One of the Jewish world’s most astute observers of past and present Jewish life – Andres Spokoiny – delivered powerful remarks recently in New York to an audience of philanthropists and communally committed but concerned North American Jews.

Spokoiny spoke about the burgeoning sense of disquiet Jews among American about their place in the United States. Though he spoke directly about current events in the USA and about current feelings among American Jews, his observations apply with equal accuracy and force to conditions of Jewish life today in Canada.

We reproduce only portions of Spokoiny’s presentation to convey the gravamen of his ideas and the clarity by which he presented them. The entire address, however, is worthy and important. Regular readers of this weekly update will immediately understand why GAJE has pointed to Spokoiny’s remarks when they read his four-part prescriptive call-to-action.

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“American Jews have lost something invaluable in the last decade: the feeling that their country and their community are exceptional…

“What is changing is the subjective relationship many American Jews have with America.

“After the murderous Hamas raids in Israel on October 7, 2023, that feeling of lost trust grew by orders of magnitude. The places that had come to symbolize the integration of Jews in American society, like universities and cultural institutions, became overtly hostile to us. The explosion of progressive antisemitism showed how alone Jews were politically and culturally. The conceptual structures that Jews had helped build — such as the human rights doctrine and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — were weaponized against them.

“Then came the realization that the left and the right will only fight antisemitism when it’s politically expedient, and that both sides will, to degrees small and large, kowtow to their extremists.

“I believe that antisemitism will recede, and things will “go back to normal,” because antisemitism always ebbs and flows. But we can’t unsee what we’ve been seeing in the last few years.

“So, what are American Jews to do with this realization?

“First, recognizing the truth can be liberating… Jews should stop searching for a permanent home in either political party and begin acting as independent political agents.

“Second, we must invest far more in Jewish education, identity and pride. If our place in American society is conditional, our own identity must be unconditional. Judaism — with its depth, history, and purpose — must fill the void before despair or self-rejection does. (Our emphasis)

“Third, we must strengthen Zionism as a central pillar of Jewish identity, invest in Zionist education, and promote engagement with Israel, even if critical. We should remain engaged in American civic life, but it’s clear now that the American project is not, as we thought, an intrinsically Jewish project – at best, it’s a secular project in which Jews may be able to participate.

“The only collective Jewish project is Israel. That is not an ideological statement but a fact. That, of course, doesn’t mean blindly accepting any Israeli policy or not fighting for Palestinians’ rights. The opposite: if Israel is our only collective project, we must engage with it from the inside, defending its democracy and its liberalism and fighting against the dark forces that seek to capture it.

“Finally, we must stop apologizing for defending Jewish rights. Changing hearts and minds about antisemitism is, at best, an improbable task. Antisemitism rises and falls for reasons largely beyond our control. What we can do is protect ourselves — physically, legally, politically and culturally — and use every legitimate tool available to defend our community.

“Jews should stand in solidarity with other oppressed minorities because it is the right thing to do. But we should cease having naïve illusions about others standing up for us. We need to continue “building bridges” — but we need to learn when to burn them.

“This American Jewish moment is painful and unsettling, but it’s an opportunity to rethink some of our basic premises and plan according to new principles. Thinking less about our exceptionalism may be liberating. Sometimes it’s good to let go. That energy used to keep aloft something that is collapsing can then be used to enrich our own identity and rediscover our tradition. Clinging to delusions won’t help — looking reality in the face just might.”

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Like so many of the scholars, historians, thinkers, planners, educators, parents, grandparents, and ordinary Jews who are studying these unparalleled times and trying to offer the best ways for Jews at home and abroad to forge strongly through present difficulties, Spokoiny too calls for strengthening the Jewishness of who we are. Education is the imperative we must embrace. And treasure.

Spokoiny’s remarks may be read at:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/american-jewish-exceptionalism-is-ending-heres-what-must-come-next/

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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

July 31, 2026

A year after Covid restricted almost all social and other inter-connections among most human beings around the world, a number of leading individuals involved in Jewish education in North America conducted an assessment of the state of Jewish education as a result of the intervention of the pandemic.

When the school year ended this summer, some five years after the post-Covid assessment, a similar assessment of the different areas within the Jewish education sector of North America was published. It was no longer a pandemic that forced adjustments to the delivery of Jewish education. Rather, it was a confluence of other events – equally unparalleled in our lifetimes – that forced changes to the infrastructure of Jewish education. As the authors of the recent assessment wrote: “Much has changed since many of us first participated in these updates during the pandemic: the Oct. 7 attacks and the experience of rising antisemitism; back-to-back wars in Israel; and the overall polarized nature of politics and society today.” 

