Your Daily Phil: Betting big on Jewish education: Inside the Yael Foundation’s lavish Vienna confab
Add EJP on GoogleGood Thursday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover the Yael Foundation’s two-day conference in Vienna, which came to a close last night with a sparkling gala. We spotlight the PRECEDE Foundation’s efforts to educate Ashkenazi Jews, a population predisposed to pancreatic cancer, about the potentially lifesaving impact of genetic screening and early detection, and report on the appointment of Phylisa Wisdom to lead New York City’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. In an opinion piece for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, Rabbi Madeline Cooper shares her personal journey as a rabbinical student and offers recommendations on how to lower barriers to entry for aspiring clergy with disabilities; plus, Peggy Shapiro prescribes a treatment for antisemitism in the medical field. Also in this issue: Mimi Kravetz, Ernest Rady and Leon Levy.
What We’re Watching
The American Jewish Historical Society in New York is opening a retrospective today, “The World in Front of Me,” featuring the photography of Bill Aron, who has documented Jewish life across the U.S., Israel, Europe and elsewhere for decades.
The Jewish Education Project and Civic Spirit are hosting a daylong summit today in New York focused on civic education in Jewish day schools and American Jewish identity.
What You Should Know
Uri Poliavich swept into Vienna’s Hofburg Palace’s Imperial Ballroom last night, flanked by bodyguards, past marble columns and beneath chandeliers that had once illuminated the royal balls of Habsburg royalty. Assembled were the roughly 200 Jewish educators and grantees from 37 countries following a lavish two-day confab. At the swanky gala dinner and awards ceremony, replete with open bars, live music, flashy lighting and glatt kosher food served on fine china, the assembled principals and communal leaders anticipated the much-anticipated reveal: How much of the online gambling entrepreneur’s fortune would flow to their schools in 2026 from his Yael Foundation, which funds Jewish schools around the world, reports Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy from the conference in Austria.
Onstage, Poliavich, an unassuming man in a baseball cap and casual jacket, delivered brief remarks before exiting as dramatically as he’d entered. The answer to the question on everyone’s minds was characteristically ambitious but also deliberately vague. “We will keep growing in terms of new partners who will be growing in terms of investing in existing projects.” To the assembled, he assured: “This will allow you to bring more kids. So that’s why we’re here.”
Unlike at the Yael Foundation’s two previous conferences, in which the annual budget was announced to great fanfare, this year there would be no such specific commitment. At a press conference before the gala, Poliavich told reporters that the Yael Foundation — named for his wife — would grow its budget significantly from last year’s $42 million, but he wouldn’t commit to a specific figure. “We always overachieve,” noting a 20% increase from last year’s announced budget. “There are a lot of requests coming,” he told journalists. One member of his team indicated to eJP that the budget for this year would likely be double that of 2025.
What he did reveal: continued work on an $82 million flagship school in Cyprus, and plans for another in Lisbon in 2027 — the first Jewish school in Portugal, he said, since the 16th century. This, in addition to a heavy investment in a school in Rome and other projects around the globe.
The evening’s carefully choreographed spectacle was emceed by Israeli celebrity mentalist Lior Suchard and featured a violin performance by freed Israeli hostage Agam Berger, as well as the handing out of 12 awards to grantees and personalities in the Jewish world. (eJP’s publisher, Max Neuberger, was one of the judges for the awards.)
Formed in 2020, the Yael Foundation is a relative newcomer to the Jewish philanthropic world but has already made a major splash through significant investments in Jewish schools, camps and other informal education programs around the world, including far-flung locales often overlooked by Jewish funders. And Poliavich plans to continue growing the foundation.
In the pre-gala press conference, Poliavich reached for a biblical metaphor to explain the foundation’s trajectory in 2025. “The Jewish people, once we crossed the Red Sea, became a nation,” he said. “That’s something that happened to [the foundation] this year. We stopped being just a family [operation]… and we switched the mode to become more like a business.” The organization has brought on several staff members and departments: account managers organized by region and language, a legal department, human resources, a construction division and security specialists. “With this structure, we can scale it 10 times,” Poliavich said. “Like almost infinite.”
BEAT THE ODDS
PRECEDE works to raise awareness — and optimism — among Ashkenazi Jews predisposed to pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with only 13% of individuals diagnosed surviving five years. Research shows Ashkenazi Jews are significantly predisposed to the disease, but Jamie Brickell, a 66-year-old attorney diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020, beat the odds: after undergoing chemotherapy and then surgery and then chemotherapy again, he was declared cancer-free eight months after his initial diagnosis. “The only reason why I was able to [survive] that is because it was discovered early,” Brickell told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
Let’s save lives: “Today, Brickell serves as president of the PRECEDE Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium — a group of clinicians, researchers, patients and biopharmaceutical and technology companies dedicated to research and advocacy for the early detection of pancreatic cancer, with the goal to increase the five-year survival rate to 50%. The nonprofit is reaching out to the Jewish community about genetic testing and early detection, but it is proving to be a hard sell. Brickell believes the Jewish community hasn’t been interested because “when people hear pancreatic cancer, they automatically assume it’s a death sentence,” he said. “The genetic testing that we would talk to them about doing, people figure, ‘What’s the point?’ And we educate people that there is a point.”
