Rabbi Philip Graubart, Chief Jewish Officer & Director, Advanced Institute for Judaic Studies at San Diego Jewish Academy has posted an article for eJewish Philanthropy in which he reflects upon the deeply lasting achievement of Jewish education in an American social milieu in which most young Jewish adults are simply trying to find their own personally meaningful way through the hardscrabble of their lives without joining the increasingly fractious politics of left or right.

Entitled “Jewish Day Schools and the Canary Mission,” the article points out how the ideas, values and concepts imparted in Jewish day schools touch the core of human, let alone, Jewish existence and form a buttressing support when, inevitably, someone encounters personal crisis.

In a tone of apparent surprise, Rabbi Graubart writes “there’s not a universally agreed upon body of knowledge that conveys Jewish literacy or confidence or identity, certainly not at our school, an independent, pluralistic Jewish day school. But…I realized that we do provide radically relevant guidance on the key human crises that all our students will face.”

“It seems ridiculously obvious to have to say it,” Rabbi Graubart adds, “but if we really want to create a lasting, dynamic Jewish identity for American Jews, we have to show that Judaism is relevant on a day to day, deeply personal level.

“And which institutions provide precisely these teachings?” he asks. “The organizations that will carry us forward are the old fashioned ones: synagogues and Jewish schools. That’s where you’ll find educators and rabbis who dedicate their professional lives to teaching Jewish wisdom’s ongoing relevance.”

It is a message educators have been conveying since the first intensive Jewish education was offered in our community over 100 years ago. Judaism is indeed radically relevant on a day-to-day personal level. Moreover the message, in modern times, also speaks to the excellence of the overall education – Jewish and general studies – provided today in our diverse day schools.

The children who graduate from the day school, for the most part, are well equipped intellectually and emotionally to forge their own paths through the uncertainties, stresses and unceasing demands of life. And they will do so knowing who they are as Jews. This is a blessing to themselves and their families and to the wider community.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

The advent of a new calendar year is an appropriate moment to restate “first principles”.

1. The community’s mission – indeed the mission for every Jewish community throughout the long history of our people – is to strive to make Jewish education in our community affordable for every family that wishes to send its children to a Jewish day school.
2. UJA Federation of Greater Toronto is committed to ensuring the affordability of Jewish education as its top priority.
3. But we must not forget that Ontario’s educational funding policies are discriminatory.
   • Students across the province with learning disabilities do not receive equal treatment in relation to supportive health support services.
   • Students in independent schools receive no funding whatsoever for even a portion of the cost of the general studies curriculum. Yet, all the western provinces and Quebec, on the other hand, do provide some funding to independent schools for the cost of general studies.
4. Despite the important, laudable decision by UJA Federation to conscript and mobilize resources to resolve the crisis of affordability, it is still of paramount importance to seek justice and fair treatment from the Government of Ontario.
   

•••

The commentary by Rabbi Marc D. Angel on this week’s Torah portion, Va’era, offers guidance on how and why we should not abandon the justice we seek from the government.

“And the Lord said unto Moses: Rise up early in the morning and stand [tall] before Pharaoh.” (Shemoth 9:13)”

“Often enough, people are confronted with…injustice; but instead of standing tall in opposition to the perpetrators … people bow their heads. They lose self-confidence. They think: I am too small and too weak to resist. It’s best to go along or to stay quiet. Resistance can be unpleasant, even dangerous…While retaining our inner humility and gentleness, we must not bend our heads in the presence of…unjust people.

“How can humanity overcome widespread apathy in the face of injustice? How can the arrogant be humbled? There is only one answer, and it is for each person to assume personal responsibility. It is for each good and moral person to express indignation…

“And the Lord said unto Moses: Rise up early in the morning and stand [tall] before Pharaoh.” (Shemoth 9:13)”

“We are likewise commanded to stand tall before the Pharaohs of our times, to resist the agents of oppression, falsehood and injustice who undermine the fabric of our society and our world.”

Rabbi Angel offers excellent advice. Let us act on it.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

There is reason to feel optimistic as the last page of 2018 falls off the calendar and we greet 2019. As we noted in last week’s update, the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto has publicly declared it will pursue an “affordability solution for elementary and middle school as the highest philanthropic priority.”

And as we also noted last week, we can all take heart that the Federation has put the full weight of its organization and the moral imperative of its commitment to permanently solving the crisis of affordability. Though arriving soon at the “rescue apparatus” for Jewish education is not assured, it is certainly within our collective sights as a result of the Federation’s full-force mobilization toward the same goal.

To help embrace the new year with more than tentative hope, we point to the words of the late eminent historian Salo Baron whose essay, The Jewish Community and Jewish Education, was the first essay in a seminal work entitled Judaism and the Jewish School: Selected Essays on the Direction and Purpose of Jewish Education, (Edited by Judah Pilch and Meir Ben-Horin, The American Association for Jewish Education, 1966).

