This week, Jews the world over will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Sept. 11. Observers of the holiday participate in a tradition of eating apples dipped in honey and wish each other not just a happy, but a sweet new year.
Honeybees pollinate plants as they nourish themselves and live in a structure where each insect contributes to the welfare of others. They reflect an important Jewish teaching that everyone can be both a giver and a receiver.
Within our own communities, many Jewish organizations are bringing this interconnectedness to the social sector — both for their community as well as the larger community. Many of the services provided by these organizations are available to everyone. They may be grounded in Jewish values or supported by the Jewish community, but their work often benefits older adults, families and neighbors of many faiths and backgrounds.
Today, we want to take this moment to share some of the ecosystem-building work that the Jewish community has led in the social sector and encourage the entire sector to actively combat antisemitism.
Collaborating on Streamlined Senior Services
In 2015, The Chronicle of Philanthropy published a special report on the seismic changes ahead for charities as Americans age. It created a ripple effect in communities across the country, prompting them to develop their own reports. We had the pleasure of working on one with The Senior Source and the Visiting Nurse Association: The Silver Tsunami in North Texas.
The reports outlined the problem, but Jewish organizations across the country were already working on solutions. AgeWell Pittsburgh is still one of my favorite examples. Older adults and their caregivers should not have to understand an entire nonprofit ecosystem just to find help. But too often, that is exactly what we ask them to do.
In 2004, the Jewish Association on Aging, the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Family and Community Services came together, with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. AgeWell became a shared front door for food, transportation, wellness programs, care management and other support. Although it grew from Jewish organizations, AgeWell serves older adults across the broader community.
More than 20 years later, the collaboration is still operating. Anyone who has ever worked on a partnership knows how hard that can be. We at Social Impact Architects later helped scale the AgeWell concept to Cincinnati and Dallas, but in different ways. We used ecosystem mapping to understand which organizations were already serving older adults, what each did well and where the gaps remained. Cincinnati and Dallas did not have the same ecosystem, so it would not have made sense for them to have the same solution.
Technology now makes the work easier than ever. Communities can create shared resource directories, improve referrals and make it easier for someone to find the right door. But, as we have learned through this work, technology cannot build relationships for you. Organizations still have to trust each other enough to coordinate their work.
Advocating for Low-Income Workers
Like its Christian counterpart, the Jewish community has been a tireless advocate of improving our record on income inequality. Jewish groups have been on the frontlines of the Earned Income Tax Credit and other policies that support low-income workers. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is one example of an organization connecting Jewish values to public life.
The Jewish community is not monolithic, and Jewish organizations do not agree on every issue or every policy solution. But they have built an infrastructure that helps people learn, participate and act on their values.
For nonprofits, advocacy is not separate from mission. Sometimes it is how we address the conditions creating the need in the first place.
Building Ecosystems to Support Entrepreneurship
Innovation in the social sector has been popular the past few years. The Jewish community was not only an early adopter of this philosophy, but it also built an ecosystem to support entrepreneurial growth.
Slingshot, founded in 2005, helped innovative Jewish organizations gain visibility and funding. Its work has evolved, and it now develops young Jewish philanthropists through leadership programs, giving circles and its “10 to Watch” list.
UpStart supports another part of the ecosystem by working with entrepreneurs, leaders and organizations. It has partnered with more than 250 organizations and thousands of leaders over nearly two decades. Its newest strategic plan is smartly focused on strengthening the field, not simply helping one venture at a time. This is an important distinction. As we have shared before, it is one thing to support an entrepreneur. It is another to build the funding, networks, mentoring and visibility that help entrepreneurs continue to emerge and grow.
And this idea is important to every community. Women, people of color, people with disabilities and others who have not always had equal access to funding and networks do not lack ideas. They may lack the introductions, mentors and early support that help an idea move forward. If we want a wider range of successful for-profit and social entrepreneurs, we must build the ecosystem around them.
Combating Antisemitism as a Sector-wide Strategy
We also cannot celebrate the Jewish community’s significant contributions without also discussing the rise in antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League documented 6,274 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2025. Although that represented a decline from the record set in 2024, it was still the third-highest total since the organization began tracking incidents in 1979. Physical assaults reached their highest recorded level.
Combating antisemitism cannot be left to Jewish organizations alone.
Every nonprofit can ask a few basic questions: Do our board and staff understand antisemitism? Is it included in our diversity and inclusion work? Do Jewish colleagues and community partners know we will speak up when people or institutions are targeted?
We also need to distinguish between legitimate disagreement over government policy and language or conduct that targets Jewish identity. If the social sector believes in dignity and belonging, those commitments must now include the Jewish community.
Just like the bees, nonprofits — with leadership from the Jewish community — are learning to work together to create an ecosystem that supports our collective work. Many of these organizations have Jewish roots, but the benefit of their work extends far beyond the Jewish community.
We at Social Impact Architects have been privileged to work with many of these innovators across the country. Their example reminds us that good ideas are only the beginning. We also have to create the support that allows those ideas and the people behind them to flourish.
What other examples of Jewish social innovation should we elevate? And how is your organization supporting Jewish colleagues and communities now and into the future? We welcome your examples and reflections in the comments.
