Last week’s update noted that the recent UJA Federation of Greater Toronto biweekly social action newsletter pronounced that education is the key to fighting antisemitism.

The statement, however, specifically related to a federal report commissioned for Ambassador Deborah Lyons that confirmed antisemitism has encroached into Ontario’s public education system. Education for some Jewish students in Ontario public schools now entails being victimized by peers and in some cases, by teachers too. The newsletter urges readers to become involved in pressuring authorities to rid the school system of antisemitism. Only in a hatred-free, public-school environment can education flourish for all students. We await the province’s action plan to save that environment from the noxious poison that history knows as Jew hatred.

Countless times and in countless ways, of course, GAJE too, has noted that education is the key to fighting antisemitism. But when GAJE writes about education as the means to fight antisemitism, it refers to Jewish education. Jews protect themselves as well as broader, civil, democratic society by fighting antisemitism and the inventory of other hatreds that accompany antisemitism. Jews fight antisemitism by learning about their Judaism and their Jewish history.

Dan Held, Chief Program Officer of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, was recently interviewed by Dr. Elana Stein Hain, Rosh Beit Midrash, senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, for a discussion about Jewish pride and self-perception. The conversation with Held was the third in a series of conversations with other scholars and educators on the subject of helping North American Jews deal with the seemingly ubiquitous post-“October 7” anxiety and dissonance.

At a time – mostly new for Jews in North America born after World War 2 – when malign and/or ignorant individuals shame and bully Jews simply because of our religion and our support for the State of Israel, the conversations are important.

Stein asked Held: “How can [we] inculcate a positive Jewish identity in a time where so much negativity is being pushed at people? How we can talk to kids about what it means to feel safe and proud as a Jew…?”

Held provided no detailed prescriptions. Each community has its unique characteristics and circumstances with which to contend. He understands that. Thus, he spoke of broader aspirations and hopes for his children and, by inference, for all children behind the desks in Jewish schools.

We reproduce just a few of his offerings.

“I want my kids to feel pride in the totality of the Jewish experience, including the State of Israel, including the struggles that the State of Israel struggles with as it wages this war.”

“This year there were 56,000 people who walked with incredible pride down Bathurst Street, down the core of the Jewish community in Toronto, celebrating our identity, celebrating Israel in incredibly strong, powerful, and vibrant ways….But people [want] to be together with other people and really connect to each other. …And we need to provide those opportunities for people to gather about Israel, but also about the rest of Jewish life…”

“[W]hat we need to do, is hold our pride, that we can engage with others and continue to feel the sense of pride and admiration for our people and for who we are, even when we struggle with pieces of our community and with pieces of who we are.”

“We need to be proud as a people of the way that we represent ourselves in society. We need to make sure that our [tile] in the culture mosaic isn’t, you know, grimy and covered and hidden and sitting behind the cement, but is actually out there in public. That’s important both for us as Jews, and I believe it’s important for the society which we want to build. And that takes pride, and that takes thought, and that takes infrastructure, and that also takes the right security structures around it. But that is really important.”

“I don’t want us to be Marranos who light candles in our basement on Friday night and have to hide our Judaism in front of others. It is critical that we be proud and it is critical that we stand tall and it’s critical that we teach our kids the value and the incredible wisdom… that Judaism has to offer that we should be offering into the world.”

Held’s reflections warrant thoughtful consideration. The last statement reproduced above can serve as the starting point. “It is critical that we stand tall, that we teach our kids the value and the incredible wisdom… that Judaism has to offer.” In other words, Jewish education.

