Your Daily Phil: Remains of the day: Project transforms Oct. 7 objects into potent symbols
Add EJP on GoogleGood Friday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we feature an interview with World Mizrahi Chair Rabbi Doron Perez, report from the annual gala of American Friends of ELEM in New York City and spotlight Comfort Object, a project by Israeli artists restoring and transforming items damaged during the Oct. 7 attacks. We feature an opinion piece by Jessica Leving Siegel reflecting on the pressure in the Jewish communal world to draw lines in the sand. Also in this issue: Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Capt. Omer Neutra and Rudy Boschwitz.
What We’re Watching
On Sunday, the Bay Area-based Z3 Project is kicking off its annual conference on Israel-Diaspora relations, which continues through Tuesday.
Also on Sunday, the Zionist Organization of America will hold its annual gala, where it will present awards to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY); Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force; Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon; and philanthropists Irit and Jonathan Tratt.
What You Should Know
For Rabbi Doron Perez, chair of the Modern Orthodox World Mizrachi movement, the past month has been a time in which joy and sorrow, mourning and celebration, have collided. Three weeks ago, the remains of his son, Capt. Daniel Perez, who was killed during the Oct. 7 attacks and whose remains were taken captive into Gaza, were returned to Israel under the ceasefire agreement, and a funeral was held on Oct. 15.
Less than two weeks later, at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Perez was proposed as the next chair of the World Zionist Organization under a power-sharing agreement between the center-left and center-right blocs, which collapsed hours after it was announced. As the negotiations continued, the remains of Staff Sgt. Itay Chen were returned to Israel, marking the full return of all members of Daniel Perez’s tank crew to Israel. And after extended coalition talks, Perez is now expected to serve as the next president of the WZO, a largely ceremonial role, but one that will offer him a chance to represent the global Zionist community, not only the religious communities that he has until now led as World Mizrachi chair.
Perez spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross last night to discuss his personal and professional whiplash, and the unity that he believes the Zionist movement and the Jewish People need to focus on moving forward.
JAG: The issue in much of the negotiations seem to focus on the nature of the National Institutions, which many — particularly on the center-left — see as corrupt. This was what Yesh Atid said when it dropped out of them.
DP: I can’t really comment on the inner workings of Yesh Atid and their motivations. … But I can say that I do agree that the challenge we have in many institutions, including the WZO and KKL, is that they can be viewed, by some, as an opportunity to provide jobs and positions. You could make an argument that the leadership of the WZO is bloated more than it should be. I do want to say, though, that the same argument could be made about the government of Israel, and even when [Yesh Atid] was in power, there were lots of promises to bring down the amount of ministers, and they struggled to do it. Because when you have to govern and when you’ve got a coalition that you’ve got to bring together, it’s not so easy.
JAG: So we really can speak about the World Zionist Congress all day because I find it fascinating, but I want to hit pause on that and speak about the return of “Perez Crew.”
DP: So let me say one more thing, and maybe this is a good segue to the second topic. I feel very deeply that after Oct. 7, what Israel and the Jews need is healing, not blame. …
We can have the same argument over and over. To me, it’s less important who’s right or wrong. What’s more important is, “Can we get our act together?”
I made a comment at Daniel’s grave, and it’s a comment that I’ve been going with the whole time: Israel may be the smallest nation in the world, but it’s the biggest family. So after Oct. 7, I don’t care if you’re for or against the judicial reform. I don’t care what part of the political spectrum you’re on. I don’t care, by the way, if you’re Jewish. Twenty-one Bedouins were killed on Oct. 7, many of them trying to save people. This is a wake-up call for us to get ourselves together. The National Institutions are supposed to be a platform of unity for the Jewish People. We have to get our act together.
FUNDRAISING FETE
U.S. arm of Israeli at-risk youth nonprofit honors Ari Ackerman, Jonah Platt at NYC gala
At age 17, Liora Attias-Hadar was homeless and pregnant, looking to rebuild her life after moving from Israel to the United States. “She was scared and unsure how she would survive. She remembers sitting on a park bench, afraid to close her eyes. Because on the streets, sleep could be dangerous,” Attias-Hadar said, referring to her younger self. She shared that story on Wednesday night, more than two decades later — and now as the CEO of American Friends of ELEM, which supports the Israeli at-risk youth nonprofit — with more than 200 attendees at the group’s annual gala at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy from the event.
Fight for the future: The evening honored actor Jonah Platt and Ari Ackerman, co-owner of the Miami Marlins Major League Baseball team and a Jewish philanthropist and social media activist. “Why ELEM? When they asked to honor me, I didn’t know that much about this incredible organization,” said Ackerman. “But when I jumped in and learned about it, I was hooked. I was hooked because what they do every day, like me, is fight for children. They give young people safe spaces, mentors and a chance to see a future for themselves.”
