As spring gives way, green and golden, to hot summer, it is our deep privilege and happy obligation to congratulate our children and grandchildren for having completed another year at school. Each year, at this time, we say to the younger ones in all grades: “Well done.” “Excellent.” “Enjoy your vacation and break from school”. And, “Thank you very much.”
This year – this summer – our congratulations and blessings envelope our children against the backdrop of Israel’s survivalist military campaign fighting the theocratic regime in Iran. The Supreme Leader of Iran and his followers have disfigured theology by making the destruction of the only Jewish state on earth, the pre-eminent obsession of their country’s foreign policy.
Of course, Israel refuses to be destroyed. It chooses to live and to defend its people and its future.
Thus, the special circumstances of this year’s end-of-school moment, warrants revisiting last year’s, post “October 7” congratulatory message to students.
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After October 7, the combined efforts of the Jewish educators and their students amount to more than the completion of an arduous, annual, teaching/learning cycle. They are also a steel-hard, uncompromising response to the aggression against Jewish communities around the world. Families and the Jewish schools their children attend, affirm with the clear-eyed resolve of the ancient Hebrew prophets, the inviolability of our promise to our forebears and to God, that we will live Jewish lives.
The months roll by, and at the end of the school calendar, schools and parent associations hold their respective celebrations to publicly acknowledge that something remarkably good and important has been achieved by everyone.
In truth, even as we congratulate and celebrate our children for reaching the next formal educational marker along the path of their lives, we ought also to thank them for completing the ten-month grind. For some children, it is not easy. Nor for most, is it generally a great deal of fun.
Few messages are as sweet as “thank you” conveyed from the heart. At the end of the school year, such important expressions of gratitude usually flow over the rim of our happiness. We acknowledge the goodness that the schools have conferred upon our children. Teachers, school administrators, volunteers, community professionals and philanthropists are to be thanked individually and collectively for trying to enable our children to learn and to grow toward their respective potentials.
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One Head of School at a Graduation Ceremony this past week, described the students under her charge as being “very young, with bright eyes and big hearts.” Confirming her depiction of the youngsters graduating, one of the principals at the school added that the world needs them exactly as they are.”
Dear graduates of all ages: Congratulations and thank you very much.
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GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.
If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here. Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of helping to underwrite the costs of the lawsuit. For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
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Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
June 27, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 