The Disruption of Corona to the Jewish People & the Unparalleled Opportunity

The Coronavirus Pandemic dramatically disrupts the Jewish People, and is going to radically change priorities, values and patterns of conduct of Jewish communal life. The Jewish people may find itself not only financially weakened, but facing a lieu of insecurities; decreased ability to collectively organize and deploy political or social capital; a weaker sense of belonging to the Jewish collective (Peoplehood) and connection to Israel; along with a rising challenge of anti-Semitism. 

But Corona is also an incredible opportunity to revitalize Jewish communal life. Even with the decline of Jewish financial resources during this time, a bold, adaptive, visionary, and conscious leadership could take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities and strengthen Jewish continuity and identity. 

Most notably, Corona constitutes a fantastic opportunity to provide alternative low-cost Jewish education, as online remote schooling becomes more viable, in addition to traditional Jewish education, which has not been affordable to large segments of the Jewish community. 

Moreover, Corona may increase the attractiveness of communal way of life as a social and economic safety net and reinvigorate the desire for collective affiliation. The crisis likely to bolster Jewish communal organizations, who have declined in numbers in the last few years, in their attempt to maintain relevance to increasingly individualistic young Jews. Reut’s work is based on a theory, methodology and technology that allows us to extract knowledge to help Israeli and Jewish leaders to ‘make sense of things’ in the face of disruption, and mobilize them in a way that brings the ecosystem to a new equilibrium. This paper is our first attempt to do so in light of the challenge presented by Corona.