Page 8 T editorial & letters The Canadian Jewish News cjnews.com › February 14, 2013 An independent community newspaper serving as a forum for diverse viewpoints Publisher and Proprietor: The Canadian Jewish News, a corporation without share capital. Head Office: 1500 Don Mills Rd., Suite 205, North York, Ont. M3B 3K4 Summit on education F or many years, the elephant in the room of communal Jewish life has been the cost of Jewish education. Tuition fees at Jewish day schools are deplorably and often quite impossibly high for the vast majority of young families. This is especially the case in Ontario, where the provincial government contributes nothing to the non-religious portion of private Jewish day schools. But it is also true in Quebec, where, even with governmental assistance, the tuition costs are severely prohibitive for most young people. As if exhausted by the many valiant but failed efforts over the years – again, especially in Ontario – to help reduce the cost of Jewish education, the community is no longer even publicly discussing the situation. The elephant sits in the middle of our lives, uncorralled, adversely affecting our future. But the silence is unacceptable. It is an abrogation of the collective community responsibility that was, not so long ago, the zealously implemented first priority of community leaders. It sends an unmistakable message to young parents that the community is indifferent and uncaring regarding the Jewish education of their children. It shouts, frankly, of community defeat. We must, therefore, break the silence, point to and rein in the elephant and at the very least, publicly resume the discussion. Three events in quick succession over the past two weeks provide the impetus for doing so. They are further compelling evidence that the subject is, and always will be, a high public priority. In Las Vegas, billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, donated $50 million to the three Jewish day schools that comprise the Adelson Education Campus. The schools serve some 600 students from preschool to high school. In Toronto, the Leo Baeck Day School announced a unique tuition subsidy initiative of up to $5,000 per student for eligible families. In Montreal, the Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools and the Bialik High School in Montreal (JPPS/Bialik) announced a new policy of tuition reduction and freezes. All three initiatives are aimed at preventing parents from removing their children from school and bringing new students into the schools. We commend the initiatives and their originators. However, a wider, more comprehensive, more imaginative, wall-to-wall, community solution is necessary to ensure that as many parents as possible can afford to provide a Jewish education to their children. As a first step in devising such a strategy, we call upon our communal leaders to convene a summit meeting about Jewish education. The summit would examine Jewish education in all its future possibilities and would involve as wide a swath of concerned individuals as possible: businesspeople, academics, educators, policy-makers, parents, grandparents, industrialists, philanthropists, clergy, lay leaders and any one else with wisdom or experience to offer on the subject. The status quo is an affront to conscience. We owe this search for solutions as much to our parents and our grandparents as to our children and our grandchildren. Inaction is not an option. Community leaders must remove the elephant immediately. 25 years ago in The CJN Israel’s Likudnik prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, and its Laborite foreign minister, Shimon Peres, both expressed enthusiasm for a U.S. peace proposal that envisioned some form of autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza “within weeks”. Editorial Advisory Board: Maurice Benzacar, Michael Brown, Donald Carr, Rabbi Michael Dolgin, Jake Goldstein, Jeffrey Kopstein, Keith Landy, Lou Ronson, Alan Sandler, Rabbi Philip Scheim, Mike Shriqui, Pamela Medjuck Stein, Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, Ehud Telem, Nelson Wiseman. Absurd position on Israeli election Many political columnists have suggested that the one reason why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost a number of seats in the recent Israeli election is the fact that he made little effort to re-engage with the Palestinians on peace talks. The absurdity of this position is that the only precondition that Israel has placed on reopening peace talks is that the Palestinian Authority recognize the existence of a Jewish state. This, the president of the Palestinian Authority has consistently refused to do. Add to that the publicly stated position of Hamas, the rulers of Gaza who are soon to be reunited with the PA, that Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth and that Palestinians are entitled to every inch of the State of Israel. It is ludicrous to suggest with that mindset that there is any point in Israel meeting with the PA. There is not one nation on Earth that would negotiate with a group publicly committed to destroying its population. Bert Raphael Thornhill, Ont. * * * No preconditions as bloodsuckers, warmongers and descendants of apes and pigs, does not sound like a good partner for peace. Israel returned Gaza and received an ongoing barrage of rockets in return. One can only imagine the predicament that Israel would be in had it returned the Golan Heights. With the Iron Dome, land once again becomes a vital component as a security buffer. Peace will only be possible when the Palestinians appreciate its value and sit down with Israel for direct talks without preconditions. Sam Mitnick Cote St. Luc, Que. * * * Diversity of Israeli opinion Kudos to The CJN for reporting the remarks of the leading Israeli academic Hanan Alexander, who said, “Israel will benefit from criticism” (“‘Abandon romantic fantasies’ of Israel: prof,” Jan 31). Despite being told by our communal leaders not to criticize the Netanyahu government, and despite Israeli NGOs and political parties other than Likud being described as “fringe radicals” or even “terrorists,” the paper has shown courage in impartially reporting the real diversity of Israeli opinion. Charles Heller Toronto * * * Smadari Meiri dismisses my reference to UN Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for “every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized borders free from threats and acts of Anshel Wise helped her family violence” by noting that subsequent to the 1967 Six Day War, Israel promised to return I am writing in response to the areas of captured land in return for SeeJN photograph with the caption LET THEM GO… headed “Anshel Wise’s cigar store defensible borders and recognition as a sovereign state (Letters, Jan. 31). and steamship office” (Jan. 31). Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel, Meiri should remember that My father, Louis Goldberg, came Zvi Feldman, Guy Hever, on Sept. 1, 1967, 13 Arab states to Canada in 1924, leaving his wife Yehuda Katz responded to such an Israeli offer and four children in Poland. After with three nos: no peace, no recworking for one year, he found ognition, no negotiations. As recently as Nov. 28, himself short of cash and could not afford to bring 2010, the “moderates” of Fatah formulated the three his family to Canada. Anshel Wise became aware of nos of Ramallah: no to Israel as a Jewish state, no to this and lent him the remainder of the money interinterim borders, no to land swaps. est-free. My father did in fact bring my mother and Meiri asks what has Israel done since 1967, other siblings back as a result of his generosity. My father than build settlements and vandalize Palestinian paid the loan back and remained a faithful client of properties. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt for a Wise’s for the rest of his life. Wise was an exceptioncold peace that is quickly thawing into a hot prob- ally generous, outstanding man. lem. The leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Estelle Budish government, Mohamed Morsi, who refers to Jews Toronto The Canadian Jewish News reserves the right to refuse advertising that in its opinion is misleading, in poor taste or incompatible with the advertising policies of the newspaper. Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement by The Canadian Jewish News. The CJN makes no representation as to the kashruth of food products in advertisements. Letters are welcome if they are brief, in English or French, typewritten with lines double spaced, and of interest to our reading public. Readers are cautioned not to make sweeping claims against persons or institutions which they cannot verify, as libel laws are very stringent. We reserve the right to edit and condense letters, which must bear the sender’s address, phone number and both handwritten and typed signatures. Letters sent by e-mail must also include the sender’s municipal address. [email protected]