And so, eight scholars and educators published, The state of Jewish education: Insights from leaders across the field. The authors wrote about seven specific educational sectors: early childhood education; adult learning; part-time Jewish education; Jewish camp; Jewish day schools; Israel education and college engagement; and Jewish community education.

The document is illuminating. It is also encouraging despite the challenges and deficits that the authors documented. It is encouraging because the assessment itself was undertaken as an awareness of the communal needs of the hour and of the resolve required to respond as needed.

Space does not permit excerpting from the entire article. Rather, we shall share only some excerpts from the section dealing with Jewish day schools. It is entitled, Investing in excellence: Update on Jewish day schools, and was written by Paul Bernstein, CEO, Prizmah.

(We do recommend the entire article to our readers. It can be found at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-state-of-jewish-education-insights-from-leaders-across-the-field/?utm_source=cio)

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“Over the last six years, Jewish day school enrollment has grown consistently year after year… The question is no longer whether our schools are good enough; increasingly, Jewish day schools are competing with the best independent and public schools in their communities. Alumni are visible as leaders in government, business, and across Jewish communal life.

“Among Jewish college students, Jewish day school alumni are four times more likely to feel a strong connection to Israel than their non-day school peers and twice as likely to say Jewish identity is central to their lives…. Investing in Jewish education is the most meaningful response to antisemitism, and visionary philanthropists are increasingly acting on that conviction.

“The challenge to building a thriving Jewish community in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, is not a lack of resources, but whether we direct those resources toward deep and transformative Jewish education. As Bret Stephens argued, the goal should be “to make high-quality Jewish day school education available and affordable to every Jewish family that wants one.”

“Affordability remains a significant barrier.…At the same time, sustaining growth depends on educational excellence. Too many schools still lack the resources to invest sufficiently in outstanding teaching and leadership. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks reminded us that “teachers are the unacknowledged builders of the future,” and lasting change depends on attracting, training and mentoring, as well as retaining exceptional educators.

“A Jewish day school education delivers strong academic outcomes but is ultimately about far more than academic achievement. Our schools build the Jewish and general foundations for a lifetime’s success, based on this promise: “If you know who you are, you can be anything.”

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There is more detail in the full article regarding the evolution, since 2021, within the day school sector. Readers of this weekly update will not be surprised by the generally positive news reported about day schools. Indeed, in our own community, as reported here, we have witnessed the meaningful, generous responses by “visionary philanthropists” (See, for example, Kaelen Sherman) to the increased manifestations of antisemitism. Indeed, the demand for places in Jewish day school here now exceeds the supply. That is a new challenge that the community must and will, undoubtedly, solve.

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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

July 24, 2026

Last week, in this space, GAJE featured the uplifting remarks and the even more uplifting, quite remarkable, act of generosity by Kaelen Sherman. At the end of May, Ms. Sherman pledged a gift of $25 million to TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto that will provide tuition assistance, in perpetuity, to students at the high school.

This week, we find further inspiration. In this case it is in the example of principle and courage demonstrated by our students, attending university.

As vice president of the World Union of Jewish Students, Jonah Feiglin spent the past year travelling, meeting and talking with his peers from campuses throughout the world.

Feiglin wrote honestly about his experiences. It is his honesty that propels the inspiration that affects the reader. The following are but a few excerpts from his article.

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(Feiglin defined the situation that he encountered.)

“I have spoken to students in London who hesitate before wearing a Magen David necklace in public. I have met students in Paris who still feel anxious walking onto campus. I have sat with Australian students who enter tutorials already preparing themselves to defend not simply their views, but their identity. What struck me most was not the fear, but the refusal to disappear.”

“Students describe constantly calculating risk. Should they wear a Jewish symbol today? Is it worth speaking up in this discussion? Questions which should never have been considered normal have become part of daily life for many Jewish students.

“A 2025 survey conducted by the World Union of Jewish Students and the Anti-Defamation League found that 78% of Jewish students reported hiding or concealing some aspect of their Jewish identity. Nearly four out of every five Jewish students surveyed felt pressure to make themselves smaller.

(Feiglin described some specific examples of students’ responses. Then he summarized, in general terms, the wider import of the students’ responses.)

