Base of Excellence

Essay 1: Schools, skills, and self-defence

If your strategy for Jewish continuity is one Hebrew song, one field trip, and that bumper sticker with all the religious symbols spelling out “coexist,” I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Outrage is a spark. Institutions are the fire. If we are going to ensure our community’s excellence, then we need to start by strengthening the place where our kids spend most of their waking hours, then wire them with skills that make them hard to bully, hard to fool, and impossible to shame.

This is Essay #1 for a reason. I believe that if we win here, everything else gets easier.

The standard, not the dream

As I wrote before, think Branksome Hall with a mezuzah. Think UCC with Tanach, Hebrew, and Krav Maga. Not cute, not niche, but the best schools in Canada that also happen to be proudly Jewish and unapologetically Zionist. I know it’s possibly controversial to mention but even make it open to non-Jews who accept the code of conduct and the curriculum. Excellence first, values always.

We as Jews should never apologize for wanting an elite education. Other communities do it without blushing. So should we, and if we see the value, we will pay the bill.

The syllabus that produces Jewish adults (who in turn have Jewish children)

Build a timetable or curriculum that makes spine a habit. I offer the below with two caveats: (1) I know virtually nothing about curriculum development (but I did go through Toronto’s day-school system and have thoughts), and (2) there are incredible Jewish day schools in our city/province/country that are already doing so much of this. To them, this is intended to be encouragement, or maybe even a push, as we all sometimes need to be reminded of the end-goal of our day-to-day work:

• Hebrew: conversational by Grade 6, literate by Grade 8, media-competent by Grade 12. Our kids should be able to watch the news in Israel b’Ivrit and understand more than every sixth word.

• Tanach and Jewish history: not just as folklore, but as primary sources, archaeology, maps, and timelines. With the technology available today, this is well within our grasp, and linking the past to the present helps Jewish students understand the actual Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

• Zionism: ideas, thinkers/personalities, diplomacy. Know the arguments, understand the history, and have a sense of who contributed what that led to the dynamic movement that Zionism is today. Take it out of Basel too: Zionism is just as alive and well now as it was in 1897, and the development of this important concept is critical knowledge. Understand now just how it started, but what Zionism 2.0 and 3.0 look like too.

• Canadian civics: Ensure that students know the basics of how a bill becomes law sure, but more than that: how boards and committees work, and how budgets move. Power is learnable and therefore transferable.

• Debate and rhetoric: weekly. Public speaking competitions are fine, but debating is where it is at. Have one person play Herzl with the other playing Ahad Ha’am. Have one be Ben Gurion while the other is Jabotinsky. Make one Bibi and the other Lapid. Lose fear of microphones, and ensure that students know how to deal with an argument that comes flying at them.

• Logic and media literacy: logical fallacies, framing, propaganda, how to spot a cut clip/AI. Nothing is more critical in today’s world to ensure that our students, with lies thrown at then 24/7, know when to call bullshit with conviction.

• STEM: math that is hard (get the best possible math teachers you can find because math is hard to teach, but it’s critical), labs that are real with interesting experiments, and a world-class education that incorporates artificial intelligence; there is no other way to get ahead in the future.

• Arts and music: Jewish pride and excellence needs culture. And not just rikudiya, but choirs, theatre, film, design. Encourage artistic abilities in those who show it.

• Physical training: Krav Maga or self-defence training twice a week, fitness that respects the body, and situational awareness. No more gym just for gym’s sake.

Three kinds of defence

Physical: Age-appropriate Krav Maga, boundary setting, de-escalation, when to walk, when to call, when to fight. Staff trained, drills practiced, equipment maintained. Security that looks like competence, not panic. This is an opportunity to encourage students to take part in their local security infrastructure too. Our institutions are always looking for volunteers, and it should never be considered “un-cool” to volunteer to secure the perimeter of a school at drop off, or a shul on a Saturday.

Intellectual: Thirty-second counter-arguments to the ten most common lies about Jews and Israel. Occupation? Apartheid? Colonization? Genocide? “No sir, here’s why…” Students practice them weekly not with clumsy “hasbara” verbiage, but rather a real world understanding of the issues that come up in the debate today, with real world examples, and a pragmatic view of what the situation on the ground in Israel looks like. Pair this training with more substantive seminars so our students know more than the slogan. We are not teaching them talking points or propaganda: we have the truth on our side.

