In the update last week, we pointed to the soundness of professional and moral judgment by Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, in directing the Peel District School Board to reverse its decision to mark “Nakba Day of Remembrance” day in the classroom as a calendar holiday.

In an update six months earlier, in the immediate aftermath of October 7, we also pointed to and praised Minister Lecce for the soundness and courage of his moral judgment in speaking to Motion No. 38 Defence of Israel in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

In particular, we focused on three aspects of Minister Lecce’s speech. He described Hamas with precise factual clarity; criticized Hamas’ supporters here in Ontario for their embrace of terrorists and terrorism; and he called upon all Ontarians who care for democracy to act without ambiguity to protect it in the face of Hamas’ apologists and supporters’ anti-democratic inclinations and methods.

“We have to speak with moral decency, with moral courage,” Minister Lecce said. “We will not be bystanders. We will use our power for good. We must be on guard for all manners of hate and fight hate and haters….For the sake of freedom, human rights and democracy, I ask us all: Do we possess the moral courage to do what is right even if it is not easy? Do we possess the moral courage to stand up to evil? …We are standing for fundamental Canadian values that transcend partisan politics. We must pick the right side of human history. “

It is against the backdrop of Minister Lecce’s proven courage to say and do what morality, justice and decency require, that GAJE calls the minister’s attention to a report released this week by Cardus, the independent think tank. Called, Exploring Alberta’s Independent School Landscape: Diversity, Growth, Trends, the report provides a panoramic view of Alberta’s 180 independent schools, serving more than 40,000 students.

The authors of the report, David Hunt and Joanna Dejong, provide an in-depth view of the state of the independent school sector in Alberta from a lens that opens onto the province’s educational outcomes and pluralistic nature of the overall educational system. Among their conclusions the authors strongly recommend that “the Alberta government should continue to encourage the presence of meaningful pluralism by supporting new and existing independent schools that meet requirements, so that families have access to options that best fit their education needs.”

Along with the entire independent school sector across the country, enrollment in Alberta’s independent schools continues to increase.

Accredited independent schools in Alberta receive 70 per cent of the equivalent operating cost per pupil for public schools for operating costs only. This does not include any allocation for the capital costs of independent schools. Thus, in effect the overall contribution to independent schools is actually less 70 per cent of the cost of maintaining such schools.

A report written in 2019 by Mark Milke and Paige T. MacPherson of Parents for Choice in Education and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, concluded that “Education choice in Alberta saves taxpayers money. Over the eight years analyzed in this report, the existence of education options outside of government schools in Alberta saved taxpayers over $1.9 billion over a period of 8 years.

Enrollment in Ontario’s independent schools has also grown. In 2019-20 StatCan data showed that more than 153,291 students were enrolled in the sector.

If funding for educational diversity is successful in Alberta – educationally and financially – it stands to reason that it would be successful in Ontario as well.

We therefore beseech the Government of Ontario to end its unfair educational funding policies. The minister clearly understands that the best way the Jewish community can stand against the ongoing effusions of hatred and intimidation toward it, is by maintaining and strengthening its inner communal structures. He also knows the most effective and important means for our community to do so, is through a perpetually secure educational system.

In the current worrisome and fear-creating social climate – even here in Ontario – it is patently unfair that only one religion should receive public funds for the education of its children. This is especially the case and made more urgently so, when one of the minority religious groups is being targeted and vilified with daily increasing vigour and malevolence.

And so, we ask the minister to “possess the moral courage to do what is right even if it is not easy.” Please make educational funding fair for all communities. This uneasy hour in our history should call upon your conscience to do so.

The Cardus report can be found at:

Exploring Alberta’s Independent School Landscape

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Chag Pesach Samayach. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 26, 2024

Recounting the Exodus from Egypt some 3,600 years ago, will be more difficult this year than in any year since World War II and perhaps 1948.

Sitting around the Seder table with people we love and who love us, some of the songs might be harder sung this year. Some of the rituals might seem a bit indulgent. For the Jewish world is now forever changed after October 7, 2023.

