Your Daily Phil: $2.5M matching grant makes Campers2Gether a yearly program
Good Friday morning.
Ed. note: In observance of Passover, the next Your Daily Phil will arrive in your inbox on Monday, April 21. Chag kasher v’sameach!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover a $2.5 million matching grant to turn Campers2Gether from an emergency initiative into a permanent program and the “Oct. 7 delegation” attending the March of the Living ceremony on April 24. We also report on calls for accountability coming from progressive and center-left slates in the World Zionist Congress election as the investigation into alleged voter fraud continues, and a children’s book being published about the first-ever White House Seder. We feature opinion pieces by David Bryfman and Lisa Kay Solomon focused on the Passover Seder, and one by Rabbi Joshua Stanton about Catholic-Jewish relations in advance of Easter. Also in this newsletter: Menachem Z. Rosensaft, Patricia Heaton and Rabbi Jonathan Romain. Shabbat Shalom!
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 Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: How will Israel’s new budget affect social services? An expert weighs in; Election committee investigating indications of mass voter fraud in World Zionist Congress elections; Trump taps campaign surrogate, Orthodox Jewish businessman for antisemitism envoy; and Keith Siegel recounts his Hamas captivity to foreign diplomats, AJC members. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
Passover begins Saturday night, when Jews around the world will convene for the Seder.
Dina Powell McCormick and Sheryl Sandberg will discuss how purposeful mentorship changes the world at an event at Stanford University on April 14.
Rabbi Yoshi Zweibeck of Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, Amanda Berman of Zioness, Pastor Michael T. Fisher of Greater Zion Church in Compton, Calif., media figure Van Jones and other leaders will convene on April 17 for a Freedom Seder focused on renewing the covenant between the Black and Jewish communities and educating the next generation about this longstanding relationship.
What You Should Know
When Campers2Gether launched last summer, the Jewish Agency program gave 1,500 Israeli teenagers who had been directly affected by the Israel-Hamas war and the fighting along Israel’s northern border a chance for some respite by sending them Jewish camps around the world.
Now, Campers2Gether is changing from an emergency response to a permanent program thanks to a $2.5 million matching grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation, eJewishPhilanthropy has learned. For at least the next three years, more than 700 Israeli teenagers from the Gaza and Lebanon borders will travel to North America each summer to attend Jewish overnight camps.
Initially, advancing the concept of Jewish peoplehood was a fringe benefit of the program, as Diaspora Jewish teens at those camps had a chance to interact with Israelis their own age and vice versa. What was once a positive but secondary outcome is now the central focus, Shelley Kedar, director of the Jewish Agency’s Connecting the Jewish People Unit, told eJP’s Judah Ari Gross.
“We set out to do this program to help the traumatized teens from war zones. We said, ‘Summer camp can heal and create resilience.’ And the secondary focus was connection [between Israelis and Diaspora Jews],” Kedar said. “Resilience was achieved, but the connection element was just — wow! We saw it in the pre- and post-surveys. It was very significant for the teens… both sides benefited to the same extent.”
These direct connections between Israeli and American teens are especially desirable for the Jewish Agency and the North American Jewish organizations that it is partnering with, as Israel travel has decreased significantly in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and is not expected to fully recover quickly.
“We are gratified to support Campers2Gether, The Jewish Agency’s critically important initiative that enables Jewish youth in Israel and North America to flourish in the most challenging of times,” Jehuda Reinharz, president and CEO of the Mandel Supporting Foundation, said in a statement. “Campers2Gether leverages the power of the immersive Jewish summer camp experience to ensure that members of the young generation in our community — representing our next generation of leaders — form meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime.”
Though many camps from last year are signed up to again participate in Campers2Gether, Kedar said the Jewish Agency was still looking for additional partners.
