The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) Task Force on Affordable Jewish Education convened a conference call of its members last Friday. GAJE asked Noah Shack, CIJA Director of Policy, to provide an update of the task force’s progress.

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Federal Security Infrastructure Program updated

“I am pleased to report that Federal Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale announced Monday (November 21) a number of updates to the federal Security Infrastructure Program that our community has long championed. Expanding the program to include support for internal security measures will have a particularly significant impact for our community’s schools. It would assist our effort if you would take a moment to encourage Minister Goodale to implement further improvement of this crucial program and to thank him for this specific update. As we all understand, expressing appreciation is an effective way of encouraging ongoing attention to the issue. Please take two minutes to thank Minister Goodale for responding to our community’s concerns.

Fair funding for children with learning disabilities

“One of the primary areas of concern raised at CIJA’s Jewish Education Task Force has been a disparity in government support for children with disabilities. Currently, the Government of Ontario provides limited support for a narrow range of disabilities for children outside public school boards. The Task Force will be launching an effort in the New Year seeking to expand the range and scope of government support for children with special needs. Our focus will be on mobilizing grassroots members of the Jewish community to help raise the profile of the imbalance and the impact on children within our community in order to encourage a change in policy. More details about how you can get involved to follow.”

– Noah Shack, the Director of Policy for CIJA.

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A report on CIJA’s second GTA Assembly will be provided in the upcoming days.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Our cause – in meaningful variation – is joined in Detroit

Earlier this month, Steve Freedman, the Head of Hillel Day School in Detroit urged his community leaders to make the beginning years of day school education free. In an article entitled “Why We Need Free Preschools”, Freedman worried out loud for the future of the Jewish community. He suggested the following to ensure the vibrancy of the community’s Jewish future.

“Many programs [focused on Jewish adolescents and young adults] already exist and have proven successful, among them Jewish day schools! These programs need to be expanded to ensure that in 20 years, the Detroit Jewish community will be as strong and as committed as it is today, supporting AIPAC, supporting Holocaust education, joyfully engaging in Jewish life, and possessing the understanding of the importance and relevance of our Jewish values like Chesed Shel Emet.

“This is a huge undertaking that requires the Jewish community, collectively, to provide opportunities for authentic Jewish learning, and positive Jewish experiences, for Jewish singles out of college, newlywed couples, and young families. To that end, I am advocating that our community find a way to offer free Jewish preschool education to all Jewish families — and in return, these families will commit to participating in meaningful and ongoing Jewish family education, and Jewish adult learning…

“The entire community, regardless of affiliation, and including Federation, must join forces to build a vibrant community for young Jewish families, and to provide their children with a Jewish early childhood education. This will hopefully lead to a more sustained and meaningful involvement of these parents and their children in the Jewish community, in Jewish education and in Jewish living.”

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To Freedman’s plea we say: “Amen. Kayn yehi ratzon.” May it be His will as well as the will of Detroit’s community leaders.

(And the will of our community leaders too.)

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The second CIJA GTA Assembly was held this past week on November 24th. The assemblies were created to receive community organizations’ input and guidance on issues affecting the community. One of the two topics discussed at the meeting was that of School Funding. GAJE attended the meeting.

We will provide a report on the discussion at the meeting in a future update.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

The single most effective response that all the challenges beg

From time to time, articles appear that attempt to scan the Jewish horizon. One such article, “The challenges facing American Jewry”, appeared last week in the Jerusalem Post. It seeded the ground, so to speak, for the subsequent discussions in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 13 to 15) at the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.

The author of the article, Steve Linde, admirably interviewed 12 community activists and leaders in the United States. Each offered a perspective on the pressing challenges and issues that urgently demanded collective communal response. Though the article focused on American Jewry, the observations recorded are relevant for our community as well. Space does not permit highlighting all of the interviewees’ suggestions. We point out three of them.

Linde writes that there is an overall concern among the leaders for what Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, calls “the negative phenomenon of indifference” within the Jewish community.

According to Linde, these leaders “believe the antidote lies in properly educating the younger generation as early as possible about the positive aspects of both Judaism and the Jewish state, and equipping them with the tools to fight antisemitism and anti-Zionism, particularly the BDS movement on college campuses.” Indeed, the rising waves of antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the BDS movement are frequently expressed worries by almost all of the individuals interviewed by Linde.

“Dede Feinberg, the Washington-based vice chair of United Israel Appeal and immediate past chair of JFNA’s executive committee, feels “a deep concern about the decline in Jewish identity, serious religious divisions, a diminishing identification with Israel and an aging population. Our Jewish educational system is sorely lacking,” she explains. “Israel is no longer looked upon in the same positive light as it was in past years.

