The celebration immediately even on October 7”, of Hamas’ barbarity, the lionization of Hamas’ bloodlust and manifest hatred towards Jews and Israel was a shock to Jews around the world. It is well documented that the vile behaviours on the streets of North America (and not only North America) after “October 7” awoke many Jews into seeking the fellowship of other Jews and to discovering (or rediscovering) the strength that flows from that fellowship and especially in learning how to feel its sustaining embrace.
Two articles appeared last week on eJP that further attested to this important development: more and more Jewish families making the determination to “fight back” as Jews, against the intimidators and the bullies. The experiences and the context described are from the United States. But the conclusions are important and worthy of sharing with GAJE readers.
Sidney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, an organization that advocates for government funding for non-public schools in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Maryland, published an essay entitled “After Oct. 7, Jewish parents chose Jewish schools. Now we have to keep the door open”.
“Oct. 7 did not only awaken alarm,” Altfield wrote. “It awakened a determination to hold tighter to the people, traditions and identity that suddenly felt more fragile than ever. We saw families put on Stars of David they had not worn in years and walk into synagogues they had rarely attended. And we saw parents choose Jewish education….If their children were going to encounter hatred because they were Jewish, parents wanted them to understand what being Jewish meant.”
His research found that 8,502 more students enrolled in New York’s Jewish schools this year, than in 2022-23. In Pennsylvania, Altfield found that Jewish school enrollment grew nearly five times faster in a single year than its prior average.
“In a moment when hatred sought to make Jewish life smaller,” Altfield poignantly wrote, “families chose more of it.”
His main purpose is to offer suggestions, particular to the states in which Teach Coalition operates, on how to manage the high cost of Jewish education to ensure that newly enrolled children remain enrolled in the schools. The article can be found at:
The second article, written by Nira Dayanim of the eJP, reports that the number of Jews engaged in Jewish life has increased in engagement is up by 7% from the previous year, according to the research of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).
“The survey, conducted in May and June and polling 2,836 people, found that 38% of Jewish Americans now fall into “the Surge,” a seven-point increase from the 31% recorded last spring. The figure is still lower than the 42% who reported engaging more in the first survey in 2024, but reverses last year’s decline.
“What we really thought was going to happen this year is that ‘the Surge’ would continue to decline,” Mimi Kravetz, JFNA’s chief impact and growth officer, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
Instead, we see something very different, which is that there was either a resurgence or a flattening of the surge, and that we’re now in a new normal.”
This article can be read at:
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The point of drawing attention to these articles is to show that the wearying and even withering circumstances, in some places, of these dark times, are causing many Jews to “return” to their “truer”, more authentic, individual selves in order to share the feeling of peoplehood and to be part of the collective, which they know will always enfold them in the shelter of our history and the promise of our future.
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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
October 16, 2026
