11 Steps To A New Jewish Golden Age: Jonah Platt Lays Out His Plan For A Vibrant Jewish Future

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In his seminal work, Man's Search for Meaning, humanist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote that, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." It's a truth of existence that never loses its primacy.

Are you glass half full or half empty?

Both are accurate.

Neither is uniquely naive.

It's a choice.

We, as Jews and allies, face such a choice today.

As the Western left continues its descent into anti-Zionist madness, racism against Jews rears its head in ways once unthinkable, and the number of engaged non-Orthodox Jews continues to decline, there's an easy argument to be made for glass half empty.

On the other hand, we are witnessing the nascent stages of a Jewish renaissance, a renewed commitment by Jewish individuals and institutions to invest in the development and celebration of Jewish personhood as never before.

Which glass do you see?

A half-empty disaster with some nice bonuses, or a half-full opportunity with challenges to be overcome?

If you know me at all, you can probably guess which glass I'm drinking from.

I see this moment not as the last chapter of some fading Jewish golden age, but as the prologue to the first chapter of a true Jewish golden age.

Think about how we as Jews have defined this, quote, "golden age." Opportunity?

Yes.

Acceptance?

Yes.

Safety?

Yes.

Amazing, wonderful, historic.

And a Jewish community steadily decreasing in its engagement with Judaism itself?

A community who has often achieved success not through expressing our identity, but rather by sublimating it?

Accomplishment accompanied by a sense of, "Keep your head down, hold your Jewishness back, be less like you and more like them." Is that really the most golden version of Jewish life we can hope for?

I don't think so.

I see a global Jewish community only just beginning to fully step into and own its power and potential.

I see tremendous and exciting opportunity to build a true golden age in the ashes of one of the darkest chapters in our history.

But in order to seize the opportunity before us, we need awareness, we need strategy, collaboration, and most of all, intention.

Nothing is by accident.

If we want to create the truly thriving Jewish community we deserve, here are the steps I think we need to take in order to get there.

Number one, AI.

From radio to television to social media, the world's villains have successfully harnessed the communications technology of each given age and used it against an unsuspecting populace to the detriment of not just Jews, but humanity.

Social media is already an enormous notch in the loss column for us.

We got our asses handed to us.

Islamist forces invested the time, money, and strategy necessary to capture the hearts and minds of an entire generation and then some, built entirely on lies, distortions, and a lethal command of the medium at hand.

The next frontier is artificial intelligence.

Jews and our allies cannot afford to get caught napping this time.

Every brilliant Jewish mind in tech, communications, cybersecurity, whatever, needs to ensure that the good guys dominate this technology first.

Think about every action or sci-fi movie you've ever seen.

"If this technology got into the wrong hands, it could be catastrophic for Earth." Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.

That's exactly what happened with social media.

We're tearing ourselves apart, unwittingly doing the bidding of literal jihadist terrorists bent on our annihilation because the technology was mastered by the wrong dudes.

Fool us once, shame on you.

But if we don't go all out to win the AI race and ensure it's being used for the illumination of truth and the betterment of humanity, it'll be a big old shame on us.

Coders, get coding.

Funders, get funding.

Scientists, get sciencing.

If we lose the AI battle, we may lose the war Number two, Jewish day schools and summer camps must become financially accessible and equally as important, if not more so, they need to become competitively excellent.

Removing the financial barrier alone is, of course, critical and game-changing and worth our utmost focus, and yet it's hardly the full picture.

An estimated 90% of American Jews are non-Orthodox, and of that 90%, only 5% enroll their kids in Jewish day school.

Most estimates have Jewish camp enrollment at around 15 to 20% of Jewish kids.

In both cases, the vast majority of eligible participants are opting out, and that's clearly about more than just finances.

We lack the value proposition.

Not only should the tuition be affordable, but the education should be the best in the area.

Our schools should have the best facilities, programs, college acceptance rates, parental involvement, community relationships.

