The question “why be Jewish?” has always been an entry point into a polite but relatively innocuous discussion about the grandeur, traditions, values, literature and ennobling heritage of Judaism. Until recently.

Now, the discussion in the United States and especially among young adults on campuses, in social media groups and other points of peer assembly has become a literal one. “Why, in fact, should they be Jewish,” they ask one another?

Michael Chabon, the young talented novelist, recently conferred upon this troubling conversation his unique form of cultural blessing in a commencement address he delivered at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. He referred to marriage within the Jewish faith – one Jew marrying another Jew – as a “ghetto of two”, “a gated community,” “a restricted country club.”

And thus, the mission that has been the millennial, even sacred, guiding beacon for every generation of Jews has been reduced to a consideration of lifestyle convenience.

Oh how far we are falling. Where are we headed?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, the editor in chief of the JTA, provided a partial answer to Chabon last week. In an op-ed, titled “The non-misogynist, non-hypocritical case for Jewish continuity. With music.”

“The goal [is] not to shame people into sticking with the tribe,” Silow-Carroll writes, “but to identify and promote what it is about Jewish life that is worth preserving in the first place: a textual inheritance; a particular moral and ethical language; a series of distinct and meaningful rituals; a living awareness of a Jewish past, in all its glories and horrors; a profound sense of connection with people who share that story.

“That’s not tribalism; that’s not Bubbe saying she’ll sit shiva if you marry out. That’s a deep kind of cultural engagement that even Chabon should appreciate.”

That “deep kind of cultural engagement” is best reached through Jewish literacy. That has always been the paramount message of Jewish history. It is also our message.

And the best way to achieve “deep cultural engagement” with Judaism is through Jewish education.

We must all do our utmost to support Jewish education, in particular, to make it affordable for all families that seek it for their children.

Please consider donating to The Jewish Tuition Assistance Fund by calling the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto at 416.631.5703.

As we wrote last week, doing nothing risks everything.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Among the innumerable poetically powerful passages in our prayers is the statement: “l’dor vador nagid godlecha” or “l’dor vador halleluyah” in the Ashkenazi and Sephardi liturgy respectively. It appears in the reader’s repetition of the Amidah. Variations of the statement appear in other prayers.

It is a succinct public proclamation to God (and to fellow congregants) in the company of the entire congregation that our connection to God and to the people is an eternal commitment – l’dor vador – from one generation to the next.

How will we be able to do that in the years to come if more and more young people are slipping away from us, from counting themselves meaningfully within the Jewish people? Shall the statement only apply in the future to the observant minority of the Jewish people? Will it have to be excised from many of our prayer books?

L’dor vador is descriptive of the relationship that we have had with God and with each other since the beginning of our time as the Jewish people. But it is and must also always be prescriptive of our behaviour. Each generation must do its utmost to ensure the statement will be truthful for the generation that follows.

That means young Jews must be familiar with and even knowledgeable of the definition points of our peoplehood: faith, traditions, values, history, and language. And that means of course, that the older generation must facilitate that familiarity and knowledge to the younger generation.

The best, though not sole, way of raising and fostering knowledgeable Jews is through intensive Jewish education. And that is why – over and over again – we urge the community to take every possible collective and communal step to make Jewish education affordable for all families that wish it for their children.

If falls therefore upon all of us – institutions and individuals – who regard “l’dor vador” as words of active obligation rather than simply of wishful portraiture to actually do something to help make it true for tomorrow as well as for today.

The Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto has established a fund specifically dedicated to helping make Jewish education affordable: The Jewish Tuition Assistance Fund.

The month of Elul begins in just over a week. Traditionally, it is the time of year and for some of us, the time of life as well, when we reflect upon who we are as human beings and as Jews. Perhaps this year those reflections will yield in us a strong resolve to do our respective parts to ensure that l’dor vador does not stop with our generation or the next but that it will be true and have meaning for all time to come.

