Your Daily Phil: A near miss outside Detroit; a direct hit in Zarzir, Israel
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For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Israeli nonprofits scale up care for a growing wave of wounded soldiers; Canvas awards $450,000 in inaugural grants to build bridges through arts; and With Israelis displaced and stuck in bomb shelters, Social Delivery brings aid where it’s needed. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we consider the similarities and differences between the attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit and the missile strike in the northern Israeli town of Zarzir. We preview the Jewish Funders Network conference, which kicks off on Sunday. We speak with Detroit Jewish professionals, who were forced to shelter in place after yesterday’s attack. We feature an opinion piece by Barry Mael sharing financial lessons for synagogue leaders from this week’s double Torah portion of Vayakel-Pekudei, and one by Steven Windmueller placing trends in liberal American Judaism today in the context of shifts in the national religious landscape. Also in this issue: Mijal Bitton, Daphne Lazar Price and Rachel Stern.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
SXSW continues today, with Tech Tribe hosting its annual Shabbat dinner tonight.
The Orthodox LGBTQ group Eshel is kicking off its annual retreat today at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Baltimore.
On Sunday, hundreds of Jewish philanthropists are convening in San Diego for the three-day annual Jewish Funders Network conference. If you’re there, say hello to eJP’s Jay Deitcher and Rachel Kohn. (More on this below)
The newly revitalized European Council of Jewish Communities is kicking off its sixth Summit for European Jewish Leaders on Sunday in Athens, Greece.
In New York on Sunday: HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, is slated to perform at Lincoln Center, albeit without the Israeli singers, who were unable to make it out of the country due to the ongoing war with Iran; the Foundation for Jewish Camp is kicking off a two-day conference focused on mental health at Jewish summer camps; and the third annual SeltzerFest is being held at Industry City in Brooklyn.
The Zionist Organization of America is hosting a gala in South Florida on Sunday night, where the group will honor Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) and the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell.
And StandWithUs is kicking off its four-day annual conference in Las Vegas on Sunday.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
On opposite sides of the Atlantic and in different — but not too different — contexts, yesterday saw a troubling near miss and a devastating direct hit.
In a miraculous mix of staff preparation, proper implementation of security protocols and a healthy dose of good fortune, the only person killed in yesterday’s active shooter and car ramming situation at a Michigan synagogue was the assailant. The only other injury reported in yesterday’s attack was a security guard who was knocked unconscious when the assailant drove his car through the synagogue’s doors. He is expected to make a full recovery. “Everything that was supposed to happen happened,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters.
Just a few hours later, an Iranian missile evaded Israeli air defenses, directly hitting the northern Bedouin-majority town of Zarzir. The missile struck outside a horse stable, causing a massive crater and sending out destructive shockwaves, which collapsed concrete walls and shattered windows. Several cars nearby also burst into flames. Dozens of people were injured by broken glass and debris, including one woman who sustained significant injuries to her back from a blown-out window shutter. Miraculously, the only fatality in the missile strike was a foal, police said.
A glance at the Israeli government’s official map of bomb shelters throughout the country shows that — as in many Arab and Druze villages in Israel — there are none in Zarzir. In comparison, the adjacent town of Givat Ella, whose Jewish population is roughly a fifth of Zarzir, has 23 public bomb shelters. The Israeli shared society group Abraham Initiative recently noted that of the 11,776 public bomb shelters in Israel, just 37 are located in predominantly Arab municipalities, despite Arab Israelis making up roughly 20% of the population. Unlike in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., in the suburbs of Detroit, practically nothing in Zarzir that was supposed to happen happened.
Ilan Amit, the co-director of the Bedouin-Jewish organization AJEEC-NISPED, told eJewishPhilanthropy today that the lack of bomb shelters in Arab communities make residents less likely to take precautionary measures during sirens. With no shelter to run to, Arab Israelis think, “What’s the point?” said Amit, who recently wrote a Time of Israel opinion piece on the subject. “They couldn’t care less.”