The conversation between Stein and Held is available at: https://www.hartman.org.il/guilt-by-identification-jewish-pride-in-a-hostile-environment-with-daniel-held/

•••

GAJE’s legal team will appear before the Court of Appeal at 10:00 on November 21, 2025 to argue that the Divisional Court was wrong to reverse Judge Papageorgiou’s decision and to then dismiss our application. As we noted last week, “it is shameful that GAJE must plead for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in the year 2025, some 30 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1996 that enabled the province’s approach to educational funding.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

August 8, 2025

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

This week, the newsletter arrived in the email inbox with the subject title: “Education is the key to fighting antisemitism”. The first of the three items in the newsletter related to that subject. It dealt with the recently released federal report commissioned for Ambassador Deborah Lyons confirming that “antisemitism is a systemic problem in Ontario’s public education system. Jewish students are being harassed, excluded, and dehumanized—by their peers and, in some cases, by their teachers.”

The newsletter urged readers to take action with respect to the issue to help convince Queen’s Park of its urgency. It prescribes different ways readers may do so.

For our purposes, it is important to note that it is no longer controversial or doubtful in any respect, indeed, if it ever was, that lay and professional community officials agree that Jews cannot rid the antisemite of his or her antisemitism. That important, though difficult task falls to the antisemite. Jews, however, can and must protect themselves and society itself from the haters of Jews.

The newsletter refers to education in the broad sense as it applies throughout our society. It calls upon the stewards of our public educational system to ensure, without cavil or excuse, the public school system is a safe learning space for Jewish children too. The hater of Jews must be prevented from propounding their hatred, and wherever it exists, the hatred must be entirely expunged.

Though the task is straightforward, it is not easy. Even so, individuals and institutions entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the province’s educational system must not shirk their responsibility. We already have mounting evidence in cities where Jewish parents consider public schools no longer safe for their children. (See last week’s update. The Hamilton Jewish community is planning to open a Jewish high school in 2026.)

In a recent interview with the Canadian Jewish News, Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, explained, in part, why she stepped down from her position three months early. She was very open.

“[D]uring this period, these last two years, I’ve been really quite amazed and often become quite despondent and despairing about the fact that it was hard to get people to speak up, to speak with clarity, to speak with conviction about what we were seeing happening here on Canadian soil. Yes, there are all kinds of issues with what’s happening in the Middle East, and we should be directing ourselves to those issues as well. But if we can’t deal with what’s happening in a growing hatred on our own soil, what does that say about us? Not just as leaders, by the way, but as everyday citizens. It was a constant discussion with people about, ‘Why are you not standing up? Why are you not saying something?”

Ms. Lyons words were sincere and brave. But to the Jewish community, alas, the information she shared did not surprise.  Civil society – especially our elected leadership – has failed in standing resolutely against the various manifestations of hatred against Jews. Civil society has thus failed itself.

But the term “education” referred to as the key to fighting antisemitism in the title of the UJA social action missive also means Jewish education, education of Jewish children in Jewish schools.

We will write more on that in next week’s update.

•••

GAJE’s legal team will appear before the Court of Appeal at 10:00 on November 21, 2025 to argue that the Divisional Court was wrong to reverse Judge Papageorgiou’s decision and to then dismiss our application. As we noted last week, “it is shameful that GAJE must plead for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in the year 2025, some 30 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1996 that enabled the province’s approach to educational funding.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

August 1, 2025

GAJE now has a hearing date in the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the ruling of the Divisional in September 2024, that threw our application out of court. More than a year earlier, in August 2023, Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou had determined, in a 45-page decision, that GAJE should be granted an opportunity to argue its case in court on its merits. The Divisional Court reversed the decision by Judge Papageorgiou.

GAJE’s legal team will appear before the Court of Appeal at 10:00 on November 21, 2025 to argue that the Divisional Court was wrong to reverse the Papageorgiou decision and to dismiss our application. Our team must persuade the Court of Appeal that the Divisional erred in applying the legal test for dismissing a case before a trial or hearing.

•••

As if members of our community needed further evidence of the increasing inhospitability of the public school system for Jewish children and their families, the CJN reported last week that the Hamilton Jewish community has decided to launch a pilot project of opening a Jewish high school for 2026 because of the “community’s concerns over rising antisemitism and declining public education quality.”