The 335-page tome was published to inaugurate a wide discussion in the United States on the urgent need to restructure, refocus and re-establish a wider basis for Jewish education beyond the traditional yeshiva and synagogue-based supplementary formats.

Baron’s essay provided historical context and intellectual direction for discussion. We reproduce a mere selection of his thoughts.

“Judaism, going far beyond all its predecessors in both the intensity of its religious devotion and the democratic appeal of its basic institutions, extended the area of public education in both Palestine and the dispersion to a theretofore unprecedented degree. Generation after generation re-echoed the Psalmist’s glorification of God’s ordained strength “out of the mouths of babes.”

“The assumption of communal responsibility, one might expect, would lead to the most obvious conclusion that the community as such should allocate adequate funds for Jewish education. Since the days of Joshua ben Gamla, antedating the second fall of Jerusalem, the Jewish communities all over the world have indeed cheerfully assumed the burden of supplying instruction to children, particularly to those children whose parents could not provide them with teachers. Ever since the days of the Talmud, the legal maxim prevailed that a school was even more “sacred” that a synagogue.”

After reflecting upon the possible content of a reimagined comprehensive Jewish educational system for the American Jewish community, Baron concludes, in part, “I wish to say that the communal responsibility for Jewish education will require not only much constructive thinking on the part of educators and communal leaders, but also a great deal of hard and painfully slow persuasion of unlike-minded individuals. It will necessitate many patient negotiations with diverse factions in Jewish life.”

Community leaders in the Greater Toronto Area long ago understood, accepted and acted upon the responsibility that Baron urged upon his community more than 50 years ago.

Happily, our community leaders today are reinvigorating the principle of communal responsibility for Jewish education in light of an affordability crisis that would have been wholly unimaginable to their counterparts more than a half century ago. They have begun the process of constructive thinking on the matter and in the hard, vital work of persuasion.

•••

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year in which – please God – the affordability of Jewish education for all who seek it, will start to come into view.

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

This week’s edition of The CJN (Dec. 20) featured an article about the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. The lead item of the story, indeed the key news from the meeting itself, relates to the determination of the Federation to make Jewish education more affordable.

CJN reporter Alex Rose wrote: “numerous Federation executives and board members “echoed the message…that the cost of education is the organizations No. 1 priority going forward.”

“Adam Minsky, the Federation’s president and CEO, said that UJA will work to find ways to make elementary and middle schools more accessible for middle-income families.

“Bruce Leboff, the outgoing chair of the board, reiterated the point, saying that the Federation will pursue an “affordability solution for elementary and middle school as the highest philanthropic priority.”

Incoming chair Warren Kimel called the lack of accessible options for middle-income families a “crisis of affordability.””

Federation leaders are to be commended for declaring this objective so unequivocally.

Parents, students and educators can take heart that the Federation has put the full weight of its organization and moral imperative of its commitment to permanently solving the crisis of affordability.

The community can be encouraged that a solution may be closer to hand and when anchored into the permanent institutional educational infrastructure, the uniqueness, diversity, charity, involvement, strength and Jewishness of our community will last in perpetuity.

When members of the community are called upon to take part in helping resolve the crisis, please respond favourably in the best way possible.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

In his discussion of this week’s parsha, Vayigash, Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth provides a profoundly important insight. In a certain sense, it is effectively be the ner tamid, the permanent shining light, of every Jewish community throughout the world illuminating a certain path through every darkness.

We reproduce excerpts from Chief Rabbi Mirvis’ dvar Torah. They are self-explanatory and require no further elaboration.

Read them well. And be inspired.

•••

“If you were building a new town or city what is the first structure that you would put up? You might be thinking that my answer would be a synagogue, but it is not.

“Yaakov and his family, seventy souls in all, are on their way to Egypt where Yaakov will be reunited with his son Yosef, whom he had not seen for twenty two long years. The Torah tells us, “V’Et Yehuda Shalach Lefanav El Yosef Lehorot Lefanav Goshnah –
Yaakov sent Yehuda, ahead of the family to Yosef, to show Yaakov the way to Goshen.”

“This does not seem to make sense because if Yehuda was going to show Yaakov the way, he would surely need to be alongside him? If he is a few days of journey ahead, how is he going to show him the way?

“So the Midrash in Bereishit Rabba, as brought down by Rashi says, “Letaken Lo Beit Talmud Shemisham Teiztei Hora’ah – Yaakov asked Yehuda to open a school so that education should flow from it.”

“The term ‘Lehorot’ means ‘to show the way’ but it also means ‘to teach’. Yaakov wanted to guarantee that on the very first day on which the family arrived in Goshen, the children would have a school to go to.

