying passion for a brilliant Jewish education and the social-emotional growth of our younger generation – the Jewish future.”

•••

And there is one other matter ahead of the return-to-school that is appropriate to keep in mind.

In two weeks we celebrate Rosh Hashana. Many of our Sages have pointed out the somewhat counter-intuitive emphasis the holiday places on our children. All of the Torah and Haftarah readings relate specifically and repeatedly to our children. They do not relate, as one might imagine, to the mysteries and wonders of Creation. Indeed, the concluding passages in the Haftarah reading on the second day of the holiday can serve with heightened emphasis as a marker of optimism and/or a guidepost for calm, purposeful action. The prophet Jeremiah (31:16-17) offers remarkably Covid-relevant inspiration.

“Weep no more. Our hard work will be rewarded, God says. Our children will return from harm’s way. There is hope for our future. Our children will return safely to where they belong”.
(Our free translation)

•••

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

Shabbat shalom

GAJE

The news this week that the federal government is transferring some $2B to the provinces to help schools be ready to receive students in our new Covid-19 world was gratifying. Ontario is slated to receive up to $760 million.

That the federal government has earmarked funds for the exclusive provincial jurisdictional purpose of education is itself a novel and, we would add, a welcome development. We must ask however, whether all taxpaying Canadians will benefit from this initiative. Will any of the funds be shared with independent schools?

We hope this is a question that penetrates the hearts of all Ontarians.

We also hope that our community advocates are pursuing the possibility with the Government of Ontario. The common humanity of the situation cries out for positive government response. This is ever more so compelling for students with learning disabilities in independent schools who receive differentiated health support services, if any at all, from students dealing with exactly the same disability who attend publicly-funded schools.

We urge readers of this update to contact their Member of the Provincial Parliament to make the case for disbursing some of the newly-received Covid-19 funds on behalf of the families whose children attend independent schools.

Will the Government of Ontario be fair to our community’s schools too?

•••

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

Shabbat shalom

GAJE

As the number of days before back-to-school diminish, anxieties heighten. We want our children to be in the classroom. That is where they belong. We want them, first and foremost however, to be safe. Every school has a plan to ensure the children’s safety. We hope and pray no child’s safety will be compromised.

The pandemic has understandably and justifiably occasioned a great many anxieties. One of the overarching anxieties related to the return-to-school, is an abiding concern for the very future of our schools.

The lay and professional leaders of our community share this concern and understand the threat wrought by the pandemic to our schools. They have promised to place the security of the future of the Jewish school system at the top of their priorities. But it is not an easy task. Nor is the outcome assured.

It falls to all of us – who care about our Jewish future and the indispensable role that Jewish schools play in ensuring that future – to help assure that outcome.

Rabbi Chaim Perkal, the founder and director of Alei Siach, a Jerusalem-based non-profit providing all-inclusive solutions for people living with special needs and their families, recently published a cry-of-the-heart expressing deep worry for day schools in the United States and for the parents who may be unable to afford to send their children to those schools.

The article is entitled “The impending day-school crisis is a golden opportunity.”

Rabbi Perkal’s essential argument is the following:

“This fall, we can expect a significant drop in the number of children enrolled in Jewish day schools. Due to the financial crisis caused by the pandemic, many families are in dire straits and cannot afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars for their children’s education. That’s without factoring in families who will choose not to send their children to school due to the health risks.

“We must use this moment of crisis as an opportunity to make a meaningful change in the day-school system. With rapidly declining enrollment numbers, and more parents than ever who can’t afford tuition, we must come up with a plan to make sure day schools don’t die out.
Our priority should be getting as many Jewish students as possible enrolled in day schools, period.”

Some of Rabbi Perkal’s suggestions are not appropriate or even implementable in our community. But the fervour and sincerity of his argument deserve attention. His views are illustrative of the anxiety that has risen to the top of inter-communal discussion.

•••

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

Shabbat shalom

GAJE