As artificial intelligence reshapes every aspect of modern life, a quiet revolution is taking place in how our children learn. But while Silicon Valley races to build tools optimized for efficiency and test scores, a critical question goes unanswered: Who is building the AI that will shape the soul of the Jewish world?
For decades, Israel has been celebrated as the Start-Up Nation, exporting cutting-edge technology across the globe. Yet its ultimate test lies not just in hi-tech exits but in whether that technological prowess can be channeled to secure the future of Jewish continuity and deepen the bond between Israel and the Diaspora.
The stakes could not be higher. Today, global Jewish education faces acute structural crises. Tuition costs are pricing families out of day schools, and qualified Hebrew and Jewish studies teachers are in desperately short supply worldwide. At the same time, growing numbers of young Jews living far from major Jewish centers have little to no access to structured Jewish learning.
They use AI daily – meaning that without a Jewishly-shaped alternative, the next generation will learn about their identity, Israel, and ethics from commercial algorithms optimized for cheap instruction or, worse, influenced by biased data.
We cannot afford to let generic, commercial AI tools step into this vacuum.
Most commercial AI is built to drill skills and maximize screen time. But Jewish education measures success in an entirely different currency: relationships, identity, belonging, and participation in an ongoing historical conversation.
Our students are apprenticing into a people, a language, and a covenant. If we simply import generic AI, we risk importing pedagogies that privilege automated efficiency over the slow, vital work of dialogue, chavruta, and human formation.
Furthermore, no single school, summer camp, or youth movement can build safe, values-aligned AI on its own. Left to the free market, we face a two-tier future where only the wealthiest institutions can afford proprietary innovation, leaving smaller, peripheral communities completely isolated.
To prevent this fracture, we are building JEDAI (Jewish Education AI) – a shared, nonprofit technological grid designed specifically for the Jewish world. JEDAI is not a new app; it is an infrastructure layer governed by educators rather than commercial interests, which any school, camp, or community can plug into at cost.
This is not speculative. JEDAI builds on the proven personalization engine of I-Teach – developed by Israel’s largest educational technology company – which already serves 140,000 students across 400 Israeli schools, yielding mastery in 60% less time.
Channeling Israeli technological excellence into global Jewish education
Backed by a $1 million Israeli Innovation Authority grant and recognized by Israel’s Education Ministry, this partnership directly channels Israeli technological excellence into global Jewish education. Spearheaded by the Pincus Fund alongside Machon Siach, and with early support from the American Society for Holocaust Education and Remembrance (ASHER), this initiative ensures that pluralistic expert councils set the pedagogical and ethical boundaries, while allowing Diaspora educators to maintain full governance over their own curricula and denominational choices.
We are launching global pilots in January 2027 across North America, Latin America, Europe, and South Africa, focusing initially on Hebrew language fluency – the historic bridge of text, prayer, and peoplehood that is currently in global crisis.
As the platform matures, it will evolve from a classroom tool into a lifelong personal learning companion. It will handle routine differentiation so that teachers can focus on true mentorship. It will securely connect isolated teens in peripheral communities to global mentors and match cross-border learners for virtual chavruta study, turning local isolation into global connection.
The 2026-2027 period represents a fleeting, once-in-a-generation window. Right now, the core personalization logic, feedback patterns, and safety boundaries of AI are being locked into place. If the Jewish world does not invest collectively in shaping these tools today, we will spend decades reacting to platforms built for someone else’s goals.
This is the moment for Start-Up Nation to meet Jewish peoplehood. By building a shared, values-aligned infrastructure, we can ensure that the digital grid our children learn on makes Jewish life more personal, more relational, and more deeply connected to Jewish civilization.
Gerda Feuerstein-Perlman is the director-general of the Pincus Fund for Jewish Education.
Dr. Shivi Greenfield is the founding director of JEDAI and former chief strategy officer and deputy director-general of the Jewish Agency for Israel.