Thus we urge: Please consider contributing to the tuition assistance fund.

Doing nothing risks everything.

And as our great teacher Hillel said: “If not now, when?”

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

An interesting, edgy, from-the-heart essay appeared last week on the ejewishphilanthropy.com website. Written by Jordan Goodman, an “ordinary” but obviously strongly identifying member of the Jewish community, it was in response to an earlier article by Dr. Rob Weinberg that reflected upon the questions: What constitutes success in Jewish education? How do we measure success? And what practices should be adopted to ensure success?

Weinberg’s essay is educationally “technical”.

Goodman’s essay is more philosophically oriented. It is squarely aimed at the North American Non-Orthodox Jewish community.

Goodman uses strong language. His observation about the current state of Non-Orthodox communal Jewish life is at the core of the urgency of the need to make Jewish education affordable.

“So … when will professional North American Non-Orthodox (NANO) Jews (clergy, educators, movement staff, independent consultants, etc.), acknowledge that the failure of NANO Judaism is at the root of the membership retention/attraction and financial/funding difficulties experienced by many if not most NANO synagogues, institutions and organizations? There can be no change of any consequence without first acknowledging this incontrovertible fundamental fact.”

The essay is clearly provocative. But it is written le shaym shamyim (for the sake of a truthful discussion). Most important, it compels us to confront our own vision of how we hope to live our own lives for the sake of our children, our forebears and of course, ourselves.

In steering us toward this important introspection, Goodman does us all a favour.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

We are now in the “deep end” of summertime, treading comfortably in the gentle ripples of warmer weather and lazier days, of less obligation and more relaxation – or at least most of us.

If they have not already done so, teachers, staff and administrators of many schools are about to return to the essential task of planning for the imminent reconvening of school.

To a group of Diaspora Jewish educators who met recently in Jerusalem, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin succinctly conveyed the importance of Jewish education: “There will be no Jewish people without good and strong Jewish education. Education is the precondition of a healthy society that learns from the past, applies those lessons to the present, and draws conclusions for the future.”

To the generation of Jewish students who spent their university years in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the Boston-based, Jewish folk/rock music group, Safam, also succinctly conveyed the importance of Jewish education. In addition, they poignantly remind us that one generation always plants, builds and nurtures the foundation for the next.

Of course that generational task has constructed the line of Jewish life that has built the healthy society of which President Rivlin spoke.

Talmud Torah, by Safam

See the children, smiling faces
As the day’s begun
They’re our future, teach them brightly
Blessed every one

Education, obligation
True for everyone
So we study, Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam

And sometimes I know it’s true
You’re too tired to learn
But there’s a spark inside of you
Waiting to return

See the children in those pictures
When this school was young
They’re your parents, loved Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam

See the faces of the founders
Proud of what they’ve done
They were children, just like you are
Blessed every one

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked
Honor Dad and Mom
But to study Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam.

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Click to watch Safam perform the song. 

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

The crisis of the lack of affordability of Jewish education has moved beyond the discussion phase. Many communities across North America are actively engaged in trying to find solutions. It is important that GAJE supporters know this.

Last week we wrote about recent funding initiatives of the government of Pennsylvania inspired, in part, by a local Jewish action committee.

This week, we draw GAJE supporters’ attention to a blog post by Yossi Prager on the website of the Avi Chai Foundation, entitled “An Area of Growing Political Consensus: Government Funding for Jewish Day School Education”. Prager is the executive director, North America, for The AVI CHAI Foundation. (AVI CHAI is a private foundation based in the USA and in Israel “committed to the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism, and the centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people.”)

Prager points to a workshop last year hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) that focused on school choice issues and “achieved consensus on federal tax policy and other incentives to make day school education more affordable while continuing to sustain public education.” This consensus included, “JFNA promotes the expansion of federal tax incentives that can reduce the cost of day school education.”

