Menu
Paul Penna DJDS is proud to be a participating school in this unique initiative, which will make Jewish day school more affordable for many families in our community.
If you have not qualified in the past for tuition assistance or even considered the possibility of tuition relief, now is the time to explore a Generations Trust Scholarship!
How does the scholarship work? The Scholarship sets a household tuition cap linked to one’s household income. This cap represents a family’s maximum total tuition fee for up to three students. It will not change if you have one, two, or three students enrolled.
Who qualifies? Applicants must have one, two, or three children between JK and grade enrolled at the same time in one or more of UJA’s funded Jewish day schools.
Want to know if your family qualifies? Find out in just minutes! Visit the Generations Trust Scholarship website to use the quick and anonymous scholarship calculator, which can estimate your eligibility and how much you can expect to pay in day school tuition with a Generations Trust Scholarship.
Click here to learn more about UJA’s new Generations Trust Scholarship!
QUICK LINKS
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address
Paul Penna Downtown
Jewish Day School
750 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2J2
(Located in the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre)
Email
info@djds.ca
Phone
(416) 928-3537
November 29, 2019
This week’s parsha, Toldot (translated as ‘generations’), tells the story of the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau. It sets in motion a biblical saga that spans many generations and ultimately leads the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel. The idea of the impact that one generation can have on another, even many decades apart, is particularly significant this month.
A signature project of the Mi Polin artists was on display in Jacob’s Lounge at the MNjcc for the month of November. Their work focused on the spaces in doorposts where mezuzot once were and captured that ‘trace’, turning it into a bronze mezuzah. This exhibit highlighted a number of towns and specific buildings where Alexander and Helena had found mezuzah traces. It told the story of the people who lived in those homes before the Holocaust, as well as their connection to modern day Poland and their living descendants, usually in North America.
In early November, our faculty and students met the artists and were moved by their work and the story that each piece told. We wanted to find a way to share this exhibit with a broader Paul Penna DJDS population and so we invited our grandparents into school to meet the curator and see the exhibit. As part of the presentation, we heard from two students and learned about the impact this exhibit had on them. Our students connected directly to the work and historically to the generations before them. It opened up conversations with grandparents about the generations that came before them and highlighted the importance of Jewish values and artifacts in their own lives.
In one student’s words: “Through this exhibit, I felt a connection to my great grandparents who were from Poland. After I saw the exhibit, my grandmother showed me a poster about Cracow and told me that my family was from there. It was cool to think back to how Jews lived in Poland a long time ago.”
As we work to enrich our students’ experiences and connect them to their past, it is important for us to find ways to open doors to interesting conversations and discussions across generations. Grandparents in our community are an asset. They can bring learning to life, amplifying the importance of family values and providing time and perspective that other members of our community can’t do. We are eager and excited to continue to get to know our grandparent community and find meaningful ways to connect them to their grandchildren, to each other and to Paul Penna DJDS.
In thinking about Toldot and the biblical narrative that will unfold over the next number of Shabbatot, I know the Torah is communicating the tremendous importance of recognizing and honouring the impact one generation can have on the next. As we put L’dor Vador into action, I hope you will continue to find ways to be a meaningful part of our story.