opinion
Embracing a Data-Driven Approach
to Engaging Jewish Young Adults
BY DAN ELBAUM
COURTNEYK / E+
M ark Twain once wrote, “When I was a boy of
14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly
stand to have the old man around. But when I got to
be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned
in seven years.”
For decades, many mainstream Jewish com-
munal organizations have struggled with a sim-
ilar issue: Why don’t younger Jews see Israel in
the same way we do? Will their views change
with age, or do we face a fundamental, indeed
existential challenge to the relationship between
American Jews and Israel? The challenge of con-
nectiveness is no less real in Israel, where Israelis
who are fascinated by American culture evince
little interest in the American Jewish community if
an act of antisemitism has not occurred.

In contrast to the usual gloom-and-doom assess-
ments, however, a newly released survey from
the American Jewish Committee contains some
encouraging news on both fronts, as well as an
important call for the Jewish world to utilize a data-
driven approach to young adult engagement.

Let’s start with the good news. The survey
found that 72% of American and 89% of Israeli
Jewish millennials believe it is important for the
American Jewish community and Israel to main-
tain close ties. Overwhelming majorities of both
American and Israeli millennials also feel that a
strong state of Israel is necessary for the survival
of the Jewish people and that a strong Jewish
community outside of Israel is necessary as well.

At the same time, the survey underscored the
substantial challenges surrounding public opinion
on Israel among younger demographics in the U.S.,
particularly on college campuses. Most alarmingly,
more than one in four American Jewish millenni-
als say that the anti-Israel climate on campus or
elsewhere has damaged their relationships with
friends, and the same number say that the anti-Is-
rael climate on campus and elsewhere has made
them rethink their own commitment to Israel.

These findings reveal that the Jewish commu-
nity has a golden opportunity to cultivate a young
adult audience that could be far more receptive to
our message than we originally thought, but that
there is also a need to avoid breathing a collective
sigh of relief and resting on our laurels.

Despite an unprecedentedly partisan atmo-
sphere in both Israel and the United States, and
a relentless and well-funded effort by anti-Israel
groups to drive a wedge between young American
Jews and Israel, deep feelings of attachment are
positively thriving. That’s precisely why Jewish
leaders must use this data as a framework for fur-
ther bolstering young Jews’ connection to Israel
— and each other — on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Jewish Agency for Israel carries out this
mission through a number of initiatives. Yet at its
most basic level, our strategy is simple — bring-
ing more young Jews to Israel and more Israel to
young Jews. This includes Masa Israel Journey,
which since 2004 has brought more than 160,000
young adult participants from more than 60 coun-
tries to Israel for an extended period of time; shli-
chim (Israeli emissaries), who bring Israel-centric
educational and social programming to Jewish
communities in North America and worldwide;
and Partnership2Gether, which connects global
and Israeli communities in city-to-city and region-
to-region partnerships in which participants forge
meaningful connections through unique programs
and one-on-one encounters.

We must, of course, also meet our audience
where they are. Our work to foster U.S.-Israel con-
nections is increasingly incorporating an emphasis
on Israel’s diversity — a message that power-
fully resonates with today’s younger generations.

Last year, the Jewish Agency appointed Gadeer
Kamal-Mreeh, the first female Druze member of
Knesset, as the first Druze community member to
serve as a senior shlichah. She supports engage-
ment efforts regarding Israel on North American
college campuses, working closely with Hillel
International in Washington, D.C. We also hired
Sigal Kanotopsky, a well-known Ethiopian-Israeli
leader, as our U.S. Northeast regional director.

Crucially, the stories of Gadeer and Sigal show-
case the unique and diverse society of Israel.

In the campus arena, our response to the
highly concerning anti-Israel climate is the Jewish
Agency Israel Fellows program, in which shlichim
work at more than 100 colleges and universities
across North America to not only combat antisem-
itism and anti-Zionism, but to proactively cultivate
Israel-positive connections on campus by orga-
nizing educational programming on Israeli culture
and building diverse coalitions of students who
support the Jewish state.

Finally, the Jewish Agency is investing in smaller
Jewish communities that have been ignored for
far too long. In 2022, we will have two new
18-year-old emissaries on the ground in nine
smaller Jewish communities. Members of these
communities have lacked a meaningful interaction
with Israelis. Now, there will be an Israeli presence
in their lives that has not been there before.

The world is changing and our messaging needs
to change with it. Months ago, speaking about
Israel as a refuge for Jews in danger sounded to
many millennials like a speech from their grand-
father’s time. Today, with 11,000 new Ukrainian-
Jewish citizens of the Jewish state having escaped
a devastating war in their country, this idea takes on
a new meaning. It is for us as Israel’s advocates and
supporters to find the right words to make the case
for Israel. The AJC survey exhibits how a younger
audience may be prepared to hear that case with
open hearts and minds. JE
Dan Elbaum is head of North America at the
Jewish Agency for Israel and the president and
CEO of Jewish Agency International Development.

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