Jewish Americans and supporters of Israel gather at the National Mall in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 2023 for the “March for Israel” rally. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner

People are ultimately judged by what they do and don’t do, and young Jewish adults are missing in action in the fight against antisemitism. Surprisingly, the demographic showing up, standing up, and doing the work online and offline are people middle-aged and older. Young people, by and large, are not.

It seems every conversation about activism defaults to reaching “the youth,” while nobody focuses on the older demographic. That needs to change. As president of IMPACT, a grassroots movement organizing the broader community to combat Jew-hatred online and on the streets, I have a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening on the ground. Not what people assume is happening, but what the numbers and the faces at events tell us.

It would seem wise to engage with the people who are in the fight. We can spend our energy theorizing about why younger Jews and allies aren’t showing up or we can recognize reality and build our strategy around the community that has actually shown up: the 55-and-up cohort who have proven, event after event, that they are willing to give their time, their voices, and their commitment to this cause.

I don’t say this to be provocative. I say it because it’s the honest, uncomfortable finding of someone who has spent the last 2 ¾ years in the trenches of this work. Whatever the reasons — time constraints, competing priorities, an underdeveloped sense of urgency about the moment we’re living through, or simple unwillingness to adjust a comfortable lifestyle for the sake of something larger — the result is the same. Ultimately, however, those in their 20s and 30s must bear the primary responsibility for their own inaction.

That’s exactly why IMPACT created our 55+ Digital Activism Training Seminars. While part of this older demographic is active online, they are often navigating it as spectators rather than as the formidable organizers they are in the physical world. This is where the real opportunity for development lies.

A recent participant named Miriam captured the sentiment perfectly: “I always knew I had to be involved in social media, but I never understood the path forward. I understood going to a rally, but online activism is just as important, and now I have a way to act continuously long after the rally is over.”

Miriam speaks for the thousands of motivated people who possess passion, commitment, and presence; they simply need the digital framework to turn that passion into power. By investing in their digital evolution, we aren’t just helping them “keep up” — we are unlocking a force that has been waiting for the right path to amplify their impact.

In the end, activism is defined by grit, not a birth year. There is a powerful lesson that the older generation is imparting to everyone else: if those who came before us can master new tools to defend their values, then the younger generation has no excuse to remain disengaged.

The battle lines are now starkly drawn. We are witnessing a defining struggle between the activism of the DSA-educated left and the resilient, seasoned ranks of Gen X and the Baby Boomers. This is the fight of our time, and there is no room left on the sidelines.

Daniel M. Rosen is the President and Co-founder of IMPACT, a 501c3 dedicated to organizing, empowering, and mobilizing individuals to combat Jew hatred on social media and beyond. Follow us at @joinimpactnow