Your Daily Phil: Remembering Abe Foxman: From child survivor to communal giant
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report from the scene of Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner’s remarks to the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, including calls for Jewish immigration to Europe. We report on this weekend’s final rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College’s 150-year-old Cincinnati campus, and cover yesterday’s rally against antisemitism in London. We feature an opinion piece by William Daroff eulogizing his mentor and colleague, Abraham Foxman, the former ADL national director and longtime Jewish leader, who died yesterday, and another by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin drawing inspiration from the activism of Jews and their allies in 1940s and 1980s; and one by Rebecca Dinar recommending a strategic recalibration of Jewish giving to institutions of higher learning. Also in this issue: Simon Falic, Rabbi Daniel Greyber and Mark Wilf.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
The Jewish world is mourning the death of Abraham Foxman yesterday, with tributes to the Holocaust survivor and former national director of the Anti-Defamation League pouring in from around the globe. More on this below.
The World Jewish Congress kicked off its three-day governing board meeting yesterday in Geneva; the gathering marks the 90th anniversary of the organization’s founding and includes the 14th meeting of special envoys and coordinators dedicated to combating antisemitism. Read about the first day here, and read about the second day below. If you’re on the ground, be sure to say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross!
Jewish California’s (formerly the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California) annual two-day Capitol Summit kicks off today in Sacramento. Speakers at the gathering include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who will be making his first advocacy address in the state since departing Washington, and Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
The 30th Annual Webby Awards will take place tonight in Manhattan. “Borrowed Spotlight,” the exhibit that paired A-list celebrities with Holocaust survivors, will be honored for its photography and design. Read Jewish Insider’s interview with “Borrowed Spotlight” creator Bryce Thompson here.
What You Should Know
Mathias Döpfner, CEO of global publishing firm Axel Springer, doubled down on his and his company’s commitments to the Jewish People and the State of Israel on Monday morning in an address to the World Jewish Congress, condemning the rise of anti-Zionism and Jew hatred around the world, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross from the gathering in Geneva.
Laying out a five-part plan to address antisemitism, which he described as a threat to the West, Döpfner called for “zero tolerance” to antisemitism and expelling those who espouse it “wherever legally possible.” He demanded that social media companies firmly address the issue, and condemned the so-called “woke” ideology of splitting the world into victims and perpetrators, calling it a “Trojan horse for antisemitism and Islamism.” The Bonn-born publisher also stressed the need to commemorate and educate about the Holocaust.
Perhaps most contentiously — in a room filled with many believers in the importance of aliyah — Döpfner called for European countries to encourage and facilitate Jewish immigration to the continent, noting that the Jewish population by capita is 10 times smaller than that of the United States. “Europe must become more Jewish. Again: This would not only be a moral gesture — it would be a wise, forward-looking investment in education, creativity, value creation and social stability,” he said.
Döpfner served as the guest of honor at the World Jewish Congress’ three-day gathering this week, which kicked off on Sunday. The organization, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary, is holding its annual Governing Board meeting, focused primarily on coordinating the collective Jewish communal response to rising antisemitism across the globe.
Döpfner, who acquired Politico in 2021 and is in the process of purchasing the British Daily Telegraph, has emerged as one of the most vocal and strident supporters in the publishing world of the Jewish community and Israel, which has rankled some employees of Politico. When issues were raised regarding to the organization’s five key values, which includes support for Israel, “We said, ‘OK, look for another company to work for,’” Döpfner recalled, referring to comments that he made in a call with Politico employees, a recording of which was shared with Jewish Insider last week.
Döpfner was also dismissive of governmental efforts to combat antisemitism throughout Europe, including in his native Germany. “I never want to give or hear another ‘Never Again’ speech. ‘Never Again’ has become lip service. If it were true, there would have been no Hamas terror on Oct. 7[, 2023]. If it were true, there would be no ‘Death to the Jews’ chants on European streets. If it were true, there would be no fear among Jewish parents of sending their children to school wearing a kippah,” he said.
ON THE SCENE
United against antisemitism despite divisions, U.K. Jews and allies rally against recent attacks
With attacks on Jews spiking in England, an estimated 10,000 people, Jews and non-Jews, thronged Whitehall — the main government corridor in central London — on Sunday to rally against antisemitism. But although both the main Jewish newspapers, Jewish News and The Jewish Chronicle, published a joint editorial urging unity in the face of hate, there were ample signs of factionalism in parts of the crowd, reports Jenni Frazer for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Not on us: Adrian Cohen, acting president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which co-convened the rally together with the Jewish Leadership Council, was one of a number of Jewish leaders who attended a Downing Street meeting called by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week. In the meeting, Cohen said that the community had asked for “three P’s: to protect, to prosecute and to partner,” adding that Jews did not want merely a “Jewish responsibility, but a national responsibility.”
