GAJE champions Jewish education because Jewish education provides the best odds of raising young Jewish children to become strongly identifying, committed Jews as adults. Thus, GAJE’s singular mission is to try to help such education be truly affordable for young families.

Jewish education in Jewish schools is profoundly important for its own unique, precious sake. Since October 7, however, because of the radically disgusting and disorienting appearance here, of thuggish, even intimidating, anti-Jewish behaviour, some families are actively seeking a supportive community of co-religionists in Jewish schools.

It is not overstatement that in a profound sense, some public schools and boards have betrayed Jewish parents and Jewish children. There are documented cases since October 7, of some public schools and boards, devolving into hostile environments for conscientiously identifying Jews who no longer feel welcomed there.

As an example, last week we brought readers’ attention to the heartbreaking revelation by Hannah Schwartz, a high school student in Toronto of the anti-Jewish bullying with which she had to contend last year.

Hannah wrote that wound of the bullying penetrated deeper because of the lack of response from peers and especially from leaders in positions of responsibility. “Yes, we need to be safe from hate and violence,” Hannah wrote. “But there’s something we need just as much, now more than ever. We need allies, not bystanders.”

In addition to the bullying Hannah described within schools, a recent curriculum-altering initiative by the Toronto District School Board, if adopted, will likely make the situation for Jews much worse.

On June 20, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustees voted 15-7 to add the term “anti-Palestinian racism” (APR) to its anti-racism strategy. A working group will be established to create a stand-alone strategy to address anti-Palestinian racism and discrimination in schools. The board will introduce a “professional learning series” on the topic.

Much has been written about this endeavour, most of it in increasing tones of warning and alarm. Expert and lay observers alike fear that the APR strategy is intended and will undoubtedly be used as a sword, not as a shield, to strike at as well as down, the fundamental elements of Jewish life, history, folkways and tradition. If the non-democratic, railroading method by which the initiative was presented and adopted at the TDSB is indicative, then the fears of the measure’s opponents are well-founded.

Casey Babb, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an international fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and an advisor to Secure Canada recently published, in the Globe and Mail, his own warning regarding the APR proposal. His conclusion is harrowing.

“Going forward, senior decision makers – particularly those responsible for educating and protecting our children – need to start having more realistic and difficult discussions before moving toward knee-jerk initiatives that could threaten certain groups of people. Indeed, there are reasons why hundreds of concerned parents, educators and community leaders protested outside the building where the vote took place. They’re worried about the future of their children in Canada’s public-school system, and many are left feeling more vulnerable than they ever have before. One Jewish community leader recently told me that despite all of the things he has seen since Oct. 7, the situation in the schools is what has him the most worried.”

We should take notice. We should oppose this latest effort unfolding within some of Ontario’s publicly funded schools, to demonize, distort and delegitimize the biblical, modern, Jewish story. 

•••

Babb’s article is available at:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-school-boards-shouldnt-rush-into-adopting-anti-palestinian-racism/?login=true

•••

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard in early June by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

GAJE will publish the court’s decision as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 19, 2024

Blatant discrimination is entrenched in Ontario’s educational system. For, as we all know, only one religious group in the province receives funding for the education of its children. That this differentiation continues and persists in the year 2024 is an expanding wound to the moral integrity of the society that represents itself as one that respects and protects human rights for all its citizens.

Now we discover that blatant student bullying is also becoming increasingly entrenched in Ontario’s public schools. This is the heartbreaking revelation by Hannah Schwartz, a high school student in Toronto.

In a searing, cri de coeur published in the Toronto Star last month, Hannah wrote “what many people may not know is that right now it’s hard to be a Jewish kid at just about any school in Canada.”

Hannah has the credibility to comment on the state of bullying in schools and in other social venues. She is the founder of the online, anti-bullying and anti-hate awareness program Voice and Action. She writes with clarity, directly, with the unembellished language of a true heart, striving to do the right thing. We reproduce some of the key passages from her op-ed so that as wide an audience as possible will learn of the anxiety incrementally gripping our children simply on account of their identities as Jews.

