It has always been true that “there is strength in numbers”. The phrase is used so often that it has become a cliché. Except as it pertains to the Jewish people. We have simply never had the numbers. Indeed, our tradition teaches that we are, and have always been, “the few against the many”.
The source of our strength, therefore, derives elsewhere, not from our numbers. Rather, the source of our strength rises and surges from the values, and collective sense of common history and covenantal purpose that have enfolded our people since we exited slavery some 3,500 years ago. This is a foundational statement.
We must frequently restate and return to it as the first principle of defence against the haters intending to harm Jews and to brazenly erase, bit by bit, Jewish history from its essential place in modern history and in the development of modern Western society.
At a program in Toronto, earlier this week, entitled Voices of Change, hosted by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Haviv Rettig Gur and Coleman Hughes articulated variations of this foundational statement when the discussion inevitably turned to the ubiquity and the virulence of antisemitism on campus.
Gur, the Israeli journalist and scholar, urged the Jewish members of the audience – across the generations who were in attendance – “to learn, teach and tell the story of the Jewish people”. He meant not only to one another but to the broader society as well. For the story of the Jewish people is the story of the evolution of the values that underpin civil, humane, democratic society. Gur pleaded with the audience to fight for Canada, because, as he so eloquently framed it, is one and the same fight against antisemitism.
Prof. Hughes, the American teacher and scholar, developed a further aspect to the call for prospective university students to know “who they are”. Prof. Hughes described many campuses these days as being “awash with social contagion.” However challenging, difficult, and even isolating for students to try to resist and turn back the contagion, Prof. Hughes pointedly suggested that “standing up for one’s values….is also a personal opportunity.”
“Embrace it,” he said, knowing that his prescription is not always easy to absorb. “This will be a step toward personal growth, maturity and development.”
Gur and Hughes, without ambiguity, in their own respective ways, firmly proclaimed, to members of our community, the same battlement cry required to fight the conspiracists who froth and flaunt their hatred of Jews. The ability, resilience and strength to fight antisemitism on campus derives from Jewish self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-confidence.
This formula – as we know – is not new. What is new is the extent and the nature of the phenomenon that Huges called “a social contagion”.
In fact, the Gur – Hughes formula echoed a cri de coeur from Alan Baker, Israel’s ambassador to Canada more than two decades ago, in 2005, in an interview with the Canadian Jewish News.
The foremost concern Ambassador Baker expressed for North American Jewry was over the troubling situation on campus.
“The campus is where our future leaders, in the Jewish and broader communities, are molded.
Yet there are concerted activities by certain Islamic and even Christian organizations there to push an anti-Israel agenda to try to influence the minds of our youth. Our community leaders must invest whatever resources are necessary to counter this campaign.”
Speaking emphatically, the British-born diplomat added, “Having been raised outside Israel, I appreciate the importance of a strong Jewish community using its resources to develop and maintain itself. For support of Israel to be strong, there has to be a strong local Jewish community.”
“Each community has an obligation to its own future. It must ensure education in Judaism and about Israel is given to every child. That [Jewish] education must be widely available and effective.”
Ambassador Baker’s message 21 years ago is the eternal message of Jewish survival: Education.
It is also GAJE’s message.
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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)
May 8, 2026
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 