Times of Israel editor, David Horovitz writes that “Our hearts will be with those we are missing…Tens of thousands of Israelis, moreover, will be marking Passover this year in an abiding state of internal exile — forced from their homes in the north, or unable to return to their homes in the south. And we have barely begun to internalize the losses of those who will never return — those who were slaughtered on October 7, and those who have lost their lives in the war that has raged since. Neither can we be indifferent to the lives lost by others caught up in the escalating conflict — those, that is, not complicit in the unprovoked invasion of our revived Jewish homeland. The people of modern Israel have rarely if ever faced loss, psychological terror and existential danger to the degree we do now.”

Indeed, the world itself has changed since October 7.  For example, closer to home in Ontario, the following head-shaking items were reported merely this week.

• The Speaker of the Legislature, Ted Arnott, was excoriated because he attempted to preserve the traditions of the chamber by maintaining the ban on the wearing of political symbols there. Some people are intent on wearing a keffiyeh in the Legislative Assembly, not, of course, as a statement of fashion, but rather as a statement of support for Hamas and for the demise of Israel.

• The Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, told the Peel District School Board to reverse their decision to mark “Nakba Day of Remembrance” day in the classroom as a calendar holiday.

• The National Post reported that a York University political science faculty group recommended defining support of Israel as “anti-Palestinian racism”. Inter alia, the group wrote “Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy.” The group also demanded that the university actively seek to isolate and help destroy the Zionist settler colonial project.

Indeed. Yes. The world has changed. Yes. The enemies of Jews are bolder. But Jews no longer shrink from confronting them or from bending the world upwards toward virtue, integrity and humanitarian purpose. The very existence of the Jewish people has changed the world toward ethical, just, humane, socially responsible monotheism. The shattering of the chains of our slavery in Egypt is the prototypical story of Freedom. It is encoded into the Jewish psyche as the essence of our identity and connective peoplehood tissue and into the Western ethos as the paradigm of Liberty and Freedom-from-slavery.

We recount the miraculous departure from ancient Egypt every day in our prayers. And on Passover, at the Seder, we will recount that departure with everyone around the table. In a real sense as well, we will recount that seminal story in a circumnavigational, geo-centric wave of shared purpose and common practice with every Jew in the world, including in Israel of course, who is also at a Seder table.

The key message embedded many different ways into the Haggadah – some overt, many nuanced – is one of hope. Each generation has understood this message according to the circumstances of their respective time: Never ever lose hope. That very message is poignantly enshrined as the four most important words of modern history: “Od loh avdah tikvateinu” We have not lost our hope. This is and has always been our rallying cry, the affirmation of a people forced to confront greater numbers and greater odds. And prevailing.

Passover begins Monday evening. It is our fervent hope that everyone who reads this update will find meaning in the holiday despite the changed post-October 7 world and in the process, be reminded too, how remarkable is the Jewish people and its constant arc upward for the sake of a better world.

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Chag Pesach Samayach. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 19, 2024

Gary Rosenblatt, was the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week of New York for more than a quarter of a century, until 2019. Before he accepted the dual position in New York, Rosenblatt had edited and entirely revised for the same publishing ownership, the Baltimore Jewish Times, The Jewish News of Detroit, and the Atlantic Jewish Times.

In the world of the Jewish Media and Press, Rosenblatt is revered as a living legend whose work was the reflection and embodiment of the Jewish values by which he lives. In the world of the general media and press, he is widely regarded as an astute and insightful editor as well as a wise publisher. Although Rosenblatt is retired from full time editing and publishing, he continues to publish columns occasionally under the moniker Between the Lines, on Substack. His columns and observations are consistently smart, worthy reading.

Last week, in his column, Rosenblatt paid thoughtful, reflective tribute to the late Senator Joe Lieberman. He noted – and lamented – how the American body politic has changed since 2000, when Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate for top office. “Many Americans appreciated a candidate faithful to the tenets of his religion, that rare politician respected for his authenticity and integrity. And, though anticipated, there was little sign of anti-Semitism during the three months of the 2000 national campaign,” Rosenblatt wrote.

