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The Real Threat Is Within: What a New Survey Reveals About Jewish Communal Life
Jewish Americans and supporters of Israel gather at the National Mall in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 2023 for the “March for Israel” rally. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner
American Jews are facing a storm of external pressures. The past two years have brought a surge in antisemitism; ugly and sometimes violent protests on campuses; hostile city streets; and, abroad, the horrifying October 7 Hamas attack and the brief but intense Iran–Israel war.
For most observers, it would seem obvious that these external threats are the greatest source of stress for Jewish communal leaders and professionals.
After all, these are the people tasked with defending, educating, and sustaining Jewish life in turbulent times. But a striking new report tells a different story — one that should give the Jewish community, and anyone who cares about civic health, pause.
The Hope Study, released this month by M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, surveyed nearly 950 Jewish professionals across North America and flips traditional thinking on its head.
The report’s findings are sobering. Fewer than one in four respondents reported that they “often” feel hopeful about the future of the Jewish people (24%), a stark contrast with 82% in the general US population.
For the very individuals whose mission is to build that future and who work on the front lines of the Jewish communal world, hope is now the exception rather than the norm.
The most surprising result, however, is what these professionals say is sapping their hope. It isn’t antisemitism. It isn’t the war in Gaza. It isn’t rising security costs or declining synagogue membership.
The single most cited factor is internal communal division — the tensions, mistrust, and open conflict that have erupted within Jewish organizations themselves. As one respondent put it, we are “watching our community tear itself apart.”
This revelation fundamentally upends the common narrative.
For decades, Jewish life in America has been organized around the assumption that our gravest challenges come from outside forces: hostile governments, terrorist groups, bigots, or indifferent neighbors. The classic response has been to mobilize against those external enemies, rallying Jews of all backgrounds in a show of unity. But The Hope Study suggests that this framework no longer matches reality. The greater danger today may lie within our own splintered community.
A Fracture Beneath the Surface
The divides are most visible around Israel. The data show just how deep that fissure runs. A slim majority of Jewish communal professionals (55%) see their connection to Israel as a vital source of hope and meaning, but more than a quarter (26%) say Israel is not important to them at all — the highest rejection rate for any source of hope measured.
That rejection rate is staggering; it means that even within the ranks of Jewish institutions, there is no consensus on whether Israel matters. In staff meetings, classrooms, and boardrooms, this divide lurks beneath every conversation about programming or public messaging.
These tensions extend beyond geopolitics. Generational differences, ideological disputes, and conflicting visions of Jewish identity all play a role. Professionals describe being “caught between competing factions” and “unable to navigate constituency expectations.” This is not just about policy disagreements. It is about who gets to define what Jewish communal life is and whom it serves.
Leadership is supposed to guide communities through such conflicts, but here too the findings are troubling. Executives report higher levels of hope than staff (mean 2.94 vs. 2.77 on a 1–5 scale), a gap that creates a potential leadership blind spot. Many leaders simply don’t see how dire things feel to those on the ground. It is hard to solve a problem you don’t fully perceive.
The consequences are real. When staff feel unsupported or unheard, they burn out, withdraw, or leave the field entirely.
Roughly 10% of respondents fall into what the report calls the “Struggling” category — low hope, low energy, and little sense of connection — with a large share identifying as secular/cultural Jews. If they disappear, the community loses not only workers but perspectives that broaden and enrich Jewish life.
The gender gap is especially striking. Women comprise 78% of the sample and report significantly lower hope than men (mean 2.75 vs. 3.01). This suggests that women may be bearing the brunt of organizational problems and the emotional labor of managing conflict. Any honest reckoning must take this imbalance seriously.
Why This Matters Beyond the Jewish World
It would be easy to dismiss these findings as an internal HR problem, a narrow crisis of a single faith community. That would be a mistake. The dynamics revealed here mirror the challenges facing American civic life more broadly.
Across the country — in churches and schools, political parties and neighborhood associations — polarization has grown so intense that external threats now often feel less destabilizing than internal mistrust.
Sociologist Émile Durkheim warned more than a century ago that societies depend on shared moral bonds; what he called the “collective conscience.” When those bonds weaken, even well-intentioned groups can splinter into factions. The result is exactly what this survey documents: bitterness, exhaustion, and the slow erosion of purpose.
For the Jewish community, this erosion is particularly dangerous. Historically, Jewish organizations have been exemplars of civic engagement. Federations, synagogues, day schools, and service groups have taught generations how to work together across differences, how to give and receive mutual aid, and how to participate in democratic life. If those very institutions now falter, the ripple effects will be felt far beyond the Jewish world.
The broader American story is similar. When our institutions become arenas for infighting rather than vehicles for collective action, we lose the very mechanisms that allow us to face external challenges together. Whether it’s antisemitism, terrorism, or the fraying of our social fabric, no group can respond effectively when it is paralyzed by internal distrust.
A Call to Confront the Real Threat
In moments of crisis, it is natural to fix our gaze outward. And there is no question that the external threats facing the Jewish people are real and relentless. Rising antisemitism, hostile campuses, violent protests, and geopolitical dangers demand vigilance and strong, decisive action.
