From Sinai to Social Media: William Daroff on the Generation Stepping Up

The CEO of the Conference of Presidents talks social media, communal unity and the teenagers he calls “warriors on behalf of the Jewish people.”

William Daroff remembers when a Jew with something to say had to write a letter to the editor and hope for the best.

“Here, we literally have a megaphone that’s connected to the entire world,” he told me. “And there are others out there who are trying to make our voices smaller, and we need to be out there speaking loudly and clearly and saying: ‘We are proud supporters of Israel. We’re proud Jews.’”

Few people have earned the right to say that more than Daroff. As CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, he sits at the crossroads of organized American Jewish life. And long before most Jewish institutions had a social media strategy, he was already online, building one.

 

The Original Jewish Influencer

Search for Jewish leaders on social media and Daroff’s name rises to the top. That’s no accident. He was on LinkedIn roughly 20 years ago, then Facebook, then Twitter as soon as it caught on.

“To the point that at one point The Jerusalem Post called me the most influential Jewish Tweeter,” he said with a smile. “And number two was Prime Minister Netanyahu, which was kind of cool.”

For Daroff, the platforms were never about followers. They were about reach. “I saw social media as a way to engage with the Jewish community across the world,” he explained, “as a way of making the Jewish world a little bit smaller.”

He admits he posts less these days. But he hasn’t lost faith in the power of a single voice. “I very much appreciate the engagement that every individual Jew, every individual pro-Israel American can have to speak out.”

 

One Voice, Fifty Organizations

The Conference of Presidents was founded in the late 1950s so American Jewry could speak with one voice on foreign policy and antisemitism. Today it counts 50 member organizations: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox; left, right and center.

Getting that many voices to harmonize has never been simple. But Daroff says October 7 changed the math.

“Since October 7th, the organizations are working together more closely, more collaboratively than they have probably at any time since 1967 or 1973,” he said. “It’s been really amazing to see organizations coming together.”

He offered two reasons. First, “there’s so much work to be done that it really is an all-hands-on-deck situation.” Second, the horror of that day, and the global reaction that followed, clarified everything.

“October 7th, and particularly October 8th, were very focusing of where our priorities need to be as a community,” Daroff said, “and how we are stronger as a community when we stand together unified. And that’s very much the raison d’être of the Conference of Presidents.”

 

“I Apologize on Behalf of My Generation”

At IMPACT, we work with high school students across the New York and New Jersey area. Everywhere we go, they tell us the same thing: they face a constant bombardment of Jewish hatred on social media, and sometimes they simply don’t know what to do about it.

Some feel afraid. Many feel unsure of what to say or do. This is exactly where we need to help them step up.

I asked Daroff what he would tell them. His answer began somewhere I didn’t expect.

“First off, I’m sorry,” he said. “I apologize on behalf of my generation, your parents’ generation, that the situation is as it is now. And instead of watching baseball and instead of playing cards, you’re having to engage as warriors on behalf of the Jewish people.”

Then the apology turned into something closer to awe.

“I could not be prouder of how the younger generation has stood up in this post-October 7th environment,” he said. “For sure in Israel, where we see them as soldiers, literally soldiers. But here in America where, again, instead of doing algebra homework, you’re focusing on protecting the Jewish people, you’re focusing on standing firm for Israel.”

His message to those teens is simple: speak up, because they matter. “That voice is something that is more important now than ever before,” he said. When young people step forward, he believes, the effect multiplies, making it “so 1 + 1 = 3, and we as the Jewish people are stronger with you at the helm.”

That is exactly why we need new approaches and new tools at our disposal. When we showed high school students the new IMPACT app(https://www.joinimpact.app/get), their reaction stopped me in my tracks. We had created, in their words, a Jewish TikTok with purpose: a feed of meaningful missions they can choose from and act on.

Tools like this are essential. If we want the next generation to stand up, we have to train them to be champions.

 

From Sinai to the Lower East Side

In the months after October 7, it felt like the whole Jewish world was sitting shiva. I asked Daroff whether we’ve moved into a new chapter: an age of resilience.

He didn’t hesitate.

“I think as a Jewish people, part of our DNA is to be resilient,” he said. “If we weren’t resilient, we never would have left Sinai. If we weren’t resilient, we never would have left the shtetl. If we weren’t resilient, we never would have left the Lower East Side.” He paused, then grinned: “With apologies to those who are still on the Lower East Side.”

For Daroff, survival alone was never the goal. “As a people, it’s very much a part of our DNA to survive,” he said, “but not just to survive, to thrive.”

When we come together, he said, it shows that “we as a people are stronger when we’re together, and we are strong.”

Today, a new wave of voices is carrying that resilience forward. Leaders like Shai Davidai, Zack Sage Fox, Montana Tucker and others have stepped up to inspire the next generation, helping young Jews realize they have the potential to make a difference: using their voices, getting creative, pushing back against hate and showing the world what Jewish resilience looks like.

 

Moving Forward, Together

Daroff’s words point to something I see every day at IMPACT: neither generation can win this fight alone.

Our teenagers know the platforms where so much of today’s hatred spreads. Our parents and grandparents carry the memory, and the hard-won lessons, of what happens when hate goes unanswered. When young and old work together in a coordinated way, learning from each other, we become more than the sum of our parts. That is Daroff’s 1 + 1 = 3.

That partnership has to live in two places at once: online, where the hate is loudest, and on the ground, in our schools, synagogues, campuses and town squares.

Throughout our history, we have seen how important it is to understand where we came from. But memory alone is not enough. We have to push forward, disrupt the norms and put real tools into people’s hands, so they can tap into their passion and turn it into action.

There is more at stake now than ever before. And we have a way forward, together.

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Aaron Herman is the Co-Founder and CEO of IMPACT, a movement that organizes, empowers, and mobilizes the Jewish community and its allies to combat hate while amplifying Jewish joy and resilience. Join the movement and follow @joinimpactnow on social media.
Aaron is also a startup advisor, video journalist, and growth strategist specializing in Jewish storytelling and advocacy. His reporting has appeared in national and Jewish media outlets. He holds a BA from Binghamton University and an MPA from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. Aaron can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..