SECURE THE ELECTION
Progressive, center-left slates react to suspected voter fraud in WZC, call for accountability
With the investigation into allegations of voter fraud in this year’s World Zionist Congress ongoing, several slates are urging in a letter that the two slates suspected of involvement be disqualified, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Necessary deterrence: The letter, obtained by eJewishPhilanthropy, was written and signed by the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), Mercaz, Dorshei Torah V’Tzion, Kol Israel and AID Coalition, as well as Israel Shelanu, New Jewish Narrative and Partners for a Progressive Israel on behalf of Hatikvah. According to Sarrae Crane, a representative of Mercaz, the American Conservative/Masorti Movement’s slate, a number of other slates expressed that the offending slates should be disqualified, but were not prepared to sign on to all of the provisions and language outlined in the letter. In addition to disqualifying the slates suspected of fraud, the groups are calling for further investigation into all votes made with prepaid debit cards and for votes cast for disqualified slates to be considered void; those voters, they say, should be prohibited from voting again. “Without the broader disqualifications, the lesson is that fraud is a low-risk tactic, with few consequences if caught. This message is inconsistent with our need to have an honest 2025 election conducted with integrity,” the letter said.
NEVER AGAIN IS NOW
Freed hostage Agam Berger and Oct. 7 survivor Daniel Weiss to perform at central March of the Living ceremony
When Israel marks Yom Hashoah in two weeks, freed hostage Agam Berger will be performing onstage at the March of the Living’s annual ceremony on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous Nazi extermination camp, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky. Berger will play a 130-year-old violin that survived the Holocaust and was brought to Israel, gifted to her after her release in January during the second ceasefire agreement. Daniel Weiss, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri whose parents were murdered in the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, will be singing alongside her.
Marching for past, present and future: For the second consecutive year, a special delegation of Oct. 7 survivors, including freed hostages, bereaved families and residents of the Gaza border communities, will take part in the global March of the Living, the Menomadin Foundation announced on Friday. The foundation works in collaboration with the World Zionist Organization and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to strengthen Israel’s social and economic resilience. The delegation will include more than a dozen freed hostages, many joined by family members; family members of hostages still in captivity, either being held alive or whose bodies are being kept by Hamas; and the family members of individuals murdered on Oct. 7 or during their captivity in Gaza.
A LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY
Passover at the Obama White House becomes a children’s tale
Next Year in the White House, published by Penguin Random House this spring and distributed by the Jewish literacy nonprofit PJ Library, tells the story of the first White House Seder, hosted during the Obama administration. But most of the book actually describes the Seder that took place a year earlier on the campaign trail, when the refrain “Next year in the White House” felt as realistic as the prophet Elijah actually walking through the front door at the end of the Seder, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication, Jewish Insider.
Story behind the story: The book was written by children’s book author and poet Richard Michelson, but the impetus came from Eric Lesser, a lawyer who lives in the same Western Massachusetts community as Harold Grinspoon, the founder of PJ Library. Lesser organized the 2008 campaign Seder in Harrisburg, Pa., back when he was the person who schlepped Obama’s luggage everywhere. “We go to the same synagogue and live very close to each other. And I remember one day I just mentioned to him the idea that had been presented to me about a children’s book, and he loved the idea,” Lesser told JI. He didn’t hear anything about it for a long time. “Then kind of out of the blue, [Grinspoon] called me one day and said, ‘PJ Library wants to turn this into a book.’ And the rest is history.”
Read the full story here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
A REVEALING PRACTICE
The Seder: Where we all become Jewish educators and learners
“One of my favorite statistics from the 2020 Pew study of Jewish Americans is that 62% of American Jews report having held or attended a Passover Seder the year prior, higher than any other item on the ‘Jewish practices and customs’ list,” writes David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “This data point reveals a lot about the Jewish home and family.”
A locus of learning: “The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual where the home is central to the act itself. For many parents, even if they are not 100% sure exactly what to be doing on Passover, largely through their own personal experiences they may know the basic components of the Seder. And in assuming the role of storytellers, parents, grandparents and children alike, are also transformed into Jewish educators… When our Seders conclude, we should also be reminded that even with all of the important investments and innovations in education, the home and the family remain a deeply impactful setting and messenger.”
MA NISHTANA
Why is this Passover Seder an invitation to imagine better futures?
“In recent months, I’ve found myself in countless conversations about Jewish futures — where my professional work in strategic foresight naturally intertwines with my identity as a proud member of the Jewish community,” writes futurist Lisa Kay Solomon, a best-selling author and lecturer at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “As we collectively navigate this overwhelming moment, two questions emerge again and again: How do we find positive agency amid such complexity? Where can we discover signals of hope strong enough to build upon? The answer might be closer than we think.”
