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Feb. 17, 2006
A Jewish school of excellence
Through their foundation, a Diamond family dream comes true.
KELLEY KORBIN
There is no doubt that the first-rate facility that is King David
High School (KDHS) would never have come to fruition without an
extremely generous donation from the Diamond Foundation.
Through their foundation, the Diamond family – parents Leslie
and Gordon, along with daughters Jill Diamond and Lauri Glotman
– gave in the neighborhood of $16 million to cover all the
capital costs associated with the purchase of the land and the total
construction costs of the building for KDHS. Furthermore, Jill,
who is executive director of the foundation, committed much of her
personal time to overseeing the construction of the building.
Jill Diamond said one of the missions of the foundation is to promote
Jewish education.
"We believe in Jewish education," she said. "By covering
all the capital costs associated with the building, we wanted to
give the school the best possible chance and provide a beacon for
Jewish education to flourish in Vancouver."
She added, "It was my mother's dream to have a high-quality
Jewish school of excellence in Vancouver. It was my mother's initial
vision."
Leslie Diamond explained, "One thing I have heard over and
over was that Vancouver had the largest assimilation of Jews –
people marrying out of the religion. That statistic was frightening
for me. After Grade 7, kids were put into public school and those
are the most formative years, where you decide how to carry on your
life as an adult. After bar mitzvah, Jewish education often ends.
The Jewish high school is important as a legacy to the community,
so that we could introduce tradition and Jewish learning at a high
school level."
Leslie said that she believes the building has been very important
to the success of the school: "I always said, 'build it and
they will come,' and the proof is in the pudding," she noted.
She added that the "unbelievable" principal and board
are helping to make her and husband Gordon's dream that KDHS become
a school of excellence a reality.
Leslie also said that it is very important to her that the school
be available to Jews of all affiliations regardless of their prior
experience with Jewish education.
The Diamond Foundation believes that the key to the success of the
school lies in having an excellent board of directors. It has also
committed to staffing the executive director position for the next
three years, in order to help KDHS become, in Jill's words, "a
true leader in both secular and Jewish education."
In recognition of their gift, the family was offered the honor of
having the school named after them, but they declined. Jill explained,
"It is a community school for the community to take pride and
ownership in – it's not our school. We wanted the kids and
the board to be happy with the name."
So far, the Diamonds are very pleased with the way the school is
developing, particularly with the staff, the board, the students
and the quality of education, but they emphasize that the long-term
success will be an ongoing challenge and it will be up to the community
to embrace the school and ensure its success.
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