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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

When GAJE was formed nearly three years ago, we were among the first concerned individuals to attempt to focus community discussion on the utter lack of affordability of the cost of Jewish education. Today that discussion has been joined from all points in North America.

From time to time we showcase other voices that are raising the same concern about affordability. We do so again in this week’s update.

Alisha Abboudi is the Director of Philanthropy at Politz Day School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She published an article that appeared earlier this week on the jEducation website, entitled The High Cost of Jewish Continuity: Affording a Jewish Day School Education. Abboudi brings her New Jersey perspective to the affordability discussion. Not surprisingly, her perspective shares many sight lines with the perspective from the GTA.

Below are excerpts of her article.
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“Population surveys and demographic studies of the past thirty years show that effective Jewish education is the single best vehicle to ensure Jewish continuity – the idea that Judaism’s values and heritage will continue to pass from generation to generation by those identifying as Jewish, regardless of denomination. As the great Talmudist Adin Steinsaltz said, “a Jew is not someone whose grandparents are Jewish but someone who wants his or her grandchildren to be Jewish.”

The good news: population surveys and demographic studies have identified Jewish education as the key to Jewish continuity. The bad news? Just as many studies have shown that mounting day school tuition costs are not sustainable. Combined with a low value proposition, high tuition has made day school the least likely choice for most American Jews….

“Regardless of size or denomination, all day schools today share ongoing financial worries. Most experience shortfalls due to the added expenses of a dual curriculum, longer school day, larger faculty, security expenses, and higher administrative costs, to name just a few…

So, what happens now? With the very real threats facing day schools, communal organizations have mobilized once again, with an eye on creating viable and long-term structural changes. Several interventions have recently emerged: a focus on enrolment growth, tuition pricing and middle income affordability initiatives, fundraising and endowment building, advocacy for government funding, cost cutting via school collaborations and communal funding initiatives, and new education models such as blended learning.

“While compelling arguments can be made for all of these initiatives, I firmly believe that a focus on securing government funding should be at the forefront. At the very least, we should be having a more intentional and meaningful conversation within the greater Jewish community regarding public funding for private schools.
“… A solution can and must be found to keep day schools not only open but accessible to middle income families and those who are ambivalent about their Judaism. Otherwise, this effective, transformative, and necessary tool in perpetuating Jewish continuity will only be available to the most dedicated or most wealthy families.”

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We share Ms. Abboudi’s resolve to find a solution to ensure day schools are truly accessible to middle income families. And we also share her resolve that government – in this case, Ontario – should fund some of the cost the education in the day schools, at least a portion of the general studies curriculum. Five other provinces in Canada do precisely that. Why cannot Ontario do the same?

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

It appears beyond doubt that more affordable day school tuition leads to more enrolment in the schools (see last week’s update). Now it is imperative for community leaders, teachers, students, parents, grandparents, education enthusiasts and everyone else who recognize the connection between Jewish literacy and Jewish peoplehood, to boost the excellence and importance of a day school education.

Lucky for us, three weeks ago, Dr. Erica Brown, one of the world’s pre-eminent Jewish studies educators. wrote “The case for day schools”. The article is both paean and plea. She pays tribute to a day school education and urges parents to consider day schools for their children. And she uses her own experience as the basis of her argument.

Dr. Brown tells her readers that she entered day school at 16. “I could barely write my name in Hebrew.” By the end of her day school education however, Dr. Brown’s ability with Hebrew and with related Hebrew study were well established.

Her praise for day school education is on pragmatic and substantive grounds. The following is excerpted from her article.

“We have research from Brandeis University’s Cohen Center that day school graduates achieve among the highest levels of academic success. Central to that is the confidence these schools instil in their students to handle a serious workload. We talk a lot about resilience in education. Look at the stamina of day school students. They come early, leave late, balance a dual curriculum, and heap on extra-curricular activities.

“Day school exposed me to a Jewish life that was sophisticated, embracing and challenging.

“Day school also gave me a treasured group of friends, decent human beings who cared about each other and now care about the world.

“The Cohen Center study above demonstrated that day school graduates in college were less likely to engage in risky behaviour, and after college were more likely to volunteer, to find careers that helped people, and to devote themselves in and outside of work to making a difference in society.

