We wish it were otherwise, but we have awoken each day to the same reality for the past 17 months.
Civil and Jewish society leaders were taken by surprise by the hateful aftermath of “October 7”. While anti-Israel polemicists plotted and activists organized their animus for the past three or four decades, the rest of us, were “asleep” in our self-assurance that western life was as it should be: governed by law, civil, widely tolerant and comfortable. We did not see what lay just below the mostly smooth surface of daily life. But we see clearly today. Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate are increasingly being normalized in the institutions of western society.
We lament and resent the hostility among non-Jews directed at Israel and even at Jews. But we worry deeply at the vulnerability, intimidation, shrug-of-the-shoulder helplessness, and even turning against their own people by some Jews, especially of college-age. So, we must do our utmost to help our youngsters find their secure and confident way through the new reality. We must do our utmost to prevent any more young Jews from turning against their own. As GAJE has often pointed out, the best way to do this is to equip our youngsters with deep knowledge of their own remarkable, ancient/modern identity.
Last week a report was published on eJewishPhilanthropy of a new initiative called the Ronald S. Lauder Impact Initiative (LII), whose mission is to provide more non-Orthodox Jewish children an opportunity to experience immersive Jewish education, i.e., Jewish day school.
In an article entitled, Redefining the role of Jewish day schools, Hadassa Halpern, executive director of the LII, described the initiative and its underlying justifications. The statistics and figures that Halpern cited in the article relate to the American Jewish experience. But the observations and conclusions she noted in relation to Jewish educaiton apply in Canada as well.
The LII is aimed at encouraging more of the 95% of non-Orthodox Jewish children (over 1.2 of an estimated 1.6 million) who do not attend Jewish day school, many of whom likely receive very little, if any, Jewish education.
Based upon recent research by Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Halpern wrote “day schools are our best option to fuel a strong Jewish future.” But then, in tacit acknowledgment of the deficit in Jewish life that arises from the fact that so few American Jewish children benefit from a day school education, she asks: “What if Jewish day schools were seen not as a choice for a select few, but as an indispensable institution for the entire Jewish community — an engine for Jewish continuity, a pipeline for future leadership and a means of ensuring long-term engagement in Jewish life?”
The mission the LII set for itself is to help Jewish communal leaders adopt the view that Jewish day schools are indispensable for long term Jewish life. LII is aimed at “reshaping the landscape of Jewish day school education and redefining its role within the broader Jewish ecosystem.”
Halpern was unequivocal: “What LII is doing is not speculative. It is essential. Jewish day schools must be recognized not as a niche option for the observant but as the cornerstone of Jewish continuity. For this to happen, we must break old assumptions and reimagine Jewish education in a way that resonates with the next generation.”
Moses pleaded with Pharoah to “Let my people go!” Some three and half millennia later, LII essentially pleads with philanthropists, parents and community leaders: “Let my people know!” (GAJE borrows this phrase from the late Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.)
To help Jewish children discover the life-enhancing richness of their own heritage and in the process, enable them to better withstand the buffeting from the hard-blowing winds of antisemitism, GAJE joins LII in urging us all to recognize Jewish day school as an indispensable institution for the entire Jewish community.
The Halpern article is available at:
Redefining the role of Jewish day schools
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Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
March 28, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 