“Romy Friedman, a Hamilton educator and member of the advisory board and steering committee for this new school, Ontario Jewish Collegiate (OJC), described the initiative as addressing an urgent need for a safer and academically rigorous educational environment.”

The article noted that the Hamilton pilot initiative “aligns with a broader Canadian trend [of] significant enrolment increases at Jewish day schools nationwide following Oct. 7.”

“Daniel Held, chief program officer at UJA Greater Toronto, told The CJN in March, “There’s no question that there are families who are making this choice today when there is an increase in hate towards our community.”

The decision by the Hamilton Jewish community is part of a worrisome, even ugly, wearing away in Ontario of what formerly were embedded, reliable norms of a civil, truly inclusive society in which singling out, intimidating, threatening, or bullying Jews was no longer tolerated.

The sad truth – and resultingly sad indictment of Ontario society and dare we add, government, in 2025 – is that many Jewish families are now unwilling to risk their children’s safety -let alone, education – in the province’s public schools.

And so, it is shameful that GAJE must plead for the right to a hearing in court on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. The Government of Ontario is unalterably opposed to such a hearing. It relies on the Supreme Court decision of 1996 to justify its inexplicable stance, despite changes in the law some 30 years later and changes in circumstances, for the Jewish community, especially since October 7, 2023.

The November 21 hearing will determine whether GAJE will be granted the right to do so.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

The CJN article is available at: https://thecjn.ca/news/hamiltons-jewish-community-planning-to-launch-a-new-high-school-in-response-to-rising-antisemitism/#:~:text=Ontario%20Jewish%20Collegiate%20intends%20to,if%20enrolment%20figures%20are%20met.&text=A%20pilot%20project%20to%20establish,and%20declining%20public%20education%20quality

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 25, 2025

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

University of Toronto sociology professor Robert Brym, wrote the report on the basis of numerous surveys he conducted between January and April of this year regarding the extent and nature of the antisemitism experienced, by Jewish families of children in public schools in Ontario.

The study was compiled for Deborah Lyons, Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. She too was shocked.

“Jewish students deserve what every Canadian child deserves: to feel safe, valued, and included in their classrooms. This is not the reality today – and it must change”, Special Envoy Lyons said. 

Prof. Brym was told of some 800 antisemitic incidents in Ontario elementary and high schools that occurred in the 18 months or so from October 7, 2023. 599 Jewish parents responded to his surveys. Most parents reported incidents of antisemitism that were directly connected to Israel’s current war. Prof. Brym noted that “more than 40 per cent of responses involve Holocaust denial, assertions of excessive Jewish wealth or power, or blanket condemnation of Jews – the kind of accusations and denunciations that began to be expunged from the Canadian vocabulary and mindset in the 1960s and were, one would have thought, nearly totally forgotten by the second decade of the 21st century.”

The report was the first time that the manifestations of hatred directed at Jews in the provincially regulated educational system were formally addressed by an arm of the federal government.

Approximately 30,000 Jewish children live in Ontario. The majority attend the province’s public schools. But, as the federally commissioned report attests, the reality for so many Jewish students in Ontario’s publicly funded schools actually prevents them from feeling safe, valued, and included in their classrooms. Of course, this should offend and shock the consciences of all caring, decent, law-abiding Ontarians.

As Special Envoy Lyons resolutely affirmed, “This must change.” But only the Government of Ontario has the power to change it.

Eliminating actual hatred in the hearts of human beings is more chimera than possibility. Eliminating manifestations of hatred, however, in the public spaces of our lives, and especially in publicly funded schools, is an uncompromisable duty of government.

The public schools are failing Jewish children.

The government is failing Jewish children and wider, civil society by neither changing the reality for our children of feeling unsafe, not valued, and excluded from their public-school classrooms nor the reality of the ongoing discrimination that funds the education of children from only one religious grouping in the province.

Where is the provincial government? Why does it not correct the failures that dishearten Jewish children, discourage their families and diminish Ontario’s society? 