“Day schools offer living wisdom and a soul-stretching education I couldn’t find where I was. Prep school prepared me well for individual achievement. But day school gave me my first-ever community. It taught me to live responsibly in an I-Thou space. It’s no surprise that research done by the Avi Chai Foundation showed an over-representation of day school graduates in leadership positions. When Jewish organizations need leaders, chances are they’ll be filling slots with day school graduates.

“Discerning parents realize that day school deserves a fair hearing. You might find, as I did, that no single decision has done more to craft a life of meaning for a family. The best case for day school is not what it delivers short-term. It’s the life it delivers long after graduation.”

Dr. Brown is immensely qualified to state the case for Jewish Day Schools. The author of 11 books and frequent contributor to journals and newspapers, she is an award-winning educator, associate professor at George Washington University and the director of its Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership.

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Dr. Brown is the most recent high-profile, experienced, knowledgeable, caring educator to advocate on behalf of a day school education. Its benefits and its promise are eternal. Now the community must do its utmost, leaving no stone––through philanthropy and advocacy––to make day school education affordable.

Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

In the marginally quieter days of the December holiday period, some members of our community may have missed an important news item that appeared in Dec. 20 edition of The Canadian Jewish News. Under the headline TanenbaumCHAT Day School sees increased enrolment after tuition cut, veteran CJN reporter Lila Sarick wrote that the high school has seen a major increase in Grade 9 enrolment applications from 200 this year to about 300 for the academic year 2018-19. This constitutes a 50 percent increase in one year!

There can be no doubt that the reason for this heartening jump was the intervention of community-minded, Jewish-future-caring, generous philanthropists whose $14 million gift to the school enabled the tuition to be reduced by nearly $10,000 per year per student for the next five years.

Not surprisingly, the school administration is excited about the enrolment development for next year. “All of North America is watching this and we think parents are responding, that they want a Jewish education for their children and this is making it more accessible for them. The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Jonathan Levy, TanenbaumCHAT’s head of school said.

And we should be excited too. For the theory is no longer a theory. It is now proven. Tuition is indeed a determining factor in families’ sending their children to day school.

To be sure, the tuition per child per year – namely $18,500 – is still bitingly difficult and a severe hardship for many families, especially those with multiple children in the day school system. But the proof is in. Families will do their utmost to enable their children to receive a Jewish education if only the cost can be made bearable. Indeed when all the costs of running a Jewish household for a multiple-child family in our community are tallied, there can be no higher demonstration of a family’s commitment to a school or to our community. The resulting ongoing, tuition-anchored, financial struggle is their commitment to the community. It is foremost of course, their commitment to their children and to their forebears. It is not an overstatement to say that we owe these families a debt of gratitude for sending their children through Jewish education – despite the hardship.

If only we could now convince other community-minded, Jewish-future-caring, generous philanthropists to step forward to help radically reduce tuition for the community’s day schools, more children would become students there. A special fund – The Jewish Tuition Assistance Fund – has been established at the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto expressly for the purpose of making Jewish education affordable for the vast majority of families in our community. Can there be more poignant and compelling proof that donations to this fund will make a permanent, positive difference to the future of our community. Can one imagine the even further climb in enrolment in our schools if tuition costs for middle class families were lowered by an additional $10,000 in elementary and/or high school?

Not long ago, GAJE wrote about Eli Horn, a rare Jewish philanthropist in Brazil who decided to dedicate the bulk of his wealth to Jewish education there. Where is our community’s Eli Horn? Where is a consortium of philanthropists who together could achieve what Horn has done for his community in Brazil?

To paraphrase our Sages, “the work is great and the time short and the Master is knocking…” We have no time to lose. We know what works. Where are our philanthropists?

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

The New Year brings new hope and new resolve. Always and everywhere.

So too at GAJE.

Having assessed information and conclusions from countless conversations, discussions, research and studies, the Funding Committee is now working on bringing forward previously untried methods for making tuition affordable to the vast middle economic band of families. Thus, GAJE hopes to announce this year a new approach to enabling every family in our community that wishes to enrol their children in Jewish education.

Through the generosity and commitment of a civic-minded individual in our community, the Legal Committee retained the services of one of the country’s preeminent human rights experts to assess the feasibility of “re-opening” the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision (Adler) in 1996 that ruled Ontario’s educational funding policies to be constitutional. Our counsel submitted a legal opinion in which he concluded: “There is merit in a request for reconsideration of the Adler decision.”