OBJECT LESSON
How five Israeli women transformed items destroyed in the Oct. 7 attacks into symbols of renewal
In September 2023, Tal Sterlin Halperin had just returned to Israel after her husband’s sabbatical year at Stanford University. “[After the Oct. 7 attacks,] I saw the many people evacuating from the south… I felt it wasn’t right that they had to leave valuables behind with no designated place to store them,” she told Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy recently. A concept for a project, which was eventually named Comfort Object, slowly began to take shape in her mind: restoring and transforming items damaged in the Oct. 7 attacks to empower their owners. She reached out to four other women to make it happen.
Giving back control: The name, Comfort Object, is taken from renowned psychologist Donald Winnicott, who coined the term to identify objects that children use to ease separation anxiety — usually dolls or blankets. Two years later, the team has worked with dozens of families from Kibbutzim Kfar Aza, Be’eri, Nir Oz and Re’im, collecting over 100 objects. “We meet families in their most painful place,” Sterlin Halperin said. “The families decide everything: which object, what it will become, which colors, what materials — everything. There are no surprises. They have already had surprises, they lost control. We give them back those feelings.”
HOLDING SPACE
The murky middle is where the Jewish future lies
“Jewish organizational leaders continue to face high-stakes questions: What do you think? What will you say? How will you handle donors, staff and constituents who see the same events through radically different lenses? This is a branding crisis as much as a communal one,” writes Jessica Leving Siegel, founder of Sing Creative Group, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “But here’s what I’ve learned: Truly sustainable brand strength doesn’t come from unanimity. It comes from clarity about what you stand for and courage to hold space for complexity.”
The way forward: “The organizations creating space for multiple narratives — young and old, traditional and progressive, staunchly Zionist and earnestly, painfully questioning — are the ones people return to. They’re the ones doing the best job building ‘narrative architecture’: the branding and values infrastructure that lets your community hold difference without fragmenting entirely. … The murky middle is not about false equivalence or moral relativism. Some positions do cross ethical lines, and boundary-setting remains essential. But most of what divides us isn’t absolute right versus absolute wrong. … [I]f Jewish leaders and institutions can model how to live with tension through clear values, strong narrative and sustained bridge-building — we won’t just survive this moment. We’ll emerge more resilient.”
Worthy Reads
What Would Rabin Do: In a post on the Israel Policy Forum’s website, its chief policy officer, Michael Koplow, reflects on current events in New York City and Israel through the lens of Yitzhak Rabin’s approach to Diaspora relations and seeking understanding across differences. “To mark the anniversary [of Rabin’s assasination], Israel’s Defense Ministry released previously unheard recordings of Rabin’s speeches to IDF officers, in which he stressed the importance of maintaining a long-term strategic and political vision while being on guard against unexpected crises in the present. … Stories circulated this week on social media about Rabin writing letters to American rabbis who disagreed with his Oslo policies in order to explain his thinking, and making sure to brief American Jewish leaders about what he had in store right before telling them their opinion about it was irrelevant. Rabin had no interest in catering to the desires of American Jews, but he understood the importance of recognizing their stake in Israel and making sure they had a positive relationship with the Jewish state.” [IsraelPolicyForum]
Tale of Two Cities: In ARC Magazine, David Sugarman departs New York City for Vilnius, Lithuania, both to cover a conference in the European capital and contemplate the relationship between the two cities, “one the fading center of postwar Jewish life, the other the decimated center of prewar Jewish life.” “It was the mayoral elections and the mood since Trump’s reelection and the quiet on the university campuses and the assaults against Jews in Brooklyn and the clamor of the conversations about Israel and Gaza and my wariness towards communities where I’d once been at home that made me feel, inchoately, a sense of an ending. And so I spent the nights walking the narrow streets of the dead capital and the days in the city’s Soviet-era central library, covering the centenary anniversary of the Yiddisher Wissenschaftlicher Institute, or YIVO.” [ARCMagazine]
The Little Engines That Can: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Daniel Stid makes a case for why local foundations are better positioned than large national ones to lead “bottom-up civic renewal” in the United States. “Compared to their richly endowed national counterparts, community foundations are often regarded as more modest and often more staid institutions, lacking the scale, big ideas, and visibility to take on the nation’s biggest problems. Yet precisely in their local embeddedness and quieter, steadier role lies an overlooked strength. Because they are accountable to the communities they serve and indeed inseparable from them, community foundations can develop and deploy intangible assets that national funders, for all their resources, cannot replicate.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
