It was in 1974, out of a sense of post-Yom Kippur War trauma-and-relief and the widespread Jewish affirmation on campuses that arose in defense of Israel, that the musical group Safam was formed in Boston.

They described their music as Jewish folk-rock. If there were a hall of fame for North American Jewish music, they would deserve a place in it. They wrote and performed many songs that were iconic for their times and will remain timeless in their cultural and historic significance.

One of Safam’s early songs, World of our Fathers, was a long-verse ballad about a young Jewish immigrant arriving in America at the turn of the last century escaping the pogroms and persecutions in Russia. The young immigrant is lost at the beginning of his new life, but he acknowledges:

If it wasn’t for my people, I don’t know what I’d do,
And I thank the Lord above me that I was born a Jew.

Typically, the young immigrant works hard, brings his siblings to America, raises a family and builds a life for himself. Throughout his years in the new land he constantly is guided by his mother’s last words to him.

Just don’t forget where you came from, my son
And the world of your fathers, you’ll soon leave behind.
Just keep the faith of your people wherever you go,
There a friend you will find.

The immigrant’s children enjoy the many benefits of their father’s material success. Despite his pleas, they grow distant from the values that he cherishes, from the world of his father. And he notices. “Of their father they would grow ashamed.”

But the years are not all unkind. Near the end of his days he lives with one of his grandchildren who asks him to teach his great grandchildren a “bissel Yiddish.” He takes great comfort in this request and sees in it proof that the world of his fathers – i.e., the traditions and the faith – will not be lost.

There were times, so many times when I feared that all was lost;
We had come so far, so fast, that I wondered what the cost.
But now I see my father’s world begin to rise
In my great grandchildren’s eyes!

The song is uplifting and ends with klezmer styling and phrasing that impart a feeling of hope and of optimism.

But would Safam write today that they see the rise of our fathers’ world in the unfolding lives of young Jews? They could not do so. There is no such rise. The evidence is simply not there.

To preserve, enhance and adapt where necessary, the world of our fathers and mothers, we must be able to provide comprehensive Jewish education to our children and to their children for every generation. If, however, the tuition for Jewish education is unaffordable for the majority of families, the life-affirming and faith-sustaining values of that world will be lost for most Jews.

If only there were a way today to rally our people on behalf of affordable Jewish education, as Safam rallied countless thousands for innumerable vital Jewish causes some 45 years ago.

•••

Shabbat Shalom. Chag samayach.

GAJE

This Shabbat – Shabbat Hagadol – precedes Pesach. Not surprisingly, it brings its own pointed pre-Pesach messages, one of which appears in the Haftarah portion from the prophet Malachi.

In exceedingly poetic and poignant language, Malachi tells us that God will send Elijah who “will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents.”

It is a testament to the superbly astute judgement of the ancient Sages that it is Malachi’s encouraging forecast of inter-generational relations they chose to underpin our emotions and our hopes as we prepare for and enter, merely days later, the formative, seminal Jewish holiday of our peoplehood.

It is, of course, a message of continuity: teaching the older generation how to pass the torch of our values to our children, filling us with hope that they will wish to receive it and be able to do so and one day, in turn, pass it lovingly to their children.

With the purposefully included four archetypes of children as students, the many carefully prescribed details and rituals, and, of course, the exciting story of Pesach, the Seder is and has clearly been designed by our Sages to be a quintessential teaching moment.

Indeed, one can perhaps say – based on the biblical commandment to teach our children the origin of our peoplehood – the Seder is the historic keystone on which the structure of Jewish education is based and has been communally supported for some 2,000 years.

As we prepare for Pesach, let us be inspired to action by Malachi’s hope. Let us vow to secure our communal education system. If our children are to turn their hearts to, and accept for themselves in their own way, the traditions and values of their parents, we – the parents and the community in which we reside – must see to the children’s education.

If it is not affordable, then there effectively will be no education.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

For nearly three years GAJE has highlighted efforts from diverse communities in North America to make Jewish education more affordable. A great deal more about these efforts is being written and shared today than it was some three years ago when GAJE was formed. That is not surprising because a great deal more is being done today than three years ago to solve the unaffordability crisis.

Some communities are trying to reimagine the delivery of Jewish education itself in a manner that is less expensive but not less effective.

In a story written for JTA this week, E.J. Kessler wrote about one such newly designed method of delivering education called “blended learning” at Westchester Torah Academy in New Rochelle, New York.

The school has adopted a new model of instruction “that uses computer technology to customize student lessons and blends that with small-group teacher instruction.”

Kessler writes that proponents of blended learning for enabling it to diagnose individual learning weaknesses and strengths and then customize lessons that respond to the needs of the individual student.

