Nearly two-thirds of Jewish students in the GTA attend public school. We asked parents, students, and educators what they needed. Then we got to work.

Here’s how UJA and our partners are showing up for Jewish students and families — with support, advocacy, and action.

In spring 2025, we went into the community. We sat down with parents, students, and educators and asked them what they needed. What they told us shaped everything that followed. The results speak for themselves.

The number of Jewish student clubs in GTA public schools has doubled. Eight hundred and seventy educators across seven school boards were trained in Jewish identity, Holocaust education, and antisemitism. Educators travelled to Israel and came back changed—with one calling it the most life-altering experience of her career. A legal case was won against the Toronto District School Board, strengthening the rights of Jewish parents within the public school system and holding school boards accountable. Provincial legislation was passed with recommendations from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), UJA's advocacy organization, written directly into it. Fifteen hundred schools now have Jewish educational resources in classrooms that had none before. Thirty thousand students celebrated Jewish Heritage Month—more students, in more schools, than ever before.

And when a Grade 11 student told us that her Jewish student club was the first place she had ever felt comfortable being openly and proudly Jewish at school, we knew our work was on the right track.

You spoke. We listened. See how that feedback shaped our work in public schools.

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