Dear Minister Calandra:

We congratulate and commend you on your appointment this week as Ontario’s new Minister of Education. The ministry has been entrusted to your stewardship because you understand the utmost importance of its mission in protecting, enhancing and securing the values that underpin our remarkable society and by which it advances while championing, each day, the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity and worth of every human being.

It is our fervent hope that you carry well and loftily, with visible noble purpose, the weighty responsibilities that now rest on your shoulders. Your success will redound to the benefit of all Ontarians and Canada itself. Overseeing and facilitating the delivery of excellent education of the province’s children from their early years and kindergarten through Grade 12 will call upon all your abilities as well as call forth the wisdom that vexing problems of injustice that conscience and good policy always demand.

One such problem that has persisted in Ontario for nearly five decades, that the Ministry of Education has assiduously avoided trying to solve, yet publicly acknowledges, is blatant discrimination in educational funding. As you know, children who attend independent, denominational schools that are not Catholic, or who attend other independent schools, receive no funding from the province to help their families defray the cost of their education.

We plead with you to end this discrimination for the sake of enhancing excellence in education for all Ontario’s children while truly affirming their human rights in the process.

The following is a brief summary of the factors you might consider in ending the discrimination in educational funding.

• In 1996, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that such discrimination was lawful, primarily due to the constitutional bargain in 1867 between Ontario and Quebec – ensuring the mutual protection of minority rights in those provinces – that brought the provinces into newly confederated Canada.

• The plaintiffs in the above-referenced case did not ask Ontario to end public funding for the education of the children in Catholic schools. Rather, they asked for equal treatment for all children in other denominational schools. However, in ruling that Ontario’s educational funding policy was legal, the Supreme Court stated that Ontario was not prevented from extending public funds to the independent schools.

• Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE) contends that in the ensuing nearly three decades since the 1996 Supreme Court decision, societal circumstances have sufficiently changed, as has the relevant law, to warrant allowing the courts to reassess the decision. Should that decision still be binding in the conditions of life in Ontario in 2025? GAJE believes the 1996 decision should be reconsidered. Yet, Ontario refuses to agree that the courts should reconsider whether the 1996 decision should still apply today. Thus, as long as Ontario maintains the discrimination in its educational funding policies, GAJE has decided to launch an application asking of the courts to consider reassessing the correctness of the 1996 decision for 2025.

• Renowned independent think tanks and research facilities such as Cardus, the Aristotle Foundation, the Fraser Institute and others, have written about the anomalous nature of Ontario’s educational policies. It is the outlier in Canada. The western provinces and Quebec contribute public funds to their independent schools.

• The arguments against extending public funding to independent schools are essentially two. To do so is too costly for the public purse, and/or, extending public funding to independent schools would wreak havoc upon the public school system. Both arguments have been resoundingly proven to be false. (See research by Cardus and by the Fraser Instituter, for example. That research has been referenced in GAJE’s updates in the past.)

Thus, Minister Calandra, we plead with you. At least begin the discussion with your staff and officials about ending the discrimination in educational funding. Please bring Ontario in line with the other provinces of Canada, not to mention with the countries in the OECD western world.

All Ontario’s children are worthy. All Ontario’s children ask that you extend to them too, the sheltering canopy of equality under the law. The ongoing discrimination debases Ontario society. It makes a lie of our vaunted loyalty to the governing truths of rights and freedoms, even as it harms so many of the families striving merely to send their children to the school they deem most suited for them. Minister Calandra, please bring justice and fairness to all Ontarians.

Yours truly,

GAJE

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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)

March 21, 2025

It would be too blatant, and even too inexcusable, an omission, were this update not to refer to the holiday of Purim which, this year, we actually celebrate today, March 14.

As with all Jews who yearn and strive for the wellbeing and betterment of our people and of the world at large, there are indeed substantive connections between GAJE’s work and any of the multitude of important meanings mined by our Sages from the deep vein of history and homily called the Scroll of Esther.

We briefly point to one, as an example.