“Jewish students are not defined by the hatred directed towards them. They are defined by the communities they build, the responsibility they take for one another and the future they are determined to shape.

“That is what leaves me profoundly hopeful. What I have witnessed is not a generation retreating from Jewish life, but a generation fighting for it. In almost every country, I see students searching for the same thing: community, belonging and the ability to live openly as themselves.”

(Feiglin also suggested another “important lesson” from the students’ actions.)

“Strong communities do not emerge by accident. They exist because previous generations invested in them, and because leaders understood that identity must be nurtured before it is tested. (Our emphasis. Read: He commends community decision makers who took steps to ensure a sustained and sustainable infrastructure of affordable Jewish education.)

“[A]fter meeting Jewish students from around the world, one thing has become clear to me: The future of Jewish life will be secured by young Jews who choose to remain proudly, visibly and unapologetically Jewish, and by communities willing to stand beside them when they do.”

(One of Feiglin’s observations was particularly poignant. He attested that Jewish peoplehood is an actual, palpable state of experience and feeling. It is not a mere “abstract concept.”)

“In Spain, complete strangers invited me into their homes simply because I was Jewish, allowing me to share Shabbat meals with families I had never met before. After the events of Oct. 7, 2023, those experiences carried an even deeper meaning. They reminded me that Jewish peoplehood is not an abstract concept discussed in speeches or in strategy documents, but it is truly real and it is personal. It is the feeling of arriving in a foreign city and knowing somebody will leave a seat open at their table for you, even though they have never met you.”

(Kudos to Jonah Feiglin. Kudos as well to all the students and the various projects and activities that Feiglin described in his moving op-ed.)

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Feiglin’s article can be found at:

Jewish students are choosing pride. It’s time to invest in them.

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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

July 17, 2026

As GAJE reported last month, Kaelen Sherman, during the graduation ceremonies of this year’s graduation class from TananbaumCHAT, announced a gift to the school of $25 million. The donation – the largest ever to the school – established the Honey and Barry Sherman Jewish Education Fund, in memory of Kaelen’s late parents. The endowment will provide tuition assistance, in perpetuity, to students at the school.

In a recent article published on the eJewishPhilanthropy website, Sherman elaborated upon the reasons underlying her extraordinary generosity toward the school. She spoke poignantly about her parents, the values they attempted to inculcate into their children, and the values she wishes, in turn, to instill in her children and perhaps even, to exemplarize for others.

The foundation stone anchoring Sherman’s philanthropy toward the school stems from her parents’ credo that “no kid should be turned away from an education – that they should have a right to – because they can’t afford it”.  

When she announced the donation at the graduation ceremony, Sherman said: “My parents believed deeply in the power of education. They believed that education creates opportunity, builds confidence, strengthens communities and changes lives. They also believed that when we are fortunate enough to succeed, we have a responsibility to help others succeed as well. They cared deeply about the Jewish community and understood that one of the greatest investments we can make is in the next generation. They knew that a strong Jewish future begins with a strong Jewish education.”

Sherman was emphatic about the urgency of the need, in 2026, of helping children attain a Jewish education. “Jewish day school is no longer a choice, but a necessity and almost a requirement. Children who can’t afford [to go] to Jewish day school end up in the public school system, and are now being bullied or whatnot for being Jewish. No kid should have to be put into that situation, regardless of financial status.”

She concluded the interview with an understated but stirring personal statement about a hoped-for wider impact of her philanthropy. “Sure, I can honor my parents, but I think the biggest thing is that I’m also setting an example for my own generation and for my children.”

In a succinct, eloquent nutshell, Sherman encapsulated one of the most penetrating truths at the heart of our Jewish values: that love – whether of one’s children, family or people – means doing.

According to the article, the demand today for places in our day schools exceeds the supply.

Schools, including TanenbaumCHAT, have lengthy wait-lists.

In one respect, the increased demand for classroom spaces attests to the success of the community efforts for nearly a decade to make day school more affordable. There is a number of reasons for the situation, however, all of which have been written about and are in plain view of parents, community and education professionals.

And, even though community planners and the educational structure have been, and are, doing their utmost, to find places for every child whose parents seek a Jewish education for them, it is nevertheless, unacceptable that children are being turned away from Jewish day school for lack of classroom space. Remedying the situation is the next aspect of the Jewish education challenge.