Our schools need to offer Jewish families a real home full of the best people that's also a slam dunk for their kids' futures.

We need to be so great that non-Jews are applying to provide their kids the same great opportunities ours are receiving.

Jewish camp should not just be affordable, but everything you could possibly wish for in a summer camp, plus challah.

We need dollars, yes, of course, but we also need leadership and strategy.

We need to highlight the models that are already innovating, disrupting, and flourishing and follow their lead.

We don't need 15 organizations around Jewish education trying 15 different things that haven't worked.

We already have schools like JLA in Miami or Milken in LA paving the way.

The rest of us need the humility to say, "Oh, wow, that's working.

How do I copy that?" Only when our schools and camps are the jewels of their communities with the financial support to ensure a seat for all who desire one will we have any hope of changing the Jewish future.

Number three, everyone, that means you, needs to think about how you can begin to utilize your professional skills for the benefit of the Jewish community.

We do not have the luxury of handing over our best assets, ourselves, for the rest of the world to enjoy without ensuring our own communities flourishing.

If you're a cook, start a Jewish restaurant.

If you're a dentist, open a free clinic for Holocaust survivors.

If you're an actuary, offer your services to Jewish organizations.

If you make chairs, make Jewish chairs.

If you make music, make Jewish music.

If you make coffee, make a Magen David in the latte.

I don't care.

Think about how much Jews have accomplished in this world without a, much of a thought to our own community, or worse, overcompensating for our Jewishness by actually going out of our way not to work for our own benefit, as if proof of our allegiance to the majority will make us better off than actually just making ourselves better off.

Imagine the possibilities if we flip that single switch to get everyone rowing in the same direction.

That's a golden age.

Be a part of it.

Number four, there's one industry in particular that I feel needs to answer the call more so than any other, and that's my own, the entertainment industry.

If you don't like bad language, earmuffs please.

Jews in the entertainment industry need to step the fuck up.

There is no more potent way to achieve positive change at scale than through popular culture.

Jewish stories, shows, books, musicians, actors, writers, agents, et cetera, their opportunity to influence change is unparalleled.

On my episode with Mohammed Alsamawee, a Yemeni-born Muslim who was taught to despise Jews, he shared how watching Ross and Monica Geller, two Jewish characters on the TV show Friends, opened his mind to what was possible in interfaith relationships.

Do you understand how impactful that is?

Just including Jews on the show was a chance to humanize us for tens of millions of viewers all over the world.

When you understand the potential impact, the lack of engaged Jews across Hollywood, theater, music, literature, sports, you name it, is a downright shanda.

Are there heroes in each of these fields working their tails off on our behalf?

Without a doubt, and many have been on this show, and they'll all agree with me.

They are the minority.

The majority are Jews who are either too scared or just don't care enough to assume any responsibility for the wellbeing of our people.

We have Jews who, quote unquote, "run Hollywood" refusing to use their influence and ability to help or thinking that whatever they may have whispered in private is enough.

They wrote a check.

They went to a gala.

Maybe they listened to this podcast.

Sorry fam, but it's simply not enough.

Not anymore.

Ask yourselves, Jews of the entertainment world, what would a real Jewish golden age look like?

And what can you personally do to help us get there?

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

And until we each take that responsibility personally, we're not gonna move the needle.

Number five, we need more Jews running for political office at the local, city, and state levels.

Politics is a game of interests.

Everyone plays it.

We need to as well.

We need Jewish and true allied voices at the tables of power where the decisions that affect our day-to-day lives are made, on school boards, city councils, courtrooms, state houses.

Our enemies on both sides of the aisle, the DSA, Islamists, white nationalists, they're already throwing themselves into this endeavor openly and unabashedly in way bigger numbers than we can ever hope to match.

As the saying goes, "If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu." And when you do have a seat at the table, you can make tangible, meaningful, life-saving contributions.

I've had the great fortune to see this up close and personal through the accomplishments of my friends in public office, like former BJJP guests Daniel Alma and Consuelo Hernandez, or my buddy Nick Melvoin on the LA School Board, or the many awesome members of the California Jewish Legislative Caucus, to name just a few.

Run for office, y'all.

We need you.

It matters about as much as anything can.

Number six, we need allies.

I did a whole monologue about this already, about making allyah, so I won't rehash it too much here.

But if we aren't investing time, energy, and intention into cultivating deep, personal, meaningful, two-way relationships with allies at every level of Jewish life, we're screwed.

We are far too small to accomplish change at scale by ourselves.

As we've seen in the post-October 7th world, we cannot afford to wait for disaster to strike before we attempt to build friendships.

We need to build the bridges now, so when the time comes where we need to knock on the door, we've already established a way to get there.

A foundational pillar of every Jewish undertaking must be asking either, "How do I include allies in this work?" or "How do I expose this work to allies so they understand?" We need non-Jews at our events, in our organizations, at our tables, as our partners.

They are not a side dish.

They are an entree Number seven, Israelis have to start caring more about diaspora Jews as a matter of policy and practice.

Israel cannot at once claim to be the home for all Jewish people, but also if you aren't physically present, we don't actually care about you that much.

I recognize it's an unusual arrangement, and that Israel is also a country like any other with its own myriad domestic priorities.

But for too long, it's been too much of a one-way street.

Like, how many Israelis even know that Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical and blood services organization, is funded almost entirely by diaspora Jews?

We don't do that because we care about Israel the location.

We do that because we care about Israelis, the people, our brothers and sisters.

That's how families work.

Out of sight, out of mind is not a cool way to approach fellow members of the tribe.

In today's climate, everything the Israeli government says or does has an effect on how Jews in the diaspora are treated.

It's not fair, it's not right.

It doesn't mean the government is good or bad.

It's just a fact of the matter.

Global Jewry is being made to answer for Israel.

And as garbage a situation as that is, we need Israelis to recognize that reality and assume more responsibility for our well-being.

Think about the billions in philanthropy that flows into Israel from the diaspora, as it should.

But are the other fifty percent of Jews on Earth really so much less valuable just because we live somewhere else?

Number eight, we need more Jews.

Set aside the Orthodox community for a second as their numbers continue to grow.

Nice job, team.

Keep up the great work.

But the rest of us, the majority of Jews, we are shrinking year after year due to assimilation, an absence of Jewish identity in the children of interfaith marriages, and declining birth rates.

We need to open our arms and remove barriers to anyone who wants to be part of this tribe.

That means converts, patrilineal Jews, interfaith families, LGBT families.

Anyone with the kavanah, the intention, the commitment, the desire should be passionately embraced, not just because I happen to think it's the right thing to do, but because it is necessary.

What kind of club hemorrhaging members turns sincerely interested parties away of what basically amounts to ancient technicalities?

How much will those technicalities matter if there's no more club at all?

We also need to support Jewish fertility funds and organizations all over the world, ensuring that every Jewish couple who wants to have Jewish children has the financial and medical support required to do so.

Jewish parents, have more kids.

Be fruitful and multiply.

Don't just replace yourselves.

Grow the numbers.

And while we're doing that, ensure that Jewish philanthropy is focused on making the pathway to raising Jewish children as joyful and financially stress-free as possible.

We need numbers, people.

This is not a drill.

It's a legitimate problem, and if we don't address it, eventually, the rest of this won't matter all that much Number nine, when it comes to anti-Zionist Jew hate, if you see something, say something.

Nobody gets to call you a baby killer or a genocide supporter or a Nazi, least of all the people who, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are supporting actual baby killers, genocide heirs, and collaborators of the actual Nazis.

We cannot let these people, devoid of actual knowledge, expertise, or experience, continue to walk around with their misplaced arrogance, accusing us of being brainwashed by, quote, "Israeli propaganda," which I wish existed, but does not, while they all repeat the exact same talking points word for word that Israel's enemies have been feeding them in school and on social media for decades.

