American Jews Need Synagogues

In his 2024 essay about American Jewish philanthropy in the wake of the October 7 attacks, Jack Wertheimer observed that the older, more established Jewish organizations—federations, synagogues, and so forth—were often those best situated to rise to the occasion. His discovery flies in the face of much conventional wisdom about these supposedly moribund institutions, from the countercultural-inspired havurah movement of informal synagogues during the 1960s and 70s until the self-styled “start-up” Jewish organizations of today.