As we have occasionally noted in this space, the various assaults against Jews and Jewish sensibilities since “October 7” have ignited new interest among many parents throughout North America to provide Jewish education for their children. At the same time, local educators, planners and philanthropists, have been seeking ways to accommodate the increased demand for spaces in their respective community day schools.
The latest story attesting to the ongoing buzz about the importance of Jewish education appeared on the eJP website this week. Entitled, Jewish Education is Too Important to Sit This One Out, the article ostensibly brings American readers’ attention to a new tax-related development there that has the potential to benefit parents wishing to enrol their children in day school. But the article’s underlying premise, and the reason GAJE points to it, is the incontrovertibility of the proposition that intense Jewish education is vital for helping raise knowledgeable, confident, proud Jews.
The article was co-written by three heads of school. At the center of the op-ed is the operative mission whose truth has been frequently and piercingly re-affirmed these past 26 months: “Jewish education is central to our identity, our resilience and our future.”
In these past two years of disgust and consternation with the odious behaviours aimed at Jews, it is very difficult to disagree with this proposition.
In just two days, on Sunday night, families will begin the paradigmatic, eight-day celebration of Jewish identity and resilience: Chanukah. And like all our holidays – but one – so much of its details and celebratory features are geared to capturing and holding the attention and the enjoyment of our children. Building in them positive memories.
Lighting candles on the Chanukah menorah; enjoying traditional, cooking oil-related and mostly deliciously indulgent foods that Jewish families have carried through millennia from Diasporah communities to the State of Israel; dreidling; and distributing chocolate coins to commemorate restored Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel wrought by the Maccabees some 2,200 years ago.
May the glow from the candles that Jewish families all over the world will light during this darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere) be an enduring metaphor reminding us of the evanescence of dark times, and more importantly, inspiring us to be the light.
•••
The article is available at:
•••
If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit to achieve fairness in educational funding, 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 Thank you, in advance, for considering doing so.
•••
Shabbat shalom
Chanukah Samayach
Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
December 12, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 