When Julie Platt was tapped to serve as board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America in mid-February 2022, the Jewish community and the world were in a different place. Nearly two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, communal life was starting to return to normal. In the wake of the hostage-taking incident at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a month prior, antisemitism was still a major concern, but it was still far from the level seen today. Israel was governed by a broad coalition under then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. And Joe Biden was president of the United States.

A week after Platt’s nomination was announced, Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, sparking an international crisis that continues to rage today. And a week after she was unanimously confirmed by the board in June 2022, the Israeli government collapsed, leading to the election of a right-wing coalition, which advanced a divisive plan to overhaul the country’s division of powers, resulting in months of sustained mass protests across the country.

On Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip carried out a series of attacks in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking more than 250 people hostage, 56 of whom remain in captivity today. The attacks and the wars that followed it — in Gaza, against Hamas, and in Lebanon, against Hezbollah, which joined the fighting on Oct. 8, 20203 — created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis within Israel and kickstarted a massive rise in antisemitism around the world, which has turned increasingly violent and deadly in recent weeks. In response to the attacks, JFNA launched its Israel Emergency Fund, so far raising $873.4 million, of which $742.9 million has been allocated. And last November, President Donald Trump was reelected.

Now, some three years later, Platt’s tenure as board chair is coming to an end. On Sunday, the JFNA board will meet to select her successor.

Last week, eJewishPhilanthropy spoke with Platt about her tenure, about the current rifts and tensions within the American Jewish community and about her experiences as a Jewish communal leader who is also on the board of an Ivy League school that has been plagued by instances of antisemitism. 

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Judah Ari Gross: How do you feel leaving your role as chair after this term? Or maybe leaving is the wrong term. It’s not as though you’re out of the Jewish community. But ending this particular chapter and handing over these responsibilities?

Julie Platt: So I’ll further define that for you. Many people keep saying to me, ‘What’s your next chapter?’ And the truth is, I’ve been devoted to the work of Jewish federations since I was in college and ran the UJA campaign at the University of Pennsylvania. So I’m not going anywhere. This is the most important work that has defined my life as a lay leader and philanthropist. So I’m not leaving. I’m also deeply appreciative that I will have the opportunity to hold on to a few of the things that matter so much to me at JFNA because I have the desire and the motivation to continue to see things through, and to make sure that, you know, in this moment when things aren’t getting any easier, that I continue to be devoted and helpful in any way I possibly can.

JAG: How do you look back on the past three years? Half of your term as JFNA chair has been very focused on Israel, on post-Oct. 7 work and the Israel Emergency Fund. And before that, there was Ukraine. Besides those obvious landmarks, are there other elements in your term that really stand out to you? 

JP: So I came in on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery from COVID. And so one of the great opportunities that that offered me was to travel to communities where we hadn’t had an opportunity to do that because of COVID, and to try to listen and learn and offer support. And, you know, I just did the exercise of looking back over the past… really four years, because I was national campaign chair just before I became chair of JFNA. And I made it to about 50 communities across North America, from the smallest to the largest. And I only wish I’d been to more. 

And so I came in at the end of COVID, got to go into Ukraine and right after that, Oct. 7. So I can’t say that I ever imagined in a billion years that this would be the landscape for the Jewish People. On the other hand, the inspiration of the response will carry me forward forever, [especially] with the gathering at the National Mall [in November 2023]. … That will be something I’ll remember forever. And I was proud to stand on that podium and to be part of something we needed desperately in that moment. And that was not the beginning of our response. Prior to that, we had already begun to raise the funds needed. We’re still doing it, and we still will do it until we feel that we’ve rebuilt Israel to where it must be after the devastation of Oct. 7.

The response across this country to the needs of Israel, the response to the rise in antisemitism, the response to the surge of Jewish engagement is deeply inspiring and motivating for all of us in leadership. And I’m not walking away from that ever. 

JAG: You bring up the march, which was this moment where you really saw all parts of the Jewish community coming together. Now, we’re more than 600 days since Oct. 7 — which is a difficult milestone to think about, considering Israel is still at war and there are still hostages — and that communal unity is fracturing. You signed this public letter that we published [last] week, calling for an end to infighting, which is obviously a reflection of the fact that there is infighting and there are intense differences of opinion, both domestically and as it relates to Israel. You were also in Israel in April 2023 for the JFNA General Assembly at the height of the anti-judicial overhaul protests in Israel, when there was similarly a real moment of division and tension over the role of American Jewry and what it can say about what happens in Israel. How do we navigate this moment? 

JP: I’ll say a couple of things. The first thing is, we don’t have the luxury in this moment to be divided. We have to all be fighting the rise in antisemitism and responding to “the Surge” in Jewish engagement. So we can have disagreements, and that’s always been the case. I don’t ever expect the entire North American Jewish community to agree on everything. But we all do agree that we have to fight antisemitism. There’s nobody saying, “Oh no, that’s not a problem.” So we can’t be distracted while still holding different opinions on the fight we have ahead of us. 

