Subsidies to be overhauled
Thank you Zev Steinfeld for sharing your experiences in applying for a day school subsidy (“The humiliating process of the tuition application subsidy,” Sept. 4.) While it is difficult to share these personal experiences, it is important that we confront the challenges head on.
Toronto’s tuition subsidy program is North America’s largest and most robust subsidy system, serving 14 schools with an annual $10-million contribution from UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. While it strives for fairness, the application process can be gruelling. With feedback like Zev’s in mind, UJA’s Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education leadership is spearheading a major overhaul of the application process. We agree that the status quo is not good enough. Our goal is to make the process more efficient, more transparent, more easily accessible and overall less uncomfortable. We intend to have a plan in place before applications begin for the 2015 academic year.
Once established, we will share news of the plan with The CJN readership. In the meantime, it is important to us to hear more feedback like Zev’s. Please feel free to email us at [email protected].
Laurie Davis, Incoming Chair
Daniel Held, Executive Director,
UJA’s Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education
Toronto
Day schools must change
Zev Steinfeld was very brave to acknowledge publicly what many of us suffer silently.
Our child has been in the day school system for many years. Every year we struggled to pay full tuition, knowing that people with much greater resources received subsidies, but we had heard how humiliating and invasive the application process was, and we wanted to avoid it at all costs. We do not own a home. I drive a 12-year-old car, and I haven’t made an RRSP contribution in years.
Last year, serious illness struck our family, and we had no choice but to apply for a subsidy or to further traumatize our child by removing him from his community and friends. After initially being rejected, we successfully appealed. However, the process was demeaning and traumatic, as Zev said. I am worried what will happen to my subsidy when I eventually need to replace my car.
Name withheld on request
Toronto
Thank you JIAS
Like the Shvekher family, I will always be grateful to Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS) for playing a very important role in my life (“JIAS makes life easier for immigrants,” Aug. 28).
First, in Hungary, in 1945, JIAS delivered chocolates, clothes and food. After close to 70 years, I can still vividly recall the little cans of Carnation condensed milk with the white and red markings. It was like a miracle. I’d never seen anything like it before.
The second time, in 1957, my family was among the Hungarian immigrants arriving in Canada. We settled in Montreal, and JIAS provided whatever newly landed immigrants needed to start a new life in a strange new country. There were loans, English lessons, clothes, books, help with finding an apartment, jobs for my parents, and school enrolment for my sister and myself.
I will always remember our wonderful first Pesach in Canada. JIAS delivered a Pesach basket, without which we would not have been able to celebrate the seders nor the rest of the holiday. As a matter of fact, it was my very first Seder ever. My parents, both Holocaust survivors, decided to assimilate after the war because they didn’t feel it was safe to practise their religion in Hungary. It wasn’t until we came to Canada that my parents felt that it was safe to live as Jews.
For all of the above, I offer my personal note of gratitude. It is a small token of my large appreciation to JIAS for all their support over the years.
Susan Stern
Toronto
Seen in The CJN
Imagine my surprise to open The CJN this morning (Sept. 11) and to see my photo on the editorial page. Mind you, the photo was taken 56 years ago, when I was a student at Eitz Chaim on Viewmount Avenue. I recognized the photo because I was wearing my favourite shirt, and I wore it until it died.
I understand that my father, Harry Nesker, was one Eitz Chaim’s earliest graduates in 1919 or so.
Jerry Nesker
Toronto