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The eJP article can be found at: https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/record-high-jewish-day-school-enrollment-in-2026-prizmah-report-suggests

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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

July 10, 2026

GAJE still awaits hearing whether the Supreme Court will allow us to appeal the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal that upheld the Divisional Court’s ruling to throw out our case. The odds are against us. But since when have Jews ever been cowed by bad odds? Indeed, Jewish history – the few against the many – teaches us the very opposite.

Very few of us need convincing that these portentous, post-October 7 times have thrust all committed and caring Jews, as well as individuals committed to democracy and the rule of law, into an epochal fight for truth and against hatred of Jews and of Israel.

It is well documented by now, and articulated without cease by historians, scholars, teachers, parents, and concerned individuals that the best way for Jews of fighting back against the distorters of truth and the harmers of democracy, is through unfailing determination to intense Jewish education: namely, by raising our children to be and to feel comfortable and proud in their Judaism.

Rikki Zagelbaum wrote a story for The JNS this week that reported on a study by Prizmah, the network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America, that concludes that there has recently been upward-trending “record high” enrollment in Jewish day-schools.

Paul Bernstein, founding CEO of Prizmah, is quoted as saying that “[T]he trends in this report demonstrate the vigor and success of Jewish day schools across the religious spectrum, the increase in their perceived quality and value and the impact of incredible investments in excellence, leadership, and teaching and affordability across our schools.”

The Prizmah report was released on June 24. It analyzed enrollment at 305 Prizmah-network schools in the United States and Canada, including Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, community, pluralistic and nondenominational schools.

One of the factors for the increase across North America in Jewish day school enrollment has been the October 7 factor. Since Oct. 7, families are “moving closer to Jewish community, enrolling children in Jewish schools and seeking out institutions that offer both belonging and confidence….Families are not only worried about the increase in antisemitism, they are also choosing deeper Jewish connection through schools, synagogues, camps and community institutions as a proactive way to strengthen identity, continuity and resilience,” the report said.

The report specifically points to the initiative, some five years ago, by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Generations Trust Scholarship, that helped abate tuition for some families who otherwise might not have qualified for tuition assistance. The initiative brought more children to Jewish education.

The reason we call attention to the enrollment article is to point to it as quite positive news in less-than-positive times. GAJE fervently hopes that our legal path will be cleared to litigate for fairness in educational funding in Ontario. But our hopes are not determinative of the matter. The judges are.

Irrespective of the outcome of our application currently before the Supreme Court, we urgently plead with parents of young children to seek out every reasonable possibility of offering Jewish identity-forming and Jewish identity-reinforcement education for your children. We urgently also plead with community planners, leaders and philanthropists to continue their efforts to make day school education truly affordable to the families who seek it for their children.

These portentous times demand such a response from us.

The JNS article can be found at: https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/record-high-jewish-day-school-enrollment-in-2026-prizmah-report-suggests

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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

July 3, 2026

From the end of summer days in early September to the beginning of summer days in late June, our youngsters and their teachers have engaged in what the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called “the passion of study and the life of the mind.”

To be sure, most of our students might not define their almost 10-month occupation in learning-how-to-read, learning-how-to-count, learning-how-to-think, books, homework, school projects, pressures and pleasures, as Rabbi Sacks did. Indeed, teachers too, might find different words to describe the responsibilities they fulfilled each day toward their young charges and their colleagues. But in broad collective sum, across the millennial span of time and varied geographies, Rabbi Sacks was perfect in his depiction of the stretched-out activity that teachers and their students have just completed for academic 2025/2026 (5785/5786).

Attending school each day for some 10 months – whether as students or as teachers – is not easy. In fact, it is often a grind. And so, GAJE congratulates our students and thanks their teachers and their support staff in bringing education to our children.

In equal fact, we need to also acknowledge – as we have before – that these past three years, have shone an enhanced light on the urgency of the need for Jewish education.

Jewish education, more than ever, is “a steel-hard, uncompromising response to the aggression against Jewish communities around the world. Families that send their children to Jewish school affirm, with the clear-eyed resolve of the ancient Hebrew prophets, the inviolability of our promise to our forebears and to God, that we will live Jewish lives.”

Our gratitude to those who engage in the enterprise of Jewish education is thus sharper and deserves to be expressed without hesitation, in the hope that our children, in time, will choose the same for their children.