In an essay written for eJewish Philanthropy, Rabba Yaffa Epstein, senior scholar and educator in residence at The Jewish Education Project, confirmed what most of us feel as a result of the events of October 7 and their hate-filled aftermath: “[S]omehow this year it seems like the Megillah was truly written for our time! Diaspora Jews can certainly relate to the portrayal of the Jewish nation as being at the mercy of antisemitism and the desire of our young people to hide away their Jewishness to save themselves and to avoid conflict.”

But she did not confine her observation to the shared negative feelings awoken by both the ancient and the modern Diaspora predicaments. Rather, Rabbi Epstein urged us to find instruction in the positive outcome from ancient times that we might apply today. “Yet, if the story of Purim can lay out our challenges, it can also be a source of inspiration, strength, purpose and pride.”

This ringing conclusion warrants restatement and emphasis.

No-one will deny the extent of the shock, outrage and even vulnerability that Jewish communities felt and continue to feel by the unabating manifestations at home and abroad of hatred for Jews and for Israel. But Rabba Epstein urges us to find a path whose guideposts are – inspiration, strength, purpose and pride – to help us find our way despite and through the fears and the rage.

Rabba Epstein further states that Purim “is a holiday about the power of human beings. The power of the individual, and of the communal to transform. It is the holiday of stepping up and taking responsibility.” And vital to her message, she also notes that our strength multiplies when we act as a people united in purpose, not necessarily though, in politics or opinion.

The central point Rabba Epstein makes is this: “[W]hat should this unity be based on in order to truly become am echad (one united people)?It is through the Torah, our shared inheritance of Jewish text, Jewish values and Jewish life. Our central identity as a people is the Torah we have inherited, ready and waiting for every Jew to step up, take responsibility and add their unique voice.

In other words, it is through education. Rigorous Jewish education, irrespective of the denominational stream, increases the chances that Jews will feel a sense of belonging and responsibility to each other.

This is also the keystone holding intact and joining GAJE’s work to the drama of the Scroll of Esther. GAJE’s purpose is to try to help make Jewish education truly affordable to every family that seeks it for their children. And in so doing, also help foster, within the Jewish people at home and abroad, feelings of true am echad, which, when called upon in days to come, will be the font of lifelong inspiration, strength, purpose and pride.

•••

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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Chag Purim samayach. Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 14, 2025

Last Friday, our legal team advised GAJE that our application before the Court of Appeal was successful. The endorsement on the Court’s file was succinct:

“The motion for leave to appeal is granted.”

As is usual in such applications for leave to appeal, the court gave no reasons for its decision.

Let there be no misconception, however, regarding the meaning of the decision. We must be clear.

The Court of Appeal has allowed GAJE to appeal the September 2024 decision of the Divisional Court. The Divisional Court had concluded that Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou was wrong to allow GAJE’s application to proceed to a full hearing in court.

The Court of Appeal made no decision, nor offered any opinion, regarding the merits of our case. Nor should we wishfully infer a positive view of our case from the positive outcome of our motion for leave to appeal

It is reasonable, however, to conclude that the Court of Appeal was of the view that the Divisional Court either applied the wrong legal rules that govern dismissing an application at the early stage of the process, or alternatively, the Divisional Court applied the correct rules but in an incorrect manner. We can climb no higher than this on the ladder of hope.

And it is also reasonable to state, unequivocally, that the Court of Appeal decision was very good news. We hope to build on it. From strength to strength and from success and to ultimate success.

•••

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)

March 7, 2025

As of this writing, Ontarians are voting for a new government. When this Update is read by GAJE supporters, the results of the voting will be known. Premier Ford premised his call of the election on the basis of needing a reinvigorated, strong majority government to deal with the economic threats facing Ontario as a result of the policies of U.S. President Trump.

There is no denying that President Trump’s various threats to Ontario and to Canada are indeed alarming. Every government within the Canadian federation – including Ontario – must respond to the American Administration with wisdom and resolve. Except for the emanations of potential danger toward Canada suggested by President Trump’s first term in the White House, who would have thought that the country with whom Canada shares the longest undefended border on earth, alongside which its servicemen have fought and died during a number of campaigns against tyranny since the turn of the last century, and with which it has long enjoyed mutually beneficial trading relations – is now a clear and present danger to Canadians?

