History

TanenbaumCHAT is approaching its Jubilee Year in 2011. Founded as a community initiative in 1960 as a continuing grade of Associated Hebrew Schools, and housed in the then Associated building on Neptune, it has never lost its community character. Within a few years it became a totally independent entity as the 'Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto' referred to universally as 'CHAT' - recruiting High School students equally from all Jewish Day Schools in the city.

An early record of the school Board of Directors suggested that he theoretical maximum number of students that the community High School could ever hope to recruit was "perhaps as many as 400" a target that the early leadership could only dream of! Today, the school is almost four times that "maximum" figure!

TanenbaumCHAT's Growth Over the Years

In 1974, the school moved to premises on Wilmington Avenue initially sharing with other schools! Within a few years it occupied the whole premises. In 1979 Rabbi Marvin Pachino became Headmaster, and served for nineteen years until his retirement in 1998. By the late 1990s the school had completely outgrown the buildings. Close to 700 students occupied the original buildings, plus a 'village' of no less than sixteen portables on the back field.

Under the Presidency of Baila Lubek, plans were rapidly drawn up to extend and renovate the Wilmington site. A trailblazing and generous gift from (later Dr.) Anne Tanenbaum enabled the plans to be implemented. Anne Tanenbaum's gift set new standards for philanthropy to the Jewish educational system. In a period of 14 weeks in the summer of 1999, some $9m of improvement and construction took place. A complete new classroom wing, a new gym, a new space for the library and the creation of a new covered atrium were the central features. It transformed the school.

Under Rabbi Pachino's successor, Paul Shaviv, the school continued to grow rapidly. Only one year later, pressure on space from a rapidly expanding intake forced the school to bring forward plans for further future expansion. In June 1999 the school seized an opportunity to lease available High School premises in Wright Street, Richmond Hill village. After a hectic summer of planning and preparation, CHAT Richmond Hill Campus opened in September 1999.

Establishing a Second Campus

The historic establishment of a second campus, accommodating both the community's demographic expansion north of Toronto, and also the increasing popularity of the school coincided with UJA Federation's ambitious planning for the community's future in York Region. Plans were announced for a new 'Community Campus' on Bathurst Street, north of Highway 7. The school was invited to relocate to the new Campus, designated as the 'Joseph Wolf Lebovic Jewish Community Campus'

A series of further magnificent donations saw the school renamed 'TanenbaumCHAT' (The Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto), and the new, purpose built building on the new campus construction cost $30m was named as the 'Kimel Family Education Centre'. The school moved from Wright Street to the new building in the summer of 2007. By that time the two campuses together had grown to 1,500 students, making the school the largest Jewish High School in the Diaspora.

TanenbaumCHAT benefited from a further major donation in 2008 from Gil and Elise Palter, which entitled them to name the Wilmington Campus. In an unusual gesture, they invited the school students and staff to choose a 'significant name form Jewish history' for the site. A democratic process culminated with five teams of students making presentations to the entire campus population, each promoting the merits of a particular candidate, themselves selected from almost 200 nominations. The school voted to name the campus after Raoul Wallenberg, one of the outstanding 'Chasidei Umot haOlam' a 'Righteous Gentile' who saved thousands upon thousands of Jewish lives in wartime Budapest.

Today, the school is regarded as one of the leading schools in Greater Toronto, and one of the premier Jewish schools of the world. Its graduates may be found as educators, thinkers, researchers, professionals and community leaders throughout Toronto and much further afield.

We approach our Jubilee Year and the next fifty years after that with great pride and optimism!