We are just days away from Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. For many, Sunday night will have new relevance and importance given the dramatic rise in antisemitism following the heinous Hamas attack on October 7th. Jewish communities all over the world have been the target of these latest expressions of hatred, and the situation seems unlikely to improve anytime soon.

Nowhere is this more true than among young people. A recent study by the Claims Conference reports that almost 50% of American millennials or Gen Zers over 18 say they have seen online posts denying or distorting the Holocaust. Even more alarming, a December poll from The Economist/YouGov states that 20% of Americans ages 18-29 believe the Holocaust is a myth. Surveys taken in the United Kingdom, Canada and France – all Western democracies – yielded similar results.

Young adults are also at the center of the increasingly violent anti-Israel protests taking place all over the world. And, at the heart of the conflict in the Middle East, the average population age is 26.4 years old, further evidence of the role today’s young people are playing in global politics.

What all this data suggests is that the Jewish people are facing an existential challenge that is both a sprint and a marathon, one that will require us to come together in unprecedented ways and work collectively to repel the attacks taking place on us every day. Although helping fight global antisemitism was not the reason we launched Global Jewry months before October 7th, the world changed overnight last fall and we must all do our part to push back against those seeking to do us harm. Never again is now.

With over 600 advisors and 220 organizational partners throughout the world, Global Jewry is a platform for making connections, forging collaborations and mobilizing people. We stand ready, willing and able to help each of our stakeholders by introducing them to other people in our collective, promoting their activities, sharing their resources, and helping them obtain information they may want to broaden their reach and amplify their message. Those are the roles we have wanted to play since our founding, and we recognize there is an even greater responsibility and necessity for us to fulfill them than when we started.

To be very clear, we have no desire to duplicate or compete with any of the efforts already taking place throughout the Jewish world to fight antisemitism. We want to link members of our collective to the leading organizations in the field, including our partners at the Combat Antisemitism Movement. Together, we can increase the number of people we are reaching with clear, concise and consistent messaging.

We want to help as many smaller groups as possible collaborate so they can focus on their work rather than compete for resources. We want to make the best messaging available to everyone in our collective, and help the Jewish people present a united front against all those striving to hurt us. And we want to play this role not just for the next several weeks or months, but rather for the decades it will take to address the deep-seated nature of the ignorance and antipathy being sown among young people all over the world.

Shabbat Shalom, and may this be the week the hostages come home,

Sandy Cardin