Recent columns in the New York Post raised questions about whether Jewish organizations meet the challenges of this moment with sufficient urgency and resolution. The concerns tap into a broader atmosphere of reflection, rooted in anguish, resolve and a call for leadership that meets the gravity of the hour. But the critique misrepresents the reality. Far from retreating, the organized Jewish community responded with coordination, clarity and a deep sense of responsibility.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Jewish organizations acted with speed and purpose. Emergency fly-ins took place within days. Senior members of the Biden and Trump administrations and congressional leaders met with Jewish communal leadership at the White House, on Capitol Hill and inside key agencies. Hostage families sat with policymakers. Security funding reached synagogues and schools before — not after — the next attack. Civil rights enforcement advanced through formal complaints and direct pressure on university administrators. These efforts rarely made headlines, but they shaped decisions, protected lives and delivered results when they mattered most.

Noam Moskowitz/Knesset

Members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations meet with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in the Knesset in Jerusalem on Feb. 18, 2025.

The Jewish people now face converging threats: a genocidal regime in Tehran, an entrenched network of its terror proxies and a global surge of antisemitism cloaked in the language of anti-Zionism. Crowds march under banners that read “Globalize the Intifada” and chant “From the River to the Sea.” These are not protest slogans. They are battle cries. They are not calls for justice but for violence — for erasure. And the organized Jewish community continues to answer, with vigilance, moral clarity and an unshakable refusal to let incitement go unanswered.

Assailants have targeted Jewish students. Arsonists have attacked synagogues. Extremists have disrupted peaceful gatherings from coast to coast. Through it all, the very institutions so often dismissed as slow or bureaucratic carried the burden of response. They delivered legal defense, briefed federal agencies, coordinated with law enforcement and mobilized communal security networks in real time. These leaders did not wait for permission. They met the threat as it arrived.

The March for Israel that brought 300,000 people to the National Mall in November 2023 did not happen because of hashtags or online petitions. That moment — the largest pro-Israel gathering in American history — reflected years of coalition-building, political capital and strategic infrastructure. The bipartisan support now coming from Congress—on campus antisemitism, on Iran, on the Oct. 7 attacks —did not begin on Oct. 8, 2023. It came from decades of work by leaders who showed up before the crisis, built trust over time and stayed engaged long after the headlines moved on.

Leadership in this moment does not post or posture. It secures federal funds to protect synagogues. It crafts legal strategies to safeguard Jewish students. It shows up — consistently, strategically and without concern for credit.

As John Ruskay, the longtime CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, famously observed: “We were there on 9/11 because we were there on 9/10.” The Jewish response to the Oct. 7 attacks did not begin with that crisis. It reflected years of quiet investment in a strong, interconnected network of nonprofits, built to serve daily needs — and ready, when the moment came, to meet extraordinary ones. That model of coordination, compassion and reach has guided the Jewish community through tragedy before. It does so again now.

Some critics claim that urgency demands disruption; that only by abandoning the existing framework can we meet this moment. But urgency without strategy cannot lead. Moral fervor, detached from responsibility, cannot protect a community. Outrage does not fortify institutions, and hashtags do not deter attacks. Criticism grounded in care is welcome; obstruction rooted in cynicism is not. This moment does not need more gatekeepers. It needs builders.

Legacy and courage do not stand in opposition. Some of the most decisive and effective responses since Oct. 7, 2023, came from long-established organizations. Their reach, relationships and credibility did not appear overnight. Generations built those assets — because they understood that Jewish lives would one day depend on them.

The question is not whether an organization is old or new. The question is whether it answers the call of this moment with focus, integrity and resolve. The organized Jewish community does.

And yet this moment demands more than defense. It holds the possibility — God willing — of something far more consequential: the elimination of Iran as a nuclear threat hanging over Israel and the region. Through precision strikes and international coordination, Israel has begun to dismantle the infrastructure of Iranian terror — the three H’s of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — and to expose the Islamic Republic’s vulnerability. Oct. 7, 2023, may ultimately be remembered not only for its brutality, but for what it set in motion: a new strategic reality in which the world no longer tolerates a regime that arms proxies, chants for genocide and races toward the bomb. Jewish leadership in this hour carries the weight — and the possibility — of shaping a new era, on par with 1948 or 1967 in its historic consequence.

Jewish tradition teaches: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it” (Pirkei Avot, 2:21). That ethic of persistence animates the Jewish response today. Success does not come through slogans or purity tests. It comes through presence, investment and commitment — through those who remain when the moment quiets and the real work begins.

At its core, this conversation is not about infrastructure or organizational charts. It is about covenant. About continuity. About whether the Jewish future matters — and whether we are prepared to stake something on it. Do we care that our grandchildren remain Jewish? That they know who they are, and why it matters? Those who answer yes cannot afford to sit this moment out. They must help carry the weight of responsibility — because Jewish destiny does not carry itself.

This is not a moment to retreat; it is a moment to rise — and those rising to meet it are not timid. They lead.

The promise of 1948 lives on in 2025 if we meet this moment with unity, clarity, courage and a shared commitment to the Jewish future.

William C. Daroff is the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.