The Crisis We’re Ignoring: Who’s Caring for the People Who Hold Up the Jewish world?

In eJewishPhilanthropy’s exclusive opinion column The 501(C) Suite, leading foundation executives share what they are working on and thinking about with the wider philanthropic field. 

We talk constantly about the threats facing the Jewish community — antisemitism, isolation, polarization. But I am afraid we’re missing the crisis that could quietly break us from the inside: The people holding up the Jewish world are running on fumes.

I’m not talking about a faceless “sector.” I’m talking about the tens of thousands of professionals who make Jewish life possible. Our educators, camp counselors, rabbis, JCC staff, program staff, security directors, fundraisers, youth leaders, museum curators, social workers and CEOs. They are the connective tissue of Jewish life in North America.

For them, the matzav — the situation — isn’t just a news cycle. It is their daily job. They run security drills before preschool drop-off. They field donor calls demanding explanations for Israel’s every move. They stand in front of 12-year-olds and try to explain why the world feels like it’s coming apart. Then they wake up and do it all again tomorrow.

There’s no escape hatch. No “log off and go live your life.” The very thing that fuels their purpose is now the thing that’s draining them.

Read the entire piece at eJewishPhilanthropy.