Digital: Privacy settings, phishing drills, catfish spotting (online deception, not at the lake), how to document incidents properly, and how to file complaints that a lawyer can actually use. As above, fluency with AI software and systems that is always upgraded. Given how the modern war against the Jews is increasingly fought online, this is simply not optional.

After-school that matters

Of course not every Jewish student will be enrolled in day school. There are any number of reasons for that, but for those who aren’t, it remains important to be connected to the Jewish community and Jewish life somehow. Whether at summer camp or after-school programs, there is opportunity outside the classroom to develop excellence in our students too:

• Debate league in after-school programs or across Jewish schools (or public schools), with finals televised on our own channels (more on that later). Turn on any news broadcast or some of the most popular YouTube streams to see how critical debate is.

• Model Knesset and Model City Council, because government is not magic, politicians are just regular people, and it is important to understand the issues facing our brothers and sisters in Israel and how they are addressed.

• Tech labs where the more robotically-inclined build drones, cameras, and sensors.

• Jewish arts club that prepares sketches, short films, and songs. Throw in an improv class, as culture wins hearts.

Let’s not forget us parents too: we need to be better trained on phone behaviour, preparing our children for campus, and legal issues that we will face as our children grow up. We do not know everything (despite what we tell our kids) and we need to continuouly develop and improve our skills too. Faking it until we make it cannot always cut it.

Discipline and the phones

When we consider how we become excellent, we cannot allow our children to simply fall prey to the worst instincts we see preying on every child around us today. We need to have values-aligned admissions in our schools that encourage academic ambition. Our schools should also ensure that there’s a code of conduct that protects learning and dignity (or learning with dignity). We need phone-free classrooms yesterday. There are several schools in our community leading the charge as per Jonathan Haidt, which is critical. Phones are bad for our children (and for us too, while we're at it). We need schools on board with banning phones from classrooms, and keeping kids off smart phones and social media before grade 9. This is no longer an option - it is a requirement for our children’s successful futures.

Teachers are the mission

Now this may be a difficult one to pitch, but here it goes: If possible, Jewish schools should pay above market. They should recruit like tech firm. If possible, scholarships should be put together to offer fellowships in Israel and North America, ongoing content training, antisemitism training, and a ladder for advancement. The best adults will shape the best kids, and we all know who stands out. We each have a teacher or two who we remember all these years later who we know contributed to making us who we are.

Campus prep has to start in grade 10, not 12

Our high-school students should learn how universities actually function - whether a commuter school like York, or a flight-away like Dalhousie. They should understand early on how to file a complaint that has teeth, how to record harassment properly, how to scrutinize a professor substituting propaganda for curriculum, how to build campus coalitions with real allies, and when to call in the Jewish community, or even counsel. Also, let’s put together a list of universities that meet our standards, and those that do not. We shouldn’t be paying to be abused.

How to measure success

• Enrolment up, not just because parents are scared, but because the school is excellent.

• A debate team that wins.

• Students who can argue, spar, and sing (10 points if its on the same day).

• A security report with feedback from the Jewish Security Network (JSN) with checkmarks in each box, indicating we are on track.

• Students in grades 11 and 12 who know which universities deserve them and which don’t.

• Parents who stop whispering and start bragging.

But…

Isn’t this elitist?
Yes, the elite part where children can read hard books, do hard math, and defend themselves. Every community does this when it wants to survive.

Will Krav Maga scare people?
Only the people who like their Jews defenceless (increasingly common these days). Everyone else will feel safer.

Can we afford it?
I know this is going to be the hardest part. It is already difficult to afford private school, but there are resources that can help (Generations Trust, for one). We must demand excellence, however, and if we see it, and find the value in it, we will pay. I believe that.

Is this too Jewish?
It is exactly Jewish enough for anyone who wants the best education. For the entirety of our history, the Jewish community has valued education higher than anything else. With traditionally the highest literacy rates of any other culture, we, the People of the Book, must demand more knowing that a strong education now lays the best foundations for the future.

Thoughtful steps forward

We can never afford to outsource Jewish strength to luck. We must intentionally build the schools that produce brave, literate, funny, and fit young Jews who walk into any room with calm confidence. Start the debate league. Hire the self-defence instructor. Teach the thirty-second Israel-rebuttals. Fund the teacher fellowships. Buy the cameras and bollards. Lock up the phones. Raise the bar and hold it up for everyone to see.