In the GAJE update of the last Friday of the school year, we have often reproduced the following definitive characterization by Rabbi Sacks coupling the Jewish people with life-long education. We do so again. It is that important.

“For Jews, education is not just what we know. It’s who we are. No people ever cared for education more. Our ancestors were the first to make education a religious command, and the first to create a compulsory universal system of schooling – eighteen centuries before Britain… the Egyptians built pyramids, the Greeks built temples, and the Romans built amphitheaters, Jews built schools. They knew that to defend a country you need an army, but to defend a civilization you need education. So, Jews became the people whose heroes were teachers, whose citadels were schools, and whose passion was study and the life of the mind.”

To all of our students: Congratulations. Well done.

To their teachers and “helpers’ at all levels: You are our heroes.

Thank you, all, very much.
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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
June 26, 2026

After this update was written, on June 16, Kaelen Sherman, the daughter of the late Honey and Barry Sherman, announced the donation of $25 million to TanenbaumCHAT for the creation of the Honey and Barry Sherman Education Foundation. Speaking to a large audience at the Beth Tzedec attending the school’s 2026 graduation ceremony for the Class of 2026/5786, Sherman said the gift was intended to honour her late parents’ appreciation and support for Jewish education. It will help to ensure that every family that wants a Jewish education for its child, will be able to afford one. The terms and conditions for the gift were not announced.

How praiseworthy and inspiring the generosity of Kaelen Sherman. She clearly understands the urgency and the resulting needs of this moment in Jewish history.

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‘Immersive Jewish education not a luxury, but a necessity’

Since “October 7”, the pathways of our children’s lives as Jews, are fraught in ways that we – their parents and grandparents – never thought we would ever see or experience in our own communities in our showcase societies of western democracy. Until we restore those pathways, we must enable them to trod confidently wherever they choose to find their paths in life.

Thus, as the school year winds down, we bring another op-ed to the attention of our readers on the indispensability of Jewish education in helping our children become – as Jews – self-confident, self-identifying, informed, knowledgeable and proud.

Earlier this month, eJP published the remarks delivered in March to a conference on the future of American Jewry, by Mike Leven, chair of the board of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy, and founder of the Jewish Future Promise. The op-ed was entitled, somewhat bluntly, “We already know how to strengthen Jewish continuity. So why aren’t we doing it?”

Apart from the American context, which is the starting vantage point, his observations apply wherever in the Diaspora, that Jews reside. GAJE followers will likely understand and share the key points that Leven emphasized. Nevertheless, we give his ideas and insights further life, because they are indeed, so very important to the needs of the “hour” in which we now live.

Leven sets his course at the outset of the essay.

“For decades, the American Jewish community has debated the future of Jewish continuity. We have invested in advocacy, Israel experiences, leadership development, synagogues, camps, Hillels, security initiatives and countless other worthy causes.

“Yet after the Oct. 7 attacks and the wave of antisemitism that followed, we were forced to face a hard truth: Too many young Jews are stepping onto college campuses unprepared — not just to defend Israel or Jewish identity, but to even understand them in any real, lasting way.

“Many cannot explain Zionism beyond a handful of slogans. They do not know the story of modern Israel, the pioneers who built it or the generations who struggled to keep it alive. Some have never heard the names Chaim Weizmann or Ze’ev Jabotinsky, let alone the larger story that led to the birth of the Jewish state.

“This is not a failure of our young people; it is a failure of our own making. We cannot expect young Jews to defend an identity they were never truly given the chance to understand.

“The truth is that we already know one of the strongest tools for building lifelong Jewish identity, literacy, confidence and continuity: Jewish day school education.”

After citing data on the extent of enrollment in the USA in Jewish day schools, and providing further cultural, sociological observations about Jewish education there, Leven states categorically: “[I]mmersive Jewish education is not a luxury, but a necessity.”

He calls for “more scalable” models of day school education that are affordable and efficient that are emerging “to meet the moment we are now facing.” He even provides examples of such models. (See the full article.)

Leven imparts am unambiguous message. His audience comprises the families looking for some way to enroll their children in day school and community policy planners and philanthropic leaders who need no convincing of the correctness of his views or that the task is indeed, imperative. 

“Jewish day schools are no longer simply an educational alternative. For many families, they are becoming a communal necessity. The question is no longer if Jewish philanthropy will act, but when. The urgency of this moment demands a unified, immediate commitment to expanding day school access. Our children and our future cannot wait…. After Oct. 7, the choice is clear: act boldly to expand Jewish education now, or risk losing the next generation.”