An annual thought experiment: “In many ways, the Seder teaches us the art of emergence: working with what we know, while welcoming what we can’t yet imagine. The genius of Passover lies in its ability to collapse time, connecting us to our past while orienting us toward the future. In this way, it offers not just a commemoration of liberation but a recursive practice in imagining transformation — and in these complex times, such imagination may be our most valuable inheritance.”
INTERFAITH RELATIONS
Seize the opportunities: A call for renewing Catholic-Jewish collaboration
“Easter is a difficult time for Jews, past and present,” writes Rabbi Joshua Stanton, Jewish Federations of North America’s associate vice president for interfaith and intergroup initiatives, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Many churches still read aloud passages from the Book of Acts Chapter 2, which places blame on Jews for Jesus’ torture and death, often preceded on Good Friday with similar exhortations from the Gospel of John… This year, we also observe anti-Jewish theological tropes being projected onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… We might be tempted to throw up our hands in despair, were it not for the profound opportunities to renew outreach to Christian communities — notably, Catholic ones.”
A heartening example: “Local dioceses and Jewish federations, whose clergy and lay leaders have formed deep friendships, are using programs to foster widespread relationships and learning between their communities. Fort Wayne, Ind., for example, is not known in large coastal cities as a center of Jewish institutions. But its Jewish federation, led by CEO Michael Theise, has created opportunities for friendship between Catholics and Jews that would be the envy of many more populous locales. In Theise’s humble recounting of events, it was Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who serves the diocese spanning Fort Wayne and South Bend, working with the former federation CEO Jaki Schreier, who took the initiative to ensure that students in local Catholic schools and churches learned about the Holocaust. Bishop Rhoades, in turn, credits parishioners who wanted to learn more about it. But the key detail is that Bishop Rhoades was not met with closed doors or unreturned calls from his Jewish counterparts. Instead, Jewish leaders began collaborating actively on Holocaust education and opportunities about the Jewish community. ”
Worthy Reads
Fiery Liturgy: In the Jewish Standard, Joanne Palmer reviews Menachem Z. Rosensaft’s Burning Psalms: Confronting Adonai after Auschwitz. “This book of poetry — every poem in it a response or counterpoint to every one of the psalms in the biblical book — written by the son of Holocaust survivors and the brother of a murdered sibling he never knew, is composed with fire, fueled by a combination of rage, love, and despite-it-all faith that sears your eyes as you read it… ‘We have to recalibrate how we deal with Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust memory, with the survivors leaving the scene,’ Mr. Rosensaft said. ‘My strong view is that this has to be done in another way — possibly through liturgy — instead of a simple continuation of what we have been doing. ‘We cannot just have what has become a secondhand repetition of what the survivors have been telling us for the past 80 years. ‘When the survivors were telling their stories and transmitting their memories — and now, still when they do tell them — that is an authentic link with the experience of the Holocaust. But I do not believe that it can be replicated on an ongoing basis. So, in order to make Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust memory an integral part not just of Jewish consciousness but of the consciousness of our society in general, we have to rethink how we are going to convey it.’” [JewishStandard]