“In school assembly after school assembly, in class after class, teachers and motivational speakers told my peers and me repeatedly: don’t be bystanders to bullying. If you see something say something. And above all, try your best to spread “small acts of kindness” wherever you go.

The sad thing is, it’s become clear that this lesson did not sink in, especially when it comes to antisemitism. (Our emphasis)

“Unfortunately, it isn’t small acts of kindness I see in my school community. It’s acts of hate — in all sizes.

“Before the Israel-Hamas war broke out, I didn’t fully realize what antisemitism was. I knew it as an abstract thing, but I had never come face to face with it myself. Then Oct. 7 arrived and everything changed. I began to notice small hurtful comments from my peers about my religion and culture, and then bigger more painful comments. One of my peers started calling me “Jew” instead of my name. They thought it would be funny to scream it at me in the hallways. And then another told me: “I wish Hitler was back,” and “I wish your whole family had died in a gas chamber.” 

“On social media it has been just as bad. My peers, even some whose hearts are in the right place, share antisemitic memes and videos. The bullying and Jew hatred is hard enough but what is almost just as hard to see is the impact this experience has had on my friends. I notice that some of my Jewish classmates who were once proud of their identity now feel uncomfortable with it. They are scared to be “too” Jewish in public. And for those of us who are proud to be Jewish and show it, many of our peers shun us.

“Meanwhile, the response from school leaders and politicians feels quiet, like the whole country is a bystander to this bullying. This feels so wrong, like a betrayal of the lessons we were raised on.

“Yes, we need to be safe from hate and violence. But there’s something we need just as much, now more than ever. We need allies, not bystanders.”

•••

Hannah’s lament is dire and urgent. We repeat her words. The response [to the active, bold, bullying of Jewish children] from school leaders and politicians feels quiet, like the whole country is a bystander to this bullying. This feels so wrong, like a betrayal of the lessons we were raised on.”

Adding to the funding unfairness we now add anti-Jewish bullying that characterize the public educational system of Ontario. As long as discrimination and bullying are endemic to it, the public school system is unworthy of the society in whose name it purports to educate its children. Moreover, the failure of public school leaders to eradicate bullying of Jewish students within their schools, may have significant implications for future enrollment in Jewish schools.

•••

Hanna’s opinion letter can be read at:

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/i-wish-hitler-was-back-one-student-told-me-heres-what-its-like-to-be/article_fff3e16c-2f1b-11ef-b1e7-5bd251694455.html

•••

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard in early June by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

GAJE will publish the court’s decision as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 12, 2024

Last week in this space, we noted that one of the ways we protect civil, decent democratic society in Ontario/Canada is by protecting and enhancing Jewish community life.

That means, of course, we must raise our children to know who they are, why and how to connect with and feel part of Jewish history and Jewish peoplehood. In addition to raising children to be knowledgeable, caring and engaged Jews wherever they choose to live, we must also stand up for ourselves and for our remarkable faith and heritage. We must stand up to the haters who propagate their hatred of our Judaism and of the Jewish State on the very streets of our cities and communities.

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), recently published an article on the site of eJewishPhilanthropy whose thesis confirmed the link that pushing back against anti-Semites in and of itself, holds up and strengthens democratic society. JCPA publicly asserts that “Jewish safety is inextricably linked with the safety of other communities and a strong, pluralistic democracy.”

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) has the history and the credibility to be in the vanguard of the fight to protect the pillars of American democracy. Throughout its 80-year history, JCPA has been at the forefront of the fight for civil rights, justice, and equality in the United States. It has served in the U.S. as a convener of Jewish groups and organizations in the cause of safekeeping democracy and democratic life.

In the article, entitled “We must work across communities to fight antisemitism and defend democracy”, Spitalnick advises of wrote: “Recent research from the University of Chicago, the Anti-Defamation League and others underscores the deep connection between antisemitism and broader threats to democracy and diverse communities.”