An antisemitism task force affiliated with the Heritage Foundation announced on Thursday that it would cut ties with the conservative institution, as the prominent think tank has come under fire for its defense of Tucker Carlson after the firebrand podcaster hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes for a friendly interview, reports Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch…
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, writes an opinion piece in the Washington Times, calling on the Heritage Foundation, a place he called a “second home,” to engage in “repentance”…
Jewish Insider examines how Jewish security organizations are preparing for a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty in New York City…
The Jewish Community Relations Council and UJA-Federation of New York hosted a reception yesterday at the Somos conference in Puerto Rico, an annual gathering of top New York Democrats, which was attended by several Mamdani advisers, reports Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel from the event…
Kazakhstan, which has maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992, will join the Abraham Accords…
Ye, formerly Kanye West, met with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, who has been serving as chief rabbi of Morocco since completing a prison term in Israel for bribery, to apologize for his repeated extreme antisemitic remarks…
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced on Thursday that she would not seek reelection, ending a nearly 40-year career in Congress…
The Wall Street Journal interviews Ruth Porat, the Jewish chief investment officer and president of Google and its parent company, Alphabet…
Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband, Mark Zuckerberg, are shifting the bulk of their philanthropic foundation’s work to supporting science, particularly biology and artificial intelligence…
Wired magazine reports on the Zuckerberg-Chan’s feud with their neighbors in Palo Alto, Calif., culminating in the shuttering of an illegal school that the couple was operating on their property…
Haaretz reveals that the Israeli government has hired firms to conduct public diplomacy campaigns, including outreach to evangelical Christians and boosting search results on AI services like ChatGPT…
Transitions
Osnat Fox, a longtime educator in the Jewish Agency for Israel, has been hired as deputy director of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s Voice of the People initiative…
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is expected to step down from his position next week, with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter taking over some of his responsibilities regarding ties with the Trump administration…
Pic of the Day
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command, salutes the grave of American-born Israeli soldier Capt. Omer Neutra at his funeral this morning at the military section of Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Birthdays
Former U.S. senator from Minnesota, he later served on the boards of AIPAC and JINSA, Rudy Boschwitz (seen above with his wife, Ellen), turns 95…
FRIDAY: Neuropsychiatrist, a 1944 graduate of Yeshivah of Flatbush and 2000 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Eric Kandel turns 96… MIT professor in electrical engineering and computer science, Barbara Liskov turns 86… Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he was the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Donald Kohn turns 83… University professor at Harvard, expert on Shakespeare, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Stephen Greenblatt turns 82… Founding president of Santa Monica, Calif., synagogue, Kehilat Maarav, and senior partner in the West Los Angeles law firm of Selvin & Weiner, Beryl Weiner turns 82… Past international president of the FJMC International (formerly the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs), Thomas “Tom” Sudow turns 73… Entrepreneur, bar owner and television personality, Jonathan “Jon” Peter Taffer turns 71… Constituent affairs representative and community liaison for Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Laurie Tobias Cohen… Volunteer coordinator for the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Marcy Meyers… President and CEO of the Boston-based Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action, Cindy Rowe… Funeral director at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Michael R. Holub… Director, writer and showrunner of the legal drama series “Suits,” Aaron Thomas Korsh turns 59… Former professional racing driver, now CEO of McLaren Racing, Zakary Challen Brown turns 54… Chairman and CEO of luxury apparel company Canada Goose, Dani Reiss turns 52… European casino owner, art collector and CEO of Vestar Group, Leon Tsoukernik turns 52… Deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Aryeh Yitzhak King turns 52… Founder and director of Eden Village Camp, an environmental Jewish summer camp based in New York, Yoni Stadlin… and his twin brother, rabbi, wilderness guide, experiential educator and artist, Pesach Stadlin, both turn 47… EVP of communications at NBC Universal, Jennifer B. Friedman… Reporter for Sportico focused on the business of college sports, Daniel Libit… Baseball outfielder, he won two minor league batting titles, Brian Horwitz turns 43… Consultant for family foundations, he holds two graduate degrees in Nursing, Avi Zenilman… Northeast regional deputy director at AIPAC, Alexa Jordan Silverman… National political reporter at Politico, Elena Schneider… Founder and CEO emeritus at Swipe Out Hunger, Rachel Sumekh… Toronto-native, he is the founder and CEO of Count Me In, a global youth empowerment organization, Shane Feldman… Co-founder and CEO at Moneta Labs Limited, Tomer Aharonovitch…
