Five hundred and eighty-two conversations; 161 new connections. One hour. Here’s what happens when the Jewish world decides to show up together.
As missile-warning sirens pierced the night across Israel and antisemitic incidents continued to rise across the globe, 195 Jewish professionals, educators, and community leaders from four continents logged on – and stayed on. Some were interrupted by sirens mid-conversation. Most came back. All of them chose, in that moment, connection over fear.
The occasion was The Great Mifgash: Global Jewish Leadership Speed Date, a one-hour virtual gathering on the evening of Wednesday, March 11, in six back-to-back nine-minute conversations powered by an AI-matching platform previously used exclusively for social dating.
When asked afterward whether they wanted to keep going, 85% said yes to joining a permanent global Jewish coalition.
A gathering built for this moment
Originally conceived to mark Israel’s Diaspora Week, The Great Mifgash took on sharper urgency as the Iran war entered a new phase and antisemitism abroad reached levels not seen in decades. Physically separated and increasingly divided in mindset, Israeli and Diaspora Jewish communities have rarely needed a shared space more.
The event was hosted by the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, together with Global Jewry and DateNight.AI.
Oded Revivi, CEO of the ANU Museum, noted: “The reality of recent years, war in Israel alongside growing antisemitism around the world, reminds us that the Jewish people share a common destiny. Strengthening the relationship between Israel and Jewish communities in the Diaspora is not only a value; it is essential for the future of the Jewish people.”
Tracy Frydberg, director of the Tisch Center, added: “The ‘day after’ demands a new vision, which we have the opportunity to make global and shared. This event is one step in that longer, deeper work.”
The gathering was designed to connect the Tisch Center’s and ANU Museum’s Israeli Jewish Peoplehood Coalition, a network of 700 Israelis committed to infusing peoplehood into Israeli civil society with global Jewish leadership, and to pilot interest in a sustained international coalition.
Links forged in just an hour
The scale of engagement? Nearly 200 participants registered across Israel, North America, Latin America, and Europe. Some 582 one-on-one conversations were scheduled; 390 were completed – a 67% completion rate in an event where Israeli participants were navigating active security alerts. Of those conversations, 161 (41%) were marked as meaningful new connections by participants themselves.
The cohort reflected the breadth of the global Jewish world. Geographically, 45% of participants came from Israel, and 36% from North America, with the remaining 19% drawn from Latin America, Europe, and beyond – a strong Israel-Diaspora balance rarely achieved in a single gathering.
Professionally, the group spanned education and academia (29%), community and nonprofit leadership (22%), management (18%), advocacy (9%), and students (7%).
Religiously, participants represented the full spectrum of Jewish identity: secular (33.5%), Conservative (18%), Orthodox (13.9%), Reform (9.8%), and pluralist or other backgrounds (24.8%). The platform’s AI-matching system was designed to connect people across – not within – these divides.
An unlikely platform
“Until now we’ve exclusively hosted dating events, but we couldn’t resist this great opportunity to connect Jewish leaders across the globe,” said Ian Mark, founder-CEO of DateNight.AI.
The platform’s matching algorithm – built to identify compatibility between strangers – proved equally effective at pairing a Hillel director in Pittsburgh with an educator in Tel Aviv, or a nonprofit founder in Buenos Aires with a community leader in London.
The next step
Participant feedback pointed to concrete actions to take next: extending sessions from 10 to 15 minutes; adding a rematch option for missed connections; and expanding promotion to reach leaders who only heard about the event at the last minute.
A second leadership event employing the speedy connections formula appears to be in the offing.