Rabbi Jay Kelman – the founder of Torah in Motion, a teacher at TanenbaumCHAT and one of GAJE’s founding members – has written a persuasive article in which he points to the irrefutable power of pointedly directed and pointedly monitored philanthropy in bringing back students into the classrooms of our Jewish schools where enrolment has fallen over the years.

The article appeared in Lehrhaus as a response to an earlier article that suggested reduced financial investment by philanthropists in schools was a more likely guarantor of the survival of the various schools in our embattled Jewish day school system.

Rabbi Kelman posits the nub of his thesis at the outset of his commentary “It is undoubtedly true that the cost per student has risen dramatically over the years. However, asking donors to stop giving money to schools, thereby forcing serious cost cutting, is extremely unlikely to help, and quite certain to make the problem worse.”

He then sets about proving his thesis by testing various cost-cutting scenarios, relying on published figures for local and national educational costs. He demonstrates the case of a school whose costs are reduced by 50%. Then Rabbi Kelman poignantly asks: “But who would want to go to such a school? And for those who do what kind of an education would they receive? You get what you pay for, and quality costs money.

“Even with a 50% cut in costs, the annual tuition bill for a family with four children—a typical size of a Modern Orthodox family— would still be somewhere between $40,000-$50,000 a year. With no philanthropic dollars coming in, many families would still be forced out of the day school system. And all the more so if those families have five or even six children. Asking donors to no longer support our schools is not the solution to the tuition crisis.”

Indeed, Rabbi Kelman makes the eloquent case for seeking more assistance from our community-minded philanthropists. “It is here that philanthropists can make a real difference. But instead of asking donors to stop giving money, schools should ask for more money and greater donor oversight. 

“An example of the power of this type of giving is clearly demonstrated at TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto, where two philanthropists donated $15 million on condition that tuition would be lowered from $28,500 to $18,500 a year over five years. The $15 million covered only about half of the lost tuition, forcing the school to find ways to remain eligible for the money. One of the beautiful aspects of the plan was that the school was free to reach its target tuition in any way it wanted. The donors provided the funding, and let the educators decide how to best meet their conditions.

The results speak for themselves. After years of declining enrolment, the tide has turned. Because of the foresight of two philanthropists, the incoming Grade 9 class has gone from 198 students (before the gift) to 298 students in just one year, and to over 300 students for this upcoming year.” 

We re-emphasize Rabbi Kelman’s conclusions. The results do indeed speak for themselves. The reduced tuition has led to dramatic increases in enrolment.

These new enrolment figures are amazing and deeply encouraging, Moreover they are suggestive of a strong, knowledgeable, committed generation growing into and steering our Jewish future.

••• Rabbi Kelman’s commentary can be found at:

https://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary/philanthropy-works-we-just-need-more-of-it/#em

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Shabbat Shalom

GAJE August 23, 2019

Summertime has just inched past the halfway point. In one month our children return to school.

Alas, we cannot yet say that for most families Jewish education for their children is more affordable today than it was last year. But nor will we say that the challenge indeed, the obligation, of making Jewish education affordable is out of reach, is beyond the collective ability of our community to make it happen. Despite the many laudable achievements of our community, until Jewish education is truly affordable, we will be less than we could be, less than we must be to fulfill the timeless aspirations and values of our people.

The community is indeed making progress toward making Jewish education affordable, though we have not yet arrived at our goal and the journey to the finish line is slower than we had hoped.

That we are still in mid-effort rather than celebrating the attainment of our objective must not discourage us. We must continue to push forward without losing resolve or determination. In his commentary on this week’s Torah portion, (Matot-Masei) Rabbi Marc Angel suggests how we can do that.

“Judaism imbues us with a sense that every day has meaning, that we can grow and attain something new and better. Life is not a rut or a routine; we are not trapped or locked in one place….

“We do not succumb to frustration or despair …. We are not here to achieve egotistical goals such as fame and power, but to serve God and humanity. Greatness is not measured by the number of lines one receives in history books, but by the myriad small deeds of kindness and charity and goodness that we have performed, by our positive impact on family, friends, and society.