“How sad, frightening and still bewildering,” Rosenblatt continued, “that 24 years later, blatant and widespread anti-Semitism – sometimes violent – has become commonplace in the Land of the Free.”

But true to form, Rosenblatt did not leave the lament as the last thought on the emergence of anti-Semitism, especially on campuses. Before he returned to the tribute for the late Senator Lieberman, Rosenblatt wrote prescriptively about dealing with the anti-Jewish feelings.  Of course, his “prescription” applies equally here as it does anywhere and everywhere young Jews feel vulnerable because they are Jews.

“In the last century, many American Jews shed much of their religious identity and tradition in the hope of being accepted. But since October 7, we’ve come to learn, as European Jews realized too late, that secular or observant, Zionist or not, we are one in the eyes of our enemies: Jews.

“We have no solution for anti-Semitism because we aren’t the problem; the problem is the haters, not us. Our response should be to do all we can to sustain, deepen and expand Jewish life in ways that have helped our people survive for several thousand years. (Our emphasis)

“The message for Jews on campus is not so much to try to counter “the tsunami” of anti-Semitic sentiment, but “to build your own strong ark” based on the wisdom of the ages, steeped in ritual, ethics and community, according to Sarah Hurwitz, who has been visiting college campuses on behalf of Hillel over the last several months. 

“A former speechwriter for both Barack and Michelle Obama during their White House years and author of an enlightening book about her transformation, in her mid-30s, from lapsed to engaged Jew – “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There” – Hurwitz said her experience in talking to Jewish students at more than two dozen campuses has been “sobering, horrifying.”

“Every campus is different, she told me, “but the bad ones are really bad, and no campus I’ve visited has had zero problems” for Jewish students these last six months.

“…Hurwitz asserts that the search for Jewish meaning and fulfillment can be found in the words of our sages, modern as well as ancient. 

“Study is the most important form of Jewish worship,” she said, adding that she tells students today to “live your Jewish story.”

It is not difficult to grasp why Rosenblatt included advice from Hurwitz to young Jews in his column of tribute for the late Senator. Rosenblatt knows how important her message is today, to them in a world so very different than the one in which Joe Lieberman ran to be Vice President of the United States. Hurwitz is telling our youth: “Know yourself. Believe in yourself. Go. Study. Discover. Be Jewish.” Rosenblatt is telling our youth: Heed Hurvitz’ advice. That is how you will thrive.”

GAJE is telling our supporters that Hurwitz and Rosenblatt provide the path for all of us – young and old – standing against the haters of Israel and of Jews. That path, of course, in their words and in ours, is one that is paved upon lifelong Jewish education.

•••

Rosenblatt’s article can be found at:

https://garyrosenblatt.substack.com/p/missing-joe-lieberman-already?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=279326&post_id=143269014&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=rvbar&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 12, 2024

We direct readers’ attention, once again, to the insights of Adam Hummel, a GTA lawyer and human rights activist. Last month he addressed a gathering at a Toronto synagogue in which he propagated seven duties to guide the community’s next steps going forward “at this turning point in Jewish history” in the post-October 7 world.

It must be pointed out that all of the duties that Hummel articulates are the offspring of Judaism’s values. Those values emanate from the widely-based, multi-level, self-supporting, luminescent and prismatic architecture we call Judaism. It is for this reason that we point to Hummel’s suggested seven duties. For it is through Jewish education and the example that flows from a life lived supported by Jewish education that our children acquire the values that will fortify them all their life-long. Despite and through all storms.

The following are Hummel’s proposed duties and a mini-explanation of their meaning.

Duty to our Judaism

“If we are particular, and we do not stray from what makes us Jewish, then we will be heard around the world – people will know who we are, and what legacy we come from….[K]indle the flame and pass it on. “

Duty to each other

“[W]e are Jews. We have a duty to one another, and we cannot let minor differences separate us, or pull our community apart. We are frankly too small and we cannot afford these rifts.”

