Aviva Spiro has always valued Jewish education. Her own children attended Hebrew day school from kindergarten through Grade 12, as did she and her husband. “For us, it was a no-brainer,” she said of the decision to maintain this tradition.
Spiro has always been deeply involved in the Jewish community, and believes that a strong Jewish education is essential for preserving identity and fostering a sense of belonging. When her granddaughter was 15 months old, Spiro’s family registered her for junior kindergarten at Bialik Hebrew Day School, confident she would have a guaranteed spot for September 2025. But as demand for Jewish education surged, they got an unexpected call: she was on a waitlist.
“We were told she was in, but suddenly, there was no space,” Spiro recalls. “What do you mean we’re on the waitlist? We were there, we were assured.”
Jewish day schools across Canada are seeing enrolment numbers reaching levels not seen in years, particularly in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the ensuing war in Gaza and escalating antisemitism. While administrators attempt to expand facilities and increase classroom capacity, Jewish day schools report an influx of students transferring from public schools, lengthy waitlists for kindergarten students, and sustained retention for all grades.
Like many Jewish families in Canada, Spiro wanted her grandkids in a Jewish school, citing both a stronger sense of community and concerns about antisemitism in public schools.
Desperate for a solution, Spiro’s family reached out to other schools but found them mostly full. “We started scrambling, putting her name down at other schools, but everything was pretty much closed except for maybe one or two,” she said.
Bialik Hebrew Day School, which operates two branches in the Greater Toronto Area for junior kindergarten to Grade 8, has seen an unprecedented retention rate and a growing number of applications, particularly after October 2023, says Benjy Cohen, head of school at Bialik.
“There’s definitely an uptick, and it’s something that most (Hebrew) schools are dealing with,” Cohen told The Canadian Jewish News. “For years, we had students leave at different points along the line to go to (other) schools,” Cohen said. “We’re not seeing that anymore. Instead, we’re seeing students stay through middle school, and our enrolment has surpassed 1,000 students at (one branch) for the first time.”
Cohen attributed this upward trend to a few factors, a major one being a growing distrust towards public schools amidst Toronto’s Jewish community.
“There is an increasing number of Jewish families that don’t feel comfortable in the public school system,” Cohen said, referring to the Toronto District School Board, which has seen an increase in anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents. “These are families that chose initially to send their children to public school but have changed their minds because they feel that the current atmosphere in these schools is not hospitable to Jewish students.”
Cohen mentioned that increased retention and significant demand for intake into junior kindergarten classes are causing difficulties with finding sufficient classroom space. “For years, our total enrolment at (one of our branches) ranged between 820 and 840 students. Next year, we will have over 1,000 students,” he said. “We and other schools are struggling with where we’re going to put these kids and how we’re going to meet this demand.”
‘A good problem to have’
At Toronto’s Associated Hebrew Schools, director of operations Becky Friedman described the situation as “a good problem to have,” but one that requires urgent attention.
“We’ve had the very good problem of having more applications than we’re able to accept, especially in the younger grades,” Friedman said. “We’re exploring new options to expand space because we don’t want to turn anyone away.”
She noted that a significant number of new students have been transferring from public schools, some citing experiences with antisemitism, while others are drawn to the sense of community and Jewish identity that day schools provide.
A complication that arises with students enrolling in Grades 6 to 8 from non-Jewish schools, she said, is a lack of Hebrew language skills and a more limited foundation of Jewish knowledge. “How can they adjust when they don’t know a word of Hebrew?”
To address the needs of older students entering Jewish education for the first time, Associated Hebrew Schools launched the Maalot stream in 2022, a specialized program that helps transferring students integrate into Jewish studies and Hebrew language learning. Friedman attributes the steady rise of enrolment in upper grades to this program. “Our enrolment has been rising steadily for years,” she says, with this upward trend predating Oct. 7, 2023.
Friedman says that Associated Hebrew Schools is now “trying to explore new options” for accommodating an influx of students, “whether that means renovating or finding a new building or some combination of the two.”
Enrolment at Associated Hebrew Schools has been growing steadily over the past five years, with a sharp increase in public school transfers following Oct. 7, 2023, according to data provided by the school.
After years of declining numbers, enrolment at day schools began to grow during the COVID pandemic when day schools were perceived at being more adept at shifting to online learning, than public schools.
While growth was gradual at first, rising just 1.6 percent in 2020-21, it began accelerating the following year, with a 4 percent increase in 2021-22. That same year, 8.7 percent of new students came from public schools.
The most significant jump came in 2022-23, when enrolment surged by 7 percent—nearly double the growth rate of the previous year. Public school transfers also spiked, rising from 8 percent to 24 percent, reflecting a major shift in where new students were coming from.
Funding support and faculty expansion
As demand for Jewish education continues to rise, schools are grappling with logistical challenges, including facility expansions. Many administrators acknowledge that meeting this demand requires ongoing investment from the broader Jewish community.
Daniel Held, chief program officer at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, said one of the key efforts to support the growing interest has been the expansion of financial assistance programs.
“For the last number of years, our focus has been on affordability,” Held explained. “We are fortunate that we’re able to invest significant dollars in scholarships.”