END OF AN ERA
150 years after creation of the first seminary in America, HUC marks last Cincinnati ordination
On Saturday, when professors, students and families streamed into Cincinnati’s Plum Street Temple to celebrate the ordination of a new class of four rabbis from Hebrew Union College’s Cincinnati seminary, it was for the final time. The Cincinnati residential rabbinical program is now shuttering, along with its degree-granting programs in light of financial troubles and falling enrollment, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
End of a rabbinical era: “It’s a poignant moment,” Andrew Rehfeld, HUC’s president, said. “You have a 150-year-old program that has meant so much to so many and has done such important work, bringing modern Reform Judaism to our world, transforming the way we think and practice Judaism. And when you have major shifts like [the program closing], it’s unsettling. There’s a sadness to it. There’s a poignancy. This is a beautiful campus, the physicality of it, and there’s a heaviness.”
BARUCH DAYAN EMET
Abe Foxman: One of the last great architects of postwar American Jewish public life
“The passing of Abraham ‘Abe’ Foxman marks the loss of one of the last great architects of postwar American Jewish public life. For nearly half a century, Abe stood at the center of the Jewish community’s struggle against antisemitism, extremism and ignorance,” writes William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy “[He] understood something many preferred not to confront: hatred adapts. It changes language, symbols and political homes. It reinvents itself for each generation. And it survives whenever decent people convince themselves the danger has passed.”
Toughness and warmth: “I knew Abe Foxman for roughly a quarter of a century. Throughout that time, he was extraordinarily generous as a mentor and advisor to me, including during my years at the Conference of Presidents. He combined toughness and warmth in a way few leaders can. He expected seriousness. He spoke with moral clarity. He pushed younger Jewish leaders to think bigger about our responsibility to the Jewish people and the broader democratic society in which we live. He also challenged me, usually in private, though occasionally in the public pages of newspapers. Abe Foxman knew exactly when to make a point, and exactly how to make it land.”
CALL TO ACTION
It is time to take it to the streets
“Dec. 6, 1987. On the eve of the Washington summit between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan, 200,000-250,000 people flooded the National Mall in a display of solidarity for Soviet Jewry. It was the largest Jewish rally ever held in the United States. It put the issue of Soviet Jewry squarely in Gorbachev’s face. The results were momentous. Not long after the summit, the gates opened, and approximately 1 million Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel. Another 500,000 came to America,” writes Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, co-founder and co-director of Wisdom Without Walls, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Let’s make some noise: “It is time for American Jews, and their allies, to gather again in Washington — to make noise and to make history. It is time for a massive rally to expose the issue of antisemitism in America, and to demand — not that antisemitism disappear, which is unlikely to happen, but that, as a nation, we publicly affirm that acting on those beliefs is un-American. But that is only the beginning of what I am proposing.
FUND DIFFERENTLY
Whoever shapes the frameworks shapes the future of Jewish life
“Last month, two juries delivered landmark verdicts against major technology companies — decisions some have called Big Tech’s ‘Big Tobacco moment.’ But those rulings did not begin in a courtroom. They were the product of years of investment in independent research — work that made new legal arguments possible, credible and ultimately persuasive,” writes Rebecca Dinar, executive director of the Samson Charitable Fund, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Lesson for Jewish philanthropy: “Jewish philanthropists are among the most significant contributors to major institutions, and giving to education remains one of the largest areas of charitable investment in the United States. But funding institutions is not the same as shaping the intellectual frameworks those institutions produce. In practice, philanthropic giving, Jewish and otherwise, often prioritizes visible, institution-level support — buildings, endowed programs and general operating funds — over the more targeted, long-term investments required to develop new fields of study, research agendas and scholarly pipelines that shape how issues are understood in law, policy and public discourse.”