Duty to Israel

“(Israel) has to fight to defend itself from countries like Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. From terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. From multinational groups like the UN and UNRWA, from student groups on campus, and yes, from misguided Jews themselves…These entities seek the dismantling of the world’s only Jewish State, and they must be opposed…[In] our lifetimes we have witnessed the establishment, development, and flourishing of our Jewish State…[W]e have a duty to safeguard and keep strong the State of Israel.”

Duty to history

We have a duty … to remember where we come from…to remember the strength that we brought to each generation’s challenges, and to ensure we demonstrate that strength – that certain something – again and again.”

Duty to stay informed

“We have a duty to stay up to date and informed about the condition of our brothers and sisters in Israel, about the challenges we face as Jews in Canada, and about what the world is saying about us today. We can only effectively respond when we are adequately informed.”

Duty to the truth

“[Our] enemies are good at lying. They lie effectively, and often. They lie about our motives, our actions, our history, and who we are. Of course, they do so because it is easier to lie than to tell the truth…We have the truth on our side, and even though it sometimes seems like telling the truth may be a losing battle… our narrative can only be consistent, and our fight can only remain virtuous if we stick to the truth.” 

Duty to rebel

“We have a duty to ask questions, to push back, to take nothing for granted…[S]tand your ground, own your position, and do so unapologetically. We have a duty to rebel, but only with a purpose in mind. We come from a long line of nudniks, and push back is what our people need.”

Hummel concluded his remarks by encapsulating the purpose of Jewish life, although he did not say it in those words. “Let’s draw strength from our community, pride in our collective actions, and remember that we have a duty to our legacy, to our people, to Israel, and to our children’s future. Am Yisrael Chai”  

Hummel’s full remarks can be found at:

https://catchjcp.substack.com/p/on-duty?utm_medium=reader2

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 5, 2024

In September 2021, Cardus, a non-partisan, faith-based think tank, published a study of the potential cost to the Government of Ontario of funding Ontario’s independent schools. (Funding all Students: A Comparative Economic Analysis of the Fiscal Cost to Support Students in Ontario Independent Schools) Cardus examined a range of cost models for funding education in Ontario.

In addition to presenting actual possible costs for a fairer educational system, Cardus pointedly, explains why it is good policy for Ontario to fund independent schools at least to some extent.

The authors observed that “Ontario’s lack of funding is anomalous in both a global and Canadian context.” And they concluded “that Ontario’s lack of financial support for independent-school students is an unjust and inequitable policy—uncharacteristic of a democratically elected government, especially in an advanced economy—that further disadvantages the already disadvantaged.”

The authors explained their approach to their research.

“To rectify [Ontario’s] eccentric and unjust policy, there are seven funding schemes, all taken from actual practice in Canada, to estimate the cost of funding students in Ontario’s independent schools. The first applies full government funding to Ontario’s independent sector. Alternatively, Ontario can partially fund independent schools using a similar approach as any of the other provinces that partially fund this sector—from west to east: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan (two models), Manitoba, and Quebec. (In each of the seven funding schemes, the model recognizes that not all independent schools would qualify for or accept government funding, and this fact is accounted for in the analyses.)

“Each cost estimate factors into the respective model three plausible enrolment scenarios— our best estimates of the lower bound (scenario 1), most plausible case (scenario 2), and upper bound (scenario 3) of first-year enrolment levels that will result from implementing any of the seven options. Scenario 1 is based on no change in enrolments. Scenario 2 assumes a 7.8 percent first-year increase in enrolment, based on the experience of a short- lived Ontario policy introduced twenty years ago. And scenario 3 assumes an 18.3 percent first-year increase in enrolment, based on the most recent Canadian experience of a similar policy change—Saskatchewan’s expansion of funding for independent schools through the creation of the new Qualified independent school category.

“Applying these three scenarios to each of the seven provincial funding schemes results in twenty-one cost estimations, ranging between $535.2 million and $1.539 billion in net annual cost to Ontario taxpayers. (W)ithin the scope of Ontario’s $186 billion annual budget, this is around 1/3 to 4/5 of 1 percent (0.3% to 0.8%) of the budget…Any of these funding options is a relatively minimal cost to substantially benefit the families who need it most.”

