Sami Steigmann, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, uses Facebook but aspires to reach and educate younger audiences via platforms like Instagram and TikTok, he told JNS at an event in Queens on Thursday night.
As JNS sat with Steigmann in the front row at Congregation Etz Hayim, a Conservative synagogue in Hollis Hills, a woman, who appeared to be in her 60s, who was sitting next to him, chimed in and offered to teach him how to post on Instagram.
It was just the sort of interaction that the nonprofit, IMPACT, which hosted the gathering of some 60 people on Thursday evening at Congregation Etz Hayim, a Conservative synagogue in the Hollis Hills neighborhood of Queens, hopes to encourage.
“Not everyone can go to a rally,” Aaron Herman, co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit, told JNS. “Not everyone can go out in the streets, but they can go from their couch.”
“This group right here is really special,” he said of the attendees, seniors as well as younger adults. “It’s an untapped group of people who want to make a difference.”
Pro-Israel Jews and allies who aren’t necessarily marching in rallies or attending protests can still defend the Jewish state and fight antisemitism via their keyboards or their phones, as IMPACT sees it.
The nonprofit’s “digital defender” program trains such people. A prior training on community organizing drew about 100 people, according to Herman.
Steigmann told attendees that his experiences during the Holocaust shape his belief that education is central to combating hatred.
“The Holocaust must be taught forever and ever,” he told JNS.
The lack of history education that some younger people are getting concerns him increasingly. “The virus of bullying, bigotry, Jew-hatred, hate, racism and ideology can be fought only through education,” he said.
Queens resident Arlene Schlesinger, 74, who also attended the training, told JNS that “we have to be more active.” She meant being active by speaking up to defend Jews.
“You have to,” she told JNS. “You can’t be quiet.”
The IMPACT training came as Jews in Queens continue to confront antisemitic incidents. In May, vandals defaced Congregation Machane Chodosh, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Forest Hills, and Rego Park Jewish Center, a Conservative synagogue, with Nazi swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti.
The New York City Police Department released surveillance footage of four suspects and investigated the vandalism as hate crimes.
Two months later, two Young Israel congregations in eastern Queens were targeted hours apart with bags containing motor oil. One also reportedly was vandalized with feces. The NYPD released surveillance footage in August while seeking two suspects in connection with the incidents, which it also probed as hate crimes.
At the IMPACT training, participants learned about social media algorithms, how to use ChatGPT to create digital content and flyers and how to use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to distribute information.
The goal was not just to garner likes or followers but to understand the power of a compelling story, according to Herman.
“Everyone has a network,” he told JNS. “If they’re empowered to do something, then imagine what will happen.”
Schlesinger, who is active on social media and posts regularly about Israel and Judaism, said that she has encountered young people who challenge her understanding of historical events.
She recalled conversations about 9/11 in which she was surprised by how little some young people knew about the attacks.
“You didn’t learn it in school,” she told JNS. “You don’t comprehend having changed our city, our country and our world.”
Schlesinger came to the training partly out of frustration with the way Jew-hatred is being handled in New York City and nationwide.
She wants to use what she learned at the training to encourage others to become more involved. She had a simple message. “Stop being quiet,” she said.
D’Anna Morgan, who grew up Catholic, is the nonprofit’s community outreach coordinator. She said that she became involved with the group after attending pro-Israel rallies and counterprotests. She thinks that fighting Jew-hatred requires non-Jewish allies.
“It’s important to be here to show there are other ways to mobilize and fight against this antisemitism, against this anti-Israel sentiment and anti-American sentiment,” she told JNS.
Morgan spoke to the group about her Zionism and experiences at demonstrations. She encouraged participants to see digital advocacy as a way of growing the movement.
Herman told JNS that the nonprofit is working to build relationships with Christian, Muslim and Hindu communities. “We have the numbers if we work together,” he said.
For Schlesinger, who has studied the Holocaust since her 20s and sees troubling parallels between the spread of hatred today and the forces that preceded the Holocaust, the stakes are larger than social media.
“Never again is now,” she told JNS.