They also point out how much less expensive a “blended” learning experience than the conventional one.

“At Westchester Torah Academy, an Orthodox school of 148 students from preschool to fifth grade, tuition is below $11,000 – about 50 percent less than at nearby Jewish day schools,” Kessler notes.”

Three other Jewish day schools in the U.S. currently use an all-blended teaching system. Kessler also adds “scores of traditional Jewish day schools are also using some degree of blended learning programs.”

The point of bringing a blended learning model to our readers’ attention is not to tout it above other teaching models. Rather, it is simply to point out that the status quo within the day school system is failing. And different communities of parents, teachers and administrators are trying new and different approaches to bring down the cost of Jewish education – such as blended learning – that suit their particular set of circumstances.

It is indeed imperative to implement cost efficiencies in every school, whether an “old-time” school or highly digitalized new one. But cost efficiencies alone cannot make tuitions affordable. We must not neglect looking for and finding new approaches to funding our schools too so that the excellence of the education they deliver is never impaired.

Good luck to everyone trying to bring Jewish education within reach of the Jewish families who wish it for their children. We applaud and cheer them.

The full Kessler article can be found at: https://www.jta.org/2018/03/14/news-opinion/embraced-low-tuition-jewish-schools-blended-learning-now-catching-widely

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

We have, on other occasions in our weekly update, referred to the opinion of Dr. Erica Brown. She is renowned among scholars and educators for her writing and for her focus on Jewish education. We do so again this week.

Dr. Brown is the director of the Mayberg Center of Jewish Education and Leadership and an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University.

She published a long article last week entitled Reflecting and Celebrating: Conversations on Jewish Education. In it, Dr. Brown encapsulates the key summary points from nearly a year of formal and informal interviews of “professionals in and around the universe of Jewish education”. She was “interested in the hard-earned wisdom of notable professionals in and around the field.”

In particular, she was determined to find out what the experts see “as the current contributions of Jewish education, particularly day school education, and could they point to successes? What are the most pressing leadership challenges today and the viable initiatives tackling these problems? What skill sets do they believe are most important to the work, and what kind of lay support is most helpful in achieving their goals?”

Dr. Brown distilled the most salient and repeated observations from her eclectic resource of experts into 18 bullet points with accompanying elaborative text. She hopes the document will “inform a communal agenda” aimed at ensuring the excellence of Jewish education.

We have reproduced only four of the 18 summary points – without any of the accompanying text. Their relevance to our situation in the GTA is evident merely by their titles.

Summary points:

4. Success lives at the nexus of strong practitioners and strong leaders.

5. We are generally more honest about acknowledging difficulties.

13. Day school education outside of the Orthodox community is really struggling.

18. Jewish education needs to be higher on the communal agenda

Readers are advised to consult the entirety of Dr. Brown’s article to benefit from the full effect of its substance and discussion. It is instructive. The full text can be found at: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/reflecting-and-celebrating-conversations-on-jewish-education/.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

As GAJE has reported frequently, individuals and volunteer lay groups have sprung up across North America in the past few years to try to make Jewish education affordable in their respective communities.

Some months ago we wrote about an interesting initiative by James Wolfe, CEO of Integrate S/T, a software development firm in Newton, Massachusetts, who designed and posted on line a Google Spreadsheet listing the cost of tuition at a number of day schools.

In an article on JeducationWorld.com, entitled “Demystifying Day School Tuition”, Wolfe wrote that the spreadsheet had been intended for friends and family, and asked for basic information about schools and tuition cost. The spreadsheet exercise went “viral” and collected data about hundreds of day schools around the world.

As Wolfe acknowledged however, the spreadsheet ultimately proved unhelpful in leading to a deeper understanding of the architecture of tuition costs.

“That the spreadsheet was shared so broadly,” Wolfe wrote, “indicates how deeply it resonated with the larger Jewish community. The information—and the desire to democratize it—clearly struck a nerve. Still, this unintended project mostly failed to serve as a catalyst for any form of change.”

He understood that “sticker prices” alone do not convey the information that is required to truly understand all of the underlying costs at each school. “The spreadsheet failed to consider cost of living, financial aid, and the depth of offerings at each school. Some schools feature more educational opportunities and amenities than others, to say nothing about non-educational drivers of cost such as dormitories and meal plans.”

Indeed simply posting tuitions may even have generated more resentment than it did understanding. But Wolfe remained undeterred. Rather than resign himself to the failure of a worthwhile experiment, he refined his experiment. And thus, he has presented a new, hopefully better version of the spreadsheet idea.