“The detailed description of the Israelites’ travels in the wilderness reminds us of the importance of the past stages of our lives. It also serves to call our attention to the future, to the Promised Land, to the goals not yet attained. Just as we are strengthened by our past, we are energized by the hopes for our future.”

The goal of affordable Jewish education is not yet attained. But, as Rabbi Angel tells us, we are not locked into this place of unaffordability. Our hopes for the future energize us.

Failure is not an option.

Rabbi Angel’s commentary can be found at:

https://www.jewishideas.org/past-preludethoughts-matot-masei

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Shabbat Shalom

GAJE August 2, 2019

The problem of unaffordable Jewish education in our community will be solved when the full community mobilizes to solve it. This means that men and women and families from across the spectrum of Jewish communal life must become involved or contribute in some way to finding a solution.

An example of wide community involvement in solving a pressing community problem arose last week from a small Jewish group of parents in South Manchester in the U.K. The nature of the problem facing the parents there was quite different than the tuition dilemma parents here face.

Nevertheless, it is important that we share the example because the message it sends is relevant to us as well, i.e., refuse to believe that it is hopeless or that we are helpless at finding an appropriate solution.

The London-based Jewish Chronicle last week reported that a group of parents took upon themselves the task of finding the necessary funding to ensure the North Cheshire Jewish Primary School would be able to provide sufficient classroom space for children who wish to attend the school.

The school is the South Manchester’s only Jewish primary school and had planned to restrict entry to only one class of 30 students. This would have left at least 14 children, whose parents seek a Jewish education for them, without a place at the school. Such a prospect was utterly unacceptable to the parents of these 14 children. They refused to believe that they were helpless to intervene. Thus they launched an appeal to raise £100,000 to ensure the school would be able to provide enough places for children who want to go there.

One of the parents and the campaign’s liaison manager, said, “The funds raised by the campaign would go towards ensuring excellence across the school and providing as many places as possible to the Jewish children of South Manchester in a school that embeds a love for Jewish life and Israel for today and the future”.

We commend the decision of these South Manchester parents, They got involved because their objective is to “embed a love for Jewish life and Israel for today and the future”. That is our goal too. It should be the goal of Jewish education throughout the world.

Setting aside the details of the dilemma the parents at North Cheshire Jewish Primary School faced and of the solution they devised, we learn from them:

• not to give up searching for answers.

• not to give in to the seeming intractability of a problem.

• and to seek the solutions together, as a community.

Failure for the South Manchester parents, and for GAJE, is not an option.

The JC article can be found at:

https://www.thejc.com/education/education-news/manchester-parents-launch-100k-appeal-to-finance-extra-school-places-1.486446

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Shabbat Shalom

GAJE July 19, 2019

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has succinctly and pointedly expressed the deeply rooted, permanently engrained significance of education to the Jewish people.

In his collection of essays, From Optimism to Hope, he wrote: “Long ago the Jewish people came to the conclusion that to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilization you need schools. The single most important social institution is the place where we hand on our values to the next generation – where we tell our children where we’ve come from, what ideals we fought for, and what we learned on the way. Schools are where we make children our partners in the long and open-ended task of making a more gracious world.”

Making our schools affordable to all families who seek a Jewish education for their children has been – and is – the single motivating force driving all of GAJE’s efforts.

Moreover, and especially, GAJE is determined to demonstrate through the legal system that since the permanent viability of Jewish schools – and of other independent, publicly monitored, denominational schools too – is vital to the continued future of the smaller communities served by these schools, the viability of these schools is also vital to the continued future of Canada’s thriving multicultural, multi-religious, tolerant society.

Thus, a public educational system that is also committed to helping ensure the permanent viability of the smaller communities’ schools will also help enhance and strengthen the overall educational system as well as society itself.

