Good news from CHAT
The big news for the Jewish future in Toronto is that next year’s Grade 9 class at TanenbaumCHAT is on track to be larger than the current Grade 9. Our goal is to continue that trend, despite the precarious state of Jewish day school education.
The accepted wisdom is that there are factors underlying a vulnerable state of Jewish schooling that are beyond our immediate control, some demographic and some economic. As such, we might call for a task force to solve the problem. We might hope and pray that someone devises a fantastic low-cost, high-yield model for educating Jewish youth. Or we can solve the problem ourselves.
That’s why TanenbaumCHAT is pursuing an independent strategy toward academic excellence and financial sustainability at our two high school campuses. Like many other private schools in Toronto, we are transforming ourselves into a more competitive, recruitment-based operation. Previously, we focused exclusively on admissions, i.e., processing applicants as they came to the school. Those days are over. We are now tapping into the collective power of our students, parents, alumni, and staff to reach out to prospective families.
We are also investing in the educational value proposition of the school by introducing more academic options for advanced students. A recent gift of approximately $1.5 million will see the launch of a robotics and engineering program at TanenbaumCHAT. In 2016, we will offer Advanced Placement courses that enable students to gain university placement or credit. Curricular study in Israel during high school will become an integral dimension of a TanenbaumCHAT education. This year, students will study robotics at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and conduct a three-week archeological dig.
We are streamlining operations on both campuses to avoid duplication and have set a goal to raise $1.5 million annually. As expenses continue to climb, we, as a community and as TanenbaumCHAT parents, must all do more to make Jewish education a priority. We must ensure that we continue to raise the next generation of proud, passionate and engaged Jews.
Rabbi Lee Buckman, Head of school, Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto
Toronto
Misplaced honour
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne must be having a good laugh at the expense of the Jewish community. Only a few years ago, Wynne, as education minister, was using her stance against publicly funded Jewish education to score political points in the provincial election. By trumpeting the message that funding specific religions is against Ontario’s values, she turned many Ontarians against the Jewish community.
Fast forward a few years, and the largest Jewish organizations in Canada are now honouring Wynne at a gala dinner. The “Words and Deeds” event is reminiscent of the Orwellian doublethink from the novel 1984. The only “words and deeds” Wynne is responsible for in relation to the Jewish community are the “words” of promising to deny funding to Jewish private schools and the “deeds” of carrying through on this promise.
The cost of Jewish education is probably the biggest challenge facing the Toronto Jewish community today. While Jewish school tuition continues to balloon and more children grow up without a basic Jewish foundation, it is no less than sickening that the leading Jewish organizations in Canada honour a person who firmly opposed correcting the blatant inequality whereby Catholic schools are funded by the province and Jewish schools are not.
So what exactly is Wynne being honoured for in relation to the Jewish community? The best the organizers can offer in the official blurb of the event is that Wynne has “plans” to open Ontario’s first trade office in Tel Aviv and that these plans somehow make her “a longtime friend and supporter of Israel.” As insignificant as a trade office is (Ontario has many in different parts of the world), Wynne has not even opened one yet, she merely has “plans” to do so. Apparently, encouraging bilateral trade that benefits Ontario as much as it does Israel warrants an award.
While community relations with politicians are important, one must draw the line at maintaining some principles. Engage with Wynne on the issues important to our community, but don’t honour her when she stands against us.
Michael Tweyman
Toronto
Israel is a democratic state
The Jews have enough enemies without getting help from “lifelong Zionist” Philip Goldig.
In his letter (“Israel and democracy” June 11), he condemns the mistreatment of Ethiopian Jews in Israel and the attack on the Women of the Wall by religious fanatics. So far so good.
Where he loses me is when he states “Israel is not a democracy.” By his standards, after the recent incidents in large American cities, neither is the United States of America.
Wake up and smell the coffee. Israel is not perfect, but it is a democratic state.
Murray Rubin
Toronto
Looking for war criminals
Recently, alleged World War II criminal, Vladimir Katriuk of Quebec, died peace-fully at the ripe old age of 93 (“Government criticized after alleged Nazi war criminal dies,” June 4).
But, how many more Katriuks are freely roaming the streets of Canadian cities and towns?
How many more Katriuks are raising families in Canada?
How many more Katriuks are maintaining their involvement with suspected terrorists in Canada?
And finally, how many more Katriuks long for a serene burial ground in Canada in a tranquil environment?
For more than 70 years, successive federal governments have shown little enthusiasm to change the rules and regulations affecting citizenship revocation and expulsion of alleged Nazi war criminals.
All Canadian governments have distanced themselves from the issue, primarily for political reasons, and they have shown indifference to immediate changes. Their policy was to let bygones be bygones.
As often was reported in the press, the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has had several run-ins with Canadian authorities regarding ongoing probes into alleged war criminals from World War II.
Albert Stal
Toronto