As one of its chief priorities, if not the chief priority, the newly elected government at Queen’s Park will be charged with protecting and defending Ontario’s many-faceted interests. But still, even acknowledging that the election campaign that ended yesterday was truncated, it was deeply disappointing that no party, no candidate, spoke about – let alone offered to remedy – the discrimination in Ontario’s education funding.

To be sure, there were the usual, but truly “throw-away” statements by all three parties about educational funding. As reported by Dave McGinn in the Globe and Mail, “[Premier] Ford’s government promised $1.3-billion to build 30 new schools and expand 15 already existing schools across the province.” Not surprisingly, both Opposition parties decried the government’s proposal as being wholly inadequate to meet the documented growing needs within the educational system.

“NDP Leader Marit Stiles has promised to spend an additional $830-million per year to clear the school repair backlog within 10 years.”

The Ontario Liberal Party said that schools are overcrowded. More schools must be built more quickly. Taylor Deasley, a spokesperson for Bonnie Crombie said that “every single kid in Ontario needs and deserves to learn in a safe, functioning school environment. This has not been the case in Doug Ford’s Ontario.”

Sadly, ironically, regrettably, when Deasley said “every single kid in Ontario needs and deserves to learn in a safe, functioning school environment”, she meant it in the narrowest physical sense alone. She certainly was not referring to the well-documented current environments in some public schools, of aggressively hostile antisemitism, that have rendered those places quite unsafe for Jewish students.

The subject of unsafe learning environments for Jewish students in public schools was not part of any discussion about education during the just concluded election campaign. Nor, alas, was the ongoing, deeply hurtful, no longer justifiable, discrimination in Ontario’s educational funding.

McGinn’s article is available at:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-election-education-ford-ndp-liberals/

To remind people how Ontario’s unceasing discrimination the amounts to an affront to justice, conscience and especially best educational policies, we point to the authoritative educational study published by three scholar-researchers of Cardus on September 15, 2021, entitled Funding All Students: A Comparative Economic Analysis of the Fiscal Cost to Support Students in Ontario Independent Schools. (GAJE reported on the study at the time of its publication.)

We reproduce some key findings from the study. For reasons too well known since October 7, 2023, those findings are more relevant today to the Jewish community of Ontario, than they were three and a half years ago when they were first published.

“[Public] funding [for independent schools] is the norm around the world, as well as in Canada. Globally, 73 percent of countries at least partially fund independent schools—only one OECD country does not. In Canada outside Ontario, 75 percent of independent schools and 84 percent of independent-school students are partially publicly funded. Put differently, Ontario’s lack of funding is anomalous in both a global and Canadian context. We discuss the four main objections to funding and conclude that Ontario’s lack of financial support for independent-school students is an unjust and inequitable policy—uncharacteristic of a democratically elected government, especially in an advanced economy—that further disadvantages the already disadvantaged.”

“Applying…three scenarios to each of the seven provincial funding schemes (already existing in Canada), results in twenty-one cost estimations, ranging between $535.2 million and $1.539 billion in net annual cost to Ontario taxpayers. For context, within the scope of Ontario’s $186 billion annual budget (for fiscal 2020-2021) this is around 1/3 to 4/5 of 1 percent (0.3% to 0.8%) of the budget. In other words, any of these funding options is a relatively minimal cost to substantially benefit the families who need it most.”

Fairness in educational funding in Ontario is manifestly achievable. The Cardus study demonstrates this beyond any doubt. It remains the bedrock upon which sound, just, educationally and ethically appropriate decisions for all of Ontario’s school children can be based. But, there is no political will to achieve fairness and finally cast aside discrimination.

As noted above, it was deeply disappointing that no party, no candidate, spoke about – let alone offered to remedy – the discrimination in Ontario’s education funding.

For shame.

The Cardus study: https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/the-cost-to-fund-students-in-ontario-independent-schools/

•••

We wish to remind our supporters: GAJE still awaits the decision of the Court of Appeal on our motion seeking leave to appeal the September 2024 decision by the Divisional Court that dismissed our application to bring about fairness in educational funding in Ontario.

