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July 5, 2002
School key to continuity
Talmud Torah launches its new building campaign.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Many Jewish families have left Vancouver because the prospects
for a Jewish high school education are too limited. Many more families
have opted not to move here at all for the same reason. That is
why the imminent construction of a permanent, comprehensive Jewish
high school is absolutely imperative to the health of Vancouver's
Jewish community, according to the president of the Vancouver Talmud
Torah school board.
Reisa Schwartzman is herself a graduate of Vancouver Talmud Torah
elementary school, but when it came time for high school, she wanted
an institution that could offer her band and other electives. She
chose Eric Hamber secondary.
But on June 27, Schwartzman stood before an enthusiastic group of
parents and community leaders, Mayor Philip Owen, MP Stephen Owen
and MLA Val Anderson, at the launch of what she hopes will be a
relatively quick campaign to raise the funds for the school she
would have liked to have attended.
Jewish high school students have been attending classes at a makeshift
facility in a former Vancouver public school on Baillie Street.
Vancouver Talmud Torah high school is located in a portable; Vancouver
Hebrew Academy occupies a few rooms in the main building.
A fortuitous opening appeared two years ago, however, when a former
private hospital was being offered for sale immediately east of
the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC). With the
help of the Diamond Foundation of Vancouver and the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Foundation of Baltimore, Md., the Jewish community was
able to obtain the land with the intention of building a permanent
Vancouver Talmud Torah high school on the site.
In a jubilant public gathering, the school launched its official
fund-raising campaign, unveiling plans for a school that will be
integrally related to the JCC as part of the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Jewish Community Centre Campus.
The entire project will require nearly $20 million, but Harvey Dales
who, with his wife Jody, co-chairs the fund-raising campaign, is
extremely optimistic.
The land - valued at about $6 million - is being held in trust for
the school, to be released when the campaign raises the required
funds for construction. Already, $2 million has been pledged and
the Weinberg Foundation has issued a $3 million matching challenge
grant. That leaves about $8 million to be raised in order to meet
the goal of opening the new school building in 2004.
The major donors campaign will take place in July and August; members
of the community can expect a phone call in the next few weeks.
Speakers at the afternoon launch expressed excitement about the
"synergy" that will be caused by uniting the JCC with
the high school. Students will have easy access to the community
centre's swimming pool, theatre, library and performing arts centre.
The JCC, no doubt, will benefit from the proximity of youthful enthusiasm.
Greg Lewis, a current Grade 11 student at Talmud Torah high, articulated
the students' sense of excitement at the prospect. Though he acknowledged
the new school wouldn't benefit him directly – he graduates
next year – he said it will be easier for elementary students
to continue their studies in the supportive Jewish environment when
a fully appointed high school is complete.
Co-chair Dales said the generation of his father, a Holocaust survivor,
helped build the infrastructure for the Jewish community. Today's
generation has the obligation to take that one step further, he
said, to ensure that the community grows for years to come.
"It is in our children's eyes that we see tomorrow," he
said.
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