NEW GIG
Mamdani picks progressive Jewish leader to head Office to Combat Antisemitism
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani selected Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the progressive Zionist group New York Jewish Agenda and a critic of yeshiva education, to helm the city’s Office to Combat AntiSemitism, reports Will Bredderman for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Here and there: JI first reported in January that the administration was considering Wisdom for the job. But a source also told JI earlier this week that her past work as director of development and government affairs at Young Advocates for Fair Education (Yaffed) — which criticizes the quality of secular education in Hasidic schools — had initially caused the mayor’s team some pause. In her public commentary, Wisdom has criticized some extremist rhetoric and actions — such as the anti-Israel protest in Times Square the day following the Oct. 7 attacks, the slogan “from the river to the sea” and boycotts of people labeled “Zionists” — but also defended critics of Israel and opponents of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
JDAIM 2026
Why I tell my story — and why Jewish leadership needs more of us
“During rabbinical school, I traveled to a college campus to lead High Holy Day services,” writes Rabbi Madeline Cooper, director of learning and practice at Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “I arrived early, took a deep breath, gathered my notes — and then discovered that I couldn’t physically get into the room where I was scheduled to lead. There was no accessible entrance. My legs, already unsteady from symptoms I didn’t yet understand, simply wouldn’t manage the stairs.”
We can do this job: “Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month invites our community to widen its imagination about disability and leadership. This is part of why I choose to tell my story publicly. I want others who are navigating disability in Jewish life to know that they aren’t alone, and that leadership does not require a body that cooperates perfectly. If even one rabbinical student, educator or emerging leader can imagine a place for themselves because they see someone else doing it, then the vulnerability of sharing is worth it. But storytelling alone isn’t enough. A truly inclusive Jewish future requires structural change.”
GOOD MEDICINE
A model for addressing antisemitism in health care
“Hospitals, clinics and medical schools are supposed to be neutral spaces dedicated to healing. Yet antisemitism is increasingly infecting these institutions,” writes Peggy Shapiro, executive director of the Center For Combating Antisemitism, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Health care has long been a pillar of Jewish communal investment and moral leadership… Jewish philanthropy has both an opportunity and an obligation to lead once again by ensuring that institutions entrusted with healing are equipped to confront antisemitism competently and ethically.”
A tailored tool: “Medical anti-bias curricula often examine racism and other forms of discrimination while omitting antisemitism entirely. At the same time, organizations focused on antisemitism education have rarely developed training tailored to health care’s ethical, clinical and legal realities. The result is a dangerous gap: Jewish professionals are left unprotected, institutions are unprepared and antisemitism continues unchecked in spaces where trust is essential. The Center for Combating Antisemitism, a division of StandWithUs that equips institutions with evidence-based tools to recognize, address and prevent antisemitism, has created a resource for addressing this gap.”
Worthy Reads
Deciphering the Data: In an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Mimi Kravetz reconciles how surveys by Jewish Federations of North America and others have found that support for Israel among American Jews remains strong even as identification with Zionism has declined. “The word Zionism has undergone what might be called ‘definition creep’ over time, shaped by a mix of political agendas, public discourse, and broader social forces. It has come to be understood as encompassing ideas that go far beyond its once-standard meaning. This helps explain why some Jews who feel deeply connected to Israel nevertheless resist or reject the Zionist label. They are not rejecting Israel’s existence or the idea of a Jewish state. They are reacting to an understanding of Zionism that includes policies, ideologies, and actions that they oppose, and do not want to be associated with. This distinction matters enormously.” [JTA]
Think of the Children: In Semafor, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman tells Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson about the need to reframe public perception of global aid to get today’s voters’ support. “The philanthropic community is ‘losing the argument’ on the benefits of global aid, the CEO of the Gates Foundation warned, after cuts in development spending led to the first increase in child mortality rates since the start of this century. … Most Western taxpayers still support foreign aid if they are told that the money will be spent effectively to save children’s lives, Suzman said. ‘Trying to articulate that case in its very human, deliverable context is a key part of reframing that [message to] see if we can actually rebuild some support for this kind of targeted, high-impact aid.’” [Semafor]
Word on the Street
Less than half of Israelis support joining an American strike on Iran if Israel is not directly attacked, according to a recent poll from the Israel Democracy Institute…
The Canadian government announced that the office of its special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, as well as the office of its special envoy for combatting Islamophobia, are closing; their roles will be absorbed into a new advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion…
