The billion-dollar business of being Jewish - opinion

The American Jewish establishment knows how to count. Dollars raised. Professionals hired. Episodes downloaded. Guards posted outside synagogue doors. Its own researchers have found that too many organizations cannot measure whether their work succeeds.

Before another federation general assembly, the question is not how much machinery we have built around Jewish life, but what kind of Jewish life it is producing.

Jerusalem syndrome once brought visitors to the holy city convinced they had been chosen for a biblical mission. The professional Jewish influencer economy has developed a remote version. No pilgrimage required. Just a microphone, a sponsor, and the confidence that Israel has been waiting for your instructions.

The joke conceals something grave. Institutions finance personalities who bring audiences. Personalities lend institutions prestige. Everyone counts impressions, conferences, and checks. But a Jewish people is not a customer list.

Its strength is measured by what children know, how families live, and whether communities have the confidence and skills to protect one another when there is no camera in the room.

Israelis voted on October 27 without producing a clear governing majority. Whatever government emerges, it will live with its taxes, security decisions, and military obligations. Meanwhile, the federation world prepares its November 8 to 10 general assembly in Washington under the banner “Where the Future Takes Shape.” Israelis must live with the decisions made in their name. American Jewish institutions are gathering to discuss theirs.

The comment that exposed the business

My dispute with Jonah Platt, the actor turned host of Being Jewish, began with sovereignty, not his podcast. Platt posted on X/Twitter, then shared on Instagram, a warning that Diaspora Jews might withdraw financial, social, and political capital from Israel if its government failed to consider their concerns.

The concern is legitimate. Diaspora Jews face real antisemitism, and Israeli decisions affect their lives. Israel must listen. But there is a difference between being heard and being obeyed, between belonging to a people and governing a state.

I answered publicly that Israel is a democracy whose citizens bear different obligations. I called the premise ignorant and the assumption of equal authority without equal responsibility “sort of colonialist.” It was sharp. I also wrote that his heart was in the right place. He had not demanded an Israeli ballot; he had warned about withdrawing support. But the warning raised a question: when does philanthropy become leverage over sovereignty?

Platt's public reply became personal. He accused me of contacting him only when I wanted something and said Diaspora Jews financed my “business ideas and institutions.” He suggested Israel return the billions sent from abroad so American Jews could finance their own security.

I have never asked him for money. I sought conversations about Israeli agriculture and Jewish self-defense, often being told he was unavailable. He could decline without turning my criticism into a fundraising pitch.

Before seeing his reply, I had privately asked whether my comment was too harsh. After reading it, I said I was disappointed he had challenged my motives instead of my argument. Our WhatsApp exchange deteriorated. He called me a “piece of s***” and told me to “go f*** yourself.” I answered angrily and personally too. But the sequence matters: a debate about sovereignty became a quarrel about money, access and the operating costs of a podcast.

Platt said he had lost money on his show and spent his days fighting for the Jewish people. In that exchange, he wrote, “I have literally been killing myself the past two years to advocate for and protect the Jewish people.”

Later he said our exchange had changed how he viewed Israel “in a really dark way.” That troubled me more than the insults. I made aliyah and served in the IDF knowing that Israel, its governments and its institutions would disappoint me. Commitment is revealed precisely when disappointment comes. Zionism is not a subscription service I cancel when customer satisfaction declines.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks distinguished a contract, an exchange of interests, from a covenant, a bond of loyalty and responsibility that survives disagreement. Israel and Diaspora Jewry are not creditors and debtors settling accounts.

They belong to one people. That bond gives Diaspora Jews a voice that must be heard, not the powers of Israeli citizenship. A relationship is not a transaction. A donation does not purchase a vote.

The business of being important

Platt's website advertises podcast sponsorship packages from $1,000 to $15,000. Birthright Israel is credited as the presenting title sponsor of his third season. The show lists producers, editors, and researchers. Good media can educate, connect, and change lives.

But its production costs do not measure its value to the Jewish people. An operating loss is a financial result, not proof of exceptional sacrifice. What did listeners learn? What did they do afterward? What remained when the interview ended?

His family connections sharpen the issue without proving wrongdoing. His father, Marc Platt, produced Wicked on Broadway, where Jonah played Fiyero from 2015 to 2016. His mother, Julie Platt, is the Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) immediate past board chair and chairs its new Frontline initiative.

