The Federation of Teachers in Hebrew Schools of Toronto on May 24 held a celebratory dinner event in honour of the 70th anniversary of modern Israel’s independence. It was a festive yet thoughtful evening in which numerous speakers delivered remarks…

With the setting of the sun at the end of Shabbat this weekend, the Jewish calendar changes seamlessly into the Festival of Shavuot. Pesach was the first step toward our collective sense of peoplehood. But it is Shavuot that established…

From time to time, GAJE has brought readers’ attention to the work of the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), a policy planning think tank based in Jerusalem whose mission is a rather lofty but vital one: “to ensure the thriving…

Earlier this week, in celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary of statehood, Andrés Spokoiny, the former head of Federation CJA in Montreal, now the president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, delivered powerful, inspiring remarks to a group of some…

Recently, GAJE met with Ms. Deani Van Pelt, a Senior Fellow at the Hamilton-based think tank, Cardus. According to its website, Cardus “is dedicated to the renewal of North American social architecture.” The think tank orients its work on a foundation…

On April 24, GAJE will mark the third anniversary of its forming with the important, urgent mission “to make Jewish education in our community affordable for every family that wishes to send its children to a Jewish day school.” In…

Natan Sharansky’s 9-year tenure as the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) comes to an end in June. From time to time he undertook speaking tours of college campuses in North America, mostly in the United States. His…

It was in 1974, out of a sense of post-Yom Kippur War trauma-and-relief and the widespread Jewish affirmation on campuses that arose in defense of Israel, that the musical group Safam was formed in Boston. They described their music as…

This Shabbat – Shabbat Hagadol – precedes Pesach. Not surprisingly, it brings its own pointed pre-Pesach messages, one of which appears in the Haftarah portion from the prophet Malachi. In exceedingly poetic and poignant language, Malachi tells us that God…