The unfairness of Ontario’s educational funding policies has long been noted by educational and social planning scholars. So too has the head-scratching, self-defeating aspect of those policies. Many experts observe that educational outcomes are better in provinces that increase educational…

Last week’s update noted that the recent UJA Federation of Greater Toronto biweekly social action newsletter pronounced that education is the key to fighting antisemitism. The statement, however, specifically related to a federal report commissioned for Ambassador Deborah Lyons that…

Every two weeks, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto emails Activist Update’ newsletter, The Catalyst. The newsletter highlights three current policy issues pressing upon local concern, inviting community members to get involved, to take action seeking official accountability in relation to…

GAJE now has a hearing date in the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the ruling of the Divisional in September 2024, that threw our application out of court. More than a year earlier, in August 2023, Judge Eugenia…

The news reported this week in all the major media outlets concerning the antisemitism suffered by children and parents in grades K-12 in Ontario was no longer surprising. But it was a shock, nevertheless, to see the details gathered so…

Last week in this space we drew readers’ attention to a new initiative, called Simeon, by the independent think tank Cardus that will bring Christians and Jews together to fight, in common cause, against antisemitism. The effectively key reason for…

One of the reasons the shock of “October 7” hurt so deeply was because of the sense of abandonment that Jews felt throughout the Western World in its aftermath. The very next day after October 7, the rage and the…

As spring gives way, green and golden, to hot summer, it is our deep privilege and happy obligation to congratulate our children and grandchildren for having completed another year at school. Each year, at this time, we say to the…

The events unfolding in Israel and in Iran since last Friday are “biblical” in nature and in import. That is how scholar and teacher, Mijal Bitton, describes them in her Dvar Torah on this week’s Torah portion, Shelach. She does…

In response to the question, “how are you?”, a Jew today, in Toronto or Tulsa or Turin, will likely offer a variation of the following response: “Good. And not so good.” If the person who asked the question is also…