“To truly solve a problem, we must first understand it. As a community, we must take a hard look at our day schools and place their costs into a fuller context. Revealing and democratizing information is crucial but accumulating and sharing good data is even more critical. That’s why I’ve now created the Jewish School Database (JSDB). The JSDB is a website that aims to empower the community to gather and learn important and sometimes elusive data.

“With JSDB, we will be able to identify and analyze outcomes, understand how schools compare to each other, and enable the school administrators to develop best practices. The day schools largely ignored the 2016 spreadsheet because they could claim—perhaps rightfully—that their tuitions vary because their offerings are different. This new website and the data it collects will allow parents and other stakeholders to evaluate whether these claims are accurate. Most importantly, it will hold schools accountable for the choices they make when balancing quality and cost.”

The website is designed to collect data in three categories: outcomes, experience and expenses.

Wolfe pleads with individuals to post information on the JSDB. He describes the effort in a manner that we appreciate and support. “This project is necessarily grassroots… While no individual data point will solve the tuition crisis, working together we can build something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Reaching a critical mass will allow us to bring about real change. That goal can only be met with your participation.”

We are striving to help make Jewish education affordable. If we fail, we will, alas, have contributed to the future demise of our vibrant, broadly based, diverse, activist Jewish community.

Thus, GAJE urges readers to join in Wolfe’s effort, for he shares the same goal.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

It is now, alas, an old story, yet an alarmingly urgent one, that a large number of young North American Jews are slipping away from meaningfully identifying with the Jewish people because they are unfamiliar with the fundamental, core aspects of Jewish life.

Sarah Hurwitz, a former senior speechwriter for U.S. President Barack Obama and chief speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama, recently spoke about this issue at an event entitled, Beyond the D’var Torah: How to Unleash the Potential of Rich Jewish Content, hosted by Jewish Funders Network.

An obviously accomplished young woman, she pleaded with the audience as one whose personal life until relatively recently typified the Jewish drift that she eloquently lamented. Hurwitz had an unremarkable Jewish upbringing but now yearns to know more. She wishes to learn more about the entirety of her heritage – of Jewish law, the power of Jewish spirituality, and the lessons of Jewish history.

Hurwitz did not offer specific policy recommendations to her listeners. Nor did she mention the proven link between excellent, intense Jewish education and a lifetime of Jewish involvement. Rather, she imparted general principles of action that she believes – if implemented – will still be in time to bring back a generation of unknowing, even misinformed and uninvolved Jews to their Judaism and their Jewish people.

She spoke directly from her heart.

“I urge you to think big. Like Birthright big. Think about what could happen if we invested that kind of passion and commitment – and that level of resources – into a kind of Birthright experience that exposes people to powerful Jewish ideas and practices and shows them how the wisdom and worldview of Judaism can transform their lives.

And then Hurwitz offered personal testimony.

“Just for me personally, discovering rich Jewish content changed how I see the world and how I live my life, and it’s led me to want to inspire others to have the same experience. And I think if you all can find a way to reach more Jews like me, you can have a tremendous impact on our Jewish future.”

Thankfully, our community offers an educational experience that, over they years, has proven its transformative impact: Jewish education. But for the vast majority of middle income families, such education is not affordable. We must ensure in perpetuity that it is.

We therefore appeal to the entire community and especially to the civic-minded families who are able to act generously and inclined to acts of philanthropy, to “think big” on the subject of affordable Jewish education. The most assuredly direct and effective way to “have a tremendous impact on our Jewish future”, to use Hurwitz’s words, is to help make Jewish education affordable to all of the middle income families for whom it is now, sadly, beyond reach.

The Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto has created a tuition-assistance endowment fund. Please think big about donating to this fund.

You can view Ms. Hurwitz’s presentation and read the text of her remarks here: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/former-obama-speechwriter-speaks-on-rich-jewish-content/#more-112676

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

A story appeared in The Globe and Mail this week that reports upon the increasing enrolment by non-Catholic parents of their children in Catholic schools. The Globe reported that the number of documented non-Catholic students (in Catholic elementary schools) reached almost 11,000, an 18-percent increase in the past four years. The figure may indeed be higher because, in some cases, as the article notes, the religion of the students may not actually be known.

Ever since public funding in Ontario was extended to Catholic high schools in the late 1980’s, Catholic high schools must accept any student who wishes to enrol. Elementary schools however may turn non-Catholic children away.

According to the article, “each student enrolled in an English Catholic elementary school comes with about $12,000 in annual government funding.”

Separate school boards, the article notes, are not necessarily comfortable with the ongoing publicity surrounding the increase in non-Catholic children in their elementary schools, though not with the actual increase itself. “The separate system is keenly aware that the shift could be viewed poorly,” the Globe reporter wrote.

And indeed, in many circles, it is.