Given the sensitivities surrounding the separation of church and state, Prager remarked that it was “remarkable that the Federation umbrella organization found a broad consensus among its constituents” for a nuanced approach to some manner of government contribution to help reduce the punishing cost of day school education. It is now clear, given the dimension of the problem, the issue of affordability is moving to the centre stage of Jewish communal life.

Prager reminds readers that the precedent of government assistance in the United States to day school education already exists. “U.S. day schools today already receive several hundred million dollars annually in government funding for a range of non-religious purposes and in 17 states benefit from incentives created by state tax-credit programs.”

He lists those non-religious purposes. Ontario readers will recognize in that list aspects of the health support services that GAJE and community officials seek from the government of Ontario in a manner that is equal and fair to all learning-disabled children in Ontario.

As with last week’s update, the point of bringing Prager’s blog post to the attention of GAJE supporters is to show that focused, meaningful, communally-driven efforts to make Jewish education affordable are being taken across North America.

Prager urges Jewish communities to undertake even more advocacy for additional government funding to lower the cost of day school education.

Once the new government of Ontario settles into the legislative benches, we hope and expect to see such public advocacy here to help make Jewish education affordable.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

GAJE expresses best wishes and abiding hope for success and high achievement for Lisa Thompson, Ontario’s newly appointed Minister of Education and to Sam Oosterhoff, the newly appointed parliamentary assistant to the minister of education.

Along with the Health portfolio, Education is one of the two key governmental responsibilities that – more than the other important responsibilities – safeguard of our way of life and ensures the perpetuation of the cherished, bedrock values of our civilization and democracy.

Good luck to Ms. Thompson and to Mr. Oosterhoff in the joint carriage of their weighty responsibilities.

Of course, within the Education-related portfolio of responsibilities is the need to restore some measure of fairness to the government’s education funding policies.

To that end, for the information of the minister, her parliamentary assistant and their respective staffs, we point to a recently announced educational funding initiative by one of Ontario’s neighbouring states. (A GAJE supporter brought the initiative to our attention.)

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Pennsylvania has passed an annual budget that includes “record funding” for Jewish day schools. In particular, the state has allocated more funding to enhance the safety and security of non-public schools as well as enhanced scholarship funding to non-public schools to enable more low-and-middle income families to enrol their children in day schools.

To be sure, educational programming, delivery and funding in Pennsylvania are different than in Ontario. But the example of governments acknowledging – through pragmatic budgetary action – the importance of independent schools in fostering excellence in education and the perpetuation of precious, common values through diverse citizenship, should be noted and followed.

For the full story, see: https://teachadvocacy.org/news/record-funding-jewish-day-schools-pennsylvania-budget/.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Doug Ford becomes Ontario’s 26th premier today. He and his cabinet have planned to swear their respective oaths of office outside of the Legislature. And then Ontario’s new government will launch into its duties and responsibilities. GAJE followers and members of our community will, of course, pay attention to the Cabinet appointments.

After a reasonable grace period of adjustment and acclimatization for the newly appointed cabinet ministers as well as, indeed, for all the newly elected members of the legislature, it will be time for the electorate–us–to bring our concerns to our own MPP.

We must confidently call or email our MPP to set out for him or her, the issues that are of pre-eminent importance for us. No issue is more pressing for us than the punishing unfairness of the current educational funding system.

Phone numbers and email addresses of the members of parliament will soon be made available. We must not be embarrassed or in any way reluctant to get in touch with our elected MPPs to ask the government to provide choice and fairness in education and to finally end the discrimination and unfairness that drag down Ontario’seducational system and wreak financial and other havoc upon the lives of so many young families.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Most children are happy. Most parents have new child care-time-management issues to deal with. But on balance, this is a happy time for families.

The achievements of our children – at every level and of every kind – are significant. They and the achievements should be celebrated. So too should be the contributions of the teachers, administrators and custodial staff at all of the schools.