Showcasing Israel’s Diversity: In Splash Magazines, Elaine Mura interviews Israeli American photographer Shlomit Levy Bard, whose exhibit at Hillel at UCLA, titled “Redefining Zionism,” features portraits and interviews with over 60 people from all over Israel — Jews, Muslims, Druze and Christians — collected over the course of the year following Oct. 7. “Oct. 7 and the ensuing war left me feeling bereft, anxious, and helpless with respect to what was happening in Israel and Gaza as well as the reactions abroad — particularly on college campuses. I have a son in college and two in high school. The antisemitism that we were all suddenly seeing was alarming and distressing. Beyond the immediate catastrophe of the attacks in Israel, the term Zionism was being lobbed like a grenade — with some activists calling for the actual murder of Zionists, and with Jewish students needing to disavow their support for Israel as a precondition to entering certain spaces on their own college campuses. At the same time, I also saw the destruction in Gaza and felt heartbroken for the loss of innocent life there. I felt helpless and not sure what I, as a photographer and a mother, could possibly do. After a few months of being consumed by the news about the war there and the reaction on college campuses, the idea emerged: I decided to do a series of portraits and interviews of Israelis themselves, talking about what Zionism means to them personally in a post-Oct. 7 world… Many people think of Israelis as predominantly ‘white,’ but the fact is that Israel is incredibly diverse, both in terms of population and in terms of point of view. The exhibit itself is representative of the diversity within Israel. Anyone who sees it is likely to find perspectives they agree with, and perspectives that challenge them.” [SplashMagazines]
Word on the Street
The Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Stamford, Conn., has received what it is calling a “transformational gift” from Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman of New York City, enabling the school to offer 50% off tuition for all four years of high school to all incoming ninth- and 10th-grade students in 2025-2026 and 2026-2027…
Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton, who has emerged as a leading voice in Jewish advocacy, became the 100,000th signatory to the Jewish Future Promise, which has pledged $4.65 billion to support Jewish causes and Israel. Known for “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Middle,” Heaton also leads the October 7th Coalition, a Christian group combating antisemitism after Hamas’ attack on Israel…
Rabbi Jonathan Romain, head of the British Reform Beit Din, attributes the COVID-19 pandemic’s prompting of spiritual reflection and the rise of DNA tests revealing Jewish ancestry as key factors leading to a 42% increase in conversions to Judaism through the Reform and Liberal movements last year…
Princeton University launched an investigation after protesters disrupted a Monday event with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. University President Christopher Eisgruber condemned “reports of antisemitic language” in a statement and later apologized to Bennett. The incident comes as the Trump administration pressures universities, including Princeton, for allegedly not doing enough to combat campus antisemitism…
Billionaire Palestinian-American developer Bashar Masri resigned from the Dean’s Council at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government after nearly 200 families of Oct. 7 Hamas attack victims filed a lawsuit accusing him of aiding Hamas by supporting tunnel and rocket launcher construction in Gaza…
The Jewish Education Project has announced the five recipients of the 2025 Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneers Award, which recognizes exceptional Jewish educators from greater New York that advance and innovate Jewish education. The awardees are: Amy Schilit Benarroch, education director at Fig Tree, an independent Jewish after-school program; Alyssa Berman, director of youth and family engagement at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, N.Y.; Erica Cohen, director of teen engagement at Young Judaea; Elisheva Hirsch, theatre specialist at Preschool of the Arts; and Caryn Keller, a teacher at SAR High School and director of the school’s Confidence Project…
Prosecutors revealed new evidence on April 8 against Mohamad Hamad, one of two people charged with vandalizing Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh last July, characterizing him as a Hamas sympathizer…
Melissa Chapman is leaving the JCC East Bay on July 4 to become chief impact officer for JCC Chicago…
Danny Leban has been named the new chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of the Desert of Rancho Mirage, Calif. …
David Siegel has been named the new CEO of J Los Angeles, formerly the Westside Jewish Community Center…
Pic of the Day
At Wednesday’s National Hunger Seder on Capitol Hill, hosted by Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) addressed anti-hunger advocates and leaders in celebration of the upcoming Passover holiday while calling attention to food insecurity nationwide.