“Michael Siegal, a top Cleveland businessman who has served as chairman of the JFNA and Israel Bonds, worries about the evolution of American Jewry. “Better education leads to better outcomes in every way,” he says.

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None of the above opinions is new to the discussion about “the Jewish future”. The discussion was launched with considerable public fanfare some three decades ago. Unfortunately the more we merely engage in debate or restart the discussion concerning “the challenges facing American (read North American) Jewry” without actually committing to the single most compelling response that these long ago identified challenges beg – affordable Jewish education – we simply inure each successive generation to the urgency with which we must act. To our everlasting shame.
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We are pleased to report that two focus groups will be conducted during the first week of December. Again, we thank the many individuals who have volunteered to take part in them.

We will, of course, report results.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Revisiting a novel, large idea

Some five years ago, Avigdor Lieberman, then Israel’s Foreign Minister, told The CJN that what Israel needs most from Diaspora Jewry is to raise Jews. By that, he meant that Diaspora Jewry must consider its first priority to be stemming and then reversing the flow of assimilation. He urged leaders of the Diaspora to adopt policies that inculcated in our youth a deep sense of communal belonging to the Jewish people. Of course he was referring to the building up of meaningful, high impact Jewish educational system for Jewish families across the broad spectrum of North American life.

In February of 2012, Minister Lieberman called upon his government to set aside $365 million a year to prevent Diaspora Jews “from assimilating into oblivion.”

Perhaps it is time to listen anew to Minister Lieberman’s plea to Diaspora leaders?

Israeli involvement in Diaspora Jewish education makes sense. Indeed, it was not long ago – when enrollment and demand were higher – that teachers from Israel (shlichim) were a vital part of the teacher contingent for Jewish studies in our local day schools. A new role for Israel in helping secure the future of Jewish education might now be appropriate.

Some two years after Minister Lieberman gave that interview to The CJN and after his funding proposal in Israel, an article appeared on the eJewish Philanthropy website resurrecting the idea the State of Israel openly supporting Jewish education in the Diaspora.

Written by Robert Evans and Avrum Lapin and entitled “Billions For Education?” Should the State of Israel Be a Funder of Day School Education in the Diaspora? the authors explore an idea floated by Yosef Abramowitz, an entrepreneur, philanthropist from the Boston area, who suggested that the government of Israel offer interest free loans for day school tuition to families in Diaspora communities.

The details of Abromovitz’ suggestion are not pertinent for our purpose. What is pertinent is the notion that it is appropriate for Israel to actively take steps to buttress the failing system of Jewish education in the non-Orthodox Diaspora world.

Is it not evident that nurturing the blocks of Jewish peoplehood is also nurturing the foundation of a thriving interdependent, interrelated relationship between the Jews of the Diaspora and of Israel? And is not that relationship the essence of our acknowledgment of the Jewish past and the Jewish future?

It is time to revisit this notion. It may indeed be a great notion.

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We thank the many individuals who have volunteered to take part in the focus groups we will soon be conducting. You will soon be contacted, if you have not been already, regarding the details of the meetings. These groups are intended to provide feedback about some of our ideas to make day school costs more manageable.

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We urge all GAJE members and followers to set aside at least some moments of remembrance at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour today in grateful acknowledgment of the debt we all owe but can never truly repay to the men and women who have fallen in wars and battles over the years protecting us and our way of life.

May their memories always be for blessing.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Relevant but not affordable

Launched in 2007 Jewish communal activists, eJewish Philanthropy attempts to assist communal organizations and professionals “adapt to the continuing changes and challenges of the 21st Century.” It is an independent, on-line publisher, indeed a global bulletin board, providing information, exchanges of ideas, debates and knowledge of current events, developments and innovations in the Jewish community.

Among the news items eJewish Philanthropy publishes are stories concerning Jewish education. In mid-September a story appeared entitled “ANNOUNCING … the Jewish School Census”.

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The article tells of the launch of an initiative to collect data from as many Jewish schools in North America as possible. The aim is to collect baseline data about and of the schools that will help professionals advise the schools in their struggle for existence, let alone relevancy.

The purpose of the information gathering exercise is explained thus:

“It’s no secret that many American Jewish institutions are struggling to remain relevant to modern American Jews. We see this struggle in declining school enrollment and membership dues revenue, even while summer camps and early childhood centers continue to grow. Data can provide Jewish leaders with a baseline understanding of this struggle.