Cardus published its findings on the basis of a provincial budget of $186 billion. Earlier this week, Queen’s Park announced a budget of $214 billion, of which the deficit was $9.8 billion.

GAJE offers no objections to any of the government’s proposed expenditures in the upcoming budget. We have neither the expertise nor the intention to do so. However, we do express our disappointment that the government did not find any funds to designate for independent schools. Nor did the government even mention the possibility of future fairer funding in the budget speech. As Cardus has carefully pointed out, the range of the total cost of fairness in educational funding, depending upon the funding model, would be 0.3% to 0.8% of the budget, or as Cardus’ words, “a relatively minimal cost to substantially benefit the families who need it most.”

The disappointment is deeper in light of the fact that the government delivered its budget during a unique period of the calendar in which Ontarians of the three monotheistic religious communities commemorate significant religious holidays. Moslems are observing Ramadan. Christians mark Easter this weekend and Monday. And Jews celebrate Passover in three weeks.

And yet, for some reason, the Government of Ontario persists in funding the religious schools of Catholics only. Why? What are we and Ontarians of other monotheistic faith groups to understand by Ontario’s ongoing discrimination? Why does the government offer no explanation for its policy? This week’s budget announcement was yet another lost opportunity for the government to do the right thing. Alas.

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 29, 2024

It is on many minds this year that celebrating Purim with its customary joy and child-orientated jest, will be somewhat difficult.

The events of October 7 were too horrific.

In defence of their right to live sovereign, in their ancestral homeland, the people of Israel, the only Jewish state on our planet, are once again at war.

The enemy, this time, is Hamas, part of an Iran-funded and Iran-directed alliance of armies, intent on killing all the people of Israel.

As Israel defends itself, well-organized armies of pro-Hamas demonstrators pour onto the streets in cities around the world accusing Israel of genocide while they shout for the elimination of all the people in Israel.

In these circumstances, many of us simply feel that a typical Purim celebration might be odd, if not also disrespectful. But we would be wrong to feel that way. We would fail our commitment to our people and to our history and misplace our sense of empathy were we to “curtail” Purim.

This conviction was emphasized in remarks by a mother to her daughter on the occasion of the young girl’s bat mitzvah last week.

“How can I convey–and frankly, how will I experience– the emotional joy of this incredible simcha amidst what has been the most heart-shattering, destabilizing period of time for Jews in our generation. In short, how do we celebrate in a post- October 7th reality?

“The answer, of course…is that it is possible, and in fact, very Jewish, to hold both truths at the same time. The pain of loss, the pain of feeling besieged as a people, the pain of praying for the safety and return of our hostages, the pain of a bloody war that continues to take immense tolls.

“Those truths of pain can, and do, live alongside the absolute, indescribable joy and complete pride in watching our daughter, step into Jewish adulthood….As Jews, it is not just a frivolity, but it is actually a mandate, to focus on, to cultivate, and to choose joy–even when it might be hard to do so….

“Being a Jew means being responsible toward others,” she told her daughter. “We live in a world in which it might be easy to think that the point of life is for us to care only for oneself– to advance in power and privilege for the sake of our own advancement as individuals. What Queen Esther reminds us is that all the power and glory in the world are meaningless if we lose sight of who we are, and the community and values that we are tethered to. To be tethered to a people and a set of values comes with great responsibility but it is also a great privilege.”

The set of values to which GAJE is happily tethered are those that the Jewish people have brought to the world. Celebrating Purim this year with our children, despite post-October 7 life, affirms for them the pre-eminence of those values.

The foundational step for children in helping them discover and feel at home in those values, is through Jewish education.

•••

June 11, 2024 has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou denying the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued in court. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Chag Purim Samayach. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 22, 2024

A date has been set for Ontario’s appeal of the 46-page decision by Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou that denied the province’s request to dismiss GAJE’s application seeking fairness in educational funding before it has actually been argued on its merits.

The appeal will be heard on June 11, 2024 at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.