“…The research shows that messaging connecting Jewish safety with our democracy, democratic norms and values, and the safety of others isn’t just accurate — it resonates strongly with the communities who must be engaged in this fight. Research conducted in the fall of 2023, detailed in our report, found that such messages tested very well across race, generation and party. As the report notes, recent follow-up research, focused on 18- to 34-year-olds, found that the most resonant messaging highlighted antisemitism’s threats to our democracy and freedom and how antisemitic hate spreads to target other groups. This tells us that there is a clear path forward: one that recognizes the deep interconnection of Jewish safety with the safety of others and brings together communities under threat in pursuit of an inclusive democracy in which all Americans’ rights and freedoms are protected.”

Although the research referenced in the article is based upon the current American experience, it clearly applies in broad terms to circumstances unfolding in Canada. Spitalnick’s conclusions comprise important reading for our community as well.

But the key to enabling us to step resolutely on the “clear path forward”, as Spitalnick refers to it, is first, to stand up as Jews and for our Judaism, to stand up to the anti-Semites knowledgeably and confidently as Jews.

That, of course, requires that we educate our children – and indeed, ourselves – in and about our heritage. If only the Government of Ontario understood the incontrovertible nexus between standing up to the anti-Semitic bully and standing up for Ontario’s civil, democratic society. Perhaps then, it would end its unjust, discriminatory, single-denominational funding of education in Ontario.

Spitalnick’s article can be read at: https://jewishpublicaffairs.org/news/ejewishphilanthropy-we-must-work-across-communities-to-fight-antisemitism-and-defend-democracy/

•••

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard in early June by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

GAJE will publish the court’s decision as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

July 5, 2024

In three days, we celebrate Canada Day, the 157^th anniversary of the establishment of the (then) Dominion of Canada. True north, strong and free.

We cherish our country and the bedrock values that anchor the foundation of the freedoms and the responsibilities that comprise our democratic life. Since nearly the mid-point of the last century, those values have welcomed to Canadian shores a global array of cultures and communities and, over time, nurtured the building of the country, through loyal if also difficult labours, for the wide benefit of everyone lucky enough to call Canada their home.

But of late, the Jewish community is justified in asking – as much with worry as with anger and even sorrow – is the foundation of our democratic life here still stable? Are the values that support our society less than bedrock? It is well documented since October 7, that Jews and Jewish community structures have been assaulted literally and figuratively. Neither public space nor place of worship has been spared the aggression and the threats of loud-mouthed, but face-masked bullies. Many core institutions and professions of our society – have been infiltrated by haters intent on falsifying and erasing Jewish history if not also erasing Jews. Do not the haters understand if they erase Jewish history, they also erase Christian and Western history?

Moreover, this is Canada.

Such anti-democratic behaviour violates all the norms of our society. Why do so many of our elected officials appear to be unresponsive to our cries and indifferent to the zealous, unpunished chipping away at our bedrock values? Do they not see the danger such unchecked behaviour portends for everyone in the future?

The Preamble of Ontario’s Human Rights Code contains the following:

“…Whereas it is public policy in Ontario to recognize the dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination that is contrary to law, and having as its aim the creation of a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person so that each person feels a part of the community and able to contribute fully to the development and well-being of the community and the Province;”.

It is unlikely, however, that most members of the Jewish community would agree that these words accurately describe Ontario society today. Thus, we plead with society’s leaders to hold the haters to account for their egregious behaviours. This is the essential, core way society protects the rule of law and the underpinning values.

Another way we protect Ontario/Canada is by protecting and enhancing Jewish community life. Of this there is no doubt. As we have written often in this space, the best way to do so is through the Jewish education of our children. We must raise them to know who they are and how and why to connect with and feel part of our history and our peoplehood.