Elias Rodriguez, charged with the 2025 murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, now faces four additional charges of terrorism, each carrying a mandatory life sentence…
A Paris court has dismissed an Iraqi Jewish family’s $22 million compensation claim against the French government over its use of the family’s former home in Baghdad as an embassy, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction in the case…
Australia is preparing a system to “grade” universities on their handling of a range of issues relating to antisemitism, part of a broader plan from the office of Canberra’s antisemitism envoy that was fast-tracked following the Bondi Beach terror attack in December…
Jewish leaders in Manchester, England, are warning Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to “focus on soccer” following comments he made about “the genocide in Palestine”…
The Washington Post laid off more than 300 journalists yesterday, reducing its entire workforce by about 30%…
The Jewish Community Voice spotlights the role of Michelle Rosenberg, senior counsel at Culligan Quench USA, Inc., in a corporate philanthropy project that donated water coolers to nonprofits in the greater Philadelphia area…
The Times of Israel spotlights six Jewish athletes — five competing for Team USA and one for Team Canada — at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which begin tomorrow in Milan…
Leon Levy, the last surviving signatory of the Freedom Charter and a veteran of South Africa’s struggle against Apartheid, died this week at 96…
Major Gifts
San Diego-based Jewish philanthropist Ernest Rady has donated $50 million to the Salvation Army to fight homelessness in the city…
Transitions
Raquel Fernandez Makarov joined Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action as its director of campaigns and organizing…
Pic of the Day
First Lady Melania Trump welcomes freed Israeli hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel to the White House yesterday, one year after Aviva met the first lady for the first time and pleaded for help securing her husband’s release, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
In that meeting in early 2025, Aviva gave the first lady books that she had written about Keith, who grew up in North Carolina. Trump then passed those books to the president, the first lady shared yesterday.
“I gave him the books, the books that Aviva gave me, and I explained the situation — where she thought that Keith was, how he was doing. She didn’t have much information, but she knew how much he was suffering, because she was with him for 50 days,” said Trump. “I explained to him everything, and I know how hard he was working.”
Birthdays
Movie, television and stage actress, writer, producer and director, Jennifer Jason Leigh (family name was Morozoff) turns 64…
Former member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the United Torah Judaism alliance, Shmuel “Shmelka” Halpert turns 87… Former member of the Virginia Senate for 44 years, Richard Lawrence “Dick” Saslaw turns 86… Director, screenwriter and producer of movies and television, Michael Kenneth Mann turns 83… Outfielder from 1965-1974 for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves, later in his career he served in the Astros’ front office, Norm Miller turns 80… Israeli engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, he holds more than 800 patents and applications, and is a founding partner of Rainbow Medical, an operational investment company, Yossi Gross turns 79… Actor, singer, voice actor, puppeteer and comedian, best known as the voice of Jafar in Disney’s “Aladdin” franchise, Jonathan Freeman turns 76… Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, he wrote a 2015 essay entitled “The Making of a Libertarian, Contrarian, Nonobservant, but Self-Identified Jew,” Randy E. Barnett turns 74… Founder and CEO of a company representing 200 hotels globally, he is the owner of Luxe Hotels, Efrem Harkham turns 70… Board chair of Jewish leadership organization M2 and a member of the board of governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Linda Adler Hurwitz… Ellen Braun… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of Napa Valley, Niles Elliot Goldstein… Former member of the New York state Assembly, now a New York City Council member, Harvey David Epstein turns 59… Canadian environmental activist, Tzeporah Berman turns 57… Educator, writer, columnist, lecturer, public speaker and pro-Israel activist, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki… Baltimore-area sommelier, he curates kosher food and wine events and researches synagogue history, Dr. Kenneth S. Friedman turns 53… Member of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, now a NYC attorney, Benjamin Kallos turns 45… President and COO of American Signature, the parent company of Value City Furniture, Jonathan Schottenstein turns 44… Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2000 Olympics, Adi Maia Bichman turns 43… CEO at the American Journalism Project, Sarabeth Berman… Partner for political and strategic communications at Number 10 Strategies, he was previously a senior advisor to Ambassador Ron Dermer, Joshua Hantman… Olympic sprinter, born in Los Angeles and now an Israeli citizen, specializing in the 400-meter dash, Donald Sanford turns 39… Actor and singer, best known for his work in musical theater, Alex Brightman turns 39… Director of communications and intergovernmental affairs at NYC’s Correctional Health Services, Nicole A. Levy… Israeli golfer who is an LPGA Tour member, Laetitia Beck turns 34… Team USA ice dancer from 2014 until 2019, now a clinical research coordinator associate at Stanford Medicine, Eliana Gropman turns 25…