In addition, we know that the conversation about the immunity from adopting a just and fair educational funding policy granted to Ontario by the Adler decision is now also being discussed among legal scholars, teachers and students. They too are asking if “Adler” is still good law? GAJE contends that it is not. A great deal – law, social attitudes, and educational practices in the rest of the country – has changed in the intervening 22 years.

GAJE also contends that if the government of Ontario will not of its own inclination to do the right thing change its funding policy to accord with fairness and justice and Canada-wide practice, we must once again turn to the courts to compel Ontario to do so.

In the December 28 edition of The Canadian Jewish News, Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl elegantly and succinctly reminded us of our core human responsibility regarding the permanence of our people.

“The future of the Jewish people is based on Jewish education… While the transmission of Torah was originally the responsibility of the family, as a system of study developed, it required funding by patrons or taxation.”

With Jewish education as his laser, locked in focus, Rabbi Frydman-Kohl explained a quizzical aspect of the blessings conferred by Jacob and Moses upon Zebulun and Issachar. Rabbi Frydman-Kohl states that Jacob and Moses had in mind the eternal importance of sustaining a communal system of education. “The Issachar/Zebulun (student/business person) partnership venerated those who supported Jewish education.”

GAJE’s lawyer has offered to conduct the legal challenge to the “Adler case” from trial through appeals for a deeply discounted fee. We must now hope more civic-minded individuals – the “Zebuluns” in the community – step forward to help further engage our lawyer to carry the case forward to its ultimate resolution.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

With the last GAJE update of 2017, we wish to draw the Government of Ontario’s attention to the attitudes of Canadians toward government funding of independent religious schools.

According to a recent study conducted by the think tank Cardus and the Angus Reid Institute, some 61 per cent of Canadians support full or partial government funding for independent religious schools.

The chief conclusion of the study was encapsulated in the headline “Canadians are clear. They prefer a diversity of options for educating our children.” This majority preference also sits well with research that points to the benefits of a diversity of educational options. A multiplicity of educational offerings creates competition within the overall provincial system and this, in turn, raises the standard throughout and especially in the public sector.

One of the highlights of the study speaks to and directly refutes a recurring argument against public funding – partial or full – for independent religious schools, namely, that such funding threatens the public system and therefore too the inclusive, tolerant, cooperative, multi-cultural functioning of our society spawned by a healthy public school system. Yet, the study found that “religious school graduates…exhibit a wide variety of civic contributions. Compared to public school graduates, for example, they donate more money, are more likely to volunteer for arts and cultural organization, are more willing to give blood, and are as likely to be politically active as their public school peers.”

The article reported that “five provinces also provide funding for religious schools in the independent school sector: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec… Funding for independent schools doesn’t cover costs for capital such as buildings and land, but it does match anywhere from 35 to 80 percent of what is offered, on average, to a local public school for the education of a student.” (Our emphasis)

The Fraser Institute has compared the maths-and-sciences outcomes of students in British Columbia and in Ontario. BC students outperformed their Ontario counterparts. (One of those studies was cited in a previous GAJE update.)

Is Ontario less financially able than our five sister provinces to partially fund independent religious schools, say from 35 to 80 per cent of what is offered to a local public school for the education of a student? We think not.

Therefore, let us state the obvious. It is simply a matter of political will.

There is no political will in the current Government of Ontario to adopt at least some measure of fairness and justice in educational funding in Ontario – even though it appears that more than 60 percent of the population are in favour. Perhaps Ontario could catch up to the majority?

The study was reported in the Dec. 14 edition of the National Post.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE

It is no exaggeration to write that the lives of most of the members of the Jewish community of the GTA in one way or another have been enhanced by the magnanimity and goodness of the late Honey and Barry Sherman. One need not have personally known them to have benefited by their unceasing concern for the welfare of others and for the wellbeing of communities in Canada, Israel and around the world. Such was the extent of their caring.

Family and friends are still grieving.

An entire world of individuals here and abroad is traumatized.

We dedicate this week’s update to Honey and Barry Sherman. In their large, undaunted and effusive way, they strove to ensure the strength, diversity and permanence of the Jewish community.

GAJE, in its way, strives toward the very same end.

The memories of Honey and Barry Sherman will surely be for blessing. Amen.

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Shabbat Shalom.

GAJE