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Shabbat Shalom GAJE July 12, 2019

Ever since the Supreme Court of Canada in 1996 declared constitutional Ontario’s unfair educational funding policies, the community has been stymied in attempting to fulfil its historic aim of trying to ensure that every family would be able to afford a Jewish education for its children.

That sense of communal frustration was compounded a decade later in 2006, when the Ontario electorate rejected the candidacy of John Tory for premier. Tory had explicitly said during the campaign that he would introduce a pilot project to try to bring some measure of fairness and justice to the province’s educational funding.

In the intervening 23 years since the Supreme Court’s decision, Ontario’s demographics have changed: large numbers of Ontarians have indicated a preference for more competition in schooling. Indeed, the funding experience of the next five largest provinces after Ontario indicates that public funding for some portion of the general studies portion of independent schools eventually saves money for the public treasury. And during that same period of time, we know, alas, the cost of living a Jewish life in the GTA has skyrocketed. Jewish education had become out of reach for a great many young families.

Last year the community leadership committed to making the affordability of Jewish education to be their first priority. Their decision was celebrated at the time, remains celebrated today, and deserves to be commended and supported.

Individuals from all walks within the community, however, are still divided about the wisdom and propriety of attempting to have the courts reassess and perhaps reopen the 1996 decision of the Supreme Court.

GAJE believes it is the correct thing to do. Some people disagree with us.

In his commentary this week on Parashat Korah, Rabbi Marc D. Angel suggests how such a difference of approach within the community should be handled.

“When people—individually, communally, nationally—have disagreements, they can engage in serious discussion and dialogue even if the parties are critical of each other’s positions. Each can offer arguments and refutations. Both sides—even if holding very different positions—can still find a common ground and can see themselves as working toward one goal.”

The diverse and disparate efforts of concerned and interested members in the community are aimed at the same target: making Jewish education affordable. And as Rav Angel suggests, we enhance our chances of reaching the target when we all stand on common ground.

Rabbi Angel’s full article is available at:

https://www.jewishideas.org/criticism-or-contempt-thoughts-parashat-korah

Shabbat Shalom

GAJE July 5, 2019

Earlier this month, a family of philanthropists in Chicago, owners of homes for the aged in the area, announced a “ground-breaking, cross generational effort totalling $11 million to support and sustain Jewish day school education across the Chicago Jewish community.”

Whenever private and communal support of Jewish education is so publicly championed, irrespective of the locale, it is important that the news reach as wide an audience as possible in the hope that other generously inclined individuals and families will be inspired to follow the example.

Structured as endowments, the funds comprise an allocation of $11 million over a five-year period to three Chicago-area schools: The Associated Talmud Torahs’ REACH program, Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago (SSDS), and Chicago Jewish Day School (CJDS). The funding is intended “to maximize each institution’s impact and ensure their long-term sustainability.”

In explaining the reason for his family’s donation, Alan Caplan, said “the Hebrew words l’dor v’dor are literally inscribed into the doors at Park Plaza (Home for the Aged). “From generation to generation; that’s what we believe in, as individuals and as part of the Jewish community, and that’s exactly what this gift is: a gift that gives from one generation to the next, and the next after that.”

Caplan succinctly captured the importance of funding Jewish education by describing education as the anvil on which the links of Jewish life connecting one generation to the next – l’dor v’dor – are eternally forged.

In expressing her school’s gratitude for the funding gift, Judy Finkelstein-Taff, Head of School of the Chicago Jewish Day School, described further the trans-generational significance and beauty of Jewish education: “It seems very poignant to me as we look at the cycle of our lives and think about how we stand on the shoulders of the ones who came before us. We educate our students to celebrate the diversity of their present, and our students become the next generation of shoulders for their children to stand on. This gift will not only ensure the future of our school, but in a sense, it is ensuring the future of the Jewish people.”

If it is true that imitation is the highest form of compliment, we hope there will be local philanthropists of equal mind, heart and caring for the future of the Jewish people to pay high compliments to the Caplan family of Chicago!

•••

Shabbat Shalom

GAJE