The competition between the two school systems to attract students is causing Laurie French, president of the Ontario Public Schools Boards’ Association to worry about the viability of schools – presumably public schools – in small communities

Leonard Baak of Stittsville, was apparently so upset by the accelerated drift of non-Catholic students into Catholic elementary schools that he founded the lobby group OneSchoolSystem.org.

All of which calls into question the accuracy of the statement by Ontario’s Education Ministry to The Canadian Jewish News earlier this month. “Our focus remains on maintaining the current, stable, publicly funded education system… There are no plans to revisit the issue of funding private schools.”

The Globe and Mail article shows the current system is not as stable as the government asserts. Nor is it even remotely fair as the government of Ontario cannot assert.

Ontario hides behind the 22-year-old decision of the Supreme Court to justify its ongoing discriminatory educational funding. Other provinces have advanced past that decision to incorporate a measure of fairness into their educational funding policies. It is a great pity and a greater shame that Ontario, the richest province of all, cannot find a way to do the same.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Rabbi Avraham Infeld is an award-winning, highly acclaimed, innovative, inspiring teacher. He was born in South Africa, moved to Israel as a teenager, and now lives in Jerusalem. Some four decades ago, he established Melitz, a non-profit educational institution that works with Israel and Diaspora young people to foster Jewish identity rooted in a pluralistic understanding of Jewish life and the centrality of Israel.

His lectures are unique and gripping. The key message to which he constantly returns and has returned throughout his teaching career is essentially: the peoplehood of Jews is the framework for our Judaism.

Rabbi Infeld’s most recent work, A Passion for A People: Lessons from the Life of a Jewish Educator, was the subject of a wonderful commentary by Steve Freedman, Head of School at the Hillel Day School in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Freedman enthusiastically recommends the book.

Freedman begins his review by asking: “When you ask your child to think of a story about a character taking off shoes, what do you want the association to be? Cinderella, or Moses at the burning bush? This is one of many poignant questions Avraham Infeld asks in his new book.”

“How we answer Infeld’s question may very well give an indication of how we view ourselves as Jews. It’s not that we shouldn’t know both stories; it’s about priority – which story do you first want your child to connect with?

And how we answer the question, Freedman adds, “will significantly impact us as we move through this century.”

Rabbi Infeld argues that embracing Judaism is ultimately more important than how we do so. There are many ways to be passionate about Judaism, according to Rabbi Infeld. “One embrace is no less authentic than another. Rabbi Infeld advocates that today’s Jews must find ways to be “unified, if not uniform,” through diversity.

For Rabbi Infeld, Freedman writes, “this sense of unification begins with reclaiming the understanding that we are a people. It is thus imperative that each Jew knows her story, and can see himself in that story.” Freedman points out that this is the central challenge of Jewish education today.

He enunciates the goal of the educational program at his school “to enhance the ability of each child, and each family, to feel a greater connection to the Jewish people by developing a relationship with God, a connection to Israel, a mastery of the Hebrew language, and the internalization of the Jewish story.”

Indeed, we share this goal.

We want our connection to the Jewish people to live on forever. To achieve this, however, Jewish education must be affordable.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

At a town hall meeting earlier this week in Thunder Bay, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne fielded a question about the two school boards in the area advertising against each other for students. The premier correctly decried the wastage of public funds and she added “But we’re not going to move away from the systems that are rooted in the history of the province at this point.”

It was a shame that no one asked her about the inherent injustice and unfairness in the systems. Ontario’s current educational funding policy is indeed “rooted in the history of the province”. But there is absolutely no historic or constitutional or any other obstacle to making educational funding fair for all Ontarians who wish to educate their children outside the public or Catholic school systems.

The five most populous provinces in the country – outside Ontario – do provide some measure of public funding to independent schools, denominational and non-denominational schools. The most populous and arguably, wealthiest province – Ontario – does not.

It cannot be argued that Ontario cannot afford to do so. For how are the other five, less “wealthy” provinces able to afford to do so?

It cannot be argued that to do so risks harming the tolerance and inclusivism of our multicultural society, because it does not do so in those other five provinces.

It cannot be argued that to do so risks harming the overall public and Catholic school boards because it clearly does not harm the school boards in those other five provinces.

It cannot be argued that to do so risks harming the actual educational outcomes among the student body of the province, because the evidence points to the contrary. The Fraser Institute has empirically proven that the educational outcomes are higher, for example, in British Columbia – where independent schools do receive government support – than in Ontario.

GAJE does not nor has it ever called for the dismantling of the Ontario educational system that is “rooted in the history of the province.” But GAJE – as indeed others too – has always called for the system to be rooted also in fairness and justice and conscience. History does not preclude fairness and justice. A lack of conscience does.

We should let the Premier know.

•••

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE