The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) announced Wednesday an expanded community response to rising antisemitism, including plans to hire 100 new professionals for frontline advocacy and community relations.
The new roles will concentrate on local and state advocacy, K-12 and higher education, and interfaith and intergroup partnerships, joining existing teams to counter hate manifesting across civic life.
JFNA is carrying out this hiring effort through its Frontline initiative. Backed by more than 25 funders, the $35 million initiative distributes targeted grants to 120 local federations while providing professional training, shared tools, resources, and expert guidance.
Highlighting the urgency of the initiative, JFNA reported that antisemitic incidents have surged following the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, with physical assaults reaching record highs last year and Jews targeted in 64 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes. Furthermore, polling cited by the organization indicates that 65 percent of Jews in the US believe the country has a significant amount of antisemitism, compared to 45 percent in 2020.
Rising US antisemitism prompts Jewish Federations to expand advocacy network
JFNA stated these personnel will function as a community defense line in municipal meetings, healthcare environments, school boards, and educational curricula.
Detailing the broader aims of the program, Shira Hutt, Executive Vice President of JFNA, said, “Federations have been deeply engaged in the work of community relations and civic engagement for decades. Today, we require new strategies and increased resources to address the dramatic rise of antisemitism that is permeating every facet of civic life. Federations are on the ‘frontlines’ of this work every day.”
Hutt added: “Frontline is a game-changing initiative that will equip Federations with the talent, support, and resources they need to confront the increasingly complex and growing challenges they face, whether in government, in educational institutions, in media, or our other civic spaces.”
Beyond personnel additions, the Frontline program funds several targeted engagement projects. These include year-round training sessions, the Project Halo messaging hub for data-driven strategic guidance regarding security and Israel advocacy, and the Student to Student high school initiative.
The Student to Student program operates in 50 communities to foster connections with non-Jewish teens and has reached more than 60,000 students over the past three years, with nearly half of those engagements occurring in the preceding year. Additional investments back the One Mitzvah A Day mobilization platform, which has grown to reach a daily distribution list of 25,000 individuals.
Julie Platt, Chair of Frontline and immediate past Board Chair of JFNA, said, “In the aftermath of October 7, our community was very disappointed to see that many people we thought were our allies stayed silent. We learned the hard lesson that our civic engagement efforts must be more focused, more targeted, and more outcomes-based, and that is exactly what Frontline is designed to do.”
She added, “Only through deep, sustained, and strategic engagement can we ensure that antisemitism is neither tolerated nor normalized, and that our communities remain safe.”
The Frontline effort mirrors the operational model established by LiveSecure, a $130 million security initiative launched in response to the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. In 2018, fewer than 20 communities maintained professionally managed security programs that met necessary standards; since then, LiveSecure has expanded that national infrastructure to more than 140 communities within four years—a systemic scale-up that JFNA now aims to replicate across its advocacy and civic relations networks.