Last week, in this space, GAJE featured the uplifting remarks and the even more uplifting, quite remarkable, act of generosity by Kaelen Sherman. At the end of May, Ms. Sherman pledged a gift of $25 million to TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto that will provide tuition assistance, in perpetuity, to students at the high school.
This week, we find further inspiration. In this case it is in the example of principle and courage demonstrated by our students, attending university.
As vice president of the World Union of Jewish Students, Jonah Feiglin spent the past year travelling, meeting and talking with his peers from campuses throughout the world.
Feiglin wrote honestly about his experiences. It is his honesty that propels the inspiration that affects the reader. The following are but a few excerpts from his article.
•••
(Feiglin defined the situation that he encountered.)
“I have spoken to students in London who hesitate before wearing a Magen David necklace in public. I have met students in Paris who still feel anxious walking onto campus. I have sat with Australian students who enter tutorials already preparing themselves to defend not simply their views, but their identity. What struck me most was not the fear, but the refusal to disappear.”
“Students describe constantly calculating risk. Should they wear a Jewish symbol today? Is it worth speaking up in this discussion? Questions which should never have been considered normal have become part of daily life for many Jewish students.
“A 2025 survey conducted by the World Union of Jewish Students and the Anti-Defamation League found that 78% of Jewish students reported hiding or concealing some aspect of their Jewish identity. Nearly four out of every five Jewish students surveyed felt pressure to make themselves smaller.
(Feiglin described some specific examples of students’ responses. Then he summarized, in general terms, the wider import of the students’ responses.)
“Jewish students are not defined by the hatred directed towards them. They are defined by the communities they build, the responsibility they take for one another and the future they are determined to shape.
“That is what leaves me profoundly hopeful. What I have witnessed is not a generation retreating from Jewish life, but a generation fighting for it. In almost every country, I see students searching for the same thing: community, belonging and the ability to live openly as themselves.”
(Feiglin also suggested another “important lesson” from the students’ actions.)
“Strong communities do not emerge by accident. They exist because previous generations invested in them, and because leaders understood that identity must be nurtured before it is tested. (Our emphasis. Read: He commends community decision makers who took steps to ensure a sustained and sustainable infrastructure of affordable Jewish education.)
“[A]fter meeting Jewish students from around the world, one thing has become clear to me: The future of Jewish life will be secured by young Jews who choose to remain proudly, visibly and unapologetically Jewish, and by communities willing to stand beside them when they do.”
(One of Feiglin’s observations was particularly poignant. He attested that Jewish peoplehood is an actual, palpable state of experience and feeling. It is not a mere “abstract concept.”)
“In Spain, complete strangers invited me into their homes simply because I was Jewish, allowing me to share Shabbat meals with families I had never met before. After the events of Oct. 7, 2023, those experiences carried an even deeper meaning. They reminded me that Jewish peoplehood is not an abstract concept discussed in speeches or in strategy documents, but it is truly real and it is personal. It is the feeling of arriving in a foreign city and knowing somebody will leave a seat open at their table for you, even though they have never met you.”
(Kudos to Jonah Feiglin. Kudos as well to all the students and the various projects and activities that Feiglin described in his moving op-ed.)
•••
Feiglin’s article can be found 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
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education
July 17, 2026
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 