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)

February 28, 2025

There are moments when the clock should stop – as if in sympathy with the skipping of one’s heartbeat – so significant are they in assessing What is Man?

Yesterday was such a moment. For the State of Israel, for the People of Israel. Indeed, for the world.

The corpses of Oded Lifshitz, 83-years-old, Shiri Bibas and her two sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9 months-old Kfir, were returned to Israel. Except Hamas did not return Shiri’s body. The IDF said that no match was found for the purported body of Shiri Bibas. “It is an anonymous body without identification”, they said.

The Jerusalem Post reported that “available intelligence and forensic evidence from the identification process have led officials to determine that the two children were brutally murdered in captivity by terrorists in November 2023, just a month after their abduction. Kfir was murdered at 10 months old. Ariel was murdered at four years old.

The moral grotesquery of February 20, 2025 was of the same twisted, evil piece with that of October 7, 2023.

Merely hours after the four bodies crossed into Israeli territory, a number of booby-trapped buses exploded in the centre of Israel. Thankfully, the buses had been parked for the night and were empty of passengers. Had they exploded during rush of the business day, hundreds of Israeli civilians would have been slaughtered.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad teach a perverse theology that finds delight and fulfillment in the killing Jews.

But today, Jews fight back. The State of Israel fights back with its security services and the Israel Defence Forces. The People of Israel fight back by standing tall and together, by raising high the banner of our Judaism.

And the world fights back by…..

Because the clocks did not stop yesterday, we will pause this week from providing a specifically oriented GAJE update. In lieu, we offer a heart-rending eulogy for the Bibas family written by Adam Hummel. It is emotionally riveting. It is important. (He wrote it before he knew that Shiri had not been returned to Israel.)

Hummel’s article is available at: https://catchjcp.substack.com/p/a-eulogy

•••

We wish to remind our supporters: GAJE still awaits the decision of the Court of Appeal on our motion seeking leave to appeal the September 2024 decision by the Divisional Court that dismissed our application to bring about fairness in educational funding in Ontario.

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)

February 21, 2025

Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, whom we quoted in last week’s update, has written a thoughtful article – Having the courage to meet our moment

 – in which he reflected upon the ubiquity of manifestations of courage throughout modern Jewish life.

The trigger for his mini-meditation was the closing keynote address by Susan David at the Prizmah Conference last week in Boston. Ms David suggested that “courage is not the absence of fear; courage is fear walking.”

Ms David focused on the prevalence of courage of course, as the response to the uniquely challenging and anxious times in which we, the Jewish people, find ourselves these days.

Bernstein provided a more precise context for the need to summon up courage. “Globally and throughout the Jewish world,” Bernstein wrote, “this is a moment when fear abounds. The scars of a worldwide pandemic are still healing; threats of antisemitism loom large; the State of Israel is under attack; and we live in a dangerously polarized political and social climate. Like all the generations before us, we must do what we can to ensure a better future for the world and for our people — to hold those fears and keep moving forward.”

Bernstein’s statement about ensuring a better future called to mind the axiomatic and profoundly insightful prescription by the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who believed and wrote: “If you want to save the Jewish future, you have to build Jewish day schools – there is no other way.”

Rabbi Sacks was unambiguous. The Jewish future depends upon the proliferation of Jewish education. “You have to build Jewish day schools,” he said emphatically.

In today’s context, i.e., the context depicted by Bernstein, Rabbi Sacks’ instruction means building day schools despite the fear and the anxiety of our times.

Again, Bernstein provides some detail and some nuance to what such courage might look like.

“When I think about what it means to have courage and Jewish day schools, I am reminded of the relationship that is at the core of learning between teachers and learners. Educators in our schools show up every day, no matter the news headlines or their own fears, in order to continue the task of building a better future. Their courage is worthy of our highest respect. Teachers and school leaders have been and will continue to be the heroes and the role models our students need to eventually replace them as the teachers, leaders and thinkers of tomorrow, seeding generation after generation of Jewish connection, continuity and remarkable contribution both to our community and wider society.   

