The impact of the news story felt more like a knife into the heart than a shudder of concern. The JTA last week published the results of a survey of Jewish voters in the United States. The survey was commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a “group led by prominent Jewish Democrats”. It was conducted after the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas. Images of the conflict still sat heavy in the online chat rooms and brazen expressions of hatred against Israel and Jews saturated countless social media platforms.
The following were some of the key findings of the survey:
• 34% of respondents agreed that “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States;
• 25% agreed that “Israel is an apartheid state”,
• 22% agreed that “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians”, and
• 9% of voters agreed that “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.”
Younger voters who took part in the survey apparently agreed with the above statements in even higher proportions.
To care about the future of the second largest Jewish community on earth and its seemingly diminishing sense of shared peoplehood with the rest of the world’s Jews is to be profoundly shocked at the results of the above survey results entail. It portends only bad.
Even if we explain the survey results as stemming from disdain for policies of Israel’s former right-wing government, as well as acknowledged short-term spiking effects from unceasing media bombardment of overwhelmingly negative images, headlines, reporting and commentary, how can we explain the embrace by so many of our fellow Jews of palpably observable falsehoods and lies about State of Israel?
The answer is: most of these primarily young Jews simply don’t know the truth about Israel, about Israel’s many spurned attempts to reach an agreement with Palestinian leaders, about the justice of its cause or about the long historical cause of its justice. They do not know enough to recognize and reject the lies. They do not know how to befriend, let alone defend the tiny, sole Jewish State on the planet.
Jewish education does not guarantee that our young Jewish adults will indeed acquire the ability or the inclination to reject calumny and falsehoods against Israel and Jews. But it is the best bet.
To help bring Jewish education to all of the families that seek it for their children, that education must be affordable. To help make it affordable we need your help to bring an end to Ontario’s discrimination in educational funding.
GAJE will be challenging Ontario’s policies in court. Our lawyers are donating much of their time and expertise. The cost for prosecuting the case, from the trial phase to the end of an appeal in the Supreme Court is in the range of $250,000. Thus far we have raised about a quarter of the funds needed. We need your help to raise the rest. Ours is a one-time request to cover legal costs through to the outcome at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Please join us in making this happen! Please tell your friends to join in our effort.
This is our generation’s opportunity to correct the funding discrimination that has existed in Ontario for more than 25 years. If we do not try to end the injustice, who will? It is an imperative that calls upon our consciences for the sake of our people and now too, alas, for the sake of preserving the truth.
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada.
To donate to this important cause, please click here.
(For further information, please contact Israel Mida at imida1818@gmail.com)
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Be safe. Be well.
Thank you.
Shabbat shalom.
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
July 23, 2021
The JTA article can be found at:
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 