Temple Israel, one of the country’s largest Reform congregations, has a massive campus that houses a preschool, a JCC and a museum. It is a community hub for the 3,000 families who belong to it. And because of the synagogue’s size and offerings, it can provide multiple layers of security — all of which worked as intended yesterday. But for many Jewish communities around the country, the barrier for entry is too high, too complicated or too expensive.
What these two events share in common is that they demonstrate both the murderous intentions of the perpetrators and the considerable investment that is needed to thwart them.
CURTAIN-RAISER
600+ funders flocking to San Diego for JFN confab on philanthropy at fraught moment
At this year’s Jewish Funders Network International Conference, which kicks off Sunday in San Diego, over 600 funders will grapple with one overarching question: How does the Jewish community operate under uncertainty and successive crises? Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jewish world has been in a chronic state of tumult. The past 2 1/2 years — beginning with the Oct. 7 massacres, followed by Israel’s war in Gaza and a 12-day bombing campaign against Iran last June — have been a blur of terrorist attacks on Jewish institutions across the world, the latest occurring yesterday at a Reform synagogue in suburban Detroit. Amid the current U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, philanthropy needs to both react to breaking events and also plan for the future, organizers told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher ahead of the gathering.
Who’s missing?: Roughly half of the Israelis scheduled to attend the conference are unable to due to restricted travel because of the war, and those who will attend are going to great lengths to make the trek. Even with travel out of Israel nearly halted, “it would be ridiculous, probably flat wrong, to have a conference where Israeli voices are absent,” Andrés Spokoiny, president and CEO of JFN, told eJP. He estimates that many of those Israelis heading to San Diego will travel through Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and will have to navigate a web of stopovers. “Israelis want to be present, either physically or remotely,” he said, and those who cannot be at the conference in person will present via Zoom.
Live from JFN: This year, eJewishPhilanthropy will serve as the conference’s official media partner, creating a bespoke daily newsletter for attendees, alongside our normal coverage. (Sign up for it here.)
TERROR IN DETROIT
Detroit Jewish community locks down after car ramming, gunfight at Temple Israel
When news broke on Thursday afternoon that an armed man had rammed a vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., one of the largest Reform congregations in the country, Jewish institutions across suburban Detroit immediately went into lockdown. Those included the local JCC, just over a mile from the synagogue, and Frankel Jewish Academy, a private high school located on the JCC’s campus, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Painful reminder: Rosa Chessler, who runs the JCC’s “Ageless and Active” program, has lived in Michigan since 1950; she immigrated from Germany as a small child with her parents, both Holocaust survivors. Thursday was “just my normal day of coming and doing my programs,” she told eJP. “And then it wasn’t a normal day.” Like her co-workers and the students at the nearby day school, Chessler spent the afternoon in lockdown, watching the frightening scene at Temple Israel play out on the news. “I just was grateful that my parents weren’t alive to see what was going on, because I don’t know if they could handle it,” she added. “You hope at some point people get past all of this antisemitism and garbage, but obviously they don’t.”
Bonus: Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar examines the increasingly common “poisonous rhetoric” in American discourse that is contributing to the rise in violent antisemitism across the country.
IN THIS WEEK’S PARSHA
10 financial lessons for synagogue leaders from Vayakel-Pekudei
“I am fascinated by the fact that I can read the same Torah portions every year and find new nuances and lessons depending on what I’m working on or thinking about at that particular time. The words of the parsha don’t change, but my mindset or perspective can certainly be different,” writes Barry Mael, senior director of synagogue affiliations and operations for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Yes we Mishkan: “For the past several years, I have worked with many congregations on alternative dues models, fundraising, financial sustainability and internal controls. When we read the Torah portions about building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), the details can be somewhat overwhelming and even boring, but I have actually found valuable lessons in the text applicable to the financial management of our synagogues.”
WINDS OF CHANGE
The shifting religious landscape and its implications for American liberal Judaism
“To fully appreciate what is unfolding in the Jewish religious market space, it is essential to capture what is happening more broadly in the world of American religion,” writes Steven Windmueller, emeritus professor of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “These trends — lower membership numbers, projected closures, the transformation of liberal seminaries, the rise of digital ministries and movement toward nondenominationalism and anti-institutionalism — are reflected within liberal American Jewry as well.”
For example: “Significantly, a 2025 Pew Research Center study found that nearly 1 in 4 adults raised Jewish in the U.S. no longer identify as religiously Jewish today, with a significant share describing themselves as unaffiliated. Many Jews now also identify as ‘Jewish no religion’: culturally and/or ethnically Jewish without formal affiliation. Many Americans who consider themselves Jewish today lean more toward cultural, ethnic or secular Jewish identity rather than formal religious participation. … Meanwhile, participation in other forms of Jewish engagement — social justice groups, cultural festivals, study circles and interfaith efforts — has grown, reflecting broader patterns of people seeking meaning outside traditional or formal institutional structures.”
Worthy Reads
Your Presence is Requested: In her Substack “Committed,” Mijal Bitton responds to eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross’ observations in yesterday’s Your Daily Phil about a drop in the intensity of attention from the Diaspora as Israelis headed into the bomb shelters once more this month. “Any relationship stretched across six thousand miles — across languages, governments, and daily realities that barely overlap — will accumulate distance. It would be strange if it didn’t. The question is not how to pretend the distance isn’t there. The question is how to build something strong enough to hold us together across it. This is where I find myself returning to the Mishkan.” [Committed]
Liquid Gold: In The Times of Israel, Daphne Lazar Price draws attention to a donation spotlighted in yesterday’s “Your Daily Phil”: 46 liters (12 gallons) of breast milk, donated by Israeli women through the Sussman Family Foundation Human Milk Bank, for nursing mothers engaged in reserve duty or other war-related activities. “Perhaps the most striking part of the announcement is not the donation itself, but the fact that it appeared under ‘Major Gifts.’ That placement forces us to reconsider what we mean when we talk about philanthropy. Is a major gift defined by its financial value, or by the depth of sacrifice it represents? Is generosity measured in dollars, or in what we give of ourselves? What would our communal priorities look like if we honored caregiving the way we honor capital? The listing of breast milk alongside multimillion-dollar contributions suggests something quietly radical: that sustaining life is as worthy of recognition as funding institutions.” [TOI]
Play Ball: In an opinion piece for the Jewish News Service, Adam Basciano and Jason Pressberg, co-chairs of Israel Baseball America’s Greater Washington Council, explain the premise of using baseball as a vehicle for proud Jewish Peoplehood experiences.“In the movies, and in real life, baseball is never just about baseball. For Ray Kinsella in ‘Field of Dreams,’ it’s how he bonded with his father. For Jackie Robinson, it was the platform to confront segregation. For generations of Jewish players — for fans and players alike — the diamond has been a place to stand tall and let the skills do the talking. From Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax to Ian Kinsler and Harrison Bader, baseball has long been woven into the American Jewish story. In Greater Washington — and increasingly in communities across North America — we are seeing that legacy take on new life, linking local Jewish communities more directly to Israel and to one another.” [JNS]
Word on the Street
A wide array of public officials have issued statements of solidarity with suburban Detroit’s Temple Israel following the attack there yesterday, including nearly every national Jewish organization, the local Catholic archbishop and Imams Council of Michigan, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the mayors of Detroit’s sister region in northern Israel…
Jewish Insider’s Matt Shea examines Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, which it continues to deploy against Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East…
Yeshiva University’s men’s basketball team, the Maccabees, will compete in the NCAA Division III Sweet 16 for the first time (the team qualified for the tournament in 2020, but it was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic); they face Emory University on Friday in Atlanta…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the reasons behind and ramifications of a significant drop in private-credit funds…
In a Jewish Telegraphic Agency opinion piece, Yehuda Kurtzer and Aaron Dorfman call for the American Jewish community to focus more intensely on preserving democracy…
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle previews an upcoming gala for the local Hebrew Free Loan Association, where the 139-year-old organization plans to roll out a rebranding campaign…
President Donald Trump officially removed Carrie Prejean Boller from the Religious Liberties Commission, weeks after Prejean Boller vociferously defended antisemitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens at a commission hearing…
Religious Liberties Commission advisory board member Sameerah Munshi, who had allied herself with Prejean Boller, announced her resignation from the board…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed New York state Assemblymember Micah Lasher in the Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY); Bloomberg is preparing to spend up to $5 million on an ad campaign boosting Lasher in the crowded 12th Congressional District primary…
Major Gifts
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund announced today that it is doubling its allocations for combating antisemitism from NIS 3 million to 6 million (roughly $1 million to $2 million) in light of yesterday’s attack on Temple Israel…
PJ Library is launching the Next Level Books Initiative, which earmarks $1.2 million over the next three years to support the creation of quality Jewish children’s books by investing in publishers, authors and illustrators. The first component, the “Next Level Books Fund,” is designed to support independent publishers creating Jewish children’s books with up to $20,000 per project.
