Your Daily Phil: AI-powered cyberattacks put nonprofits at risk
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the growing threat of AI-powered cyberattacks against nonprofits and interview Aaron Institute’s Zvi Eckstein about the state of the Israeli economy ahead of a two-day conference that he is hosting on the subject. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbis Josh Feigelson and Benjamin Ross drawing attention to the toll of these contentious times on our clergy and a piece by David Bryfman, Rabbi Dena Klein and Beth Cousens presenting steps for strategic unification of the field of Israel education. Also in this newsletter: Marc Rod, Carly Rosenstein and Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
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
After a nearly four-hour delay, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate permitted three women to take a rabbinical exam today, in a historic first following a protracted legal battle.
The Jewish Women Entrepreneur Conference 2026 kicks off today in Newark, N.J., bringing together over 500 Jewish women for a day focused on business growth and leadership.
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s PJ Library is hosting its three-day international conference this week in Springfield, Mass.
The Israel Tech Week Conference kicks off today in Miami, featuring dozens of Israeli high-tech leaders and entrepreneurs.
The Israeli-American Council’s Celebrate Israel festival, featuring 27 events in cities across the U.S., which began last week, continues through May 3.
Tomorrow morning, Reichman University’s Aaron Institute for Economic Policy is hosting its annual conference in Herzliya,Israel. More on this below.
What You Should Know
Computer processing power doubles every year and a half, but artificial intelligence accelerates 10 times faster, estimates Jared Kaplan, the CEO of Anthropic, whose latest AI model, Claude Mythos, is fueling grave safety concerns among tech and security experts. In limited release as a safety precaution, Claude Mythos has the potential to not only write code but hack into the world’s most secure programs. It has found weaknesses in every major operating system and browser on the market.
The innovation could be catastrophic for the philanthropic and nonprofit worlds if they don’t prepare, and the latest release is one of many reasons, including rising antisemitism and the recent war with Iran, that cybersecurity experts warn Jewish nonprofits and philanthropists to stay vigilant, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
“Generally speaking, cybercriminals are super innovative, super early adopters, and any technology that they can use in order to leverage crime and scale crime, they will use,” Menny Barzilay, chief technology officer of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University, told eJP.
When people think of protecting Jewish institutions, they envision security guards and cameras, but “in today’s threat environment” cybersecurity “is no longer optional,” Steve Gonzalez, vice president of global security and safety at the Anti-Defamation League, told eJP.
Gonzalez, who worked at the FBI for 21 years, said that “Jewish organizations generally face threats across multiple domains — physical, digital and reputational — and we’re seeing the same hate and extremism that drives the physical security threats increasingly manifest themselves online.”
Between January and mid-April 2026, the Secure Community Network clocked 190 cyberattacks targeting synagogues and Jewish organizations across 16 states. The attacks come in many forms – website defacement, phishing, doxxing, fraud and data exposure – and are “no longer theoretical for the community,” Gonzalez said. Cyberattacks don’t receive the same attention as physical attacks do, and cybersecurity doesn’t receive the same funding, often getting dumped onto the IT department’s already heavy load.
Cyberattacks on Jewish institutions aren’t simply about “financial gain, but also for information gathering or identifying potential targets within the community,” Michael Masters, the national director and CEO of SCN, told eJP. “The overlap between cyber-activity and physical targeting risk is increasingly evident.”
Q&A
From wartime deficits to workforce integration: Aaron Institute’s Eckstein examines Israel’s economy
Historic highs in defense spending and the complex pressures of a strong shekel are testing Israel’s long-term financial health in ways not seen since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, according to Zvi Eckstein, head of the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University and former Bank of Israel deputy governor. Eckstein spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet recently ahead of his institute’s annual two-day conference, which kicks off tomorrow.
JH: Given the massive scale of the past-two plus years of war, what are the fiscal challenges posed by the conflict, and how do you see it impacting Israel’s national expenditures and economic stability moving forward?
ZE: We are facing huge expenditures from the war. Through 2023, 2024 and 2025, [Israel’s] spending was running around 8% of GDP, which requires the government to issue debt. The main challenge is the uncertainty of whether the war will continue across military fronts in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza. … The question is how to balance the budget to maintain a high quality of life so people do not leave Israel. … The key is determining what economic reforms we can generate to have a higher growth and income rate to fund these expenditures and achieve stability in the medium and long run.
SURVEY SAYS
The fire outside is real. So is the burnout within.