But The Hope Study makes clear that these external dangers are only half the story and perhaps not even the most urgent half. A community that cannot govern and organize itself cannot defend itself. Ignoring the fractures within Jewish communal life will not make them fade. If anything, outside pressures will magnify them, turning every external attack into another round of internal recriminations.
History shows us what happens when institutions become brittle. Communities that lack internal trust crack under stress. They grow weak, reactive, and paralyzed. The rifts revealed in this report are not mere personality conflicts or abstract debates; they are corrosive forces eating away at the very foundations of Jewish civic and religious life.
Repair will not come through platitudes or surface-level fixes. It will require courage from leaders and from the rank and file alike. Leaders must be willing to see clearly and speak plainly, to set real boundaries and articulate shared ideals. They must foster spaces where hard truths can be spoken openly, not suppressed. Belonging must be rebuilt not as a marketing slogan or membership drive, but as a lived experience of mutual responsibility and solidarity.
Jewish history offers countless examples of resilience in the face of external enemies. The challenge today is to summon that same resolve inward. If Jewish organizations cannot restore their own internal cohesion, they will be poorly equipped to defend against external hatred and even their strongest outward defenses will ultimately ring hollow. This is why so many Jewish students on college and university campuses have felt abandoned and alone since October 7.
The choice is stark. Either we confront the true threat — the one within — or we allow our institutions to fracture beyond repair. The future of Jewish communal life, and by extension the strength of our shared civic life, depends on which path we choose. The time for evasions has passed. The time to act is now.
Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Minneapolis synagogue targeted with antisemitic, pro-Hamas graffiti on Oct. 7 anniversary
(JTA) — Graffiti targeting “zionists” and praising Hamas was spray-painted on the preschool wing of a Minneapolis synagogue on Tuesday night, the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman said she was notified by one of Temple Israel’s neighbors about the vandalism. She said her first reaction was outrage and pain.
“This does not solve any problem, and blaming American Jews in Minnesota for what’s happening globally is hate speech, it’s antisemitism. It’s nothing different than that,” she said. “It’s not about political differences. It’s about hate.”
On the building was spray-painted “Watch out Zionists,” “Fuck Zionism,” and “Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’ code name for the Oct. 7 attack. There were also 14 inverted red triangles spray-painted on the building — a symbol associated with Hamas, which has used it in videos produced by its military wing to signify Israeli targets. The symbol has appeared in other graffiti of Jewish institutions during theIsrael-Hamas war.
Zimmerman said a report has been filed with the Minneapolis Police Department and video footage has been turned over for the investigation. E-mails to the MPD seeking comment were not returned.
Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, called the incident “harrowing.”
“It’s targeted and consciously imitating the mass terrorism of Oct. 7,” he said. “It doesn’t get much more antisemitic and violent than that, other than the actual perpetration of the horrific acts.”
Hunegs said the incident represents an escalation of anti-Israel rhetoric.
“We’re seeing that someone would take the time to, in the middle of the night on Oct. 7, to vandalize the synagogue with the most incendiary, venomous message you could possibly find,” he said. The perpetrators, Hunegs said, decided “terrorism against Jews is worthy of celebration, and [they’re] going to take that message to an iconic synagogue in the heart of Minneapolis.”
Zimmerman said that she heard from Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish and has attended services at Temple Israel. He said in a tweet that the vandalism was “a reminder that hate still tries to find a foothold” but that it would not find on in the city.
“People are reaching out and in that, you feel a connection and camaraderie and support,” Zimmerman said. “Which is very helpful, but it doesn’t take away the horror of the message. It does help to not feel so alone.”
Zimmerman said she is a proud Zionist who also wants to see an end to suffering in Gaza — something that she said whoever spray-painted the graffiti did not understand.
“If you do understand the nuance and the complicated realities of the world and see each other as human, then you don’t do this. It’s disregarding the humanity of others by promoting hate and promulgating hate,” she said. “But it’s not going to stop us from continuing to do our work and to do interfaith work and to move forward in being proud of being Jewish and teaching about Israel and making sure that we work towards peace and towards the mission of being in the city and supporting the city.”
This story originally appeared on TC Jewfolk, an independent publication covering Jewish life in Minneapolis.
The post Minneapolis synagogue targeted with antisemitic, pro-Hamas graffiti on Oct. 7 anniversary appeared first on The Forward.
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Loudest Anti-Israel Voices in US Congress Silent on Gaza Ceasefire, Hostage Deal
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are seen before a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Many of Israel’s most vocal critics in the US Congress have been silent following Wednesday night’s announcement that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release deal to end the war in Gaza.
As of Thursday afternoon, outspoken anti-Israel lawmakers such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), among others, have not released public statements regarding the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The silence is striking as each of these lawmakers has, for at least the past several months, consistently called for a ceasefire while accusing Israel of war crimes or “genocide” in Gaza.
Under the deal reached on Wednesday, Hamas will release the remaining Israeli hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, while Israel will withdraw troops in Gaza to a fixed line and free about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange. The agreement, brokered through indirect talks in Egypt with the help of Qatar, Turkey, and other mediators, is slated to take effect once Israel’s government formally ratifies it on Thursday night.