To Bernstein’s list of “heroic” figures, GAJE adds the young families who enroll their children in Jewish education, despite (and because of) the current anxieties, and despite the heavy cost.

•••

Bernstein’s article is available at:

Having the courage to meet our moment

•••

We wish to remind our supporters: GAJE still awaits the decision of the Court of Appeal on our motion seeking leave to appeal the September 2024 decision by the Divisional Court that dismissed our application to bring about fairness in educational funding in Ontario.

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)

February 14, 2025

(This update is dedicated to the memory of Michael Mostyn. He was, truly, a young Lion of Judah, a guardian and champion of Jews – at home and abroad – all of his adult life. He fought from the ramparts of justice on behalf of the inherent dignity and human rights of all peoples, He was a “Shield of David” who brought honour to his people and thus, to his God. Mostyn – the CEO of B’nai Brith Canada – passed away this week after a typically courageous, year-long battle against a mortal disease. His memory will always be for blessing and inspiration.)

•••

As GAJE has noted in previous weekly updates, it is no coincidence that the brazen manifestations of antisemitism and Israel-hatred on the streets of North American cities since “October 7”, have given rise to increased efforts by Jewish families to find ways to affiliate more directly with other Jewish families. The documented uptick in enrolment in Jewish day schools in various cities has been one example of this new striving for communal affiliation.

Last month Nira Dayanim reported in eJewishPhilanthropy, (eJP), that the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation awarded a $90 million matching grant aimed at strengthening the Jewish day school system in Cleveland. This is an important philanthropic initiative that may potentially infuse $180 million in support of five Day Schools there.

It is neither exaggeration nor overstatement to write that community leaders, especially in the U.S., are experiencing something of an awakening or re-awakening regarding the importance of Jewish education in securing a Jewish future. Some of the official statements that accompanied the announcement of the Mandel initiative are illustrative.

“According to Jehuda Reinharz, president and CEO of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, the decision to make this contribution was rooted in research that highlighted the role the Jewish day schools play in creating a long-lasting Jewish identity. “Today’s day school graduates are tomorrow’s Jewish community leaders,” Reinharz said in a statement. 

Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, hailed the foundation’s investment, saying it reflects a growing interest in Jewish day schools nationwide. “We think that these kinds of investments will have major impacts on excellence, on affordability and ultimately in growing enrollment in the schools.”

GAJE agrees with the above statements. And so do the professionals and philanthropists of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, as overtly implied by Jewish community officials in Cleveland.

As reported in the story, Rachel Lappen, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s chief development officer, said that the Mandel Foundation initiative “was inspired by other community-wide fundraising initiatives, such as the Toronto Federation’s Generations Trust scholarship.” 

Lappen’s publicly-expressed accolade for Toronto’s approach to getting more children enrolled in Jewish day school is deserved and worthy. But, as Federation officials here also acknowledge, more needs to be done to abate even further the cost of tuition.

These days, members of Jewish communities everywhere are connecting the dots of Jewish connection with greater clarity and urgency. Jewish day schools – Jewish education – plays a critically important role in creating a long-lasting Jewish identity.

Dayanim’s article is available at:

Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation donates $90 million to strengthen Cleveland’s day schools

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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding in Ontario, 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 underwriting 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)

February 7, 2025

A story appeared last month that slipped under the radar. It deserves to be “flown” above the radar.

It described an initiative by the Israeli government to help strengthen Jewish education in the U.S. The project is the first intervention of its kind by Israel directly trying to buttress Jewish identity and connection of fellow Jews outside of Israel through support of formal Jewish education. And while the initiative is aimed at American Jews, it is noteworthy for our community as well.

Written by Judah Ari Gross, the story was published by eJewishPhilanthropy (eJP) in early December. Gross reports that the Israeli government is investing $4 million in a program called Aleph Bet aimed at boosting Jewish day schools in the United States. The investment was originally meant to be significantly higher – about 10 times bigger – but October 7 and its aftermath intervened to derail the initial plans. Nevertheless, Gross reports, “the individuals involved in delivering the program are saying that it still sends a potent message.”

