TORONTO — Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto celebrates its 100th anniversary June 11 with a birthday bash at its Hurwich branch, one of a series of events this year that will culminate in a gala centennial dinner in November.
“One hundred years of Associated equals 100 years of Jewish education in Toronto,” said Deena Nathanson-Gauze, a historian by training and an AHS parent who is compiling material for a collectible book on the school’s history.
Before the school, which now serves 2,000 students on three campuses, first opened its doors in downtown Toronto, local Jewish families relied on private teachers to give their children a Jewish education.
Associated, which started its day school in the mid-1940s, has the same mission and philosophy as it did 100 years ago, Nathanson-Gauze said. The school has always been open to everyone in the community regardless of socio-economic status or level of Jewish observance, a notion that was innovative at the time, she added.
But a ledger from the school’s early days reflects at least one aspect of life that has changed, said Nathanson-Gauze, who is also serving as archivist for the centennial project.
The ledger, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, includes reasons for students’ absences. “Some of [the students] had to go to work after school,” she said. “These were children of immigrant families, and it was the Depression.”
The school’s “ladies’ auxiliary,” a precursor of today’s parents’ association, played a role that is still familiar today, fundraising for the school and its activities. However, Nathanson-Gauze noted, the group also ensured that children from financially strapped families had clothes and even shoes.
Probably the oldest artifact she has is a copy of a High Holy Day speech from the school’s earliest days that was read from local pulpits, exhorting parents to send their children to the fledgling school.
“There are all sorts of wonderful things,” Nathanson-Gauze said. She noted in particular an engraved silver trowel used at several groundbreaking ceremonies and dating back to the mid-1920s, when the school opened its building on Brunswick Avenue.
Nathanson-Gauze said she would welcome additional contributions – things like older photos, school projects and pictures of group activities like the annual Israel walk – which can be made through any branch of the school.
By the time Mark Smiley, the AHS director of education, was a student at the school in the 1960s and early 1970s, Associated was a fixture in the Toronto Jewish community at its then sole location on Neptune Drive.
Smiley recalls “wonderful Shabbatons” in grades 7 and 8, which he says are still a positive feature of the school.
But he also remembers, with what seems to be a mix of regret and nostalgia, the pranks his class used to pull.
“I’ll be honest. Part of my success in the United States was knowing what we used to get away with here, and being a couple of steps ahead of the children,” Smiley said of the early part of his career in Jewish education before he returned to Toronto.
“I happen to have an advanced degree in spitball shooting,” he quipped.
However, he noted, school alumni have gone on to distinguish themselves in a diverse array of fields.
At least three other graduates head Jewish schools in other cities, and alumni can be found on university faculties, in research labs, in the legal field and in the film industry, he said. The school also has writers and rabbis, said Smiley, who was himself ordained by the Conservative movement last year.
The biggest difference at Associated today, Smiley said, is that “the school has fully embraced best practices in both Jewish and general education… [regarding] teaching and learning, technology, special needs and finding high level Judaic leaders.”
As for the future, “the field of education never stops evolving,” Smiley said. “I think if you allow yourself to stand still, you’re going to fall behind.”
For further information about centennial events, which include the establishment of a $5-million endowment fund and the dedication of a sefer Torah, go to www.associatedhebrewschools.com/Centennial.cfm.
