The Jewish community in North America recently has faced a burgeoning crisis that goes beyond the external threats of antisemitism. While significant, it pales in comparison to the internal challenge of disunity and disconnection among our own. I believe that we can find answers by drawing insights from our rich heritage and the teachings of luminaries like Maimonides and Rabbi Noach Weinberg, who emphasize the imperative of unity and mutual responsibility.
The alarming reality that the larger Jewish community faces today is that unaffiliated Jews, our brothers and sisters, are not connected in any way to their heritage. Whether they are young or old, many Jews unfortunately lack Jewish education of any kind and are exposed to biased anti-Jewish or anti-Israel narratives. They therefore find themselves alienated from their heritage and even antagonistic toward Israel.
This is a clarion call for us to redouble our efforts in outreach and education. But before we can educate these people, we need to find them and embrace them.
According to a survey conducted a few years ago, affiliated Jews in North America, regardless of affiliation, make up approximately 48% of the Jewish population. Can you imagine how strong a community we could be if we managed to engage with the other 52%?
How can we do it? How can we engage with Jews who are unaffiliated, who by choice do not wish to be part of any Jewish temple or synagogue?
All the more urgent
This question becomes all the more urgent when these Jews become influenced by external, biased, anti-Israel narratives in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel. This issue hit home for me when back shortly after the war began we at Aish received a call from someone who told us that their niece, a Jewish progressive young woman, was anti-Israel. The person asked if we could speak to her. An Aish rabbi spoke to her on the phone a few times, and she finally asked him to come to her neighborhood in New York and speak to her and some of her friends.
Our staff member went down to speak with them and was sitting in an apartment filled with young Jewish people who began to deliver a worldview in which they compared the IDF to the Nazis. Jewish people who were so anti-Israel that they compared our soldiers, our sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, our fathers and mothers, to our worst enemy and one of the worst regimes in human history.
On some level, the Jewish community has failed. We have failed to properly educate the next generation about Jewish history, Jewish values, and the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. How can we blame a 25-year-old Jewish professional for not understanding the mission and purpose of the Jewish people if they’ve never been taught it and are surrounded by a community that doesn’t emphasize it?
So how do we connect to them? Instead of condemning and shunning them, we must listen to their opinions, validate their concerns and fears, and then challenge them to think critically and learn the vital history and context that has been concealed from them.
I believe that the approach we need to take is threefold: embrace, educate, and empower. Embracing unaffiliated Jews not as targets but as family members yet to return home is our first step. Education is the next step because it is at the core of our identity. We need to focus on intellectual engagement with passion, inspiration, and education to ignite a fervent love for learning, inspire action, and impart substantive knowledge about Judaism, its values, and Jewish history.
Then we need to empower them so that they can partner with us and teach others, just like this young woman did when she brought a rabbi to speak not only to her but her friends as well. Empowerment is the culmination of our efforts, where we aim to cultivate leaders capable of making a profound impact within their communities and beyond.
And we can’t do it alone. We need partners to be able to make this happen. We need the entire Jewish community to work on this.
Maimonides taught that the pinnacle of friendship is a bond of virtue, where individuals join forces toward a common goal to do good. He doesn’t say what the good is, he simply says that you do good. You get together, you have a common goal, and you make the world a better place.
This ethos is the bedrock of our concept of community and something that we need to strengthen and increase as we navigate through one of the most challenging periods for Jews globally.
The Jewish people have thrived on mutual responsibility – both physical and spiritual – for millennia. We need to begin the difficult conversations, hear those who are struggling to connect, and embrace, educate, and empower them. To best achieve this goal, we must leverage digital platforms to reach those who are unaffiliated and thus unreachable through traditional means.
Our journey forward requires us to act decisively and collaboratively. With the Almighty’s guidance and the support of our partners, I am confident that we can overcome the obstacles before us. Together, we will continue to embrace, educate, and empower every Jew, ensuring the vibrancy and unity of our community for generations to come.
The writer, Aish’s CEO, also serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, as an Executive Board member of the Rabbinical Council of America, and a board member of Yeshiva University High Schools and Naaleh High School. Prior his appointment at Aish, he was the eastern director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where he oversaw the Museum of Tolerance in New York City and contributed to the center’s fight against antisemitism.