The Globe and Mail’s report on the federal study is available at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-antisemitism-special-envoy-report-israel-school-system/

The federal government’s Survey on Antisemitism in Ontario’s K-12 Schools is available at:https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjs/article/view/40434

•••

GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 18, 2025

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

The effectively key reason for waging a battle against antisemitism, the initiative’s co-founder Father Deacon Andrew Bennett explained, was to ensure that Canada remains a strong democracy based upon the rule of law and respect for the inherent dignity of every individual.

The Jews of Canada, indeed Jews generally, understand that Jewish life flourishes in a society where democracy and its institutions also flourish. Of course, in addition to safeguarding self and community, the safeguarding of democratic society is one of the prime motivations for the Jewish community’s determination to stand against antisemitism. This is why the failure by large swaths of the community-at-large to combat or even acknowledge the antisemitism is so dismaying to Jews around the western world.

Societal inaction and indifference to antisemitism betrays the Jewish community. They also betray our democratic way of life.

This was one of the conclusions drawn by Adam Hummel, Toronto lawyer, human rights advocate and activist in a recent posting on Catch. That is why we call the op-ed to our readers’ attention. The relationship between standing against antisemitism and standing for democracy is a lynchpin of modern, law-abiding, rules-based, rights-respecting society. The relationship is too important to ignore, and too important not to emphasize. Repeatedly.

In the op-ed, entitled Israel Derangement Syndrome, Hummel wrote about ‘the West’s absurd moral suicide”. The column was triggered by his revulsion and disgust with the Glastonbury concert in the U.K. two weeks ago.

In the article, Hummel sets out merely an illustrative list of the surrealistic, inverted, illogical, distorted, non-credible ways by which the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish proponents prove their utter contempt for and utter abuse of truth and fact.

Hummel wrote:

“Only by confronting their own absurd biases can Western societies reclaim any shred of moral authority. Until then, this cynical farce continues, leaving observers to wonder if Western values are nothing more than empty rhetoric, preying on the ignorant, conveniently discarded whenever Israel enters the equation. 

“Don’t be afraid to call out the double-standard when you see it. 

“Western civilization is worth fighting for. The Jews were happy to lead the charge in taking out Iran’s nuclear program for the benefit of global security, but we can’t fight all your battles for you.”

To be sure, Jews are at the vanguard in the battle to preserve western civilization. Former Canadian Justice Minister has often referred to the treatment of the Jews within a society as the “canary in the mineshaft.” Ill treatment of Jews is a certain predictor of the ill treatment of society at large. We stand on the battlements and on the ramparts fighting for the welfare of all Jews and for the welfare of all democratic society.

But as Jews take up our positions upon the ramparts of democratic life, it is important to remember at least the following two points:

• Jews fight antisemitism by “being” and “doing” Jewish; and

• as Father Deacon Andrew Bennett proclaimed two weeks ago, Jews are not fighting alone. 

Hummel’s op-ed is available at: https://catchjcp.substack.com/p/israel-derangement-syndrome?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=rvbar&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

•••

GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 11, 2025

One of the reasons the shock of “October 7” hurt so deeply was because of the sense of abandonment that Jews felt throughout the Western World in its aftermath. The very next day after October 7, the rage and the protests registered on the streets of the democratic world – to our disbelieving dismay – were expressions of support for Hamas, not for Israel. The organizers rolled out the signs and shared the slogans all around the world.

The inversion of morality and the twisting of truth did not begin that day. They were seeded into Western society and normative civil discourse some decades earlier. But, on October 8, 2023, we saw their full sinister bloom.

The silence and pro forma equivocations of so many elected officials in the face of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish intimidation, fostered our first sense of having been abandoned. The silence or hostile responses of the leaders and/or members of the organizations whose causes Jews had long supported, also contributed.

