Tuition committee responds
We appreciate that the tuition support application process may be emotionally difficult for some applicants (“The humiliating process of the tuition subsidy application”, Sept.4). We would like to point out that Zev Steinfeld’s feelings toward the process is not representative of most families’ experiences.
Through the generosity of community donors, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto generously funds a significant portion of the subsidized amount for each family for students in Grade 1 and higher. They provide specific tuition subsidy calculations that all affiliated day schools must follow. In order to ensure that each application is assessed in a fair and consistent manner and that subsidies are given according to greatest need, it is necessary for the applicants to provide detailed supporting documentation. This provides tuition support committees a full understanding and appreciation of each applicant’s financial situation, so that they can incorporate this information into the calculation as set out by UJA Federation.
The tuition support committee consists of volunteers who are extremely sympathetic to the circumstances affecting each family. At the same time we must assess each application as per the calculation parameters. Applications are reviewed with the utmost confidentiality, and most do not require a face-to-face meeting. This process is not perfect, but it does allow for thousands of children across the GTA and from all financial backgrounds to receive a Jewish education. For the most part, parents feel that they have been treated fairly and with respect.
It would be unfortunate if The CJN’s publication of one person’s experience has the effect of discouraging families in financial need from applying for tuition support, or, worse yet, from choosing a Jewish education for their children altogether.
The Bialik Hebrew Day School
Tution Support Committee
Toronto
Movement vs. denomination
In response to the articles on “Saving Conservative Judaism” (Sept. 11), I would suggest distinguishing the ideology of classical Conservative Judaism from the institutions of the Conservative movement.
While the movement’s infrastructure is undergoing a time of transition, the ideology of positive historical Judaism, the forerunner of Conservative Judaism, has descriptively characterized the dynamism of talmudic-rabbinic Judaism. I encourage readers to study the writings of Zacharias Frankel, Solomon Schechter, Louis Ginsberg, Max Kadushin and others who analyzed the development of rabbinic Judaism from a scholarly perspective.
In their day, Conservative Judaism was intended to be more of a philosophy of authentic Judaism than a denominational movement. Today, certain expressions of modern Orthodox Judaism and other expressions of Judaism have picked up on the ideology of positive historical Judaism.
Rabbi Howard Morrison
Toronto
JDL support disturbs
I was disturbed by letters from Steven Scheffer (Aug. 28) and Judy Feld Carr (Sept. 4) extolling the Jewish Defence League.
Scheffer and Carr are either overlooking or are oblivious to the true nature of the JDL and its original founder Rabbi Meir Kahane. In addition to his movement’s long history of violence, he advocated the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories. As a Knesset member in the 1980s, he tried to introduce legislation making intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews a punishable offence. This vicious demagogue has been eulogized by JDL Canada at annual events in Toronto under the slogan, “Kahane was right.”
Is this a movement of which Jewish Canadians should be “very proud” ?
Carl Rosenberg
Vancouver
Flying in circles
When discussing the future of Conservative Judaism (“Saving Conservative Judaism: A CJN symposium,” Sept. 11), a simple proverb about a bird makes an important point. If you cut off your left wing and look only over your right shoulder you will fly backwards in circles.
Being a generation behind on issues such as women’s equality, gay and lesbian issues and intermarriage has not helped, nor has it gained Conservative Jews any less contempt from the Orthodox community.
Eric Mendelsohn
Toronto