Education matters more than ever

The school year is winding down.

Our children suppress no smiles anticipating their summer vacation. Nor do their teachers, principals, and administrators. They all share the same smile.

Students of pedagogy, academics and teaching instructors, however, have compiled their observations, gathered their thoughts and composed their reflections on the year that has arrived at its summertime conclusion.

We bring the highlights of one such reflection published this week by David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, the successor organization to the legendary Bureau of Jewish Education on the Lower East Side of New York that was founded over a century ago.

“How to build a future that is wiser than our present” was published by eJewishPhilanthropy. It is an abridged version of a major address by Bryfman on June 8, 2026.

After surveying the horizon of the past year’s community concerns, Bryfman delivers a straightforward message: Education matters more than ever.

Bryfman’s message will notsurprise Jewish education policy planners in our community, education professionals, parents whose children attend Jewish school, or readers of this weekly update. Since “October 7”, Jews throughout the Diaspora have faced a different, more hostile world. Jewish education instills, in us, the confidence and strength we need to confront and even thrive in our new, present reality.

Bryfman explains how he arrives at his conclusion. His reasons might surprise. We reproduce only a very short excerpt of remarks.

“This [post-October 7] moment demands that we reclaim and recharge Jewish education. 

Yes, antisemitism is rising. Yes, Israel is under scrutiny and attack. Yes, our young people are navigating a world that is more polarized, more complicated and more emotionally exhausting than many of us have ever known.

“But I told my staff something very important in the weeks and months after Oct. 7, 2023: For some people, motivation will come from fighting antisemitism; for others, motivation will come from defending Israel; but we, as educators, must always lead with joy and pride…

“One of the things that worries me most right now is not what is happening outside the Jewish community. It is what is happening inside it. The name-calling. The purity tests. The obsession with deciding who is in and who should be out. The inability to disagree without dehumanizing.

With all the external pressures facing the Jewish people, what I fear most is that we may tear each other apart from within. 

“That is why education matters more than ever.”

(The article is available at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/how-to-build-a-future-that-is-wiser-than-our-present/)

•••

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

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education

June 12, 2026