In moments of crisis, Jewish communal professionals are often the unsung heroes. They are the ones who open synagogue doors, organize community gatherings, reassure worried parents, coordinate aid, and sustain a sense of belonging when fear and uncertainty threaten to overwhelm us. Since Oct. 7, they have been carrying extraordinary burdens — grappling with their own grief and anxiety while simultaneously tending to the needs of entire communities.
Now, thanks to The Hope Study, conducted by M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, we have a clearer window into their reality. This groundbreaking effort, which surveyed nearly 950 professionals across North America, is the most comprehensive portrait yet of what gives Jewish professionals hope — and what threatens it.
The findings are both sobering and inspiring. Perhaps the most striking revelation is that the greatest threats to professionals’ hope are not external. While rising antisemitism and the conflict in Israel weigh heavily on personal well-being, what most undermines professional effectiveness are internal communal divisions and leadership shortcomings.
Professionals report feeling “caught between competing factions” and watching their communities tear themselves apart. It is not the outside world that most impedes their ability to serve; it is the inability of our own institutions to navigate disagreement with integrity and compassion.
The study also punctures common assumptions about what professionals need. Mental health resources and employee assistance programs, while important, are not their top priorities. What they are asking for instead are practical tools for navigating sensitive conversations, structured forums to process events together, principled leadership and authentic community. In other words, they want to be empowered, not just comforted.
The data shows just how resilient this field is. Even as only one in four professionals report feeling hopeful about the future “often,” more than half report feeling energized by their work. Their Jewish identity and sense of belonging emerge as the strongest anchors of resilience, forming what the study calls a “resilience triangle” — Jewish belonging, professional energy and hope. Professionals are managing to hold communities together not because they are untouched by crisis, but because they find purpose and strength in the very act of serving.
Yet this resilience has limits. The survey revealed sharp disparities. Women, who made up 78% of those surveyed, report significantly lower hope than men. Secular and cultural Jews, who represent a quarter of respondents, report lower resilience than their Orthodox peers. Day school professionals consistently show higher measures of hope and energy, suggesting models the rest of the communal world could study. And executive leaders, who report higher resilience, may underestimate how much their staff are struggling.
What then is the path forward? The Hope Study offers a road map. Organizations must:
• Invest in leadership development that combines moral clarity with genuine care.
• Build frameworks for safe, honest dialogue across ideological divides.
• Create systems that help professionals see and celebrate the impact of their work.
• Strengthen Jewish identity resources that anchor belonging and meaning.
This is not abstract theory — it is what Jewish professionals themselves are asking for. And it is well within our communal power to provide.
The Hope Study should be required reading for every federation executive, synagogue board and Jewish organizational leader. At a time when professionals are stretched thin and tested as never before, this study reminds us of their resilience — and of our responsibility to sustain it.