Indeed, we are justified in still feeling that way: betrayed and on our own in the fight for Israel, Jews and democratic values. But it would be wrong and unfortunate not to notice that the Jewish community and supporters of Israel are not alone in this fight. For example, GAJE has brought readers’ attention to the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism (ALCCA), a coalition of widely-based, diverse, community organizations and individuals “combatting antisemitism through awareness, advocacy, education, training, and respectful dialogue.” ALCCA members respond publicly respond boldly, with openly-expressed precision to the malign efforts of the haters. 

Other actors as well, have stepped forward to stand with the Jewish community. Last week, a new initiative was launched by Cardus, a non-partisan think tank “dedicated to clarifying and strengthening the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.” GAJE has often featured Cardus’ research and writings about education and educational funding.

At a two-day conference in Toronto, Cardus launched a multi-year initiative, called Simeon, which was described as “a call-to-action for Canadian Christians and Jews to stand together against hatred and work toward a more just society.” The conference – or Summit, as it was called – was organized by Cardus in partnership with CIJA, Rick Ekstein and Phaze 3 Associates, and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, one of the driving forces behind the conference and the Simeon initiative, succinctly explained the purpose of the combined project. “We are launching a new movement in this country… coming together as Christians and Jews to combat the scourge of antisemitism for the sake of Canada.” (Our emphasis)

Thus, in merely a handful of words, Father Bennett pointedly explained why it is vital that we fight antisemitism. Not only is the fight important for its own sake – to vanquish hatred – but equally, if not more importantly, to protect and to secure the democratic norms and principles of the society that we cherish. And for the purposes of this update, there is another essential component to Father Bennett’s capsule declaration: We are “coming together as Christians and Jews.” The emphasis falls on “together”.

Father Bennett plainly states that Jews are not alone in the fight against antisemitism. In the framework of the values and the purposes he champions, Christians and Jews work together. After all, this is Canada. (That this update was written on Canada Day, lends it heightened relevance and urgency.)

Partnering with CIJA, Rick Ekstein and Phaze 3 Associates, and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto,

•••

GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 4, 2025

As spring gives way, green and golden, to hot summer, it is our deep privilege and happy obligation to congratulate our children and grandchildren for having completed another year at school. Each year, at this time, we say to the younger ones in all grades: “Well done.” “Excellent.” “Enjoy your vacation and break from school”.  And, “Thank you very much.”

This year – this summer – our congratulations and blessings envelope our children against the backdrop of Israel’s survivalist military campaign fighting the theocratic regime in Iran. The Supreme Leader of Iran and his followers have disfigured theology by making the destruction of the only Jewish state on earth, the pre-eminent obsession of their country’s foreign policy.

Of course, Israel refuses to be destroyed. It chooses to live and to defend its people and its future.

Thus, the special circumstances of this year’s end-of-school moment, warrants revisiting last year’s, post “October 7” congratulatory message to students.

•••

After October 7, the combined efforts of the Jewish educators and their students amount to more than the completion of an arduous, annual, teaching/learning cycle. They are also a steel-hard, uncompromising response to the aggression against Jewish communities around the world. Families and the Jewish schools their children attend, 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.

The months roll by, and at the end of the school calendar, schools and parent associations hold their respective celebrations to publicly acknowledge that something remarkably good and important has been achieved by everyone.

In truth, even as we congratulate and celebrate our children for reaching the next formal educational marker along the path of their lives, we ought also to thank them for completing the ten-month grind. For some children, it is not easy. Nor for most, is it generally a great deal of fun.

Few messages are as sweet as “thank you” conveyed from the heart. At the end of the school year, such important expressions of gratitude usually flow over the rim of our happiness. We acknowledge the goodness that the schools have conferred upon our children. Teachers, school administrators, volunteers, community professionals and philanthropists are to be thanked individually and collectively for trying to enable our children to learn and to grow toward their respective potentials.

•••

One Head of School at a Graduation Ceremony this past week, described the students under her charge as being “very young, with bright eyes and big hearts.” Confirming her depiction of the youngsters graduating, one of the principals at the school added that the world needs them exactly as they are.” 

Dear graduates of all ages: Congratulations and thank you very much.

