The Jewish Education Project (JEP), based in New York, is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving Jewish education in every realm of the reach and purpose of education. The organization has a long history. It began over a century ago as the Board of Jewish Education serving the Jewish community in the New York City area. Some 15 years ago it was redesigned and recrafted as The Jewish Education Project.
JEP has a multi-pronged mission that – according to its website – entails providing professional development, educational resources, and encouraging and attempting to foster “bold thought leadership” to an education-focused clientele. In its own words, the Project “inspires, strengthens, and propels the Jewish educational ecosystem to deliver innovative, timely, and continually meaningful educational experiences—today and tomorrow.”
We mention the Project because, in the immediate aftermath of the terror incident at Temple Israel in Michigan last month, JEP’s chief executive officer, David Bryfman, spoke with Daniel Held, Chief Program Officer of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, for Held’s insights, both as educator and organizational officer, on the subject of appropriate communal and individual responses to the proliferating attempts to intimidate the Jewish community or worse.
Their conversation was instructive and at times, even inspiring. (It is available on the JEP website, entitled, Adapting the Future of Jewish Education: Responding to Violence: Raising Proud Children Today; March 17; Season 6, Episode 24)
Held tied the foiled attempt against the lives of the children at Temple Israel with the increasingly frequent incidents of vandalism and shootings at Jewish institutions in the GTA. His recurring message was a variation on the important theme of refusing to be intimidated, despite the worry, and at times even despite the fear. Held did not gainsay the difficulties for parents and professionals in calming fears and establishing proper security protocols. Nor did he deny the nature or the extent of the potential threats we face.
Time and again, he emphasized the need for individuals to hold “extra tight” to our families and to our Jewish identity. “We need to stand tall and proud as Jews,” Held said. “We each have a role to play in strengthening our community.”
Held’s call to stand tall and proud echoed a recent plea by Rabbi Marc D. Angel of New York who wrote, Rabbi Angel was appalled by the venom directed at the Jewish state, especially by other Jews. He outlined what he considered to be a code of sorts for appropriate Jewish responses to the treachery aimed at Israel.
“Each of us is an ambassador of our people; each of us represents the history, culture and traditions of the millennial Jewish experience; each of us is part of the Jewish destiny. To play our roles as proud and courageous Jews, we need to overcome inferiority complexes and reject ‘politically correct’ pressures; we need to stand tall and stand strong, with the wholeness of our being, on behalf of the God of Israel, the Torah of Israel and the People of Israel.”
As GAJE has pointed out in many of these weekly updates, the best, most enduring way for Jews to stand tall and proud as Jews, is to know what it truly means to be a Jew. We must know who we are and for what eternal and ethereal mission we have been purposed in order to stand as Jews. And to know this, requires education: Jewish education.
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.
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Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
April 10, 2026
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 