This New Year, Make Room for Young Jewish Leaders

If I had to describe this year, I would start with a picture of a hug I was lucky to be part of. Holding and being held, as if the world around us had gone quiet for a second. To someone passing by, it was just a happy moment between friends. But inside that moment, there was so much more: the heartbreak of watching someone you love grieve, knowing there is a pain you cannot take away, and the toll of late nights, difficult conversations and responsibilities taken on willingly.

And yet, that was not the whole story. There was also joy and, more than anything, gratitude. Gratitude for the fact that even in difficult times, even when people are carrying pain of their own, there are still those who choose to give something of themselves to others, who choose to stay, to help and to build.

I have been extraordinarily lucky to receive that gift myself: the trust of people who have chosen to work alongside me and to believe in what we are building together, giving their time, energy and hearts to it because they want to make things better. I can only thank God for the people He has placed in my life and for the extraordinary privilege of walking beside them. Perhaps that is also why this year has made me think so much about what it means to be young and Jewish today.

To Be Young and Jewish Today Is to Show Up

For young Jews like me, this is already a complicated stage of life. We are trying to figure out who we are and what our future might look like, while building relationships, beginning careers and learning to navigate the responsibilities of adulthood.  But being Jewish today adds another layer. Antisemitism has become impossible to ignore. Antisemitism has become impossible to ignore, from campuses to social media. We know what it feels like to be singled out simply for being Jewish, and to hear slogans we thought belonged to the past become acceptable again.

Living with that reality means deciding how we are going to respond to it. One of the clearest lessons of the past three years is that passivity has consequences too. So alongside exams, deadlines and all the ordinary concerns of being young, we are also asking ourselves another question: what role do we want to play? From what I see, the answer is extraordinary clear: we choose to show up.

As President of the World Union of Jewish Students, representing more than 800,000 Jewish students around the world, I have the privilege of seeing what that looks like every day. I see young Jews embracing their identity openly and fiercely, stepping forward, taking responsibility for their communities and refusing to leave the future of Jewish life for someone else to shape. And showing up rarely means doing something that attracts attention. More often, it is found in smaller acts shaped by love, belonging and resilience: wearing a Magen David when it might feel easier not to, dedicating another evening to a Jewish Student Union when assignments are piling up, or bringing people together for a Shabbat dinner when everyone is exhausted. It means speaking up in a university meeting when silence would be easier, calling another student after an antisemitic incident, or creating a community where there was none before.

This is how our generation is building Jewish life across the Diaspora. And perhaps it is time for the wider Jewish world to recognise what that means.

A New Year’s Resolution: Trust Young Jewish Leadership

We are often called “the leaders of tomorrow.” It is meant as a compliment. But I have come to wonder whether the phrase sometimes asks us to wait for a future that has already arrived.
Young Jews are already making decisions, taking responsibility and shaping Jewish life today. What we need is not simply encouragement for what we may become one day, but recognition of what we are already doing.

The question for the rest of the Jewish world is whether it is ready to respond to that reality with trust. Not simply by telling us that we are the future, but by trusting us in the present, giving us real responsibility, listening seriously to our ideas and making space for us in the rooms where decisions are made.

As we enter a new Jewish year, I hope that every Jewish leader, organisation and community makes a conscious decision to bring young people closer. Ask us what we think before the decision has already been made. Give us meaningful responsibility before we have collected every qualification you think a leader should have. Invite us into the everyday work of Jewish life, not only into the moments designed specifically for young people. Trust us enough to let us make mistakes. And when we succeed, recognise that success not simply as evidence of what we may become one day, but as evidence of who we already are.

When I look again at that photograph, I think perhaps that is what I see most clearly. Not simply friends holding one another, but a generation ready to carry responsibility. Inside that hug are exhaustion and loss, but also joy, trust and the quiet certainty that none of us can build anything meaningful alone.

So this New Year, my wish for the Jewish world is simple: make room for young Jews at your table. Listen to us. Invest in our ideas. Build with us.
And every once in a while, remember to hold us too.