Because Jewish history chronicles constantly occurring events of deep moment and world-altering significance – seen and unseen, apparent and hidden – the Jewish calendar is an evolving chronicle of matters that we know and those we cannot yet know, whose dimensions are still unfolding.
November’s page on the calendar of Jewish life contains at least one world-altering event, in this case, inordinately dark: the horrific brutality that became known as Kristallnacht.
Unrestrained violence and mayhem were let loose upon the Jews of Germany and Austria during the night between November 9 and November 10 in 1938. After the event, no honest, reasonably well-informed observer of the Nazi Party in Europe could claim ignorance about the Party’s intentions for Jews and for the rule of democracy.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) last week sent out a reminder to Jewish communities across Canada that November is Holocaust Education Month (HEW) precisely because Kristallnacht happened in that month. HEW provides countless opportunities, country-wide, to remember, reflect upon, learn something about, discuss, or simply cherish a silent moment or two about the destruction of European Jewry and the carnage of World War 2 whose sinister entry portal was Kristallnacht.
Holocaust education programs “have never been more important”, CIJA wrote. This is true, of course, for all of the reasons that we have seen and lived through since October 7. The key words, however, in CIJA’s overall message were three: “Education is essential…”.
CIJA meant those words in specific reference to dealing with the dangers we feel now for Jews and for our democratic way of life. Jewish education is indeed essential to knowing how to stand against antisemitism and antisemites, but only as a function of knowing how to stand and to live meaningfully and knowledgeably as Jews. For, as we know, those three words have been and are the foundational principle for Jewish life through all times and through all ages.
CIJA added that one of education’s key objectives is “preserving the truth, challenging distortion and denial, and teaching future generations…”. So important is this that it must be stated and restated. But it must also be correctly understood: Jewish education encompasses the heights, width and breadth of the history and the content of Jewish civilization – of which the Holocaust has been a very sorrowful part. The Shoah informs Jewish history. It does not define Jewish identity.
As we wrote last month, the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks also spoke of Jewish education as reaching for and protecting truth. He warned against the disregard or abandonment of truth in public and private discourse. He characterized such behaviour as a threat to humanity. “When people stop believing in objective truth, mutual trust erodes, making it impossible for a free society to function.”
The tumultuous elections over the past two weeks re-emphasize the importance of Jewish education as a way of inculcating respect for and cherishing truth in the sacred trust of governance. Jews worldwide, especially here in the GTA, in Israel and in the United States, have just travelled through three displays of the force and the indispensability of public, free, fair elections. To be sure, the outcome of an election is all-important. But the actual holding of elections that scrupulously follow and treat as utterly inviolable, the integrity of the election process is by far, paramount.
True democracy is built upon the singular, revolutionary, idea enshrined in the Torah that all humanity is created in the image of God. The lives of all individuals are sacrosanct. Each life is as worthy as the next and counts as much as the next in the eyes of God.
Democratic life has been the Jewish people’s best assurance in modern times for leading our safest, best lives. Thus, what we wrote last month about safeguarding truth warrants repeating. Defending the truth and in the process, buttressing and protecting democracy, is part and parcel of our mission to try to help bring affordable Jewish education to all parents who seek it for their children. That defence falls upon us all.
Where truth is trampled, the trampling of human life soon follows.
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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
November 6, 2026