Observers have noted that many questions remain over Gaza’s future and reconstruction, especially regarding the plan’s call for Hamas to disarm and for Gaza to be totally demilitarized. However, leaders around the world cheered the development as a step toward peace.
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley, and Sanders have all erroneously accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, claiming that the Jewish state has indiscriminately targeted civilian population centers and inflicted a famine in the beleaguered enclave. Van Hollen has also accused Israel of purposefully withholding food from Palestinian civilians and lying about well-documented claims that Hamas has stolen humanitarian aid. Sanders and Van Hollen have both spearheaded legislation to block offensive weapons transfers from the US to Israel.
However, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of the most strident opponents of Israel in Congress, acknowledged the ceasefire deal while simultaneously accusing Israel of “genocide” and calling for Israeli officials to be punished for “war crimes.”
“For the sake of humanity, let’s hope this will be a lasting and permanent ceasefire. While this is a hopeful step, we must demand accountability for every war crime committed during this genocide and continue to call for an end to the occupation,” Omar said in a statement.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the lone congressional Republican to accuse Israel of committing a genocide, also welcomed the news of the ceasefire deal.
“Thank you, President Trump!!” Greene wrote in response to the announcement.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs K-12 Antisemitism Bill on Oct. 7 Anniversary
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks on Aug. 14, 2025. Photo: Mike Blake via Reuters Connect
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law which requires the state to establish a new Office for Civil Rights for monitoring antisemitism in public schools at a time of rising anti-Jewish hatred across the US.
“California is taking action to confront hate in all its forms,” Newsom said in a statement issued on Tuesday, the second anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The Oct. 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists unleashed a global surge in antisemitic incidents, which have reached record levels in the US and other Western countries over the last two years.
“At a time when antisemitism and bigotry are rising nationwide and globally, these laws make clear: our schools must be places of learning, not hate,” Newsom added in his statement.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the bill confronted Newsom, a Democrat rumored to be interested in running for US president in 2028, with a politically fraught decision, as it aims to limit the extent to which the state’s ideologically charged ethnic studies curricula may plant anti-Zionist viewpoints into the minds of the 5.8 million students educated in its public schools.
With Newsom’s signature, state officials may now proceed with establishing an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator, setting parameters within which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be equitably discussed, and potentially barring antisemitic materials from reaching the classroom. However, the measure has been lambasted by anti-Israel partisans and key constituents of the Democratic Party.
Pro-Hamas groups, left-wing nonprofits, and teachers unions have emerged to denounce the legislation, which passed the California legislature last month, even as it declined codification of the widely recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — the exclusion of which constitutes a significant compromise for Jewish and pro-Israel activists. Additionally, it remains to be seen what the law’s ultimate effect on ethnic studies will be.
Amid these challenges and uncertainties, the bill’s supporters praised the news of Gavin’s signing as an indication of progress in the fight against antisemitism.
“StandWithUs is grateful that Gavin Newsom has signed AB 715, a bill to fight antisemitism in K-12 schools. We are proud to be part of the largest coalition of Jewish organizations ever to support a California state bill,” said StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group. “Much remains to be done if California is going to earn back the trust of Jewish students, families, and educators. Going forward, we will continue to use all tools at our disposal to fight antisemitism in K-12 public schools across the state.”
Maya Bronicki, education director of the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, added, “With the signing of this bill, California’s leaders publicly recognize that antisemitism is a grave problem in our schools and have taken an important step towards protecting Jewish students and other protected groups.”
Antisemitism in K-12 schools has increased every year of this decade, according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In 2023, antisemitic incidents in US public schools increased 135 percent, a figure which included a rise in vandalism and assault.
In September 2023 some of America’s most prominent Jewish and civil rights groups sued the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California for concealing from the public its adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic and anti-Zionist themes. Then in February, the school district paused implementation of the program to settle the lawsuit.
One month later, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, StandWithUs, and the ADL filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Etiwanda School District in San Bernardino County, California, of doing nothing after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted, having been beaten with stick, on school grounds and teased with jokes about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In other California news, a court recently cleared the way for students and their parents to sue school districts across the state over the adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic components which discredit Jewish self-determination in Israel while promoting harmful tropes.
The Algemeiner was notified of the decision by The Deborah Project, a legal nonprofit that filed the lawsuit which precipitated the ruling. In that case, the organization sued the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) over its using ethnic studies materials, which fostered aggressively discriminatory beliefs about Israel and the Jewish community, without offering parents the chance to review and approve of its contents.
The Superior Court of California, Alameda County ruled that the materials could be discriminatory and illegal to the extent that they violate civil rights laws, establishing what The Deborah Project described as a “landmark” precedent for future litigation.
“Jewish parents have been waging battle against antisemitic ‘instructional materials’ and instructors that expose their children to harm and hated,” Deborah Project legal director Lori Lowenthal Marcus said in a statement. “This is the first judicial decision addressing claims that the use of biased material violates the law. Now it’s clear: indoctrinating kids that Jews are evil oppressors discriminates against Jews; districts can be held to account and forced to stop doing it.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.