Since 2016, Aviva has served as president of the Federation of Teachers in Hebrew Schools, working passionately and tirelessly to ensure all parties in the schools are respected and their needs met. With a widespread reputation as a strong ‘consensus builder’, she brings her talents and experience working with different stakeholders to rally people together for the greater success of all.

Prior to her presidency, Aviva served on the executive of the Federation both as secretary and vice president. She has also been a candidate for the position of School Board Trustee in Thornhill ward 5 and Markham ward 1 in the recent municipal elections.

Aviva is concurrently a Jewish History and Ivrit teacher at TanenbaumCHAT High School in Toronto and has been at TanenbaumCHAT faculty member since 2001.She is a graduate of the Concurrent Teacher Education program at York University and holds a master’s degree in education from York. Other highlights of her career include teaching at the Leo Baeck Day School and Associated Hebrew Schools. Along with teaching Hebrew to students at York University. Also, notably, she has worked in conjunction with associated Hebrew schools as a language consultant specializing in second language acquisition and communicative Hebrew.

A true family person at heart, Aviva is married with 6 children and lives in Thornhill, Ontario.

As our second vice president, Tammy is a highly dedicated member of our union leadership team. She holds her master’s degree in counselling psychology from the University of Chicago, and a BA (Honours) in religious studies and psychology from York University. As well, she has a diploma in social work, and her teaching certification. 

For the past 21 years Tammy has been a teacher of many grades at Associated Hebrew Schools, currently teaching all Hebrew subjects to grade 5 students. Prior to Associated, she worked for an Employee Assistance Program, where she counselled individuals who were returning to the workplace after an extended absence.

She is passionate about her work with the Federation – and excited to do her part to ensure a healthy working environment for all teachers. Tammy is married and a mother to 4 children.

Highly literate, passionate and a respected Hebrew and Jewish studies teacher, Jimmy has been vice president of the Federation since 2016. He is also co-head of the Jewish history department at TanenbaumCHAT where he has been teaching since 2002 in the departments of Jewish history, Jewish thought and rabbinics.  Jimmy was educated in Toronto and Israel and has been the proud recipient of several academic honours, including the Molly Eisenberg Memorial Award in Jewish Studies. His dissertation focused on Jewish-Muslim polemics. In addition to his role with the federation, Jimmy is also very active in the Toronto Jewish community: he serves on the board of Communaute Juive Morocaine de Toronto, and has coordinated and hosted academic lectures and gala dinners and advises frequently on Jewish community matters.

Jimmy is also a respected journalist and published author on the topic of Jewish issues. His published works/mentions include:

Jerusalem Post articles:

• Juxtaposing Jewish and State →
• Why a Jewish Education Matters →

Canadian Jewish News (CJN) articles:

• Mimouna and Jewish-Arab Cultural Symbiosis →
• What will it take for a Muslim-Jewish Nostra Aetate? →
• The devaluation of minority experiences at Jewish day schools →
• The “Golden Age” narrative is bad history →
• History Matter →
• CHAT puts focus on Sephardi experience →

Barga News articles:

• Barga, beauty and Schopenhauer →

Our federation’s trusted secretary Batia is also a Hebrew teacher at TanenbaumCHAT high school in Toronto. She was born, educated and began her career in Israel, arriving in Canada during the unforgettable month of September 2001. Since 2001, she has been a faculty member at CHAT– and was the Head of Jewish Studies Remediation at CHAT KIMEL for 9 years. Batia has a certificate of special education and completed her teaching studies at UJA & York University.

Prior to her arrival in Canada, she was a language teacher in Israel for 10 years and is proud to be a language/education graduate of Jerusalem University. She also studied administration and human resources at the “Miclala Le’minahal” at Tel Aviv.

Notably, Batia served in the Israeli army in the Ministry of Defense from 1986-1988. Batia is a proud mother of 3 adult children and lives in Richmond Hill.