Currently there is no comprehensive census of Jewish schools in North America, though many individual communities do collect information from schools in their area. A baseline census of Jewish schools would be an invaluable starting point for quantifying the struggle for relevancy that we know is taking place. By quantifying the struggle we can better begin to understand and address declining enrollment and decreasing membership rolls. Without an understanding of where we are today, we cannot measure the success of our efforts to improve Jewish education in North America.

The project will initially focus on part-time, supplemental Jewish schools.

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In our community, the struggle for affordability precedes the struggle for relevancy.

It is true, alas, that many Jewish parents do not consider any Jewish education relevant. Irrespective of the cost of Jewish education, they will not enroll their children. We can only hope that their children do not lose the feeling of belonging to the Jewish people.

But many Jewish parents who do view a Jewish education as relevant to their children’s futures cannot afford it.

Our task is to do our utmost to help make such an education affordable to all paretns who wish it for their children.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Because Jewish education teaches “a worldview ahead of its time”

An openly raw, self-doubting, yet self-affirming article about sending one’s children to Jewish day school appears on the website of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals (jewishideas.org). Due to its cutting nature, the name of the author is not provided but it is clear that she has written On Making Peace with Sending My Children to Jewish Day School as much as an explanation to herself as to the general public.

The author writes that she “feels little kinship with most of the parents” who send their children to the school – primarily due to the differences in values, lifestyle and behaviors she seems to perceive in the other families that seem to flow from differences in their respective incomes and financial strata.

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“This is what brings on the stomach pains—the presentation of such a different set of values and the lack of representation of my own values of a simpler, grassroots way of experiencing the world.

“You may ask: Why, then, send your children to this school—or any other Jewish Day School for that matter? Private school is as private school does: It’s private; it costs as much as a salary for many workers in this country; it’s not the “real world.” And I want my children to live in the real world. They do: Their family background is diverse, and they live in a socio-economically, racially, and ethnically diverse neighborhood where they play with neighborhood kids and see the range of human experience around them and in their home. But my husband and I are spiritual people who believe in the value of a religious education and the deep wisdom of the Torah. It is a worldview ahead of its time, a worldview that exhorts each person to actively pursue justice, to subjugate the material in favor of elevating what cannot be seen, to actively remember that we were slaves in a foreign land, and above all, to “walk humbly with God.” To be sure, humble need not mean poor—there is no taking of vows of poverty in Judaism. But humble to me is, very simply put, down to earth.”

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The parental experience the author describes is from a community in the United States, likely, but not conclusively, New York City.

Nevertheless, some parents in our own community might share some of the author’s feelings. But it is important to emphasize – and for this reason we publish – the essence of the author’s reasons for sending her children to day school despite her misgivings over the fact that she feels she does not mesh socially with some of the other parents in the school.

Educating our children about the Judaism that is their true inheritance teaches them “a worldview ahead of its time, a worldview that exhorts each person to actively pursue justice.”

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We thank the many individuals who have volunteered to take part in the focus groups that we hope will provide feedback about some of our plans to make day school costs more manageable.

Details of the focus groups will follow in due short course.

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

Rejoice!!!

Ethan Schwartz, a biblical scholar at Harvard University, notes the following meaningful observation about the upcoming holiday – Simchat Torah.

“The Torah reading for Simchat Torah (literally, “rejoicing of Torah”) includes, appropriately enough, one of the Torah’s most famous uses of the word “Torah” itself (Deut. 33:4): “Moses commanded us Torah – the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.”

“Simchat Torah is about celebrating this inheritance, which sets Israel apart from the rest of the world. For many modern Jews, however, this separation prompts more anxiety than joy. In modernity, it is often assumed that authentic Jewish life demands that Jews choose Torah over the outside world. This can make the joyous “inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” feel isolating and lonely.

“However, exploring the Wisdom heritage of Deuteronomy’s (the fifth of the Five Books of Moses) concept of Torah offers a challenge to modern claims that Torah is opposed to the world. It reveals that meaningful dialogue with the outside world has been an essential part of Torah since the advent of the idea of Torah itself.

“…Jews celebrating Simchat Torah can rejoice in a Torah that aspires both to set them apart as God’s inherited people and to make them a respectable and, indeed, “wise” part of the rest of humanity.”

Jewish education is the gateway to discovering the Torah that Ethan Schwartz so aptly describes as a way of life that both distinguishes us as a distinctive group but one that is dedicated to contributing to the rest of humanity.

Our mission is to help make the entry to the gateway affordable to all families.

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A number of individuals responded to our email “call” last week to take part in focus groups intended to provide us feedback about some of our plans to make day school costs more manageable. We thank them.

Parents who are sending or planning to send their children to Jewish day school, but who are concerned that current tuition levels may make this extremely difficult or impossible, are still invited to contact us to join the focus groups.