Transitions
Rachel Stern was hired as the next CEO of Shalom Austin (Texas), starting in July; she currently serves as the Jewish communal umbrella group’s executive vice president and chief strategy and impact officer…
Pic of the Day
Two hundred leaders of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, stand in front of the Capitol on Tuesday as they take part in the organization’s annual “Day of Impact” lobbying day.
“Hadassah has never sat on the sidelines and we are not going to do so at this pivotal moment,” Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz said in a statement. “We are bringing the combined strength of nearly 300,000 members, donors and supporters directly to Congress to stand firm against antisemitism, to uphold the strategic US-Israel alliance and to safeguard the health and well-being of women everywhere.”
Birthdays
Oldest of three sisters who are members of the rock band Haim, Este Arielle Haim turns 40 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Editor of Avotaynu Magazine, a journal of Jewish genealogy and scholarship, Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus turns 90… Former mayor of Miami Beach, Fla., and author of Destiny: From Shoeshine Boy to Mayor, Norman Ciment turns 90… Israeli singer, he won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, Izhar Cohen turns 75… Psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Teaneck, N.J., Shana Yocheved Schacter… Founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, a NYC-based organization working to end the war on drugs, Ethan Nadelmann turns 69… Professor of applied mathematics at Imperial College London, he is also a chess grandmaster, Jonathan Mestel turns 69… Former Florida congressman, Alan Grayson turns 68… Teacher of rabbinic literature and author of The Jewish Family Ethics Textbook, Rabbi Neal S. Scheindlin turns 66… Founder and CEO of MediaBistro which she sold in 2007, now managing director of Supernode Ventures, Laurel Touby turns 63… Heavy metal songwriter, vocalist for the band Disturbed as well as for the band Device, he is a former yeshiva student, David Draiman turns 53… Member of the California state Senate since 2014, Benjamin Allen turns 48… Former member of Knesset for the Jewish Home party and decorated IDF reservist, Yonatan “Yoni” Chetboun turns 47… Deputy campaign manager on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, now host of radio show “The Agenda,” Ari Rabin-Havt… Television and film actor, Emile Hirsch turns 41… President and CEO of Nefco, a distributor of construction and industrial supplies, Matthew Gelles… Television and film actor, Emory Isaac Cohen 36… Senior director of social marketing at NBC Universal, Jessie Hannah Rubin… Former Formula 3 racing driver, his mother is Houda Nonoo, the first Jewish woman to serve as an ambassador of Bahrain, Menasheh Idafar turns 35… Gabriel Romano…
SATURDAY: Professor emeritus of chemistry at Tel Aviv University, winner of the 1982 Israel Prize, Joshua Jortner turns 93… Founder and retired president of Los Angeles-based Skirball Cultural Center, Rabbi Dr. Uri Herscher turns 85… Dean of Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Meiselman turns 84… Senior lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Marshall Ganz turns 83… Canadian criminal defense attorney, Brian Greenspan turns 79… Actor, writer, producer, director and comedian, Billy Crystal turns 78… Former member of the Maryland House of Delegates for 28 years, Shane Elizabeth Pendergrass turns 76… One-half of the eponymous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Ben is four days younger), Jerry Greenfield turns 75… Retired Hebrew teacher, Eliezer Cohen Barak… Co-founder of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, she is the president of Stand By Me, an organization that supports cancer patients, Gila Milstein… Partner at Hefter, Leshem, Margolis Capital Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors in Highland Park, Ill., Steven Hefter… Founder and leader of ChangeCommunications, Jo-Ann Mort… NYC-based restaurateur and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, Danny