“He knew that they would be arriving in to an alien Egyptian environment, that in the course of time, the people would integrate into Egyptian society but that it would always be crucially important for them to retain their own independent identity. It was important for them to be rooted in their own faith, to be loyal to their own traditions and to remember how central the land of Israel should always be in their lives.

“The way to achieve all of this was through solid and comprehensive education.…In the absence of Jewish education there can be no Jewish future.

“Every key term relating to the books that we learn and those who teach them all mean one thing – learning Torah. It is from that same word ‘Hora’ah’ which means ‘to study’. ‘Mishnah’ means ‘to learn’. ‘Talmud’ means ‘to learn’ and ‘Gemarah’ is the Aramic for ‘learning’. A ‘teacher’ is ‘Moreh’ and a ‘parent’ is ‘Horeh’. Everything is centered on the importance of learning.

“All those years ago, Yaakov Avinu taught us a crucial lesson for Jewish survival – successful Jewish communities are those which establish successful institutes for Jewish education.” (Our emphasis)
•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

The Ontario government is currently holding public consultations into education reform in the province. The scope of the consultation is potentially quite broad. Eight questions have been put to the public for response. The questions suggest a narrow scope of possible reform. However the last (eighth) question asks for broad feedback or a sharing of ideas regarding the education system.

This is an opportunity for all members of our community who seek justice in educational funding to make their opinions known to the government. It is very important that as many members of our community as possible participate in the survey.

We have included some possible ideas to mention in your responses to Question 8. We discourage simply copying and pasting the words. The greater the number of individually written responses, the greater the effect will be upon policy planners. An obviously orchestrated campaign of the exact same submissions will have a diminished impact, if any, on the government.

•••

Possible ideas to include in the response to Question 8

• The funding formula for Ontario’s schools was established in the late 19th century. It is an archaic formula and must be brought into the 21st century to better reflect the province’s diverse population and realities of today. Recognize and give status to Independent schools in Ontario. Update the definition of private school in the Education Act.

• Support the educational needs of all students with Special Needs in Independent schools. This means accommodating all disabilities of children in independent schools as opposed to the current policy of only supporting a select number of disabilities.

• On balance, Ontario’s private schools produce an excellent “product”–solid citizens that contribute to the future tax base of the province. It makes sense to support these schools and their parents in the educational journey of their children.

• Property taxes paid by landowners is a significant contribution to Ontario’s revenue stream. It is important for taxpayers to see an ROI (return on investment) by expanding the funded school boards to include private/ independent schools. Landowners can then direct their property taxes to the school board of their choosing in a more equitable way.

•••

To participate in the consultation please click:

https://www.ontario.ca/form/open-submissions-education-ontario

Consultations end December 15, 2018. 2018. Please respond soon.

•••

Shabbat Shalom. Chag Chanukah samayach.

GAJE

Earlier this month, Mem Bernstein, Chairman of The AVI CHAI Foundation delivered a keynote address at the Day School Investor Summit, convened by Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools. More than 100 philanthropists dedicated involved in day school development attended.

As the AVI CHAI Foundation is set to wind down its work, Bernstein spoke about the founding of the Foundation, its mission, and her involvement in the Foundation specifically and in educational philanthropy generally.

In explaining why she sent her children to day school, she said:

“This was about my children, and their Jewish futures, a future that would hopefully offer them social, academic, professional, and religious success. I was committed to making their experience as good as I possibly could.”

“I wanted my children – and everyone’s children – to know that they are part of an incredible people, with an extraordinary past, present, and future…

“Day schools can be one of the most effective ways to ensure children know who they are as individuals and as Jews. Day schools can give them a strong sense of community, a deep awareness that they are part of something so much bigger than themselves.”

She readily acknowledged that not everything was perfect at the school in which she enrolled her children. It wasn’t. Nor could it be. Nor is it at any school anywhere.

In describing the education she provided to her children, she spoke this memorable statement: “I could not have given my children or my family a more extraordinary gift.”

Knowing who they are as individuals and as Jews along with a sense of belonging to our remarkable people is indeed an extraordinary gift we can give our children. These days however, it cannot be done without the full commitment of the community.

In two days we begin lighting the candles of Chanukah. In addition to focusing the ambience and family involvement of the occasion, the candles also illuminate the darker spaces of sunlight-deprived, shortened daylight hours. In the same vein, it is no stretch to add that Jewish education illuminates the darker personal and communal spaces created when young Jews do not know who they are or who they could be as Jews.

•••

You can read Bernstein’s full remarks at:
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/mem-bernstein-on-passing-the-baton/

Shabbat Shalom. Chag Chanukah samayach.