GAJE’s lawsuit against the Province of Ontario rests on the belief that the discrimination in Ontario’s educational funding is no longer appropriate 157 years after the Confederation compromise that established the system of single denominational funding in Ontario. The courts should consider whether the needs and imperatives for single denominational educational funding at the time of Confederation still make sense today.

GAJE argues there are a number of reasons that they do not. One of the key reasons is that the Confederation compromise was abandoned by Quebec in 1997. It no longer applies in Quebec. Only Ontario hues to the system that was created in 1867.

Another reason is simply this: Ontario’s refusal to end publicly acknowledged religiously-based discrimination, actually diminishes Ontario. It thus also further loosens the values – already being scraped from the foundational bedrock by masked and other haters of Israel and of Jews – on which we had always assumed life in Ontario/Canada would stand and flourish.

Thus, our celebration of Canada Day this year will be hopeful, but wary. Alas.

•••

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard earlier this week by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

GAJE will publish the court’s decision as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 28, 2024

Embedded into the infrastructure of Jewish values is the deep decency of acknowledging the good that others do for you. In Hebrew, this mentschlichkeit is known as hakarat hatov – literally, recognizing the goodness.

Few moments 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 as 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.

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 too for completing the ten-month grind of the school year. For many children, it is not easy. Nor for most, is it generally a great deal of fun.

But the months roll by and by 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 at school for another year.

After October 7, the combined efforts of the Jewish educational system and its students are more than the completion of an arduous, annual teaching/learning cycle. Indeed, they are 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.

In helping us fulfill that promise, we rely heavily upon our teachers. We return to a statement by the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to explain why that is so. It is a quotation we have cited before in our weekly update.

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

Rabbi Sacks understood that we will defend the increasingly brazen attempts by haters of Israel and haters of Jews to erase our history, our people and our civilization, through Jewish education. Thus, especially at the end of this school year, to the educators and their students, to the professional and lay community leaders and to the educational philanthropists who are strengthening the Jewish school system, GAJE says: Thank you. Congratulations. Well done. Please continue from strength to strength.

•••

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard earlier this week by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

GAJE will publish the results of the appeal as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 21, 2024

The appeal by the Government of Ontario of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s refusal last summer to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding, was heard earlier this week by a panel of three judges. The court reserved its decision.

Of course, this is frustrating for GAJE, as it is for all Ontarians interested in achieving a just policy of educational funding in this province. And so we wait, trusting in the wisdom of the court.

It does however, warrant repeating: if the judges find in the province’s favor, GAJE will appeal. If the judges dismiss the province’s appeal, the case moves forward, finally, to the beginning.

The court will deliberate upon the merits of GAJE’s claim that the Adler case of 1996 ought to be re-assessed today. GAJE alleges that in light of changing circumstances since then, and of changes in the application of the law since then, the decision in the Adler case is no longer appropriate in 2024.

GAJE states that in the year 2024, it should be unacceptable in Ontario that only Catholic education is fully funded by the government to the exclusion of all other religious groups. Such discrimination should not form part of the educational infrastructure of Ontario society.

It should also be remembered that the Ontario Federation of Independent Schools has been granted permission to intervene in the case when it actually begins.

GAJE will publish the results of the appeal as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 14, 2024

Next week on Tuesday, June 11, the Divisional Court will hear the appeal by the Government of Ontario from the decision last August of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou refusing to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding before it has been argued and considered on its merits. If Ontario’s appeal fails, GAJE’s application proceeds, finally, to a hearing. If Ontario’s appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

In the year 2024, it should be unacceptable in Ontario that only Catholic education is fully funded by the government to the exclusion of all other religious groups. How can Ontario still believe that such discrimination is appropriate in modern, civil society? Of course, it is not.

It should be noted that the appeal will be heard on the eve of the festival of Shavuot. It was on the first Shavuot ever, of course, that the imperative to teach our children, to be learners lifelong, was enshrined as a theological obligation for the Jewish people. We understood from the very beginning of our existence as a distinct group, that the forward passing of knowledge, traditions and values is the deeply engrained mechanism that ensures generational permanence.