We all understand and appreciate that the infrastructure of education is as complex as it is precious. We therefore thank and pay tribute to all of the people who are dedicated to ensuring that the infrastructure remains permanently secure.

One of GAJE’s supporters sent the following quotation by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz from a collection of the rabbi’s writings entitled On Being Free. It is an apt reminder to us say “thank you” to everyone who makes Jewish education possible for our children, including of course the financially strapped parents who choose Jewish school despite its punishing cost.

“Over the centuries a great deal has been invested in Jewish education, in the preparation of spiritual guides and teachers of all sorts, and in the maintenance of the general framework of the tradition. In many places it amounted to one third or even more of the general expenditure of the local or national body.

“This was one of the main factors that helped keep the tradition going in spite of very difficult external conditions.

“Therefore, one can say that any group or tradition that is willing and able to invest considerable effort in maintaining its existence is that much more able to withstand the process of decay from within and destruction from without.”

It is not a misdirection of Rabbi Steinsaltz’s observation to conclude: ensuring full access to Jewish education is the best way of ensuring the permanence of the Jewish community.

GAJE extends best wishes to students, teachers and staff for a healthy, happy summer.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Judaism is very protective of human dignity. In our teachings and in our prayers we are taught to treat the next person with utmost respect, careful not to harm his or her self-image. Indeed, it is not an overstatement that modern human rights legislation, in large part, can be traced directly to ancient Jewish teachings. For example, we are warned not to place obstacles or stumbling blocks in the path of the blind, nor to deride or curse of the deaf.

Because each individual counts as precious and worthy, each must be given a chance to succeed with his or her life. Most progressive western societies therefore decree that we must reasonably accommodate an individual with special needs.

The obligation to reasonably accommodate “needy” others falls upon society as a whole not only upon individuals and companies.

How much more so then for Jewish society, that is, the Jewish community?

Is not the utter lack of affordability of Jewish education not the equivalent of an obstacle or stumbling block on the path of Jewish life for most middle-income families? Indeed it is.

It is not difficult to imagine our prophets and sages urging community leaders to put in place a comprehensive system of reasonably accommodating the families who–despite genuine efforts–are unable to pay for Jewish education.

The philanthropic initiative last year by the Neuberger-Jesin family to reduce tuition at CHAT by nearly a third (for a five-year experimental period) has resulted in a steep increase in new enrolment for the 2018-2019 academic year. We therefore have empirical evidence that enrolment is indeed a function of tuition.

As a community, we must do all in our power to this enrolment momentum going.

We appeal to other families, individuals or corporations to step forward to follow the Neuberger-Jesin example.

We appeal to them to try–as the Neuberger-Jesin family has tried–to remove obstacles from the paths of so many Jewish families trying merely to raise their children as Jews.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

Ontario has a new government. The Progressive Conservative party has won a majority mandate to govern.

We wish them well. We hope and pray that the new government will govern the province at all times with wisdom, courage and principle. We also hope and pray that the all of the men and women elected to the Legislature will undertake their duties in good faith, always setting the wider interest of the province above the narrower interest of the party.

Although it was not publicly discussed during the election campaign, the unfairness and discrimination of Ontario’s educational funding policies affects a large number of Ontarians. A majority of Ontarians have indicated that they support a change in the educational funding to include some level of public funding for independent schools and thus accommodate more choice in the educational system.

It is an affront to conscience that Ontario, the largest and wealthiest province, has resolutely refused to take any steps to remedy, even partially, let alone end the ongoing discrimination of its policies. This is especially unacceptable in light of the fact that all of the western provinces and Quebec do extend a measure of public funding to independent schools.

The new government, as all new governments, will receive the benefit of a reasonable period of grace to get settled into its new responsibilities. But afterward, GAJE will once again publicly urge Queen’s Park to finally take the appropriate steps to do the moral, right thing: bring a measure of fairness to a patently unfair and punitively discriminatory educational funding system.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE