Articles

It is January 2026, and every assumption, belief and expectation concerning the state of our democracy, the status of Jews, and the future of Israel that I had held appears to have come undone. In some measure, none of what I am experiencing appears to be real. Such profound political and social disruption presents itself as both a personal and collective nightmare.

As we enter 2026, there are a series of conflicting data points concerning the “State” of American religion.
“Stable volatility” may best define the American religious landscape. While the long-term decline in traditional religious affiliation has slowed, the ways Americans engage with faith are shifting toward personalization, mental health, and political identity.

As we prepare to enter 2026, we can anticipate several specific trends and focal points that are likely to dominate our communal agenda and personal lives. Over the next year, various themes are to be regarded as significant, and even transformational.

Since its inception 125 years ago, the Jewish federation model has introduced giving opportunities and access to donors at all levels. Having achieved such a degree of credibility, the system also established a distinctive and representative distribution model.

A new power configuration has reshaped the American Jewish communal order. Money, power, and ego have contributed to this new Jewish institutional paradigm.

Traditional forms of civic engagement — unions, religious communities, neighborhood associations, political parties, advocacy organizations, and volunteer groups — have seen declining membership since the mid-20th century.

What lies ahead for American religion? New data on “religious stability” is raising some interesting questions. More directly, there are significant, even uncertain challenges facing American Judaism.

Fifteen theoretical models allow us to better understand the “new antisemitism.” Contemporary Jewish hatred involves hostility toward Jews that is manifested not through traditional racial or religious stereotypes but rather through opposition to Israel or globalization recasting negative references to Jews and Israel in political or conspiratorial terms.

We are finding ourselves experiencing a very different society than the one that most of us can recall from our earlier years. It is as if we have been transported to a new place and time. Many of our core beliefs and practices that described how we defined and understood who and what it was to be an American have all but disappeared.

A quarter way through the 21st Century, the religious model is confronting an array of structural and policy challenges, among them, the decline of traditional membership numbers and increasingly more diverse constituencies, both politically and religiously.