•••

GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 27, 2025

The events unfolding in Israel and in Iran since last Friday are “biblical” in nature and in import. That is how scholar and teacher, Mijal Bitton, describes them in her Dvar Torah on this week’s Torah portion, Shelach. She does not exaggerate, especially when she assesses the Israelis’ response in the context of the history of the Jewish people.

“[W]hat we’re witnessing is not just a historical moment—it’s a biblical one. A time when divine greatness moves openly through the world, and human greatness rises to meet it. When miracles unfold and people step forward, even when they’re afraid.  When they choose to live like lions.”

Shelach holds an especially strong message for us whenever we confront enormous challenges.  (Indeed, that message and the inspiration that it generates, have been incorporated into these weekly updates in the past.)

Ten of the twelve scouts whom Moshe had sent ahead to peruse the land of Canaan delivered a near hysterically negative report of what they had seen. The land was good, they averred. But they were completely intimidated by the “giant” people whom they encountered. They cringed in fear and considered themselves inferior and incapable of any, let alone meaningful, action to gain the land. Their report disheartened a large number of the people recently liberated from their enslavement in Egypt.

More than the sense of hopelessness the ten spies fostered, perhaps the most egregious, most egregious aspect of the report was the psychological havoc they wrought upon themselves and the people who adopted their harshly negative views. When compared to the “giants”, and in the face of what they viewed as an impossible task they shrunk in their own self-esteem. “In our own eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers; and that is how we appeared to them.” (Numbers 13:33)

They saw themselves as grasshoppers! They saw themselves as insignificant and insubstantial against a larger force. They surrendered completely to their self-doubts and fears. And thus, alas, Moshe understood they were ill suited and incapable of accepting the large responsibilities that lay ahead of them.

Mijal Bitton seizes upon the unfortunate reactions of the ten frightened scouts.

“They utter a line that echoes across generations: “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in theirs.” Panic spreads. The people cry, rebel, and plead to return to Egypt.”

“When they [the ten negative scouts] saw giants, they could have been inspired to grow taller. Instead, they chose to become grasshoppers.

“The tragedy of Shelach isn’t fear—it’s smallness. It’s the refusal to step into a kind of life that demands everything of us—and, in doing so, can elevate us.

“Biblical times don’t demand fearlessness. They demand the courage to step forward anyway.”

The effort to win justice and fairness in educational funding in Ontario is not an event of biblical proportions. But the effort to bring as many children to Jewish education is part of the overall response needed by Jews to enable us to stand tall against the haters of Judaism and of Israel.

Trying to help ensure the affordability of Jewish education is a daunting task. We are still, essentially, at the beginning. We await a hearing date to try to persuade the Court of Appeal to allow GAJE to proceed to argue our case on its merits. Despite the enormity of the task ahead of us, we are up to it. We will not back away. We acknowledge the difficulties ahead. They may even be giant difficulties. But we will go forward until there is no longer any path forward.

We emphatically do not see ourselves as grasshoppers in this cause. Nor will we allow others to see us grasshoppers. This statement is not only descriptive of how GAJE sees itself in the struggle for fairness and justice. It is also prescriptive – a promise: We will not give up or give in. In Mijal Bitton’s words, we are stepping forward anyway. It is the only course consistent with Jewish history. It is our course.

•••

GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

•••

Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 20, 2025

In response to the question, “how are you?”, a Jew today, in Toronto or Tulsa or Turin, will likely offer a variation of the following response: “Good. And not so good.” If the person who asked the question is also Jewish, she or he, will understand the response without further inquiry. (Individually, things are good. Collectively, as a people, things could be better.)

The vile, shameless, aggressive nature of the hatred expressed toward Jews and Israel is increasingly alarming. And the frequency of the manifestations of that hatred, equally so. The situation is upsetting and jarring. And as we noted last week in this space, through Adam Hummel’s observations, feelings of anger by Jews in June of 2025, are wholly justified.

