In the months after Oct. 7, 43% of American Jews told researchers they were engaging with Jewish life more than they had before the attacks. A year later, that number had fallen to 31%.
The figures were gathered in two rounds of polling by the Jewish Federations of North America, which named the phenomenon “the Surge.” The 2025 follow-up, fielded in March, found that 72% of the people who surged in 2024 were still engaged. The rest were no longer engaging at higher levels.
People showed up. The question every congregation faced afterward was what, exactly, they’d shown up to, and whether it gave them a reason to come back on a week when nothing terrible had happened.
What the Surge Data Says American Jews Want
Adults between 55 and 74 without children at home made up 29% of the 2025 Surge, the biggest of the groups the study broke out, and they wanted “meaning, solidarity, and cultural or spiritual connection.” Young adults without children were 21%, and they wanted communities that would accept them, especially “non-political spaces.” Parents with children slipped from 24% of the Surge to 19%. What they asked for was information and a like-minded community.
Seventy-three percent said they wanted deeper Jewish knowledge, and 79% of Jews surveyed said they were deeply concerned about antisemitism.
Surgers told researchers they came in through time with Jewish friends, synagogue programs, WhatsApp groups, and organizations like Hillel, Chabad, and JCCs.
A second release, published in May 2025, showed the drop-off running fastest among the groups that had jumped the most in 2024. Among LGBTQ+ Jews, the share engaging more fell from 49% to 21% in a year. Among Jews who aren’t white Ashkenazi, it fell from 57% to 30%. Among financially vulnerable Jews, it went from 49% to 32%. The financially vulnerable group was more likely to describe feeling “alienated” or “excluded.” Mimi Kravetz, the Federations’ chief impact officer, said “the window to engage these members of the community is closing.”
Rabbi Jonathan Aaron, who has led Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills since 1996, told Ynet in November 2025 that there is “a decline worldwide in the younger generation’s understanding of the importance of belonging to a synagogue.” In Woodland Hills, Temple Aliyah and Shomrei Torah were merged into one congregation.
How Rabbi Jeremy Barras Answered the Renewal-Season Question
Rabbi Jeremy Barras had been working on a version of this problem for years before the Surge gave it a name.
Every synagogue lives through the same annual ritual when dues statements go out.
“When people join a synagogue or church or something, every year they’re like, is it worth it? Do we ever even go?” Barras said.
Barras, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest, Florida, since 2015, decided the answer should be so obvious that nobody bothers asking. He wanted members to feel they couldn’t believe what they got for belonging.
His tool for that was a building. The Hub went up on the Temple Beth Am campus during a capital campaign that began shortly before COVID-19, and most of what’s inside has nothing to do with worship: a café, a pool, a gym, workspace, and, upstairs, the Frankel Family Performing Arts Center. You don’t have to attend a service to use any of it.
“It’s become a real community thing,” Barras said.
He’s used to correcting people who assume his job ends at the sanctuary door. “A lot of times when people say, oh, well, you’re the rabbi of that synagogue, I say, yes, but no,” he said. “It’s a lot more.”
The Hub’s youth basketball league draws more than a thousand players. Joe Biden, Gisele Bündchen, the actor Michael Rapaport, and the comedian Modi have all been brought to that stage, according to Barras. A visitor who comes for a comedy night or a basketball game is standing inside a synagogue, whether or not they’d put it that way.
Programming for the Moment the Surge Created
CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga was booked recently. Barras says she co-wrote a children’s book about antisemitism with an Israeli journalist. He also booked Tal Becker, the Foreign Ministry legal adviser who argued Israel’s case against South Africa’s genocide accusations in The Hague in January 2024.
The Federations found older surgers looking for solidarity and cultural connection, and a lecture from the lawyer who defended Israel in that case offers both, in a room full of people who feel the same way. The rest of the calendar speaks to the young-adult preference for non-political spaces. A stand-up set or a celebrity chef is about as far from a partisan argument as a synagogue can get, and the Hub’s upcoming lineup leans that way, with chef Marcus Samuelsson and organizational psychologist Adam Grant among the scheduled names.
The parent findings fit the campus too. Families with a child in the day school or a youth league already have the information and like-minded community the Federations says parents are looking for, and they have it without going looking.
Temple Beth Am’s Growth Since 2015
Barras says the congregation has climbed from roughly 27th in size nationally to sixth or seventh since he arrived, with membership now approaching 2,000 families. The day school has filled over the same stretch, to the point of turning families away.
The Hub is still the piece most visible to someone who has never set foot in the sanctuary. It also happens to suit the people the Surge research describes: interested, a little unsure, and looking for a way in. The Federations’ researchers called the post-Oct. 7 moment a window. What Temple Beth Am has built is a way to keep people after a window like that closes, by giving them somewhere to be on a Tuesday long before they need a synagogue on a Saturday.
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