GAJE

The remarkable gift almost two years ago by the Jesin-Neuberger families and by an anonymous donor family — that reduced for a period of five years the tuition at CHAT by almost one third — has empirically proven that enrolment is indeed tied to affordable tuition. The enrolment this year in Grade Nine has skyrocketed by an astounding 68 percent. This figure is unprecedented anywhere in North America.

Last week, UJA Federation posted on its weekly snapshot, a short three-minute video in which the sense of gratitude to the donors for this potentially revolutionary, history-setting gift that so generously benefits parents, students, the school and the community is poignantly expressed by students and parents alike.

“Having Jewish education really adds a lot to your life. You discover who you are,” says one of the students.

“Being involved in Jewish community and being part of it has really shaped me,” says another student.

“I really hope that the people who made this incredible donation understand the value that they have contributed to the community, that the impact they are having is really a significant one. Ultimately it inspires other people to do the same. What they are doing is they are investing in a whole generation of kids who will ultimately step up in their own right and help the Jewish community.” (A grateful parent)

We must view the overwhelming success of the CHAT initiative as a beginning only. The reduced tuition must become the permanent norm at the school. Moreover, it must also become a reality at all the feeder elementary schools. For this to happen, other generously inclined families and donors need to follow the Jesin-Neuberger example. Please.

•••

You can view the “Creating Affordability and Increasing Enrolment – the TanenbaumCHAT Success Story” video at: https://jewishtoronto.com/news-media/what-we-do/the-tanenbaumchat-success-story?

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

From time to time, GAJE points out that communities across North America are mobilizing to strengthen the Jewish educational and day school system. We do so again with this update.

Paul Bernstein, the founding CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, published an article on the eJewishPhilanthropy site entitled, Unlocking the Potential of Jewish Day Schools.

Bernstein restates the proposition that is at the heart of the campaign to make Jewish education affordable. “Strong Jewish day schools create strong Jewish communities.”

He then logically asks the vital question: “How can we unlock the potential of the inherent link between communities and Jewish day schools to secure a strong Jewish future?”

The article introduces a five-year strategic plan by Prizmah entitled B’Yachad/Together: Towards a Vibrant Future for Jewish Day Schools.

Bernstein points out that the “blueprint is built from an understanding of that deep and powerful school-community connection – the stronger our schools are, the stronger our communities, and vice-versa. Today’s Jewish day school students, and those who follow in their footsteps, are precious resources.”

The lay and professional leaders of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education (in the GTA) are fully engaged in the effort to strengthen our educational system by making it affordable to all families that seek it for their children and then by making the system permanently sustainable.

We will all have a role to play in this. When the wide Jewish community is asked to participate in and assist in the essential task of ensuring the Jewish future, we hope members of the community will respond wholeheartedly and purposefully by plunging, so to speak, into the deep end of “rescue” rather than by merely dipping our toes tentatively along the stony, shallow shoreline of indifference.•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

The reason GAJE was formed some three years ago was to help the community make Jewish education affordable to the many families in our community for whom it has become increasingly out of reach financially. In the process, we have also commented from time to time that the companion issue to the affordability of the education is its overall excellence.

An article appeared this week on the eJewish Philanthropy website that focuses the discussion about Jewish day school education on this very subject. Entitled, CAJE-Miami: A Decade of Lessons Learned, the authors Valerie Mitrani and Julie Lambert ask the question: “What is the point of sustainability and affordability if Jewish day schools aren’t at the forefront of education, providing learning environments that offer leading pedagogies and opportunities that meet the needs of our students and families?”

Of course, GAJE agrees with this proposition.

Mitrani and Lambert state “in a world full of options, we have a moral obligation as a Jewish community to ensure that Jewish day school students experience a high quality education.” And they add: “the single most important school-based factor impacting student learning is the teacher. The second most important factor is the principal.”

GAJE also agrees with these statements.

Thankfully, in the GTA, we are indeed able to say that the schools do provide excellent education in general studies and in Jewish studies, within of course, their particular respective philosophical Judaic outlooks. Of course, behavioural and pedagogical issues do arise in each school that are particular to individual students and that may make a child’s experience in the school difficult. We would never deny things we know to be true.

But on balance, the evidence persists that the day schools do offer a high quality educational experience. We must emphasize and re-emphasize this fact to the Jewish public. The teachers and the principals understand that they – the human factor – are the irreplaceable centers of each school.

•••

Some weeks ago, we helped announce in this space the opening of a new pedagogically blended learning high school slated to open in the GTA in September 2019. The school organizers are holding an Open House on Nov 25, 7 pm in the Lipa Green Building, 4600 Bathurst Street.

Curious parents of prospective students and of course, students themselves are invited to attend to hear more about ADRABA: meet with the school’s originators, ask questions, discuss their plans and aspirations and experience a sample lesson intended for incoming students.

More info about ADRABA is available at ADRABA.ca.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE