Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- JPS
- Folk Shule
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Jewish People's Schools were founded in 1914 under the auspices of the Poale Zion Party, mainly to provide Jewish education for Jewish children attending the Protestant schools in Montreal. Pupils initially attended classes in the afternoons and on Sunday. In 1928, the Jewish People's Schools organized the first Jewish all-day school in Montreal.
In the early years, the schools were run out of rented houses but in 1941 a modern school was built on the corner of Waverly and Fairmount. Two rented houses however were also maintained to handle the number of students. In 1954 the first stage of the building on Van Horne was built. Between 1956-1958 the school of Waverly Street and the annex opposite the school were sold as the second story of the Van Horne Street building was completed.
The Jewish People's Schools combined a secular programme, by following the official curriculum of the former Protestant School Board of Montreal, with training in Yiddish and Hebrew. The school was dedicated to the preservation of Jewish heritage and took responsibility to provide students with Jewish consciousness.