Daniel M Rosen is the President and Co-founder of IMPACT a 501c3 dedicated to organizing, empowering and mobilizing individuals to combat Jew hatred on social media and beyond. Their activities have been reported upon on Arutz Sheva, NBC, CBS, FOX, WPIX, AOL.Com, AM NY ,JNS, Times of Israel and other outlets. follow us at @joinimpactnow
While the current unmasking of Jew hatred is undeniable, it’s valuable to be careful not to lose perspective. People are currently so close to the chaos that they risk missing the profound transformation that is quietly taking hold. A large percentage of Jewish people have experienced a rebirth in their connection to Jewish peoplehood.
The old adage “You can't see the forest for the trees “certainly applies. Trying to comprehend the geopolitical and cultural landscape today is like watching a screen where the images flicker too rapidly for the human mind to process. The chaos is dizzying and the desire to understand is profound, so people tend to put things into neat symmetrical boxes even if they don’t fit in them.
To understand the future of the Diaspora Jewry in the context of the popular anti -Israel protest movement, we must look at two distinct groups of young people currently reacting to the current global tension, and project their trajectories 20 years into the future.
On one side, we have the average young "do-gooder"-the Gen Z or Alpha generation activist who has been swept into anti-Israel or universalist activism through intense social media peer pressure. They champion trendy causes because it feels like the socially acceptable thing to do in their immediate echo chambers.
Fast-forward 20 years. Beyond the core of committed ideologues, the casual participants will eventually transition away from these transient causes, their focus shifting as the practical demands of career, family, and maturity take precedence. The vast majority will not be defined by this moment and will move on.
On the other side stand their Jewish counterparts. While they may currently be far fewer in number, their experience during this crisis is anything but fleeting. The isolation, the betrayal by secular institutions, and the sudden necessity of standing tall in the face of hostility have left an indelible mark on their souls.
Two decades from now, this trauma will have transformed into a profound, lifelong commitment. This generation is turning inward-out of a desire for authenticity, a response to pain and feelings of pride. They are actively choosing to preserve the Jewish future.
These changes can be seen at synagogues and Jewish institutions across the country. A leading Reform rabbi in Westchester County, New York, candidly shared that before October 7 the growing difficulty of articulating the essence of Jewish identity to the next generation. For decades, Diaspora institutional life relied heavily on the memory of the Holocaust as a foundational pillar of identity. Indeed, data consistently showed that young American Jews ranked "remembering the Holocaust" as the single most essential component of being Jewish.
But memories fade, and a secondary trauma cannot sustain a vibrant future. Leaders found it increasingly difficult to bridge the gap between a painful past and a meaningful Jewish future. the primary anxieties keeping Diaspora leadership awake at night were fixed on continuity, assimilation, and staggering demographic metrics. For decades, the global Jewish conversation was dominated by alarming statistics, such as Pew Research Center data indicating that the intermarriage rate among non-Orthodox Jewish people in the United States had hovered around or exceeded 60% to 70%.
The experience following October 7 has shattered previous paradigms for most Jewish people, triggering an unprecedented 'awakening' that is crystallizing into a long-term commitment to Jewish continuity, regardless of one’s previous level of affiliation.
The current shaking of the Diaspora is painful; however, the most profound impact of this moment is not the immediate shockwave. We are witnessing the emergence of a self-defined generation that will carry our story forward with newfound clarity. Consequently, the future of Jewish self-identity has been effectively preserved for decades to come.