If the appeal fails, the application proceeds to a hearing on its merits. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

•••

An article entitled, BBYO survey finds most Jewish high schoolers experienced in-person antisemitism since Oct. 7, appeared this week on the eJP website. Its findings document what most Jewish parents and grandparents have feared. In the post-October 7 world, intimidation of young Jews is not restricted to post-secondary school sanctums. Jewish teens at high school are also being harassed because they are Jews.

According to the article, “more than 7 in 10 Jewish high school students report experiencing antisemitic harassment either in person or online since Oct. 7, a new study conducted by BBYO found. The survey is the first of its kind to look at the impact that the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the subsequent rise in antisemitism across the world has had on high school students.”

Matt Grossman, the CEO of BBYO, said that antisemitism is having an impact on students’ mental health and friendships and the feelings they have about going to school.

Grossman noted that “the survey — conducted in partnership with First International Resources and Impact Research between Jan. 23 and Feb. 5 — polled 1,989 public, private and day school students in ninth through 12th grades across the U.S. and Canada. It found that 71% of Jewish teens have experienced antisemitic harassment or discrimination, with 61% experiencing the bias in person, 46% experiencing it online and 36% experiencing antisemitism both online and in person. Nearly half of the students surveyed reported being harassed for wearing visibly Jewish clothing or symbols, such as Jewish camp/youth group apparel, a kippah or a Star of David. More than 40% reported that someone attempted to intimidate them for wearing or owning pro-Israel items.” 

The survey’s findings are, once again, enraging. But we ought not be surprised. We ought to be resolved – more than ever – to fight back. How we fight back is by helping fashion our children into strong believers in themselves as Jews.

If GAJE’s application succeeds more families will be able to provide a Jewish education for their children. As our history has shown, that is the best – though not the only – way of building strong, self-confident, assertive, caring, community-minded Jewish men and women.

The study is available at:

Click to access bbyo-antisemitism-survey-summary-feb-2024.pdf

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 15, 2024

Earlier this week, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt delivered the 2024 State of Hate address at the “Never Is Now” Conference in New York.

In just over 31 fiery, unapologetic minutes, Greenblatt chronicled the difficult truth of life for Jews in, what columnist Bret Stephens has called, “the October 8^th world.”

Greenblatt pointed out the vile hatred and shameless amorality of the supporters of Hamas who denounce and demonize Israel. He pointed out the dishonesty of the so-called neutral men and women who enable the demonizers of Israel through their feigned neutrality or transparent biases.

Greenblatt pointed out how the tactics of the supporters of Hamas have changed. Until now their approach was “one of isolation or “anti-normalization,” as they call it — focused on boycotts, divestment, and urging progressive groups and all Americans to shun and ostracize their Jewish neighbors.”

Since October 8 however, Hamas supporters have spelled out new strategy of “confrontation to, in their words, “dismantle Zionism.” The hallmarks of the new strategy are intimidation, bullying, massive thuggery, the threat of violence and in some cases, actual violence.

“Facing these threats,” Greenblatt wrote, “it seems that the Jewish community in the United States has two choices: flight or fight.”

Some of our co-religionists, understandably, have chosen to flee – to hide their identity – to wear a baseball cap instead of a kippah, to remove the mezuzah on their doorpost. But others, Greenblatt noted, have chosen to fight back, to assert their identities, to speak truth to the haters of Jews and to the world about who they (we) are: members of a people and a faith that have been part of the very backbone of western civilization and its ongoing advancement.

Greenblatt spoke about the rising of a new, Jewish grassroots…in community after community…that gives him hope. For, like GAJE, the grassroots of which Greenblatt spoke so proudly, upholds Jewish dignity even as it defends Jewish peoplehood and aspires to secure the Jewish future. These Greenblatt’s words:

“It shows me and it shows all of us that the time for complacency is over. We can’t assume American Jewish life will continue to be a comfortable life – unless we do something now…unless we transform ourselves from observers to activists, from onlookers to advocates.

Our community has accomplished so much in this country – and contributed so much. No one can take that away from us – and it’s time we stopped letting them think that they can do so.

“The Jewish community has been an indispensable part of this country since its earliest days.