Those individuals are correct. Israel policy makers have increasingly come to understand that “raising Jews” in the Diaspora is indispensable to establishing and maintaining a strong relationship between Israel and, in particular – young – American Jewry.

Those same Israeli policy makers seem also finally to understand that offering youngsters comprehensive Jewish education is the best way to “raise Jews.”

The investment is being run through the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, and will go toward seven day school-related projects across the U.S.

All of the parties involved described the $4 million donation as being more symbolic than substantive an investment, though a powerful symbol nevertheless, signifying a seal of approval by the Israeli government and a call for the philanthropic community to follow suit. 

It would also appear that the Aleph Beit initiative is intended to be somewhat of a trip-wire for a large, comprehensive effort across North America, still in the planning stages, to bring more children into Jewish education. If events have brought Jewish life, Jewish history to a watershed, Jews need to be become more knowledgeable, more “capable”, “stronger” and more secure in our own storied identities.

Sarah Eisenman, the outgoing chief community and Jewish life officer at JFNA, said: “We believe that now is that moment to catalyze and launch that much larger initiative to grow enrollment. So, for us, this investment is essential. But the beautiful element of it is what it communicates in terms of importance — that this is really important to invest in, particularly at this moment,” Eisenman told eJP.

For JFNA, Eisenman said, this initiative is “one phase” of the organization’s “larger initiative to double [day school enrollment] over the next 10 years.” Gross reports on the tantalizing possibility of a concerted, continent-wide effort among professional and lay community leaders, educators and philanthropists to help “raise” as many Jews as possible.

“Our priority focus will be on growing enrollment in non-Orthodox Jewish day schools. Because… [with] non-Orthodox families, it’s about 9%, 10% who send their kids to a Jewish day school,” she said. “How do we really leverage this moment and take advantage of this moment and serve those families and help them access Jewish day schools in ways that they’ve not been able to access Jewish day schools previously?” Eisenman said.

She noted that in addition to Project Aleph Bet, JFNA is working to establish a North American fund to make Jewish day schools more affordable and is working with Prizmah, which is developing a national marketing campaign to boost day schools.

Following the JFNA General Assembly in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, the organization held an invite-only, three-hour gathering with 100 funders to discuss this issue, Eisenman said.

“We just had 100 funders coming together in D.C. specifically focused on how we might achieve this very ambitious goal [of doubling enrollment] over the next 10 years,” Eisenman said. “So, we had 100 funders in the room — foundations and individual philanthropists from all across the country and Canada — really digging into this question of how can we do this and why now, why this moment is critical in achieving this.”

Eisenman said that JFNA is pushing to establish a large central fund to help make day schools more affordable. But, as we all know, and as experience has taught, achieving the goal requires time and the integrated efforts of a wide swath of individuals, institutions and foundations.

If the Government of Israel remains involved in a possible, continent-wide, comprehensive campaign, we will be able to say, finally, the acknowledgement of a shared past may lead meaningfully to a shared commitment and a shared future.

•••

The story can be found at:

Israel invests $4 million in U.S. Jewish day schools, with hopes of jump-starting domestic giving

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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding in Ontario, 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 underwriting 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)

January 31, 2025

More than anything, GAJE’s chief purpose, is to do our utmost to help bring about a secure, fulfilling, meaningful future for our children as Jews. For it is our belief that it is as Jews, that our children will live their best lives and, in the process, help make the world better, if not quite the best that it was intended to be.

The education our children receive at school and reinforced at home are the sine qua non of the foundation upon which their future, as Jews, will stand strong. Day school education is the gold standard for Jewish education, but it may not be the right fit for all children. The key is for parents to enable their children to experience excellent Jewish education, in the manner most appropriate to their family’s circumstances. Nevertheless, we cannot, nor will, deny the increased potential for positive personal outcomes for our children that a day school education provides the youngster.

In this week’s update, we reproduce a plaintive first-person reflection by Cooper Coughlan, a teenager, who attends a day school in Denver. He wrote of his experiences and accompanying emotions in attending a moot-court competition in an entirely non-Jewish milieu. Indeed, his op-ed is entitled “Outside my day school bubble, I felt a surge of Jewish pride”.