The article is available at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/we-already-know-how-to-strengthen-jewish-continuity-so-why-arent-we-doing-it/

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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

June 19, 2026

The school year is winding down.

Our children suppress no smiles anticipating their summer vacation. Nor do their teachers, principals, and administrators. They all share the same smile.

Students of pedagogy, academics and teaching instructors, however, have compiled their observations, gathered their thoughts and composed their reflections on the year that has arrived at its summertime conclusion.

We bring the highlights of one such reflection published this week by David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, the successor organization to the legendary Bureau of Jewish Education on the Lower East Side of New York that was founded over a century ago.

“How to build a future that is wiser than our present” was published by eJewishPhilanthropy. It is an abridged version of a major address by Bryfman on June 8, 2026.

After surveying the horizon of the past year’s community concerns, Bryfman delivers a straightforward message: Education matters more than ever.

Bryfman’s message will notsurprise Jewish education policy planners in our community, education professionals, parents whose children attend Jewish school, or readers of this weekly update. Since “October 7”, Jews throughout the Diaspora have faced a different, more hostile world. Jewish education instills, in us, the confidence and strength we need to confront and even thrive in our new, present reality.

Bryfman explains how he arrives at his conclusion. His reasons might surprise. We reproduce only a very short excerpt of remarks.

“This [post-October 7] moment demands that we reclaim and recharge Jewish education. 

Yes, antisemitism is rising. Yes, Israel is under scrutiny and attack. Yes, our young people are navigating a world that is more polarized, more complicated and more emotionally exhausting than many of us have ever known.

“But I told my staff something very important in the weeks and months after Oct. 7, 2023: For some people, motivation will come from fighting antisemitism; for others, motivation will come from defending Israel; but we, as educators, must always lead with joy and pride…

“One of the things that worries me most right now is not what is happening outside the Jewish community. It is what is happening inside it. The name-calling. The purity tests. The obsession with deciding who is in and who should be out. The inability to disagree without dehumanizing.

With all the external pressures facing the Jewish people, what I fear most is that we may tear each other apart from within. 

“That is why education matters more than ever.”

(The article is available at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/how-to-build-a-future-that-is-wiser-than-our-present/)

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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

June 12, 2026

In prime tv time this week, from the chapel of the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Prime Minister Carney delivered a major policy address on fighting antisemitism in our country. Not surprisingly, the speech received mixed reactions: Critical, not enough substance, too much left out; Positive, a good beginning; important message; Unimpressed, a shrug-of-the-shoulder, we’ll-suspend-judgment-until-we-see-action.

We offer no assessment of the Prime Minister’s statement. We do, however, point to one key reference in his remarks that bears directly upon GAJE’s application for leave to appeal currently before the Supreme Court. Indeed, the language used by the prime minister echoed with singular resonance to language that appears in GAJE’s application.

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Prime Minister Carney said: “Pluralism in Canada is not the exception to the framework. Pluralism is the framework. Our secularism is open. The state takes no side in matters of belief, and the institutions of public life are not captured by any particular faith.

“In Canada, state neutrality does not empty the public square but ensures that no conception of the good — including humanism or atheism — is privileged by state power, and that every Canadian has the freedom of conscience to live as they believe.

“This means that the state—above the responsibilities we all have as citizens—has a special responsibility to ensure that no culture, faith, race, gender, or identity is threatened or suppressed. And it goes further to the responsibility of ensuring that everyone can be their whole selves in Canada.” (Our emphasis)

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To persuade the SCC that GAJE’s application deserves a hearing in court, we must prove that the law and society have “changed” or moved sufficiently in new directions since the court’s Adler decision some 30 years ago, in 1996 to warrant a reassessment of the case’s enduring applicability.

One of the developments in the law since 1996 to which GAJE has pointed, is the doctrine of “state neutrality” specifically raised by the prime minister, that was given life by the SCC itself, in 2015. To the prime minister, quite obviously, the doctrine of state neutrality in ecumenical matters, is now entrenched into the deep fabric of Canadian society.

GAJE’s legal team elaborated upon the doctrine of “state neutrality” in the material they filed in court. “In Mouvement laïque québecois v. Saguenay (City) (2015) this Court [the SCC] explained that the duty of state neutrality means “the state may not act in such a way as to create a preferential public space that favours certain religious groups and is hostile to others.” (The prime minister’s words echo quite strongly with the rule propagated by the SCC.)