Just because an anti-Jew racist doesn't realize they're being racist doesn't mean they're not racist.

We gotta let them know and then go about our lives.

They're in it for the feelings of moral righteousness and the high of bullying someone successfully.

Take those wins away from them, and the whole enterprise becomes a lot less appealing Number 10, celebrate the F out of the culture.

Jewish pride cannot start and end with Am Yisrael Chai.

We put too much reliance on defiance.

We need to revel in being Jewish because it's amazing, not just to stick it to the haters.

Find ways to celebrate the culture that speak to you.

Rock Jewish jewelry, or as I like to call it, jewelry.

Bump Jewish music.

Buy Jewish art.

Wear Jewish apparel, like the brand I'm launching later this year.

Do your double date at the Israeli spot.

Dance through the streets on Simchat Torah.

Throw a banger on Purim.

Toss some Hebrew into your day-to-day.

Mevinim?

The Jewish people provide endless levels of awesomeness.

Feast on it.

Let 'em know.

And finally, number 11, Jewish unity, or as I like to call it, Jewnity.

I'm not talking about agreement.

Hashem knows we ain't built for that.

I'm talking about a people-wide recognition that our enemies are mobilized and motivated and coordinated, and a house divided against itself cannot stand.

I'm thinking chiefly along three lines: religious observance, ethnic heritage, and politics.

The different sects of Jewish observance are way too siloed, and frankly, do not care enough, if at all, about each other's wellbeing.

It's both a moral embarrassment and a strategic disaster.

Again, if we continue to let technicalities divide the tribe from itself, eventually there won't be a tribe to fuss over technicalities.

So find ways to build bridges, not just from Jews to allies, but from Jews to other Jews.

We need Reform-Orthodox mixers with kosher and non-kosher alcoholic options.

We need communal events, fundraisers, days of service, activities that bring different synagogues of different denominations together.

We need to squash whatever weird, racist Ashkenazi-Sephardi-Mizrahi beef remains and just be one people.

Maintain the beloved customs, honor the unique histories, share them freely with one another.

But can we cut it out with the prejudice, like, right now?

My kids' day school has a majority Persian population, and too many times I've heard Ashkenazi Jews express disinterest because it's, quote, "too Persian." What in the Martin Luther King Jr.

is that about?

We gotta get rid of that racist garbage now.

Get it out of here.

Mizrahis and Sephardis, please try to stop being offended that American Jewish institutions are traditionally geared towards Ashkenazis when we make up 80% of the population, and have been here in much greater numbers for generally a longer period of time.

Spotlighting and sharing in the rich and diverse cultural traditions of our global community is a must, but the current imbalance isn't a reflection of supremacist intentions, it's just math.

And Hashem knows the way Jews tear each other to shreds over politics is disgraceful.

As I've said before, the nastiest vitriol I receive online is always from Jews to the right of me, who talk to me worse than the anti-Jew racists, and I'm not exaggerating.

When I exhibit any sort of inclination that might be viewed as left-of-center, they come for me, teeth bared, foaming at the mouth.

And yes, even though I am not, nor have I ever been a Republican, whenever I deign to give any sort of credit to anyone or anything on the right, I'll hear from at least a couple Jewish lefties insulting my intelligence and trying to tear me down.

When the aliens come to destroy Earth, the humans either put aside their petty differences and unite, or die.

Hell, it's what happened on October 7th.

It was division that allowed the enemy to catch us unaware, and it was unity that allowed us to push them back.

In a true Jewish golden age, wouldn't we all be connected as one?

Agreeing to disagree, as we most certainly will, but with respect and love, and an appreciation of the stakes as our foundation.

That's a Jewish people ready to face whatever comes.

That's a Jewish people who understand the opportunity at hand, and are poised to take advantage of it, not squander it.

Not that we had any say in the matter, but like it or not, the next chapter of the Jewish people has begun.

How this volume gets written, whether that story ends in triumph or tragedy, that, my friends, is up to each and every one of you.