We reproduce Coughlan’s mini-essay in its entirety. It is delightfully open and honestly self-assessing. And because they are the words of the youngster himself, they are worthy of our attention. And gratitude.

•••

By Cooper Coughlan, January 17, 2025, JTA

(This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.)

Growing up in Jewish day school, I knew the Western Wall’s significance but I couldn’t grasp its deeper meaning when I visited it for the first time in 2016. Back then, it felt like just another stop on a trip full of kosher McDonald’s and sandy beaches. 

Eight years and one war later, I realize it was more — a place of spiritual connection that planted a seed within me, one that has only now started to mature. This year, that connection resurfaced, not in a synagogue or a Judaics class, but in a hotel lobby in Boulder, Colorado. 

In November, 11 classmates and I traveled from Denver to the University of Colorado Boulder Law School for a statewide moot court competition. This was my second time competing. Both times my school was the only Jewish school at the competition. It didn’t bother me at all the first time, but this year it felt different.

I don’t know if it was because of the war in Gaza and the rise in antisemitism or if it’s because as a teen, I’m still figuring out my identity. But it irks me when people make judgments about me based on things that I haven’t even decided about myself. 

The Boulder trip was only a week after the election and belonging to such a small minority (Jews represent 3% of the greater Denver Area population) during a politically polarized climate, made me feel like a living, breathing representative of my culture. I was one Jewish teen, and yet, I was every Jewish person. It felt like a single action could influence someone’s perspective of not just me, but of our whole religion. 

Despite having the word “Jewish” printed across the front of our shirts provided at the competition, I still found myself tucking my Jewish star necklace under my shirt as I walked into the tournament. It wasn’t logical. Yet, in that moment, it was a reflex. Whenever I go to a public non-Jewish space or event, I hide my star. Jewish kids around the country have been making the same calculations about how to “represent” in public since Oct. 7, and many before that. I don’t want to be a hate crime victim, or invite judgment of whatever political undertones the Jewish star now conveys. 

Nobody at the Boulder competition said anything weird to me, but one of my teammates, Kobi, who made a conscious decision to wear his kippah to the competition, had no such luck. On the first day of the tournament, another competitor asked him “Are you bald under there?” and “Can I try on your Jew hat?” While these comments came across as insensitive or even antisemitic to me, Kobi perceived them as genuine curiosity from an uneducated high school student. He let the other kid try on the kippah and taught him the significance of it. 

“I think the response of trying to reach out and help people understand who we are as a people should always be the first response,” he said. 

I admire Kobi’s grace. The whole team did. It deepened our determination to show that we are not just “some Jewish school” but a school rich in values and purpose. We practiced our arguments, discussed intricate legal questions as the day went on and eventually won half of the six championship spots — for the second year in a row.

The Friday before the competition, my team gathered around a fireplace in the hotel lobby to say Kiddush and Hamotzi. Due to snowy conditions that night, our Shabbat dinner plans at Hillel got cancelled. The dinner that was prepared for us was delivered to the hotel. As we all helped lead Kiddush, we got looks from many hotel guests, none of whom we knew. Some glanced over and turned away, others stared longer with a seemingly annoyed, yet curious expression; needless to say, it felt odd.

I could only imagine what they might be thinking — perhaps we were interrupting their silent revelry or maybe they felt disgust, or were genuinely curious. Eventually I realized it didn’t matter what the hotel guests were thinking, especially as I was uttering the holy words of Kiddush. Instead, I was thinking about how lucky I was to be there, surrounded by my beloved friends, embracing my beloved religion.  To be honest, this was one of the few times I openly expressed my Jewish identity in a non-Jewish space, with an audience present. 

Despite the discomfort, I knew I couldn’t — and wouldn’t — let that dictate what I was feeling. In turn, we persisted, proud of our Judaism. Just as in anything, there were glimpses of light. The hotel staff were kind to accommodate our religious practices and later into the night, hotel guests came and chatted with us as we practiced. 