Held noted that tuition for Hebrew day schools can range from between $17,000 and $20,000 for elementary schools and between $22,000 to $25,000 for high schools. Scholarships, he added, are “all dependent on family needs…to help cover the gap between what the family is able to pay and the cost to educate.”
Beyond affordability, another challenge has been ensuring that schools have the physical capacity to accommodate the rising enrolment. “For next September (2025), we had more students who applied to kindergarten (and) to junior kindergarten than we had spaces for,” Held said. “We’ve worked with schools to be able to open up more classrooms and to deal with the physical (space) issues in order to ensure that they can accommodate those kids.”
This includes opening four new kindergarten classrooms for September 2025 at various schools to clear waiting lists. Renovation and construction projects have helped expand facilities to accommodate more students.
While the reasons for this surge in enrolment vary, one factor is the community is in the middle of a mini baby boom, Held said. He also acknowledged that rising concerns about antisemitism and Jewish identity may be playing a role.
“It’s hard to draw a direct correlation, but there’s no question that there are families who are making this choice today when there is an increase in hate towards our community,” he said. “We’re seeing that constantly through hate crime statistics, and unfortunately, this isn’t the Canada that any of us wants for our children, but we’re dealing with that reality.”
According to data provided by UJA, which oversees 16 Hebrew day schools in the GTA, both junior and senior kindergarten enrolment at non-Orthodox schools rose to 878 students this year, up from 855 last year. That momentum continues across the elementary grades, with non-Orthodox K–8 enrollment reaching 4,245 students, compared to 4,101 the year prior. In total, UJA-affiliated schools now serve 5,553 students from kindergarten through Grade 8.
Israeli and international student enrolment
Gray Academy of Jewish Education in Winnipeg experienced an enrolment surge in international students following Oct. 7, 2023. In the 2023-2024 school year, Gray Academy took in 16 temporary students from Israel, many of whom later returned home, while some chose to stay.
The school offered them free tuition, seeing it as a way to support the Jewish community during a time of crisis. “These families were leaving behind their homes and needed a safe space,” Lori Binder, head of school and CEO, told The Canadian Jewish News.
Beyond temporary enrolments, the school is also seeing a growing number of permanent students, while some come from Israeli families arriving on federal work visas.
“We were able to be a safe place for these families that were coming to diaspora communities to be with friends or with family to take a bit of a pause from the war that was going on,” Binder said.
Binder said other new arrivals are from local Jewish families pulling their children from public schools.
“We’re seeing families that maybe hadn’t considered Jewish day school before now making the switch,” Binder said. “It’s not always because of a direct incident, but for some, something changed.”
As demand grows, Gray Academy is expanding capacity, having already added a third kindergarten class and considering opening an additional junior kindergarten section. Currently, some grades are already at capacity.
Enrolment trends show a return to numbers not seen in a decade, with the school now at its highest student population in 10 years. “We started the year at 487 students; today, we are at 513, and next year we expect to surpass that,” Binder said.
At King David High School (Grades 9-12), in Vancouver, new students are transferring from other schools because of Jewish-targeted hate.
“What is noticeable is that many cite the reason for their transfer as having experienced subtle antisemitism and also that they no longer feel 100 percent safe at their current school,” said head of school Seth Goldsweig, in an email statement.
King David has also welcomed 11 students, enrolled across all grades, whose families relocated from Israel, Goldsweig said.
Despite growing numbers, he said that the high school has been able to accommodate all of the students who have applied, without needing to implement any expansion plans.
“Looking at the future demographics of our main feeder school, we believe that we will be growing over the coming years. Our school will be relocating to (a) new campus which will enable us to accommodate a larger student body.”
Smaller schools also see enrolment increase
London Community Hebrew Day School, one of the smaller Jewish schools in Canada—and the only full-time institution of its kind in the Ontario city—has also seen growth. “Our school had dwindled to just 20 students, but after a concerted effort, we’ve rebounded to 33,” said past chair and current treasurer and director Ryan Gertzbein.
“We’ve seen an increase from public school families, and we expect that trend to continue.”
Gertzbein said at least two new students registered as a result of Oct. 7.
The future of Jewish education
With enrolment projected to keep rising in the coming years, Jewish day schools in Canada are poised for a new era of growth.
UJA Toronto’s Daniel Held believes the value of Hebrew day schools is in inculcating a strong Jewish identity. “When you know who you are, you can do anything, right?” Held said. “When our community is strong and we give kids a Jewish identity, it gives them the pride, the knowledge, the attitude, and the aptitude to live a full Jewish life.”
Spiro’s granddaughter eventually secured a spot at a Jewish day school in the GTA.
“Jewish education is a fortune—it’s very expensive,” Spiro said. “I know there are subsidies, but they really look into your whole life before they give you one. If you can afford it, I think it’s important. But not everybody can.”
She believes more families should be given the opportunity to benefit from Jewish education.
“If ever there was a time to open up more spots and accept more Jewish kids, it is now,” Spiro said. “They should be moving heaven and earth to make sure these kids get into Hebrew day school. Especially after Oct. 7—there has to be a way.”
