October 30, 2024
Tamar Abaiov never questioned whether she should give her children Jewish education. “It’s an automatic thing. It’s in our blood,” says Abaiov, whose three daughters currently attend grades one through three at Hebrew Foundation School. “The world is always changing and adapting but we’re practicing something from generations before that’s constant.”
Yet as the cost of living and tuition continue to rise, affordability is getting in the way of those traditions. The general consensus among parents in Abaiov’s circle is that tuition support from Federation CJA is one of key reasons they’re able to send their children to Jewish school.
“It does get quite expensive with multiple children, and every year there’s that discussion of public school versus Jewish school. With funding we’re able to work out a long-term plan to keep them in Jewish school,” she says.
Federation CJA commits $7M annually to 13 Jewish day schools, most of which funds tuition assistance programs. Students from low-income households account for the largest proportion of the funding, according to Dr. Karen Gazith, director of the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre. She says tuition assistance has a cascading impact on democratizing access to Jewish learning for families across the income spectrum.
Over 50% of families who receive tuition support say this impacts their decision to keep their kids in the day school system. “Knowing the importance of Jewish day school in teaching children about Jewish history, values and traditions, why should access to a Jewish education be limited to those who can easily afford it?” Gazith says.
Since the October 7th attack, Jewish day schools have noticed that more parents want to instill a sense of Jewish pride in their children and deepen their connection to the community through enrollment in Jewish school. JPPS principal Marnie Stein has heard this during admissions interviews following the attack. It’s part of what she calls a “reawakening in parents in terms of what they want to pass on to their children.”
“It wasn’t a fear of attending public school. It was, ‘I need my child to know who he is, and have a sense of belonging,’” she says. “It hasn’t really simmered off. We have a number of students who transferred from public schools this year.”
Gazith says Jewish parents have become more concerned with preparing their children for the world after they graduate from the Jewish day school system. This has always been a part of the schools’ curriculums, but to address the current realities of a global rise in antisemitism, Federation CJA has begun investing in updated Kindergarten to Grade 11 curriculums.
According to Gazith, a key component of the curriculum is to equip students with the skills to respond effectively and thoughtfully to antisemitic rhetoric. “When students graduate,” she says, “they’ll be better prepared to face rising levels of antisemitism because they’ll feel confident about sharing their personal and collective Jewish stories.”
Parents have benefitted from enrolling their children in Jewish schools on a social level as well. In late September when JPPS hosted a challah bake for parents, Stein realized parents weren’t sure how to talk about Israel’s history or the ongoing conflict with their peers, friends, or children.
“The parents out there might be the only Jewish person in their office. Who do they have to sing with, pray with, talk with?” Stein says, adding that this realization encouraged the school to offer educational sessions for parents. “That really allowed them to connect, and time and again we’ve heard that our school is a place for families to lean on each other.”
Tuition assistance isn’t the only way Federation CJA has helped its Jewish schools thrive. The organization has also funded tailored security measures ranging from new surveillance cameras, physical enhancements such as planters and boulders, updated access controls, lockdown systems and intrusion alarms, to bolstering its Community Security Network run by volunteer parents.
Through the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre, Federation CJA is also facilitating collaboration between the schools by organizing workshops, inviting experts to speak to educators, and working directly with the governing boards, Gazith says. It also ensures that students have access to programs and services to help them to thrive academically, behaviorally, and socially. Recently, a microgrant program funded innovative French language programs, including a weekly radio show and a drama project that aimed to improve the students’ language proficiency.
All this funding levels the playing field for Montreal’s future leaders. It allows Abaiov to pass on her Jewish values to her daughters, who are always excited to share what they learned in school during Shabbat dinners. And, according to Gazith, it allows parents and their children alike to share life experiences with families from various cultural and economic backgrounds.
“By investing in Jewish day schools, Federation CJA is also investing in our youth. After all, the future of our Montreal Jewish community lies in their hands.”
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