As we served ourselves from the trays of lukewarm schnitzel in the hotel lobby, I knew this was the moment: the moment I stopped being so self-conscious about my Judaism and started to become self-confident in it. I felt proud that we kept praying and proud of that seed that was planted many years before. 

“It was one of those moments where you realize what you’re doing is so weird, but you love it so much,” said sophomore Julie Steiner, another competitor. “We were exactly where we were supposed to be.”

In Denver, I’m constantly surrounded by a Jewish community — my friends, my school, my family. But the competition brought me out of that bubble and into a reality different from my own. Many times, I question who I really am as a Jew and I’m not quite sure what that answer is yet, but what I do know is that I am a proud Jew. I am no longer afraid of judgement and no longer afraid to wear a kippah. As Jews, we have to stick together and we can’t be ashamed or afraid of what others think.

This trip gave me just that: the courage and faith to do the simple action of wearing my kippah out in public. Now, out in public, I make a concerted effort to wear my kippah out — for pride, for representation and for strength.

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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding in Ontario, 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 underwriting 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)

January 24, 2025

For its own remarkably rewarding, deeply dignifying and exponentially expansive sake…

For the sake of anchoring Jewish self-identity and a sense of Jewish “peoplehood…

For the sake of the ancestors who preceded us and of the progeny who will follow us….

For the sake of the suffering world…

Jewish education is vital for our children, our families, us and the world.

This is and has been GAJE’s animating credo since we began our efforts, almost ten years ago, to help make Jewish education affordable.  

Since October 7, we have added:

For the sake of enabling our children to be and to “do” Jewish, to boost them in standing strong and firm against the bullying aggressions of the haters of Jews and of Israel…Jewish education is vital. In light of a report published this week by the ADL, the need for the ability to stand against the antisemites – and thus for affordable access to Jewish education – has become urgent.

The Times of Israel this week published the findings of an ADL survey that “nearly half of all adults worldwide (some 46%) hold significant antisemitic views and younger people are more likely to discriminate against Jews.”

“The global survey asked 58,000 respondents in 103 counties and territories if they agreed with 11 antisemitic tropes, such as “Jews’ loyalty is only to Israel” and “Jews have too much power in the business world. If respondents believed that more than half of the statements were true, they were categorized as having “significant antisemitic beliefs.”

The head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, called the situation a “global emergency”.

Attitudes matter, of course, because as Greenblatt explained: “[A]ttitudes lead to action. When antisemitic views are normalized, when anti-Jewish bigotry takes root, it creates an environment where Jews become more vulnerable.”

The level of antisemitism varied widely by country and region. The Middle East and North Africa had the highest levels, with around three-quarters of respondents endorsing a majority of the antisemitic statements. Western Europe was the least antisemitic region, at 17%, followed by the Americas at 24%; Oceania, 20%; sub-Saharan Africa, 45%; Eastern Europe, 49%; Asia, 51%, and the Middle East and North Africa, 76%.

Half of the respondents under 35 held antisemitic views. This was 13 percent higher than among respondents over 50. Only 39% of adults aged 18-34 attested to the truth of the historical depiction of the Holocaust. The rest of the 18-34-year-olds believe the number of deaths was exaggerated, that the Holocaust was a myth, or that they had never heard of it. For the general population, 48% endorsed the historical record; 20% said they had “not heard about the Holocaust.”

Greenblatt proposed the adoption of a systematic policy response – on an urgent basis – for governments and organizations as a way to combat antisemitism.

GAJE’s proposal for combating antisemitism is more modest, yet more personally empowering and no less urgent: wherever possible, we must enable our children to enjoy a comprehensive Jewish education so that, as adults and even before, they can confidently be and “do” Jewish.

(As a related matter, it was surprising to read, given the experiences of our own community since “October 7”, that Canada was among the countries – along with Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands – where antisemitic attitudes in the general population were the lowest, registering at 8% or lower.)

•••

The Time of Israel article is available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/global-emergency-nearly-half-the-worlds-adults-hold-antisemitic-views-adl-survey/

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding in Ontario, 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 underwriting 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)

January 17, 2025