Blatant discrimination is entrenched in Ontario’s educational system. For, as we all know, only one religious group in the province receives funding for the education of its children. That this differentiation continues and persists in the year 2024 is an expanding wound to the moral integrity of the society that represents itself as one that respects and protects human rights for all its citizens.
Now we discover that blatant student bullying is also becoming increasingly entrenched in Ontario’s public schools. This is the heartbreaking revelation by Hannah Schwartz, a high school student in Toronto.
In a searing, cri de coeur published in the Toronto Star last month, Hannah wrote “what many people may not know is that right now it’s hard to be a Jewish kid at just about any school in Canada.”
Hannah has the credibility to comment on the state of bullying in schools and in other social venues. She is the founder of the online, anti-bullying and anti-hate awareness program Voice and Action. She writes with clarity, directly, with the unembellished language of a true heart, striving to do the right thing. We reproduce some of the key passages from her op-ed so that as wide an audience as possible will learn of the anxiety incrementally gripping our children simply on account of their identities as Jews.
“In school assembly after school assembly, in class after class, teachers and motivational speakers told my peers and me repeatedly: don’t be bystanders to bullying. If you see something say something. And above all, try your best to spread “small acts of kindness” wherever you go.
The sad thing is, it’s become clear that this lesson did not sink in, especially when it comes to antisemitism. (Our emphasis)
“Unfortunately, it isn’t small acts of kindness I see in my school community. It’s acts of hate — in all sizes.
“Before the Israel-Hamas war broke out, I didn’t fully realize what antisemitism was. I knew it as an abstract thing, but I had never come face to face with it myself. Then Oct. 7 arrived and everything changed. I began to notice small hurtful comments from my peers about my religion and culture, and then bigger more painful comments. One of my peers started calling me “Jew” instead of my name. They thought it would be funny to scream it at me in the hallways. And then another told me: “I wish Hitler was back,” and “I wish your whole family had died in a gas chamber.”
“On social media it has been just as bad. My peers, even some whose hearts are in the right place, share antisemitic memes and videos. The bullying and Jew hatred is hard enough but what is almost just as hard to see is the impact this experience has had on my friends. I notice that some of my Jewish classmates who were once proud of their identity now feel uncomfortable with it. They are scared to be “too” Jewish in public. And for those of us who are proud to be Jewish and show it, many of our peers shun us.
“Meanwhile, the response from school leaders and politicians feels quiet, like the whole country is a bystander to this bullying. This feels so wrong, like a betrayal of the lessons we were raised on.
“Yes, we need to be safe from hate and violence. But there’s something we need just as much, now more than ever. We need allies, not bystanders.”
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Hannah’s lament is dire and urgent. We repeat her words. The response [to the active, bold, bullying of Jewish children] from school leaders and politicians feels quiet, like the whole country is a bystander to this bullying. This feels so wrong, like a betrayal of the lessons we were raised on.”
Adding to the funding unfairness we now add anti-Jewish bullying that characterize the public educational system of Ontario. As long as discrimination and bullying are endemic to it, the public school system is unworthy of the society in whose name it purports to educate its children. Moreover, the failure of public school leaders to eradicate bullying of Jewish students within their schools, may have significant implications for future enrollment in Jewish schools.
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Hanna’s opinion letter can be read at:
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The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard in early June by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.
GAJE will publish the court’s decision as soon as it is known to us.
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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding in Ontario, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.
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Shabbat shalom.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
July 12, 2024
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 