SATURDAY: U.S. attorney for New Jersey, then a U.S. District Court judge, now a criminal defense attorney, Herbert Jay Stern turns 89… Actress, comedian and writer, she played the recurring role of Doris Klompus on “Seinfeld,” her solo theater shows include “Yenta Unplugged” and “The Yenta Cometh,” Annie Korzen turns 87… French heiress, pediatrician, businesswoman and philanthropist, Léone-Noëlle Meyer turns 86… Former CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, he was a senior White House aide to President Bill Clinton, Ira C. Magaziner turns 78… Leader of the Sephardic baal teshuva movement in Israel, Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak turns 72… Senior managing director and global head of government relations for Blackstone, Wayne Berman turns 69… COO at Forsight, Michael Sosebee… Emirati businessman, developer of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, Mohamed Alabbar turns 69… Health-care executive, venture capitalist and real estate developer, Daniel E. Straus turns 69… Financial consultant at Retirement Benefits Consulting, Michelle Feinberg Silverstein… Israel’s former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant turns 67… Television producer, she is the co-author of Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book Lean In, Helen Vivian “Nell” Scovell turns 65… NYC area attorney, Charles “Chesky” Wertman… Principal at Lore Strategies, Laurie Moskowitz… Popular Israeli female vocalist in the Mizrahi music genre, Zehava Ben turns 57… Board member at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Allison Gingold… Sports journalist for TelevisaUnivision Deportes Network, he was born in Ashkelon, Israel, and has covered both the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, David Moshé Faitelson turns 57… Professional poker player and fashion designer, Beth Shak turns 56… Founder of Ayecha, Yavilah McCoy turns 53… Congregational rabbi in Paris and co-leader of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, Delphine Horvilleur turns 51… Kyiv-born CEO of Gold Star Financial Group including sports management, mortgage lending, publishing, film production and venture capital, Daniel Milstein turns 50… Israeli singer, Lior Narkis turns 49… Deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, Mira Kogen Resnick turns 43… Canadian entrepreneur and president of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein turns 42… Director of high school affairs at the American Jewish Committee, Aaron Bregman… Principal at Bayit Consulting, he is active in both the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Israel Policy Forum, Roei Eisenberg turns 38… Film and television actor, Jared Kusnitz turns 37…Consultant on media, strategic communications, branding and podcast production, Alana Weiner… Student at Johns Hopkins University in the Class of 2026, Cameron Elizabeth Fields…
SUNDAY: Israeli novelist and playwright, she is the mother of former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Shulamit Lapid turns 91… British businessman and philanthropist, formerly chairman of Lloyds Bank, a major U.K. bank, Sir Maurice Victor Blank turns 83… Professional baseball manager in the minor leagues and college, he managed Team Israel in 2016 and 2017, Jerry Weinstein turns 82… Israeli war hero and longtime past member of the Knesset, Zevulun Orlev turns 80… Principal of Los Angeles-based PR and public affairs firm Cerrell Associates, Hal Dash… San Diego-based media developer, Daniel Ajzen… Mitchell Bedell… Founder of the Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Rabbi Shlomo Porter turns 76… Former deputy national security advisor for President Donald Trump, Charles Martin Kupperman turns 75… Former U.S. senator (D-OH) and current candidate for the U.S. Senate, Sherrod Brown turns 73… Senior producer at NBC Nightly News, Joel Seidman… Political consultant and fundraiser, founder of “No Labels,” Nancy Jacobson turns 63… Executive director of Los Angeles-based Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project, Samara Hutman… Professor of journalism and media studies at Fordham University, Amy Beth Aronson turns 63… Partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, Douglas C. Gessner… Partner at Covington & Burling specializing in export controls and sanctions, he was previously the assistant secretary of commerce for export administration during the Bush 43 administration, Peter Lichtenbaum turns 60… Chairman and CEO of Sky Harbour, he is an American-born Israeli fighter pilot and author of a 2018 book on the future of Judaism, Tal Keinan turns 56… Grammy Award-winning record producer specializing in comedy, Dan Schlissel turns 55… Founding CEO of OneTable, she retired as CEO in 2024, Aliza Kline… Associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court since 2015, despite being legally blind since birth as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, Richard H. Bernstein turns 51… Journalist and pioneering podcaster, he is the creator and host of “How I Built This” and “Wisdom from the Top,” Guy Raz turns 50… Israeli singer and actress, Maya Bouskilla turns 48… Co-founder and executive director of the States Project, he was elected the youngest member of the New York state Senate in 2008, serving until 2017, Daniel Squadron turns 46… COO at Orchestra, a PR and communications firm, David Levine… Singer, songwriter and rapper, Ari Benjamin Lesser turns 39… Army JAG officer, Matthew Adam McCoy…