That is why, irrespective of century or community, the education of our children was the first and highest priority for community elders. Teaching has been always sanctified and teachers have been always revered for the continuation of all that is precious in our civilization. It is through Jewish education that we imbue our children with the intellectual, emotional and theological foundation to help them understand and then grasp the life-affirming message and mission of our faith to join in the holy task of improving an increasingly needy world.

Shavuot brings to mind and to heart the irreplaceability of Jewish education in raising “Jewish” children. That the legal proceeding provides a springboard of sorts to the start of Shavuot this year is a poignant symbolic and emotional launch to GAJE’s effort to have the courts declare that Ontario’s minority communities must be treated fairly and justly in relation to the education of our children too.

In the post-October 7 world, raising Jews is how to fight back against the malevolent and/or mindless people who shout and otherwise demonstrate their hatred of Jews and of the only Jewish state on earth.

The malevolent direct the clever, unceasing, demonization of Jews and of Israel by the deliberate, well-funded, well-organized inversion of lies as truth.

The mindless, however, are victims of their own ignorance.

And so, as a final note to this update, readers should know it was written on the 80^th anniversary of D Day. Three generations have been born since that enormous day in 1944 when courage joined with resolve on the coast of Normandy, when so very many soldiers died in the awful chaos of steel, bullets, fire and rage on the bloodied beaches. That day was the first in the 11-month march that led ultimately to the end of Nazi rule of terror and tyranny.

How horribly sad and how bitterly ironic that the mindless demonstrators today who froth at and vilify Jews and the State of Israel espouse the very same cause and champion the very same sorts of racist, truly genocidalist individuals and governments, that the Allied world 80 and more years ago, fought so desperately to vanquish.

GAJE will publish the results of the appeal hearing as soon as it is known to us.

•••

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Chag Shavuot Samayach.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 7, 2024

The shooting at Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School last weekend in Toronto was of a piece with the intimidation, and bullying that has been directed for the last seven months at the Jewish community by haters of Jews and haters of Israel, not only in Ontario but throughout the country and in the capitals of the West. Thugs become bolder and their brutish ways, more cruel when authorities express outrage but fail to act outraged. Indeed, mere days after the Toronto shooting, gunfire struck a Jewish school in Montreal – once again.

JEFA (Jewish Educators and Family Association of Canada) pointed to this phenomenon of failed enforcement of rules and of decency in a missive the organization sent to members this week. Under a caption that noted Jewish day schools are Canada’s top target of domestic terrorism, JEFA declared that lofty ideas are no longer adequate to vanquish antisemitism and to protect civil society. “From this moment forward,” JEFA stated, “it’s vital that our elected officials be judged only by their actions.”

JEFA reported that a motion had been tabled this week at the TDSB to try to keep politics out of the classroom. One of the examples, JEFA noted, of egregious political behaviour in a classroom involved a teacher at Earl Grey Public School who daily disrespects Canada’s national anthem, has worn a keffiyeh in school since October 7, used an Al Jazeera video to explain the founding of Israel as the ‘nakba’ and displayed posters calling for ‘Ceasefire Now’ with a QR code tied to a fund for Palestinians.

The motion had asked TDSB staff to bring forward recommendations that would steer education in the classroom back to education and away from politics and propaganda and, dare we say, away from opinions that lead to hatred. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, the motion was rejected.

How are we to understand this utter failure on the part of the leaders of our educational system in the TDSB? Do they not see their responsibilities in terms of protecting our society, in terms of helping instill and nurture in our children the need to hold high the cherished values of mutual respect, tolerance, and the sanctity of truth?

At a community rally at the premises of Bais Chaya Mushka two days after the violence directed at the school, Ontario’s Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, urged all of Ontario, not just Jews to stand up against incidents of antisemitism to become a force against hatred.

“We are here with a message, asking Canadians to stand up shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community in defence of democracy, civility, human rights and the rule of law,” Lecce said.