“In December 2025, the Amen Center for Civic & Spiritual Leadership and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality conducted a pulse survey of rabbis and cantors. Within days, 450 rabbis and 276 cantors responded. The speed and scale of that response said something before we even read the comments: a nerve had been touched,” write Rabbi Josh Feigelson and Rabbi Benjamin Ross, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Running on empty: “Nearly 1 in 4 respondents rated their well-being in the lowest range. Nearly 1 in 5 rabbis said they had no consistent sustaining practices at all. Many reported strong relationships with lay leaders but far weaker systems for leadership development, shared responsibility and durable support. … When leaders are depleted, institutions become brittle. Creativity narrows. Conflict intensifies. Fewer people step forward. More quietly wonder whether they can stay. Communities lose some of the last local places where trust, belonging and moral courage are still being formed.”
SYSTEM UPDATE
Reimagining Israel education: A new framework for a new world
“Today, there are myriad high-quality educational experiences for learners and professional development opportunities for educators. At the same time, the speed of generational change, including technological and social disruption, outpaced our planning and policy work. Today’s learners, and many of their educators, bring new perspectives and expectations that demand an evolution of Israel education,” write The Jewish Education Project’s David Bryfman, Rabbi Dena Klein and Beth Cousens in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Getting on the same page: “Educators bear the brunt of a field that lacks unified goals, strategies and resources and is filled with competing messages. They are afraid of making mistakes and of angering stakeholders. … Implementing a field-wide strategy and support systems is the only way to advance Israel education so it resonates with and is meaningful to today’s learners.”
Worthy Reads
Duck and Cover: In Jewish Insider, Marc Rod offers a first-person account of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting over the weekend. “Two thoughts ran through my head [when I started seeing other guests ducking under the tables and security officers drawing their guns]. The main one: I’m getting married in six days. I can’t die now. The second: I can’t believe this is happening to me again. (For those readers who are newer to Jewish Insider — I was also on scene for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.) … I’m sure we were only on the floor for a few minutes. But with no idea of what was happening, beyond the developing clarity that we’d just heard shots ring out, it felt like an eternity. … When I finally made it home, I was, perhaps unwisely, scrolling X and saw a quickly proliferating set of conspiracy theories about the night, from both sides of the aisle… The Jewish community has become sadly familiar with politically motivated violence, having faced deadly attacks and attempted attacks across the country. But increasingly, it seems to be a society-wide problem — and one without a clear path back.” [JewishInsider]
The Way You Wear Your Hat: In his Substack “Israel from the Inside,” Daniel Gordis presents the detention of Alex Sinclair, who was taken into custody for wearing a kippah with a Palestinian and Israeli flag on it, as a chilling indicator of eroding Israeli civil liberties. “I myself believe that Sinclair and those like him — who still hold faith in peace with suicidal psychopaths — are living in a fantasy. Yet I have a soft spot for idealists, and a firm aversion to those who resort to violence… He has been wearing that kippah — with both flags — for twenty years. To many of us, the sight may be objectionable, even grating. But in the Israel of 2026, causing offense remains, as yet, no crime….When the police detain a man sitting quietly in a café simply because his clothing offends the eye of a passerby, they cease to be police and become an instrument of suppression.” [IsraelfromtheInside]
Thank You, Mr. Sapiro: In The Times of Israel, Menachem Rosensaft argues that Aaron Sapiro’s 1927 defamation lawsuit against Henry Ford — highlighted in a new documentary, “Sapiro v. Ford” — offers a vital lesson in using the law to dismantle platforms of hate, specifically The Dearborn Independent. “As I was watching ‘Sapiro v. Ford,’ it occurred to me that this newspaper’s disappearance from the scene deprived the Nazis and their American acolytes, such as Father Charles Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh, of a major media platform through which they would have been able to spread their antisemitic bigotry in the US in the 1930s. Also, Ford lost much of his luster and bravado after the trial. We can only speculate how vicious and, yes, effective he and The Dearborn Independent might have been in support of the Nazis’ antisemitic agenda in the decade leading up to the outbreak of World War II but for Aaron Sapiro.” [TOI]
Funding Under Fire: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Shannon McCracken, Woodrow Rosenbaum and Art Taylor argue that while digital giving platforms require stronger accountability and data transparency, the sector must avoid cutting off billions in donations to nonprofits. “Many of the concerns are legitimate, and addressing them is long overdue, but the sector must avoid overreach through sweeping restrictions and state-by-state regulations. Restricting that infrastructure would cut off a channel through which billions of dollars flow to nonprofits each year, including an estimated $2 to $3 billion in corporate matching funds. Some of those dollars may be recovered over time, but small and midsize community organizations will find it particularly difficult to recoup the loss. We owe it to the sector to do everything we can to make it easier — not harder — for people to find the causes they care about.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani exercised his veto power for the first time since entering office on Friday to block a bill that would standardize NYPD policy around protests at educational institutions; the move drew staunch criticism from the local Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports…
Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner announced on Friday the launch of Thrive Eternal, a capital holding company that will acquire a minority, non-controlling stake in the San Francisco Giants as its first major partnership, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports…
Israeli Consul General to New York Ofir Akunis has been named as a candidate for the next chair of Keren Hayesod…
Jewish News highlights the dramatic rescue of London’s Immanuel College from imminent closure following a landmark £12 million ($16.3 million) community fundraising campaign and a change in leadership…
Comedian Modi Rosenfeld tells The New York Post’s Page Six about the messages he receives from closeted gay Orthodox Jews…
The U.S. Embassy in London issued a security alert advising citizens in the United Kingdom to exercise increased caution due to recent threats targeting American and Jewish institutions…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy covers how nonprofit leaders are rapidly shifting their use of artificial intelligence from a clerical tool into a “strategic thought partner” for high-stakes decisions like theory-of-change modeling.
