The ground has shifted beneath our feet.

Not long ago, we comforted ourselves with assumptions that now seem almost naïve: that antisemitism would remain confined to the fringes of society; that unwavering bipartisan support for the American-Israeli bond was simply a fact of political life; and that the promise of the American dream remained within reach for the average Jewish family. Those certainties are gone. And in their place, we face two existential challenges that demand not timid half-measures, but bold, visionary action.

Amir Levy/Getty Images

A person visits the site where hundreds of revelers were killed and kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 terror attack at the Nova music festival in Re'eim, Israel, as seen on April 7, 2024. Amir Levy/Getty Images

How do we confront the resurgence of antisemitism on our own soil? And how do we forge an unbreakable bond between the next generation of American Jews and the State of Israel?

Here is my call to every philanthropist, every federation, every synagogue and every Jewish family with the ability to act: Let’s establish a national fund to provide full, one-year Jewish day school scholarships to 1,195 children who are not currently enrolled in Jewish schools — one scholarship for each of the 1,195 souls murdered on Oct. 7, 2023 — within the next two years.

Hamas and its global network of supporters sought to break us — to intimidate us into silence and retreat. What more defiant, more Jewish response could we possibly offer than to answer their barbarity with an explosion of Jewish life, Jewish learning and Jewish identity? They came to diminish us. We will grow. They came to sever our connection to our homeland and our heritage. We will deepen it — one child at a time, one classroom at a time, one year of Jewish education at a time.

But why education? And why now?

The conventional answers to antisemitism and the erosion of Israel advocacy — more awareness programs, more campaigns that are expensive to run and nearly impossible to measure — are not enough. They never were. We need something transformative. We need a moonshot. And that moon shot is Jewish education.

Prominent voices like Bret Stephens have begun to articulate what many of us have long sensed: that Jewish day school education represents the single most powerful investment we can make in the future of our people. Funders, schools and even the Israeli government have begun to respond, channeling resources toward making Jewish education a genuine option for the millions of families for whom it has felt out of reach. The momentum is real. But we must go further — and we must go faster.

Today, more than 95% of non-Orthodox American Jewish children are not enrolled in a Jewish day school. Read that number again: 95%. These are our children, our future, our continuity — and we are not reaching them.

There is no program, no advocacy campaign, no awareness initiative that can match the lifelong impact of a year spent immersed in Jewish values, Jewish history and Jewish community. A child who learns who they are — who feels the depth and beauty of their heritage in their bones — does not grow up uncertain about where they stand when the world turns hostile. They know. And that knowledge is our greatest strength.

Think about what 1,195 represents. Each name. Each life extinguished by pure, genocidal hatred. There can be no greater tribute to their memory than the gift of Jewish life and Jewish continuity to 1,195 children who might otherwise never set foot in a Jewish classroom.

This is not only a philanthropic opportunity. It is a moral obligation.

The major Jewish philanthropic organizations already investing in day school education will form the backbone of this fund. But this sacred task must belong to all of us. The fund should be open to contributions of every size, because every Jew — regardless of means — deserves a stake in this response. This is how our people have always faced challenges: together, pooling our resources, our resolve and our faith in the future.

We are a people with an extraordinary and hard-won history of meeting existential threats not with despair, but with a fierce, almost unreasonable commitment to life and continuity. In our darkest moments, we have built schools. We have taught our children. We have refused to let our enemies write the final chapter.

Oct. 7 was an act of pure evil. Let our response be an act of pure Jewish defiance — generous, forward-looking and rooted in the unshakeable belief that the Jewish future is worth fighting for.

One thousand one hundred ninety-five scholarships. One thousand one hundred ninety-five  souls remembered. One thousand one hundred ninety-five children whose Jewish identity will be strengthened for a lifetime.

This is our moment. Let’s not waste it.

Jason Feld has over two decades of executive experience directing Jewish day schools across the United States and writes frequently on day school financial sustainability, curriculum development and communal continuity.