Jonah has described obtaining podcast guest introductions through her. Hollywood has a word for the advantage conferred by family connections: nepotism. The fashionable label is the nepo-baby advantage. That does not prove his father secured the role or his mother arranged his sponsorships.

It demonstrates the doors available to him that thousands of rabbis, educators and community organizers will never be offered. A famous family is not a moral failure. But inherited access is not earned authority, and an impressive guest list is not proof of an enduring contribution to Jewish life.

The establishment's own confession

In October, Jewish Funders Network president Andrés Spokoiny revisited research on 160 organizations combating antisemitism and the field's 25 largest funders. More than half lacked clear, realistic measures of success.

Researchers found duplication, fragmentation, and confusion between social-media engagement and persuasion. This was not an enemy's accusation. It was philanthropy examining itself and discovering that too much activity was being counted without evidence of progress.

JFN deserves credit for the research and its efforts at coordination. But knowledge creates an obligation. Which ineffective programs lost funding? Which duplicated efforts were consolidated? Which funders changed their decisions because the evidence disappointed them?

JFN does not control every grant. Its members control their own checks. An institution that identifies failure without showing what changed has diagnosed a problem without correcting it.

Jewish learning calls us not only to understand but to act. An evaluation that changes nothing is not accountability. It is paperwork.

Another $35m. For what future?

Now comes JFNA's Frontline, a $35 million initiative backed by more than 25 funders, reaching 120 federations and adding 100 advocacy and community-relations professionals. Smaller communities need skilled help in schools and local government. JFNA names programs such as Project Halo and Student to Student and promises outcomes. Good. Publish them. A hundred positions are a hundred responsibilities, not a hundred solved problems.

Thirty-five million dollars represents a choice. At a hypothetical all-in cost of $1,000 per participant-year, it could finance 35,000 participant-years of resilience training; at $1,500, more than 23,000.

These are scenarios, not bids. Yet trustees should compare another advocacy position with sustained Krav Maga, first aid, de-escalation, situational awareness, emergency response, and Jewish education. Jabotinsky wanted Jewish physical preparedness to be as ordinary as lighting Shabbat candles. A century later, Krav Maga should be no stranger to Jewish life than Hebrew school or bar and bat mitzvah classes.

For adults who choose to own firearms where lawful, safety instruction and secure storage could complement those skills. Qualified instructors, facilities, insurance, safeguarding and evaluation all cost money. The point is not to arm every Jew. It is to make preparedness routine, with skills that survive when the instructor goes home.

JFNA has not ignored preparedness. It's $130m. LiveSecure's effort supports security infrastructure and training. That makes the choice more important. Why this mix of staffing, training and outreach? Which alternatives were assessed?

How will positions be judged after their initial grants expire? Which programs will end when they fail? Innovation is not giving an old expenditure a new name. It is having the courage to change an approach that does not work.

On November 2, experts interviewed by eJewishPhilanthropy questioned whether expanded approaches without rigorous evaluation might repeat old failures. The general assembly has sessions on data and security. Excellent. The test is not whether the subject appears on the agenda. It is whether the discussion changes budgets, strategies, and the lives of people who will never attend.

Who do they actually represent?

The question of accountability leads to another: whom do these institutions represent? JFNA represents 141 federations through legitimate governance structures, not every American Jew by election. Who speaks for the family choosing between rent and day-school tuition? The young Jew who has never entered a federation building? The small congregation without a wealthy patron? Whose disagreement changes a policy? Who is heard before writing a check?

Nor should influence be confused with access. In a July 2026 AP-NORC survey, only 15% of American Jewish adults said Democrats supported Jews extremely or very well; 16% said the same of Republicans.

That measures perceived support, not a proven decline in political power. But where has Jewish influence weakened, and where has it grown? Which alliances survive elections? A photograph with an elected official is not the same as political influence.

Representation requires hearing those who do not already share the leadership's assumptions. Otherwise, institutions can become skilled chiefly at representing themselves.

The billion-dollar fortress

JFNA estimates American Jewish institutions spend $1.015b. annually on security, a community-wide figure, not JFNA's budget. Guards, cameras, reinforced entrances, and trained professionals save lives. Keep them. But what are we building behind those doors? Can congregants respond to emergencies, provide first aid, and protect themselves lawfully?

Are young Jews learning when to de-escalate a threat and how to defend themselves if they cannot? For adults who choose firearms where lawful, is responsible instruction part of the conversation? Can they teach their children why being Jewish is a gift rather than simply a danger to manage?