But our feelings of anger, though righteous, are also wholly inadequate and insufficient prescriptions as the “next step” in protecting ourselves and our society from the haters and from their destructive odium. Anger must lead to concrete individual and collective remedial action.

These days, community activists, educators, policy planners and a great number of “ordinary” Jews agree, that the best response to the loud, threatening malefactors who are bothered by Judaism and by Israel is fostering strong Jewish identity in ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.

Filling this “fighting-back-appropriately” prescription leads Jewish individuals and Jewish communities directly to expanded access to meaningful Jewish education, and if possible, to Jewish day school. GAJE hastens to add that meaningful Jewish education is an answer, in its own right, for discovering and leading a meaning Jewish life and not only as a response to anti-Jewish menacing crawling through western societies.

It is as the pathway to an engagingly moral, fulfilling Jewish life that we bring an article about Jewish education to readers’ attention. Specifically, we shall excerpt from an opinion piece written by Mikhala Stein Kotlyar.

Kotlyar is a grants manager at Reut USA’s Tikkun Olam Makers, an Israeli American nonprofit advancing assistive technology through frugal innovation.

In an article entitled, The Cost of Continuity for the Jewish Middle Class, published two weeks ago by eJP, Kotlyar pleads with community leaders to steer Jewish philanthropy towards making Jewish education truly affordable for middle class families. The fact that she works within the community and identifies with the community – our causes, purposes, past and future – makes her column even more poignant. She seeks Jewish education for the sake of her children. But as the times in which we live teach us, it is equally for the sake of the society in which our children will one day play a sustaining and contributing role as knowledgeable, proud Jews.

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“Imagine a world where every Jewish child could attend day school. Where Jewish values and leadership, Hebrew language and connection to Israel were guaranteed and not gated by income. Where Jewish identity, community and pride were built every single day.

“Now imagine what we are risking by failing to make that world a reality. For many middle-class families, the barriers to day school education aren’t just tuition costs. They include unpredictable aid, mounting fees and year-to-year uncertainty. The result is a cycle of stress and instability that makes planning for Jewish education nearly impossible.

“Jewish day schools are the most powerful continuity tool we have. As Jehuda Reinharz, president and CEO of the Mandel Foundation, noted in a recent interview in these pages, day schools are essential to fostering resilience for young Jews. That kind of resilience isn’t theoretical; it’s formed in classrooms and lunchrooms, in Jewish spaces that affirm our children’s Jewish identities.

“And yet, middle-class families are being priced out of all this. Too often, they earn just enough to be ineligible for aid but not enough to cover full tuition plus fees. This leaves even current day school parents in a precarious state, unsure from year to year whether they can remain in the very schools that fostered their children’s Jewish identity, community and connection.

“I know this because I am one of them….

“This is the call to conscience. The money exists. The question is whether we have the will to reprioritize and place Jewish day school affordability and continuity at the center of our philanthropic agenda. It’s time to treat day school affordability and predictability not as fringe concerns, but as core investments in the Jewish future.”

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Kotlyar displayed considerable courage in writing this piece. GAJE recommends it. It can be accesses at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-cost-of-continuity-for-the-jewish-middle-class/?utm_source=cio

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GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

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Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 13, 2025

Readers of this weekly update know that GAJE is suing the Government of Ontario to compel it to treat each of Ontario’s children equally in relation to the funding of their education.

Last week, a young Middle School student filed a lawsuit against the Peel District

School Board (PDSB), administrators and a teacher at an elementary school in Peel, for failing to protect the young student from being harassed and bullied through physical assault, hate speech, and repeated targeting after “October 7”, solely on account of the student’s Jewishness.

If the Government of Ontario does not feel shame at the discrimination it perpetuates through its funding of education in the province, it should surely feel shame and disgust at the discrimination and abuse suffered by this young student at one of the province’s publicly funded schools.

The Legal Task Force of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs issued a public statement last week in which it brought to the public’s attention the horrific extent of the vilification aimed at the young student at her school by students and teachers. According to the statement, “Despite repeated complaints to teachers and school administrators, no meaningful steps were taken to ensure the Plaintiff’s safety.”

