Jewish Organizations in Montreal Request State Support for Day Schools

Requests that the Government of Quebec support Jewish Day Schools in Montreal from tax funds have been made here by the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Council of Jewish Educational Institutions of Greater Montreal. A delegation representing the two organizations voiced those requests at a conference at Quebec City with the Province Minister of Education, Jean Jacques Bertrand.

The delegation told the Education Minister that the Jewish Day Schools were not to be considered as “private schools in the common sense of the term.” The Jewish Day Schools, it was pointed out, were not created in opposition to the general school system, but rather to maintain that system in full with the added program of courses in Jewish religion, culture and languages, The Jewish groups stressed that, within the context of the denominational system of education in Quebec, “it is fully understandable that many Jewish parents should want to have an opportunity to educate their children in a day school in which the general subjects and Jewish teachings are combined.”

At present, government grants are available only to independent secondary schools. Five Jewish high schools here are so recognized. The delegation maintained that the per capita cost of education of a child from kindergarten to and including Grade 11 ought to be paid from tax revenues to the officially recognized Jewish Day Schools for every child enrolled in any of the specified grades. Mr. Bertrand told the delegation that the Quebec Department of Education would continue to study the problem presented by the Jewish groups. The CJC previously made similar requests to the Government of Quebec and to various Royal Commissions on education.