Worthy Reads
What We Lost: In The Times of Israel, communications professional Laura Kam reflects on her former mentor, Abe Foxman, the longtime Anti-Defamation League director, who died on Sunday. “For 17 years, I had the privilege of working alongside – and learning from – Abe Foxman, one of the great Jewish leaders of our time. … To the public, Abe was the face and moral voice of the fight against antisemitism as national director of the Anti-Defamation League for 27 years. In fact, he was with the organization for 50 years, his entire career. To world leaders, he was an adviser, strategist, diplomat, and perhaps most importantly, conscience. To me, he was my mentor during my years at ADL and a friend for decades afterward. … Abe belonged to a generation of Jewish leaders shaped directly by the Holocaust, by lived experience. That generation is disappearing now, and with it disappears a kind of moral authority that cannot easily be replaced.” [TOI]
Death of the Institutional Abyss: In The Chronicles of Philanthropy, Rasheeda Childress explores how nonprofits can bridge the gap with younger donors by pivoting away from legacy fundraising models. “Young donors want to see the impact of their giving and know it is doing good in the world, that their gift isn’t just falling into an institutional abyss… To build trust, [Howard Heevner, executive director of annual programs at the University of California at Berkeley,] recommends offering volunteer opportunities, so those young people can see how the organization works and where the money goes. Counts suggests offering Gen Z opportunities to participate on committees. The committees shouldn’t be assigned by age because that can make Gen Z feel like they’re being patronized or not taken seriously.” [ChroniclesofPhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to Jewish leaders on Thursday that she will opt into a new federal education tax initiative to help cover tuition costs for Jewish day schools and yeshivas, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Testimony at Australia’s Royal Commission highlights a spike in domestic antisemitism and a lingering sense of fear following the deadly December terror attack at Bondi Beach…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday that the war against Iran is not yet over, in spite of the weekslong ceasefire and assertions by the U.S. administration that the operations that began in February have concluded, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. In the interview, which was conducted in the home of his supporter, Simon Falic, Netanyahu also reiterated his call to end direct U.S. financial aid for Israel over the next 10 years…
In a Jewish Telegraphic Agency opinion piece, Rabbi Daniel Greyber defends his synagogue’s support for the Gaza Children’s Village, arguing that empowering moderate Palestinian partners is a necessary component of a flourishing Zionist future…
Bloomberg spotlights the ultra-wealthy donors who have contributed to the record $4.7 billion in total that has been raised for the 2026 midterm cycle, with major figures like George Soros, Elon Musk, Jeff Yass, Dr. Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer making large donations amid policy fights regarding Israel, technology and the final two years of the Trump presidency…
A federal judge ruled that the Department of Government Efficiency’s use of AI to scrap humanities grants was unconstitutional, citing the unlawful targeting of Jewish research and Holocaust studies…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy examines a growing trend where nonprofits are aggressively pivoting toward major-gift fundraising to hedge against declining small-donor participation and volatile federal funding…
A 42-year-old woman was arrested in Sydney, Australia, after shouting antisemitic slurs and death threats at 12-year-old girls during a Maccabi netball match…
Larry Smith, a five-term congressman from Florida and a staunch advocate for Israel who also served in the state Legislature, died last Wednesday at 85…
Linda Golding Cohen, a Charleston, S.C., community leader who served as board chair of Addlestone Hebrew Academy and was the Sisterhood President at Synagogue Emanu-El, died last Thursday at 82…
Major Gifts
Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Tekuma Authority have allocated NIS 72 million ($25 million) to restore and develop farming infrastructure in communities near the Gaza border…
Transitions
Pic of the Day
Mark Wilf (fourth from right), owner of the Minnesota Vikings and board chair of the Jewish Agency, visits the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Saturday with a group of Black Minneapolis-area high school students, as well as Vikings defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez, offensive lineman Walter Rouse, defensive end Elijah Williams and former Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe.
“It’s very important for young people to learn about history and how they can make an impact on the world and society,” Wilf, the son of Holocaust survivors, told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea, during the group’s guided tour of the Holocaust museum. “To learn the history of the world — where sometimes there’s hatred and bigotry and see what it can lead to — and also learn the impact of an individual: how an individual can change things, can fight back and how we can set an example by being tolerant and learning from each other.”
Birthdays
Paralympic track and field athlete, he is also a motivational speaker and disability rights advocate, Ezra Frech turns 21…
Israeli optical and kinetic artist and sculptor, he was awarded the Israel Prize of Visual Arts last month, born Yaacov Gibstein, Yaacov Agam turns 98… Sociologist and author of numerous books, magazines and website columns on the subject of love, relationships and intimacy, Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. turns 81… Israeli social activist focused on issues of women’s and human rights, Iris Stern Levi turns 73… Treasurer and receiver-general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Deborah Beth Goldberg turns 72… Past president and then chairman of AIPAC, Morton Zvi Fridman, MD turns 68… Copy chief at Random House until 2023 and the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer turns 68… Brian Mullen… Howard M. Pollack… CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, William Albert “Bill” Ackman turns 60… Former senior fellow and a Middle East analyst at the Hudson Institute, now a consultant, Michael Pregent turns 58… Member of the California state Senate since 2016, now running for Congress, Scott Wiener turns 56… Co-founder and president of Omaha Productions, which he started with Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz… Filmmaker and podcast host, Dan Trachtenberg turns 45… Deputy chief of staff in the Office of the President at Carnegie Mellon University, Pamela Eichenbaum… Senior cost analyst at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Michael Jeremy Alexander… PR and brand manager for overseas resource development at Leket Israel, Shira Woolf… Founder and CEO of the digital asset technology company Architect Financial Technologies, Brett Harrison turns 38… Staff writer at Time magazine, Olivia B. Waxman… Supervisor of commerce strategy at Zenith, James Frichner… Israeli actress, she appeared in “Shtisel,” “Unorthodox” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” Shira Haas turns 31…
