CHAT may go on archeological dig in Israel

The Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, or CHAT as it’s called by most people, has been a pillar of Toronto’s Jewish community for more than 50 years.

For most of those years, I have taught generations and their offspring at CHAT, and now have the privilege of teaching there longer than Moses wandered in the wilderness. Although Moses never set foot in the Promised Land, I have been fortunate enough to wander its halls for these last four decades. According to some, I may even have become what I teach – ancient history.

Ancient history has much to teach us, especially in our community whose tradition and beliefs are rooted in our history. Over the past century and a half, this history has been illuminated by archeology. Archeology has made our history and its background come alive.

The last half-century has increasingly seen scientific discoveries highlight archeological finds. The revolution in using science to cast light on archeology began shortly after World War II, when carbon dating was discovered as a result of atomic research conducted for the Manhattan Project, which produced the atomic bomb. One of carbon dating’s first uses was in helping to date the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls, which I was fortunate in helping to bring to Toronto for an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum four years ago.

That exhibit presented a rare opportunity to combine archeology and our past by highlighting the special role that CHAT plays in our community. Unfortunately, CHAT did not get involved with the scrolls exhibit. Fortunately, there is a second chance to involve CHAT in an ongoing archeological project that combines history and science in a unique program that will benefit our students as well as our community.

CHAT will shortly be opening a $10-million science wing at its Wallenberg campus, thanks to the generosity of the Guttman family and other donors. This presents a special opportunity to highlight our past, present and future in a unique project that will set the school apart from its growing number of secular competitors, while at the same time emphasizing the values that the school represents.

CHAT has been given a unique opportunity to be involved in a major archeological excavation in Israel. The project, for which the students would do research and write papers, would allow the school to highlight everything that it stands for, including love of Israel, an appreciation of our past and its contribution to human history, rigorous scholarship, and now a chance to use CHAT’s new science centre in a special program that combines both the arts and the sciences.

Now is the time for the school to fully realize its potential by combining our past, present and future into a unique program that unites the arts with the sciences and rigorous scholarship with creativity, as it illuminates our glorious history with the tools of our future. It would be a shame to miss such an opportunity again.