Every year, some people wait with giddy anticipation for the announcements of the nominees for the Grammy Awards, or the Oscars, or the Kids Choice Awards. And some of us who are way less fun to talk to at parties wait for the results of national reports on antisemitism.
Well, for those of us who are such gluttons for punishment, the American Jewish Council just delivered, releasing their report on The State of Antisemitism in 2024. Spoiler alert: it’s in a bad state! You can access the full report on their website. But there’s something I wanted to reflect on really quickly…
There’s Actually Good News in Here!
Go with me here… While it’s obviously terrible that American Jews think antisemitism is on the rise and that a majority of Jews have felt it necessary to change their behavior in the face of it, there’s something interesting in the other data.
I’d like to draw your attention to the webpage showing the comparison between how American Jews perceive antisemitism and how the General Public views antisemitism. For example, check this out:
And this:
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s good to see that such a large portion of the general public is aware of antisemitism, doesn’t like it, and views it as detrimental to society as a whole.
Great. Everyone Knows Things Are Awful. And…?
Well, you knew I was going to bring it back to Theatre Ariel, right? Watch me cook…
There are two things I hear time and time again at our performances: how do we get more young people to see the shows, and how do we get more non-Jews to see the shows.
We’re working on the young people*. Bringing in more non-Jews proves to be a tough nut to crack. Anecdotally, when non-Jews attend our performances, they love them. They relate to them. They’re glad to be there. Same for our non-Jewish actors.
But we don’t have great marketing access to that demographic, yet. When we do, I think some people aren’t sure they should come. Aren’t sure they’d be welcome. Or feel like they’d be intruding.
And at the same time, I wonder if our audience is embarrassed to ask them to come.
Think about whom you’d reach out to and recommend they see a typical show at the Arden or the Walnut or InterAct. Now think about whom you’ve reached out to when you’ve seen a great show at Theatre Ariel (that is: all of them!). Are they the same? If not – why not?
Because when I look at the comparison above, I think to myself, We’ve got friends. There are some righteous among the gentiles! But I also worry that for many non-Jews, the thing they know most about the Jews is that people hate us.
They should know more than that. They should know who we are, what we believe, what we think, how diverse we are. So while we as an organization continue working to make in-roads into the non-Jewish community, I’d ask that you also help them get to know us a little better.
Bring them to a show.
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* We had a great turnout for our Young Professionals Night at Amsterdam – they loved the show and had a lively discussion on the sidewalk even after the post-show reflection in the theatre. And we help sponsor a bi-monthly Shabbat Play Reading Series attended by people in their 20s and 30s. We continue to look at programming and alliances that will build that audience.
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