So this call for unity was a unity of purpose, not that we expect everybody to think the same all the time. We don’t. I imagine that within my own family, people feel differently about what’s happening in Israel, about the government. I don’t actually care. What I care about is that we all recognize and understand that we are in an incredibly challenging moment, and we have to be unified in the fight against antisemitism. And we have to make sure, and this is something that I also am deeply proud of that we took on at JFNA, is we have to make sure that we are safe and secure. We got rocked last week in Washington in a way that we’re all still recovering from. [Ed. note: This conversation took place before the attack in Boulder, Colo.] But the whole idea of Live Secure is that in order for us to have joyful and engaged Jewish communities, you’ve got to feel safe and secure. And we took that on as a responsibility at JFNA in partnership with the Secure Community Network because we understood that you’re not going to walk into the synagogue and have that kind of engagement if you don’t feel safe. So we want to provide the safe part, so that our people can provide the engagement part.

JAG: With the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world, there is growing criticism of the large, legacy Jewish communal organizations — JFNA, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, etc. — and disappointment with how they’ve been meeting this moment and how they failed to prevent it. So there are calls to tear down these institutions and rebuild with something smaller, more dynamic, more aggressive. What role do large national and international organizations play today, compared to smaller, more nimble groups? 

JP: I won’t speak to the other national organizations, but I will tell you that I’ve never been prouder of the value-add of Jewish Federations of North America. I’ve just given you a great example in Live Secure. I’ll give you another example in the almost $1 billion across the system that we’ve raised to rebuild Israel. 

When anything happens in a community — positive, negative, frightening, when there’s a need for new ideas for engagement, how you respond to young adults, how we get people back on trips to Israel, all that stuff — the first phone call goes to the CEO of their federation, for better or for worse, because they think we have the answer. 

I can just tell you, I was in Kansas City yesterday for Sarah Lynn Milgrim’s funeral, and the CEO of the Kansas City Jewish Federation was running point for the entire Kansas City community. That is what we do. We are the convener of the conversations for the Jewish community. People ask me this all the time, “Do I give to this small NGO or to the Jewish federation?” And I will answer, “Do them both.” We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas, but boy, we’ve helped. I feel so proud of how we’ve helped. And if someone else has a good idea, bring it on, but not to the detriment of giving to the Jewish federation.

JAG: This is a particularly complicated time for the philanthropy world: There’s a lot going on in terms of the budget bill that’s now in the Senate; there are growing threats from the White House to revoke certain nonprofits’ tax-exempt status; there are major economic fluctuations. It’s really a time of uncertainty. As someone deep in the Jewish philanthropy world, how do you see these things? How do you think this may affect giving in general and Jewish giving in particular? 

JP: I’ll answer you in a couple of ways, without getting into the specifics of the legislation. I will say that, to a person, the asks are being answered in philanthropy. I don’t see anybody holding back to wait and see what happens. We’re in too much of a moment. The generosity of the North American Jewish community is just astounding. And literally, there isn’t anybody I’ve asked to do anything or our team has asked to do anything that said no, both in philanthropy and in leadership. People want to serve. Everybody’s raising their hands. So I would say that first. 

Second, we have really increased our presence in [JFNA’s] Washington office and with the advocacy needed for all the things that matter to us on the Hill. And we have seen a huge increase in our volunteers wanting to engage and a professional staff that’s responding with advocacy fly-ins and all the community relations work in response to the potential legislation that impacts the North American Jewish community, from Holocaust survivor funding to all of the things that you’ve just mentioned. 

I’ll give you an example. We have an LGBTQ mission that starts on June 8. There’s nearly 100 participants on this national mission, and we needed to raise funding for it. And we did. And that wasn’t something anybody had on their bingo card of “Things that needed to be funded this year.” And we have found that everywhere. 

JAG: You are also deeply involved in the University of Pennsylvania at a time when most of the conversations about combating antisemitism focus on campus life, particularly in the Ivy League. This includes a stint as interim chair of the board of trustees after the chair stepped down largely over the university’s handling of antisemitism. How do you see things happening or changing on that front, as someone involved in both of those areas? 

JP: I can say two things to you. We have a phenomenal new president at Penn, Dr. Larry Jameson. He was the head of the health system and is now our president. And he has been enormously helpful both in the simple enforcement of “time, place and manner,” and in the moral clarity and moral compass that Penn needs. 

And I will tell you also that I have followed the adage of [former Texas Gov.] Ann Richards, who said, “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu for lunch.” And that’s how I have lived my life at Penn. I am the vice chair of the board and have always believed that I could be the most helpful from the inside. Everyone doesn’t agree with that agenda, but I do, and many of my fellow trustees feel the same as I do, which is that the best way to make the change we want to see is to double down. And that’s what I’ve done.

JAG: As a final question, I’ll circle back to the start. As you said, you aren’t going anywhere in terms of your involvement in the Jewish community, but what specific next plans do you have in terms of organizations to work with or projects to take on? 
JP: In my free time, I did join the national board of AIPAC, and I’m proud to be a national board member. I’ve also become a member of the board of Cedars-Sinai Hospital here [in Los Angeles]. And I’m proud to have a Jewish voice elevating what is already a very strong, wonderful board, and I’m on the board of our school here, Harvard-Westlake, again, wanting to very much be a proactive Jewish voice on that board. And I will continue to hold portfolios for JFNA, which I am proud to do.