A fortified building may protect a congregation without making it confident enough to live openly outside. Not every Jew needs to carry a weapon. Every Jewish community needs people prepared to protect one another. We must protect Jewish institutions and strengthen the people within them. Otherwise, the building survives while the life it shelters grows weaker. The answer to fortress Judaism cannot simply be a more expensive fortress.

<br><strong>Who pays for performance?</strong>

In October, Platt defended substantial compensation for Jewish nonprofit executives. He cited Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief Jonathan Greenblatt's roughly $1.4m. compensation as about 1% of revenue.

But affordability is not performance. ADL recorded 912 antisemitic incidents in 2014, before Greenblatt became CEO, 9,354 in 2024, and 6,274 in 2025. Methods changed, and antisemites, not the ADL executives, cause antisemitism. Those figures cannot grade a CEO. They do make credible evaluation urgent.

The ADL helped secure an additional $30m. in federal nonprofit security grants for fiscal 2026. Count it. Count unsuccessful interventions too. Which programs changed attitudes? Which made communities safer? What ended when an initiative failed?

Leaders may deserve considerable salaries. But the moral authority of leadership cannot be calculated as a percentage of revenue. Money raised is not achievement, money spent is not impact, and money lost is not automatically sacrifice.

<br><strong>The war that comes home</strong>

Israel's families understand the difference between a cost and a sacrifice. In October, the Defense Ministry reported approximately 30,000 wounded military and security personnel entering rehabilitation since October 7, 2023, with roughly 63% dealing with psychological conditions.

A Knesset report recorded 279 suicide attempts among serving soldiers from January 2024 through July 2025, excluding veterans after discharge.

Behind those figures are marriages tested by wounds no one else can see, businesses damaged by repeated mobilizations, children trying to understand the parent who came home changed, and families whose loved ones never returned. The war follows people out of uniform. It enters their bedrooms, their livelihoods, and their children's lives.

But let us not forget what Jonah Platt told me: “I have literally been killing myself the past two years to advocate for and protect the Jewish people.”

He was describing how hard he works. The families behind those numbers are living with losses no amount of work can undo. Diaspora Jews also face real danger. Their courage in protecting synagogues, defending students, and confronting hatred matters.

But the common language of sacrifice cannot erase different burdens. A media budget is not military service. A podcast is not a son at war. A contribution, however generous, gives no donor control over a nation's democracy. Each Jewish community owes the other fidelity, not ownership.

Strip away the machinery

The rabbis taught kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh: all Jews bear responsibility for one another. At Sinai, the covenant was accepted by a people, not delegated to a fundraising department. We need schools, synagogues, welfare organizations, advocates and guards. But these institutions are instruments.

Responsibility includes knowing how to act when danger comes, not only writing a check afterward. A people that cannot carry its obligations without constant professional mediation has not been made strong by its institutions, only dependent upon them.

Herzl sought wealthy backers and then built a movement capable of acting without their permission. Nordau demanded physical renewal; Jabotinsky, dignity and self-defense; Ahad Ha'am, cultural and intellectual strength.

They disagreed over means. They understood that a civilization is sustained by people who know how to live it. The test of leadership is not the dependence it creates. It is the responsibility it awakens.

Strip away the sponsors, donor dinners, conferences, microphones, and professional titles. What remains? Young Jews who can tell their own story. Families who can live Jewish lives without a campaign explaining why it matters.

A teenager learning Hebrew in one room and Krav Maga in another, confident in identity but trained to avoid needless confrontation. Neighbors who recognize danger, know first aid and can defend one another lawfully. A people able to disagree fiercely without treating the relationship as disposable. That would be a legacy worth funding.

Jonah Platt did not invent this culture. His exchange with me revealed its temptation to confuse access with authority, cost with sacrifice, and criticism with injury. JFN exposed the measurement gap. JFNA's $35m. forces a comparison of priorities.

The ADL raises the question of executive accountability. The security bill shows the price of protection. What matters is whether Jewish communities are stronger when the professional goes home.

The institutions exist to serve the people. The people do not exist to keep their institutions in business. We did not inherit a covenant so that it could become an industry.

The Jewish establishment has spent billions trying to keep Jews Jewish.

It is time to build Jews who will stay Jewish.

Adam Scott Bellos is founder and CEO of The Israel Innovation Fund and creator of Wine on the Vine and Project Maccabee. He writes about Zionism, Jewish identity, Israel-Diaspora relations, and the future of Jewish civilization.