In one example of intimidation, “during a pro-Palestinian protest on school grounds during school hours, in the presence of faculty members, the student was identified as Jewish. Approximately 40 students subsequently surrounded the student and directed antisemitic chants at them, including “Jews must die” and “Jews are not worthy of living.”

When the student reported the awful behaviour to the school principal, he responded that the young student “didn’t exactly hide that [they were] Jewish.” The principal’s response was simply grotesque. As if cuffing the frightened student’s face with the back of his hand, the principal, dismissed the incident. He actually blamed the student for the abominable abuse hurled by the haters.

How can members of the PDSB, administrators and educators at the school, and Ministry of Education officials not feel profound shame at such openly brazen manifestations of hatred against Jews?

How can we – Jews, parents, grandparents, civic-minded, law-abiding Ontarians – not feel anger?

The lawsuit outlines how the defendants – the Peel District School Board, Superintendent of Education Soni Gill, Principal Michael Poole, and the Plaintiff’s teacher Matthew McIntosh – enabled a hostile, antisemitic environment through their repeated failure to intervene, uphold school policies, hold offenders accountable, and protect the Plaintiff. It alleges that they were negligent and breached their duties of care by violating Board policies, failing to meet their obligations under the Education Act, and discriminating against the Plaintiff in contravention of the Human Rights Code. In some cases, the Defendants are alleged to have directly contributed to or enabled the antisemitic conduct.

The student’s litigation guardian is quoted in the CIJA press release: “No child should be afraid to go to school because of who they are. My child was targeted, humiliated, and physically assaulted just for being Jewish – and the people who were supposed to protect them failed to take meaningful action to stop the abuse. We took this step not just for my child, but for every Jewish student who deserves to feel safe and supported in the classroom.”

We marvel at the student’s courage and resolve. We commend the student’s parents. Feelings of anger are but ultimate weakness if they remain only in the realm of emotional catharsis. But when they motivate, when they lead to action – such as in this case – they can help “change the world”. Injustice can be called out. Ill-treatment remedied. And perhaps too, hatred ultimately vanquished.

The press release should be read for a fuller background of the case. It can be found at: https://www.cija.ca/school_student_seeks_justice_over_antisemitic_bullying_and_assault

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On the subject of righteously felt anger as a launch pad for restorative, remedial action, we recommend last week’s posting by Adam Hummel of his latest article on Catch: Jewish Canadian Ideas. Entitled: Angry? You Should Be. Inspired by the molotov cocktail violence against Jews in Boulder, Colorado and by the murders of Sarah Milgrom and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C., it is a searing indictment of the morally inverted, topsy-turvy embrace of vile behaviour directed at the Jews and at Israel, by haters of Jews and of Israel, hardcore ideologues, and uninformed social activists.

Hummel writes directly, commandingly: “We’re angry because our kids are being harassed in school, and when we speak up, we’re told we’re overreacting. We’re angry because our synagogues have police stationed outside, and yet it’s somehow our fault for “being political.” We’re angry because Jewish students on campus have to hide their identities and jewelry to be safe while the ones calling for intifada are handed microphones, megaphones, and scholarships.”

“We’re angry because Canada is our home. And in our home, we shouldn’t be treated like strangers, or worse, like enemies. We’ve bled for this country. Fought in its wars. Helped build it. Paid taxes. Hired workers. Donated to hospitals. Taught in its schools. And what do we get in return? Vandalized community centres. Hate-fests in downtown Toronto. Editorials equating Jewish safety with apartheid.”

Hummel’s posting should be read too. https://catchjcp.substack.com/p/angry

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GAJE expects to be before the Court of Appeal in the Fall, arguing for the right to a hearing on the merits of our application for fair educational funding in Ontario. When we learn the date of the hearing, we will share it with our readers.

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, 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

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Shabbat shalom. Chag Shavuot Samayach. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 6, 2025