As we have written on previous occasions about Minister Lecce, he gets it. He understands that violence aimed at Jews soon transmogrifies into violence against others as well. Attempts to harm Jews is a cover for attempts to harm the rule of law that protects everyone.

 “We stand together, we stand strong, because there is no bullet that can shatter our resolve as a country to stand up against this pernicious hate, Minister Lecce added. “Our work will not end until every child in our province is able to go to school, and play in our streets without the fear of being attacked simply for being a Jew. The Canada we know and we love is a nation of people who come together for every faith and heritage.”

We are grateful to the Minister. That he publicly, vociferously calls out the craven warriors of the night who mask themselves under the shelter of darkness, then aim their weapons or throw their torches at schools, is worthy of praise. Stephen Lecce understands what is at stake for our society when the private hatred of Jews finds its public expression in acts of thuggery, intimidation, perversion of truth, and violence.

It is because of our gratitude to Minister Lecce for the clarity of his insight that we remind him of the words he spoke in the Ontario Legislature in the immediate aftermath of October 7. “We have to speak with moral decency, with moral courage. We will not be bystanders. We will use our power for good. We must be on guard for all manners of hate and fight hate and haters….For the sake of freedom, human rights and democracy, I ask us all: Do we possess the moral courage to do what is right even if it is not easy? Do we possess the moral courage to stand up to evil?… We are standing for fundamental Canadian values that transcend partisan politics. We must pick the right side of human history.”

At this troubled and troubling moment in Canadian history, Jews will stand against the bigots and the bullies, in the way we have done so throughout our history – by “raising” Jews, by educating our children to know the splendour and the deep goodness of our heritage and of our way of life. That is how we will “fight back” against those who regret our very existence as Jews and as supporters of the only Jewish state on earth.

We ask Minister Lecce to find the courage of which he spoke so eloquently and so forcefully in October. For the sake of protecting the values we cherish in Ontario society, we ask him to end the unfairness in educational funding in Ontario.          

•••

Ontario’s appeal of Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou’s decision refusing to throw out GAJE’s application for fairness in educational funding even before a court has had the chance to consider its merits will be heard on June 11. If the appeal fails, the application proceeds, finally, to a hearing. If the appeal succeeds, GAJE will appeal.

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 31, 2024

(This update is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Barry Cutler. By his knowledge, experience, skill and deep goodness of character, he ministered to the many, various needs of all humanity. In doing so, he also ministered to the singular need of God Above to know that His creations are respected and cared for Dr. Cutler passed away this week on the 13^th day of Iyar. His memory will always be for blessing.)

Last week in this space, GAJE noted that according to a new Jewish Federations of North America survey of Jewish Americans and the general public, “the events [of October 7] have…fueled an explosion in Jewish belonging and communal participation that is nothing short of historic. Jews are feeling more invested in their identity and community and looking for ways to connect.”

This week, we note observations by Dr. Steven Windmueller that relate directly to the findings of that survey. Entitled, In the Wake of October 7: Reflections on the American Jewish Community, Windmueller’s article focuses on the impact of October 7 upon the Jewish community of the United States in very general, broad categories. His observations are applicable to our situation in Canada. The article was published by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs on May 20.

Windmueller is Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies at the Jack H. Skirball Campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles and currently a Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The author suggests we are now in a “new moment in time for Jews of this [USA] country.” He writes that “since early October 2023, this community has moved through a series of distinctive emotional and political experiences, with each phase being challenging.” He identifies those four stages as: Trauma and Shock; Mobilization and Unity; Questions and Challenges; and Uncertainty and Concern. Of course, he defines each stage and demarcates it according to the chronology of events that have unfolded since October 7.

A longstanding observer of American Jewish life, Windmueller is quite forthright without being alarmist. He does not offer details regarding the nature of the community that is currently reshaping. He cannot yet do so because the situation is fluid. Events at home and abroad are still unfolding. Windmueller offers certainty of the direction but not of the ultimate destination.

