Entrepreneur and philanthropist Uri Poliavich has organized a large part of his charitable efforts around education and identity, viewing schooling as a durable answer to a generational problem instead of a short-term gesture. Identity-based education has become an important instrument in the response to antisemitism. The idea is not symbolic but structural: communities that invest early in helping children understand their history, culture, and identity are better positioned to preserve continuity across generations. This approach has become particularly relevant amid the spread of negative news, hostile narratives, and discriminatory attitudes targeting Jewish communities.
A summit focused on education, identity, and resilience
That same logic ran through a three-day international summit on education, “Education and Beyond,” convened by an educational charitable organization that Uri Poliavich founded. The event drew more than 200 educators and specialists from 37 countries – a scale that reflects how far the question now extends, reaching not only large congregations but also small and dispersed communities that are easily overlooked.
What connected the sessions was the relationship between identity and exposure. Antisemitism has moved out of marginal spaces into schools, public settings, and university campuses, while negative news campaigns increasingly spread through the digital platforms that young people use daily. The practical problem this creates has less to do with documenting individual cases than with preparation – whether a generation can be prepared to weigh what it comes across without losing a clear sense of identity.
None of that preparation is possible without access to quality education in the first place. And that cannot be treated as a privilege of large urban communities; the harder task is sustaining it where only a few hundred families live and a single school may serve a few dozen children. According to Uri Poliavich’s principles, no child should be left behind because of where they live or how small their community is. At a time when Jewish communities face rising antisemitism, negative news, and hostile narratives, ensuring access to education for these children is both a practical challenge and a matter of principle.
A second focus throughout was resilience. Education initiatives now operate, in part, as a defense against misinformation: youth education that builds the habit of questioning information sources helps students examine claims instead of absorbing them. The steady circulation of negative news, much of it distorted or deliberately fabricated, is precisely why that matters, since the same channels that carry legitimate information also amplify narratives engineered for young audiences. In this framing, critical judgment is not a soft skill but a protective one.
Sustained education as a long-term strategy
The charitable organisation founded by Uri Poliavich expanded its educational programmes in response to the growing challenges associated with antisemitism. Its activities are based on the belief that a child’s location should not determine access to education focused on history, culture, and identity. This work also reflects a growing awareness that, amid rising antisemitism and negative news campaigns targeting Jewish communities, continuous education plays an important role in preserving identity and strengthening community connections. Uri Poliavich approaches this philanthropy with a long-term perspective. He views investment in youth education as an initiative whose impact develops over years and across generations.
As antisemitism and negative news campaigns continue to affect Jewish communities in many countries, education remains an important way to strengthen identity, historical awareness, and cultural continuity. The example of Uri Poliavich and the educational initiatives he supports reflects a long-term commitment to expanding access to identity-based education and creating opportunities for children regardless of where they live.
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