“This issue was neither raised nor addressed in Adler because the doctrine of state neutrality had not been mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada as a pillar of Canadian law.”

“The current educational funding scheme, along with the current interpretation of section 93 of the Constitution Act, offends the state’s duty of neutrality. Ontario’s exclusive funding of only Roman Catholic schools to the exclusion of other religious schools, favours Roman Catholic communities while hindering other religious communities. Religious minorities are allowed to provide their children with the education they choose, but they do not have public support unless they choose secular or Roman Catholic education. This is both a breach of the duty of state neutrality and is also a breach of the section 15 equality rights guaranteed by the Charter.”

“[GAJE’s] application … questions the continuation of an exclusive and historical discriminatory funding model from 1867, when it does not need to be interpreted this way in 2026. With today’s values, the funding scheme in the Education Act ought to be interpreted in light of the advancements in the law and society present today in order to end the discrimination in education funding perpetuated by Ontario.”

“As this Court explained in Loyola: Religious freedom must therefore be understood in the context of a secular, multicultural and democratic society with a strong interest in protecting dignity and diversity, promoting equality and ensuring the vitality of a common belief in human rights. In the context of funding religious schools, the question is how to balance “robust protection for the values underlying religious freedom with the values of a secular state” while also upholding the principle affirmed by this Court in Loyola that “a secular state [cannot] support or prefer the practices of one group over those of another.”

Prime Minister Carney effectively stated that the doctrine of “state neutrality” is part of the fabric of Canadian multiculturalism today. It was not in 1996. We hope the SCC notices.

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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

June 5, 2026

Last year at this time, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) reported upon a “surge” of higher levels among Jews seeking more engagement with fellow Jews and participation in Jewish communal life. At that time, JFNA research showed that about one third of the Jewish community “continued to engage at higher levels than before…through community, learning and personal relationships.”
  

Community experts concluded that the surge “appeared to be linked to the emotional impact” of Israel’s war against Hamas and “significant concern about antisemitism. 79% of Jews surveyed said they were deeply concerned about antisemitism.”

There is no reason, one year later, to believe that the concern about antisemitism has diminished. Indeed, Canadian experience suggests that the manifestations today of antisemitism are more concerning than even just one year ago. The recent release by B’nai Brith Canada of its annual survey of antisemitism in Canada would confirm that.

It is in this context of persistent, lingering disquiet over antisemitism, that Audra Berg, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Broward County in Florida, offered her suggestions on how to maintain community strength and cohesion. Her op-ed, “Holding a Jewish community together, consistently and over time”, appeared on the eJewishPhilanthropy website.

Berg wrote that “Jewish life feels both fragile and fiercely alive.” In this one line, Berg succinctly captured the dichotomy: the surge in antisemitism has evoked a surge in Jewish communal involvement.

She identified four principles “about deepening and growing community” that will imminently be applied in her community in an initiative called, Ignite Broward. The lessons for community leaders that she imparts are not new. They relate to: acknowledging and recognizing the seeking members of the community; personal safety; identity; and the need for inter-communal alliances. Even though Broward County is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in North America, her ideas are relevant here as well.

I draw readers’ attention to her comment on identity. She does not talk about the impact of Jewish education. Rather, she talks about participating along with others, in other words, experiencing the kinship of Jewish peoplehood that stems from the sense of shared experience.

Berg described conversation among a group of teens who were “what being Jewish meant to them, right now.

“Some hesitated. Some spoke quickly. Some admitted they weren’t sure what they believed, or where they fit. But they stayed in the conversation. And as they talked — about Israel, about social media, about what they were hearing from friends at school — something shifted. Not in what they knew, but in how they saw themselves: not as observers of Jewish life, but as participants in it.

“What mattered, in that moment, was not what they were taught, but that they were in it together — speaking, listening and seeing themselves reflected in one another.”

GAJE would use other language to arrive at the same conclusion as Berg’s about the forming of identity, namely…

Being immersed in the profound, life-enhancing depth of Judaism – appropriately and intensively – over time, across the important formative stages of a youngster’s life, specifically teaches that we are all in this together. Indeed, from our very beginning, at least ever since receiving the Torah at Sinai, we have always known that we are in this together. We have always been and will be that we are part of one another. That is peoplehood.

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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.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education

May 29, 2026