We have overcome discrimination, broken barriers and exceeded expectations. We started companies, founded labor unions and cured diseases. We built schools, funded universities, and started hospitals. We created theatres, launched studios, and started charities. We changed norms, passed laws, and secured judgements that made this country better for its Jewish people and ultimately better for all of its people.

“You see, the bottom line – there is not a part of American life that the Jewish community has not touched and impacted for good. And so, the time has come to say: The harassment and the attacks must stop. Explaining away your antisemitism will no longer be tolerated. Refusing to prosecute the laws or to enforce the policies of your institution when the perpetrators are targeting Jews, must cease.

“The twisting of language…the moral cowardice…the blind eye toward antisemitism must end now. If not, you will hear our voices. You will see us outside your doors. And we will see you in court. Our donations that you relied on – gone. Our votes that you seek – forget about it.

Our friendship or alliances – no more.

“At this moment…in this October 8^th world, we will not be silent. We will not let our country be lost to the antisemites and bigots.

“We will not flee. We will fight. And we will win. Am Yisrael Chai.”

Greenblatt’s words apply equally in Canada as they do in the United States. The situations are entirely similar. In both cases, we must fight back by knowing who we are as Jews, and then, by “doing Jewish”. And that requires that our children have the benefit of a Jewish education.

Greenblatt’s remarks can be read at:

https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-ceo-jonathan-greenblatt-delivers-2024-state-hate-never-now

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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 8, 2024

This week’s update brings the same message as that of last week: deeply rooted Jewish education helps Jewish youth withstand and even push back through the maelstrom of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred on campus. This week, however, the message emanates from a professor of Jewish history based upon his actual experience two weeks ago at a university in California.

Prof. Jeffrey Blutinger, the Barbara and Ray Alpert Endowed Chair in Jewish studies and a professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, wrote of his attempt to deliver a lecture at San Jose State University on the subject of a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. “I tried to speak….the police had to evacuate me,” Prof. Blutinger titled his report of the experience.

Blutinger has been teaching the subject of Israel and the Middle East for 22 years. “I have never seen campuses as threatening to Jewish students and faculty as today,” he writes. Police were need to evacuate him from a building because anti-Israel protesters had poured into the hallway adjacent to the lecture room and created what university security deemed to be an “imminent danger” for the professor and everyone else attending the lecture.

Blutinger had been invited by SJSU’s director of Jewish studies to speak to a class about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His plan was to discuss with students how the two sides were achingly close to a solution, between Oslo in 1993 and Taba in 2001.

About 20 minutes into his talk, the campus police and the San Jose Police Department interrupted the lecture to tell Prof. Blutinger they had to evacuate him immediately. The mob in the hallway was bordering on violence. He did not want to leave but he had no choice. 

Most of Prof. Blutinger’s op-ed is a lament for the future of American colleges in general and for “the future of Jewish scholars and scholarship in American higher education”, in particular.

He confirms the importance of “safe spaces” for Jewish students on campuses because of the proliferation of virulent anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests. But Prof. Blutinger adds the following broad instruction for the parents of prospective campus-age children. Within the broad instruction, Prof. Blutinger, includes a narrower, more pointed statement about Jewish education.” It is this latter statement, of course, that GAJE wishes our readers to know.

“Parents want to shelter their children, but today’s antisemitism on campus shows us that these students will not benefit at college if they are thrust into it from a cloistered background. It is crucial for Jewish students to understand what it means to be Jewish and all the nuances of events in the Middle East, so they have the confidence to advocate for themselves.  (Our emphasis) It is equally crucial that well before arriving at college, parents ensure their children are exposed to myriad opinions on all sorts of issues, not just Israel and Judaism. If students aren’t raised to hear opinions that may make them uncomfortable, they will never be prepared for higher education and certainly the wider world. They must have the basis of resilience and self-confidence when they graduate high school so they can further develop those qualities at college.”

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To help our children on campus have the resilience and self-confidence that flow from understanding what it means to be Jewish and all the nuances of events in the Middle East, they must have access to Jewish education. And that is why GAJE is trying to help make Jewish education affordable to all Jewish families in Ontario that seek it for their children.

