TORONTO — Kachol Lavan, the supplementary school that began in a Thornhill basement about seven years ago to meet the needs of Israeli immigrants, will open its third Toronto-area campus in Thornhill Woods in September.
At press time, Ariel Zaltzman, the principal, told The CJN that the school was still in discussion with the York Region District School Board to determine the exact location.
Currently, Kachol Lavan has a total of 282 students in rented space – 240 at Leo Baeck Day School’s Thornhill location, and 42 at Bialik Hebrew Day School.
The Leo Baeck location is at capacity for its Sunday classes, Zaltzman said.
Although the new campus is not far from the existing northernmost branch, he said that its closer proximity to families living in Thornhill Woods may influence families – particularly Israeli-Russians whose children are not currently receiving formal Jewish education – to consider registering.
With an added location, Zaltzman said, the school should be able to accommodate up to 500 children in total.
The Bialik location, which runs from junior kindergarten to Grade 5, was opened in 2007, then closed after a number of families moved back to Israel. It reopened this year because of a demand in the neighbourhood, and also to reach out to non-Hebrew-speaking families living in that part of the city, Zaltzman said.
In Thornhill, classes run from JK to Grade 8. The school also offers a high school credit course for teenagers.
Kachol Lavan – which focuses on secular, cultural aspects of Jewish education, and incorporates “a lot of art and music” – caters mostly to children from Hebrew-speaking families, with about 60 from non-Hebrew-speaking families and about 70 from the Russian community (mostly via Israel), Zaltzman said.
Recently, Jewish communities in other cities have expressed an interest in starting local Kachol Lavan programs, he added.