Meyer turns 68… Professor in the department of Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University, Menachem Lorberbaum turns 68… Minneapolis-based attorney, Jonathan S. Parritz… Past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Denise L. Eger turns 66… Owner of Baltimore’s Tov Pizza, which he founded in 1984, Ronnie Rosenbluth… Owner and COO of EJM Development Company, he also heads its lending division, New Frontier Capital, Jon Monkarsh… Microgrid architect at Urban Ingenuity and lecturer at Georgetown University, Shalom Flank, Ph.D… Film and television actress, she is best known for her title role in the 1985 film “The Journey of Natty Gann,” Meredith Salenger turns 56… Entrepreneur, musician, songwriter and record company executive, Josh Gruss turns 52… Screenwriter and film director, Etan Cohen turns 52… Canadian fashion stylist, publicist and close friend of Meghan Markle (her children were in the royal wedding as page boys and flower girl), Jessica Brownstein Mulroney turns 46… Heiress, together with her brother and cousins, to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, philanthropist, former child actress, Liesel Pritzker Simmons turns 42… Former NASCAR driver, he is the sole inductee into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in the “Auto Racing” category, Jon Denning turns 39… Former point guard at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Ivy League player of the year in 2012, Zack Rosen turns 37… Director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work on “The Intern,” “Big Time Adolescence” and “I Want You Back,” Jason Orley turns 37… Four-time Israeli national champion in the skeleton event and pilot of Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsled team in Milan, Adam “AJ” Edelman turns 35… Product quality specialist at The Topps Company, Philip Liebman… Coach for first-time founders, Sophie Galant… CEO of Prizmah, Paul Bernstein…
SUNDAY: Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor, active in film, television and on the stage, Judd Hirsch turns 91… UCLA professor, biochemist and biophysicist, David S. Eisenberg turns 87… First-ever NYC Public Advocate starting in 1994, he is an author of 23 books, Mark J. Green turns 81… British billionaire and philanthropist, former chairman of retail conglomerate Arcadia Group, Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green turns 74… Former managing member at Buena Vista Fund Management in San Francisco, now owner of a homemade bread business, Robert Mendel Rosner… Animator and director of numerous episodes of “The Simpsons,” David Silverman turns 69… Real estate agent at Signature Realty Associates in the Tampa and Florida Gulf Coast market, Ze’ev “Wolf” Bar-El… White House special envoy leading diplomatic efforts around the world, Steve Witkoff turns 69… Freelance writer and consultant, Bathsheva Gladstone… Executive director of the Jewish Culture Center at Indiana University Bloomington, Debra Barton Grant… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, currently serving as speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana turns 50… Retired MLB infielder, he now owns Loma Brewing, a brew pub in Los Gatos, Calif., he was Team Israel’s batting coach in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Kevin Youkilis turns 47… Global business editor for Defense One, where he writes about the intersection of business and national security, Marcus Weisgerber… Psychotherapist based in Raleigh, N.C., Mindy Beth Reinstein Brodsky… Born in Jerusalem, she is a member of the New York state Assembly for the northeast portions of Queens, Nily Rozic turns 40… Rapper, comedian and actor, better known by his stage name Lil Dicky, David Andrew Burd turns 38… Board chair at the African Middle Eastern Leadership (AMEL) Project and executive director of the 30 Birds Foundation, Justin Hefter… Co-founder of Punchbowl News, Rachel Schindler… and Rachel’s twin brother, college admissions consultant and SAT/ACT tutor, Max J. Schindler… Zach Shartiag… Professional wrestler, Maxwell Jacob Friedman turns 30…
