GAJE now has a hearing date in the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the ruling of the Divisional in September 2024, that threw our application out of court. More than a year earlier, in August 2023, Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou had determined, in a 45-page decision, that GAJE should be granted an opportunity to argue its case in court on its merits. The Divisional Court reversed the decision by Judge Papageorgiou.
GAJE’s legal team will appear before the Court of Appeal at 10:00 on November 21, 2025 to argue that the Divisional Court was wrong to reverse the Papageorgiou decision and to dismiss our application. Our team must persuade the Court of Appeal that the Divisional erred in applying the legal test for dismissing a case before a trial or hearing.
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As if members of our community needed further evidence of the increasing inhospitability of the public school system for Jewish children and their families, the CJN reported last week that the Hamilton Jewish community has decided to launch a pilot project of opening a Jewish high school for 2026 because of the “community’s concerns over rising antisemitism and declining public education quality.”
“Romy Friedman, a Hamilton educator and member of the advisory board and steering committee for this new school, Ontario Jewish Collegiate (OJC), described the initiative as addressing an urgent need for a safer and academically rigorous educational environment.”
The article noted that the Hamilton pilot initiative “aligns with a broader Canadian trend [of] significant enrolment increases at Jewish day schools nationwide following Oct. 7.”
“Daniel Held, chief program officer at UJA Greater Toronto, told The CJN in March, “There’s no question that there are families who are making this choice today when there is an increase in hate towards our community.”
The decision by the Hamilton Jewish community is part of a worrisome, even ugly, wearing away in Ontario of what formerly were embedded, reliable norms of a civil, truly inclusive society in which singling out, intimidating, threatening, or bullying Jews was no longer tolerated.
The sad truth – and resultingly sad indictment of Ontario society and dare we add, government, in 2025 – is that many Jewish families are now unwilling to risk their children’s safety -let alone, education – in the province’s public schools.
And so, it is shameful that GAJE must plead for the right to a hearing in court on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. The Government of Ontario is unalterably opposed to such a hearing. It relies on the Supreme Court decision of 1996 to justify its inexplicable stance, despite changes in the law some 30 years later and changes in circumstances, for the Jewish community, especially since October 7, 2023.
The November 21 hearing will determine whether GAJE will be granted the right to do so.
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)
July 25, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 