“How we see ourselves as part of America, as well as how we understand our connections with Israel and the global Jewish community, are being refashioned. We are now redefining our identities as we revisit our political standing, communal priorities, and cultural moorings. We are encountering a totally different moment in our Jewish consciousness. Physically and emotionally, we find ourselves in an uncomfortable and uncertain place as we awaken to the full impact of this tsunami of hate and political disruption that is transforming the Jewish people.”

The eye-opening piece of new information that GAJE noted last week, however, is that to some extent at least, the transformation is leading many of our co-religionists in our respective communities to become “more invested in their identity and community and looking for ways to connect.” If this response to “the new moment in time for Jews of the community” is correct – and we have no reason to suggest it is not – then our lay and professional leaders of Jewish education, must soon fire up the engines of Jewish education.

Dr. Windmueller’s article is available at:

In the Wake of October 7: Reflections on the American Jewish Community

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

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 24, 2024

The fallout from October 7 has been shocking and unsettling.

Here and on streets across North America, the removal of the inhibitions that formerly prevented the haters of Israel and of Jews from publicly celebrating their hatred has been swift. To varying degrees, we have all been unnerved by the behaviours we have seen and the calumnies we have heard aimed at Israel as well as at Jews. And again, to varying degrees, individually and collectively. we have experienced a sense of vulnerability and surreal “distancing” from the general community which has always been home and shelter.

However, instead of retreating from demonstrably outward connections to Jewish life, as some might believe to be an understandable consequence of the feelings of vulnerability, a study has been published that shows the opposite response unfolding among Jews.

According to a new Jewish Federations of North America survey of Jewish Americans and the general public, “the events [of October 7] have…fueled an explosion in Jewish belonging and communal participation that is nothing short of historic. Jews are feeling more invested in their identity and community and looking for ways to connect.”

Funded by and developed in partnership with The Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, the study shows how North American Jews of all ages are responding to the thuggish manifestations of anti-Semitism by actually reinvigorating or seeking for the first time, connectivity with Jewish community.

A brief summary of the study’s findings has been co-authored by Mimi Kravetz, Sarah Eisenman, David Manchester in an article entitled: ‘The Surge,’ ‘The Core’ and more: What you need to know about the explosion of interest in Jewish life, published this week on the eJewishPhilanthropy website.

We briefly reproduce three key findings from the summary article:

• Of the 83% of Jews who were “only somewhat,” “not very” or “not at all engaged” prior to Oct. 7, a whopping 40% are now showing up in larger numbers in Jewish life.

• 39% of Jewish parents indicated they may re-evaluate or reconsider educational or summer programs for their children [i.e., seeking more Jewish community and a respite from the anti-Israel rhetoric]; and 38% of parents with kids in a secular private school are considering making the move to Jewish day schools.  

• 43% percent of Jews expressed interest in increasing their engagement with Jewish life, and 23% have already taken the first step by attending a class, joining a Shabbat service or participating in an advocacy effort.

A pilot light of Jewish belonging glows at the very centre of a Jew’s existence. In some individuals, the light rages. In others, it is barely an ember. But the results of this study indicate that there is a deeper stirring from within the Jewish soul than had been previously thought by outside observers and even some community planning experts. October 7 has sparked that stirring and kindled the pilot light.

In other words, however grotesquely absurd, morally inverted, and simply unfair the accusations are against Israel and Jews, we refuse to allow the accusers to define who we are or how we will “fight back”. We refuse to view ourselves as victims. We refuse to surrender our unique and pointedly Jewish abilities we have to steer our own destinies.

The implications for Jewish communal life, at least in the short to medium term, are profound. The mainstay organizations of Jewish life must reach out, extend and embrace the increasing number of Jewish “seekers” who might be knocking at their doors for the first time.

The eJP article is avialble at:

‘The Surge,’ ‘The Core’ and more: What you need to know about the explosion of interest in Jewish life

                                                                            •••

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

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

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

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

•••

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 17, 2024