New Rochelle resident Daniel Rosen and White Plains resident Aaron Herman have launched Emissary, to inspire “minds and hearts to combat antisemitism across the tri-state area.” A free mobile application, Emissary empowers users to learn more about and combat antisemitism. Users can leverage the power of social media to inform and reshape perceptions about Jewish culture and Israel, while gaining powerful new tools to fight against prejudice and hatred of Jews.
Rosen explained that after October 7, he and his wife Leila developed an idea to create social media warriors who would work in a coordinated way on social media. Rosen called Young Israel of New Rochelle’s Rabbi Reuven Fink to tell him their idea. Hoping to get a meeting, the rabbi responded, “Come down right now.” Fink expressed, “I’m in, what do you want to do?” Rosen noted, “When I went to Rabbi Fink, he gave me the koach to continue.”
“Emissary is a not-for-profit technology company with the goal of being a network composed of millions of people internationally, to work in a coordinated way, to affect the conversation on social media and beyond.”
Rosen described Emissary’s three components:
- AskEmissary™: An AI-powered feature that helps users develop informed opinions and access coaching for handling challenging situations involving antisemitism or prejudice.
- EmissarySocial™: A content hub providing daily refreshed, credible materials from trusted sources, enabling users to easily share posts with their social networks and reshape public perceptions of Jewish culture and Israel.
- EmissaryConnect™ (coming soon): A community-building feature that enables users to connect, coordinate actions, and address issues such as false claims on social media or incidents reflecting antisemitism.
Rosen called AskEmissary “an educational piece. Users can ask any question.” He gave examples: “Does Israel commit genocide against Palestinians? Does Israel persecute Israeli Arabs?” The app is designed to produce an answer. “It’s different from ChatGPT because it’s specifically designed for fighting and combating antisemitism. It’s educational. You can use it at the dinner table with your children. You can talk with your colleagues. This will assist students on campus.”
Rosen continued: “For EmissarySocial, we have a professional staff who curate content from trusted sources daily. Twice a day, it’s uploaded onto the app. Users can read it, and with a few easy clicks, upload to their own personal socials: Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
“EmissaryConnect allows people to work in a coordinated way to affect narratives. We have communities being built to work together. One voice becomes five voices, then 10 voices. The power of people can have a real impact.”
Rosen offered a few examples of how this works. First, he cited CNN’s report blaming Israel for bombing Shifa hospital. “With this technology, we could have directed thousands of people to CNN’s page saying it was not true.” Second are influencers who post antisemitic rhetoric on their own page. “We identify that person, and we would direct thousands of people asking, ‘Do you know you’re being antisemitic? Are you aware that the thing that you’re writing is discriminatory and that antisemitism is also racism?’ It can make that person reassess if this is good for their brand.”
Another example was from a year ago, when vandals sprayed antisemitic graffiti on store windows at Scarsdale’s Golden Horseshoe Shopping Center. “Imagine if this app had already been built,” Rosen said. “If thousands of Westchester County people were part of this technology, we could have notified everyone. Thousands would have descended and had a massive event recognizing what happened. In addition, we could have created a digital campaign with hundreds of thousands of people across the country bringing attention to the Golden Horseshoe incident.
“Working together in coordinated ways, we can really affect things,” Rosen continued. “We’re basically doing community organizing for generations; it’s not a new concept. The new part is asking people to organize on any piece of technology and use it in different ways.”
Rosen concluded: “Our goal is to combat antisemitism. … Our end game is millions of people creating billions of impressions. The math is, we need to have 50,000 active users…
“The most important part right now is downloading the app and registering. Emissary’s goal is to create a network, streamlined to millions of people to affect narratives on social media and beyond.”
To download the app, visit https://emissary4all.app.link/NYEmissary