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Prof. Blutinger’s article can be found at:

I tried to speak about a two-state solution at a university. The police had to evacuate me. 

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 1, 2024

Anyone who tries to help bring Jewish education to Jewish children is actually helping to try to secure a Jewish future. This is a “large” proposition and has the ring of overstatement. But it is true at every level of examination, starting with its elemental core that a Jewish future requires Jewish education.

The nature and extent of one’s embrace of Judaism, of course, will determine the nature and extent of the life that is lived Jewishly – meaningfully Jewishly. And so, to live and to lead a meaningfully Jewish life, one must choose the Jewish education that fits best.

The perpetually rewarding truth of Jewish education is that – when it works and clicks in for the individual – it begins a journey of lifelong learning. One never arrives at the destination, for the destination has no final stop. One is always searching, stopping, digging, and then moving forward on the never-ending path of discovery, faith, history, peoplehood and connection.

When the education works and clicks in, it also fortifies. Knowledge, understanding and awareness help foster the inner strength required of all individuals to help them withstand life’s inevitable buffeting and jostling from adversaries and foes. And as we all know, when our children leave the more sheltering environment of their homes for the wider demographic mix of university or college, the buffeting begins in earnest. And it takes a great deal of inner strength and self-assurance, especially these days to stand against the shameless bullying of the anti-Israel zealot.

Since October 7, to our ongoing disbelief and anger, we have seen manifestations of hatred toward Israel and toward Jews that we had never thought to see again, except perhaps in historical documentaries and film newsreels of last century’s wars. Campuses have become the epicentre of the struggle to save law-abiding, democratic society from the thugs who undermine it from the ramparts of their battle to bring down Israel.

The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) recently published a report on the state of antisemitism at Canadian universities. Entitled, The Canadian Universities Antisemitism Report 2024, it was co-authored by Neil Orlowsky, PhD, Director of Education, The Abraham Global Peace Initiative; Danielle Legerman, Education Consultant, York University and Karen Cheung, Education Consultant, York University.

The report “delves into the alarming rise of antisemitism on Canadian university campuses, shedding light on multifaceted challenges faced by Jewish students and faculty. The surge is particularly notable in the context of debates surrounding anti-Zionism, free speech protections for professors, student union activities, the role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments, and the pervasive sense of insecurity experienced by Jewish members of the campus community.”

The authors provide a grade to Canadian universities based upon a uniformly applied set of criteria. The three universities assessed as the worst from the point of view of the pervasiveness of an atmosphere of antisemitism on campus and for not providing safe learning space for all of the students were: Concordia University, University of Toronto, and York University. The report is available at:

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/fbc9d4fc-0bc8-4e11-acb8-d9ddd12b9bc0/AGPI Campus Report 2024.pdf 

The AGPI report appeared merely days before Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman told an Knesset committee at a meeting in Jerusalem between Israeli parliamentarians and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, that the 44 physical antisemitic attacks on campuses to date since Oct. 7 are more than in the past 10 years combined. Lehman described the situation “as truly a catastrophe” and noted that the total number of antisemitic incidents on campuses since Oct. 7 has surpassed 1,000.

According to a new survey by Benenson Strategy Group on behalf of Hillel International, 56% of the 300 Jewish college students who were polled said they have been directly affected by antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7, with roughly a third — 32% — saying they have experienced antisemitic violence or acts of hate. In addition, 37% have said they felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus and 7% said they have considered transferring or leaving their school because of the climate for Jewish students. The survey has a 5% margin of error.

This recently compiled empirical data confirms what we have seen on the news, what we read in our various news sources and what we know in our hearts. Alarm is an appropriate emotional reaction to the situation our children face on university campuses today. The aggression, name-calling, accusations, confrontations and protests aimed at them will hit hard. But summoning upon their inner strengths, deeply rooted by their respective Jewish educations, will help them withstand and even push back through the maelstrom of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred.

And that is why GAJE is trying to help make Jewish education affordable to all Jewish families in Ontario that seek it for their children: to help families plant deep Jewish roots in our children.

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

February 23, 2024