Birthdays
Resident of California, she spied on the Nazis for the French Free Forces in the latter days of World War II, Marthe Cohn celebrates her birthday on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Actress who played the title character on the 325-episode soap opera satire “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” Louise Lasser… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and syndicated columnist, she is the co-founder and director of “The Conversation Project” focused on end-of-life care, Ellen Goodman… Founder and CEO of the USA Network in 1977, she is the co-founder and chairman of Springboard Enterprises, Kay Koplovitz… West Bloomfield, Mich.-based inventor on more than forty patents, Barry Schwab… Actor, director and screenwriter, he played the role of a crooked politician in “The Sopranos,” Peter Riegert… Sarita Dery… Former deputy director of WomenStrong International, Sydney Rubin… Managing partner and a founder of LA-based law firm Glass & Goldberg, Marshall F. Goldberg… Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 1999 from the Pittsburgh area, Dan B. Frankel… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, Michael Vitez… Australian industrialist, executive chairman of Visy Industries and Pratt Industries US, the world’s largest privately owned packaging company, Anthony Pratt… Executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies, he serves on many charitable boards including the University of Pennsylvania and the 92nd Street Y, William P. Lauder… Provost of Harvard University, on a leave of absence from his position as a professor at Harvard Law School, John Francis Manning… General counsel of the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, Jonathan E. Meyer… Professor at Sarah Lawrence College, he is a scholar of Eastern European Jewry, with a focus on the social history of Hasidism, Glenn Dynner… Retired Olympic breaststroke swimmer, he competed for the Soviet Union and then Israel, Vadim Alekseyev… Co-founder of Caracal Global Strategies and founder and CEO of Brigadoon, Marc A. Ross… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Ezra Y. Schwartz… Head of fixed income sales at Citadel LLC, he was previously a Major League Soccer midfielder, Jordan Cila… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and a dayan/judge at the Beth Din of America, Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig… Youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona House of Representatives, she is a convert to Judaism and worked for Tucson’s JCRC, Alma Hernandez…
SATURDAY: Founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, Pastor John Charles Hagee… National correspondent for “CBS News Sunday Morning,” Rita Braver… Attorney and bestselling novelist of thirteen legal thrillers and author of three nonfiction books, Scott Turow… Television producer, he serves as chairman of the Liverpool Football Club and the Boston Red Sox, Thomas Charles Werner… Senior vice president at UJA Federation of New York, Stuart Tauber… Fashion designer, he is a co-founder of the Guess clothing and accessory brand, Paul Marciano… West Bloomfield, Mich., resident, Ron Mitnick… Washington attorney, Norman B. “Norm” Antin… Chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 2014 until she was appointed to the House of Lords in 2021, Baroness Joanna Merron… U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer… Twin brothers, both real estate agents starring in the Netflix original series “Selling Sunset,” Jason and Brett Oppenheim… Actress, director and writer, Jordana Spiro… Realtor focused on the Boston area, Ilya Jacob Rasner… President at National Student Legal Defense Network, Aaron Ament… California state senator, Henry I. Stern… Member of the Seattle City Council, Daniel Aaron Strauss… Comedian, writer and actress, best known for co-creating and co-starring in the Comedy Central series “Broad City,” Ilana Glazer… Israeli actress best known for her lead role in the 2012 film “Fill the Void,” Hadas Yaron… Actor, he starred as Big Red in the Disney series “High School Musical,” Larry Saperstein …
SUNDAY: Curator and then director of the Louvre until 2001, he is the son-in-law of the late Alain de Rothschild, Pierre Rosenberg… Geneticist and 1985 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Michael Stuart Brown… Author and feminist leader, she is the former CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Gloria Feldt… Managing director at Tiedemann Advisors, he was previously a vice chair at Goldman Sachs and a high-ranking State Department official, Robert D. “Bob” Hormats… Retired member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA) after 10 terms, Susan Carol Alpert Davis… Vice president of the New Israel Fund, Paul Egerman… Actor who won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Vincent in the television series “Beauty and the Beast,” Ron Perlman… Longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and the bandleader for Conan O’Brien on “The Tonight Show,” Max Weinberg… Partner in Uplands Real Estate Partners, Deborah Ratner Salzberg… Former member of the U.K. Parliament until 2005, she served as the U.K.’s first ever minister of state for asylum and immigration under then-P.M. Tony Blair, Barbara Margolis Roche… Co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management and a founding board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, Glenn Dubin… Author of six books and co-host of daily independent news hour “Democracy Now!,” Amy Goodman… Art historian, philanthropist and author of the KosherLikeMe website, Liz Rueven… Former U.S. senator (D-PA) until this past January, Bob Casey, Jr.… Former orthopedic surgeon, he was the Democratic nominee for the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Alaska, Alan Stuart Gross… Youngest-ever Federal Reserve governor, where he served until 2011, he is now a visiting fellow in economics at the Hoover Institution, Kevin Warsh… Guitarist and founding member of the rock group “Staind,” he has also enjoyed a successful solo career in country music, Aaron Lewis… CEO and executive director of D.C.-based Sixth & I, Heather Moran… Staff writer at Tablet magazine, Armin Rosen… Director of government relations at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Alexandria Paolozzi… Venture investor at Venrock, Morgan Hitzig… Senior consultant at Gray Ink, Lauren Epstein Schwartz… Graduate student in Talmud at Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., Aharon Lipnitzky… Helene Cash…
