DECEMBER 30 • 2021 | 9

In his new documentary 
The Will to See, the French 
philosopher Bernard-Henri 
Lévy observes that the 
pandemic has made the 
human race more insular and 
parochial. That is sobering 
news for those, like Lévy 
himself, who treasure the idea 
of solidarity across borders 
in the service of opening up 
closed societies and securing 
freedom for those weighed 
down by tyrants. It is also 
sobering for those who believe 
— or want to believe — that 
history is a march toward a 
better, more just world.
At the same time, other 
developments indicate 
profound changes to come 
in how we live our lives. 
The growing adoption of 
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin 
and ethereum was the big 
economic story of 2021, in part 
because of the now legendary 
volatility of these assets but 
also because the blockchain 
technology underlying them 
has revolutionized the way in 
which financial transactions 
are verified. 
Their deeper significance 
will become clearer as the 
internet evolves into its next 
iteration — an environment 
where the user’s experience 
is enclosed within a virtual 
universe of private homes, 
online shopping malls, 
gaming centers and similar 
offerings with commercial 
potential. This new economy 
is already being driven by 
cryptocurrencies. It will 
grow because as a society 
we are going to be spending 
increasing portions of our time 
living online.
I have no doubt that even in 
this brave new world, there will 
be ample room to grapple with 
the problems that rear their 
heads once more. Another war 
in Gaza 10 years from now 
will doubtless replay the tired 
and bitter justifications for the 

continued rejection of Israel’s 
presence by the Islamists and 
their allies, but its media and 
messaging dimension will be 
fought on different and likely 
much more dangerous terrain 
in what’s currently called the 
metaverse.
That is why I want to 
end these reflections with a 
recommendation. We cannot 
prevent the cycles of history 
from returning to batter us 
with the same discredited 
tropes, but we can prepare 
ourselves more astutely. Jewish 
organizations and institutions 
need to focus their intellectual 
resources on understanding 
how the next stage of the 
internet — a parallel world we 
inhabit rather like the physical 
one — will impact us as a 
people.
On an immediate level, that 
means anticipating as best as 
possible how antisemitism, 
which has continued to plague 
social-media platforms this 
year, will manifest in a three-
dimensional virtual space. 
It also means grabbing the 
longer-term opportunities 
that this environment will 
offer — from raising funds 
to conducting educational 
outreach to reaching entirely 
new audiences.
During the past year, we 
were afforded the clearest 
sense yet of what this digital 
future holds, which is the 
most positive thing I can say 
about 2021. Some people will 
question whether that future is 
desirable to begin with, while 
others will fret that the virtual 
universe will make us more 
selfish, more insular, more 
impulsive and less intelligent 
than we are now. Over the next 
decade, we are sure to find 
out. 

Ben Cohen is a New York City-based 

journalist and author who writes 

a weekly column on Jewish and 

international affairs for JNS.

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wo social meetings with friends brought Merle 
and Ron Schwartz to focus on Hebrew Free 
Loan as a place to establish a fund to honor the 
memory of Merle’s parents. Over drinks and 
again at a lunch, HFL came up in conversation. 
Merle and Ron looked into it further, and found an 
area of need that spoke to them. 
“My father was the head of OB/GYN at Sinai 
Hospital,” Merle said. “He trained many doctors 
in the city, was very pro women’s health, and did 
a great deal to advance surrogacy, infertility and 
in-vitro fertilization. My mother also worked at 
Sinai, and was active in prenatal care and diabetic 
education. They both would have loved to know 
that we established the Sandra and Alfred Sherman 
Family IVF/Fertility/Adoption Loan Fund at Hebrew Free 
Loan to help grow Jewish families. The cost of 
testing, treatments and adoption fees can some-
times be a barrier for many Jewish couples. 
“What a satisfying thing, knowing that we 
could offer help in a real and substantive way, 
make a difference in people’s lives, and give 
them the happiness of family, just as we’ve had,” 
Merle said.

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