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Shabbat shalom. Shmini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah samayach!

GAJE

Teachers are our heroes

Between the start of the school year and the commencement of the intense “Tishrei holidays,” the teachers in the community’s schools had less than one month to teach and in some cases to introduce the lessons of the holidays to our young children. Indeed, some years, they have had less than one week to do so. And yet, in the main, they have succeeded with spectacular results. The proof, of course, is in the many festive scenes at home and in the synagogue in which our children take meaningful part and joyous delight. And the more high-spirited holiday – Sukkot – is still on the way!

The gratifying involvement of our children in the holidays brings to mind a statement by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who notes that teachers and educators are so significant in Jewish tradition that the first Mourners’ Kaddish we recite in our morning prayers is actually dedicated to them.

As we recorded in the GAJE update of June 24, Rabbi Sacks has eloquently written about our connection to teachers and educators. It warrants repeating.

“For Jews, education is not just what we know. It’s who we are. No people ever cared for education more. Our ancestors were the first to make education a religious command, and the first to create a compulsory universal system of schooling – eighteen centuries before Britain… The Egyptians built pyramids, the Greeks built temples, and the Romans built amphitheaters. Jews built schools. They knew that to defend a country you need an army, but to defend a civilization you need education. So Jews became the people whose heroes were teachers, whose citadels were schools, and whose passion was study and the life of the mind.”

How favoured the community that acknowledges and honours its teachers and educators!

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When our community succeeds in making Jewish education affordable, its core will be our excellent teachers and educators.

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Shabbat shalom. Chag Sukkot samayach.

GAJE

Calling on the Federal Minister of Public Safety

As GAJE members know, CIJA – The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs – some months ago launched a Task Force on Affordable Jewish Education. One of the key issues on the task force’s agenda is persuading the federal government to update the current Security Infrastructure Program. The program provides critically vital support to our community.

Communal security measures are very much in evidence these days of the Yamim Nora’im. Many synagogues have engaged extra police presence, adding to other sophisticated security measures. Of course, these special measures strain our institutions’ budgets.

As in the past, CIJA has asked GAJE to encourage our members to participate in its campaign to broaden the scope of federal funding available to our synagogues and schools. We are pleased to do so.

Enhancing support to our community institutions for the various safety measures they must undertake does no doubt improve safety and security. It could also help alleviate the financial burden upon our schools endeavoring within already stretched budgets to keep our families, children and grandchildren safe.

We therefore urge GAJE members to please click here to send an email to the Minister of Public Safety. We need to ensure he hears as many grassroots voices as possible.

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The Task Force is also weighing options to convince the Ontario Government to end its discriminatory practices in directing health support payments to the schools of children with special needs. Special needs students attending school within a Ministry of Education funded school board receive substantially more support than special needs children attending independent schools.

This is simply unacceptable.

The Government of Ontario should not differentiate among children with special needs. They are all children of Ontario.

In an upcoming update we will report to members of CIJA’s plans to try to remedy the current inequitable situation.

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May the coming Year, 5777, bring us closer to our goal of affordable Jewish education.

Shabbat shalom.

GAJE

The greater the dream, the more spectacular the results

The passing of Shimon Peres, alav hashalom, has been the powerfully reflective accompaniment to the closing of the Year 5776. He was one of the pre-eminent exemplars of that remarkable generation born in the first years of the last century that dared to divert the course of history from darkness and despair, resignation and defeat to hope and promise, endeavor and fulfillment.

In one of his last public addresses, some two months ago in July, when he laid the cornerstone for the Israeli Innovation Center, eventually to become part of the Peres Peace House in Jaffa, he said: “All my life I have worked to ensure that Israel’s future is based on science and technology as well as on an unwavering moral commitment. They called me a dreamer. But today, when I look at Israel, we all can see clearly that the greater the dream, the more spectacular the results.”

Whether subconsciously or deliberately, Peres was channeling the famous inspirational axiom by Theodore Herzl “If you will it, it won’t simply be a fairy tale.” Peres, like so many of his generation, was captivated by the daring and boldness of Herzl’s challenge. It propelled the arc of his life, essentially entirely in service of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

We can all agree that the Peres “addendum” to Herzl’s guiding truth is a meaningful, artful propulsion for our own efforts to make our world the very best it can be.

And of course, it also applies to GAJE’s mission.

The greater our dream – affordable Jewish education for the entire community – the more spectacular will be the eventual results. Amen.

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May the coming Year 5777 bring us closer to achieving our dream. How spectacular indeed, that would be!

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Shabbat shalom.

GAJE