Nika Soon-Shiong, the publisher of Drop Site News who is also the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, is circulating conspiracy theories seeking to tie a California-based Jewish couple behind a major pistachio processor to the recent U.S.-Israeli military strikes in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Globes reports Meta is cutting 100 jobs in Israel as part of a global 10% workforce reduction to pivot resources toward massive AI infrastructure investments…
Former Trump official Brad Parscale is leading a multimillion-dollar Israeli campaign to shape how global AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini portray the country…
An 11-year-old girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian cluster bomb attack on her home in Bnei Brak earlier this month died of her injuries…
Matan Koch, a lawyer and disability rights leader who dedicated his life to reshaping national inclusion policy and Jewish communal life, died on Friday…
Diplomat Lionel Rosenblatt, whose experiences living in Haifa, Israel, as a child inspired him to join the U.S. Foreign Service and later lead Refugees International, died on April 11 at 82…
Arnold Pazornik, an attorney who contributed to the early years of the U.S. space program, died on Thursday at 94…
Cardiologist Eugene Braunwald, who as a child fled Nazi Europe and went on to reshape how modern medicine approaches heart attacks, died on Wednesday at 96…
Major Gifts
The Jewish Federations of North America awarded $5.3 million in grants to 34 organizations to expand “person-centered, trauma-informed” care for Holocaust survivors and vulnerable older adults…
Transitions
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely was appointed as the head of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate…
Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has tapped Daniel Shapero, the professional networking site’s current chief operating officer, as its next CEO, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Carly Rosenstein joined Builders of Jewish Education as its chief impact officer…
Hilary Krieger was hired as the next executive editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and New York Jewish Week…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli Prime Ministers Yair Lapid (right) and Naftali Bennett embrace yesterday after announcing that they will run in this year’s Knesset election under a joint party called “Together,” which will be led by Bennett, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Birthdays
Co-founder of Casamigos Tequila and owner of restaurants, bars and lounges worldwide, Rande Gerber turns 64…
Financial executive, he retired in 2014 as head of marketing for money manager Van Eck Global, Harvey Hirsch turns 85… Nonprofit executive who has managed the 92nd Street Y, the Robin Hood Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy turns 81… Physician and a former NASA astronaut, she is a veteran of three shuttle flights with more than 686 hours in space, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. turns 73… Director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority until 2020, he was previously a member of Knesset and deputy director of the Shin Bet, Yisrael Hasson turns 71… Vice president at Covington Fabric & Design, Donald Rifkin… Biologist and professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, he won the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine, Andrew Zachary Fire turns 67… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui party, Yigal Yasinov turns 60… Showrunner, director, screenwriter and producer, Brian Koppelman turns 60… CEO of ZAM Asset Management, Elliot Mayerhoff… Founder and CEO of New York City-based Gotham Ghostwriters, he served as a senior advisor for Sen. Joseph Lieberman in his vice presidential and presidential campaigns, Daniel Gerstein turns 59… Israeli actor, entertainer and television host, Yitzhak “Aki” Avni turns 59… Attorney and journalist, she is a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick turns 59… Author, political analyst and nationally syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank turns 58… U.S. senator (D-NJ) since 2013, he was previously the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker turns 57… Israeli television and radio journalist and former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party, Yinon Magal turns 57… Professor of science writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seth Mnookin turns 54… Cinematographer and director, Rachel Morrison turns 48… Identical twin brothers, between the two of them they won 11 Israeli championships in the triathlon between 2001 and 2012, Dan and Ran Alterman both turn 46… Israeli screenwriter and producer, she has written numerous advertisements and screenplays, Savion Einstein turns 44… Vice president of AIPAC’s mid-Atlantic region, Leah Berry… Television and film actress, Ariel Geltman “Ari” Graynor turns 43… Basketball coach, analyst and writer, Benjamin Falk turns 38… Senior creative director at Trilogy Interactive, Jessica Ruby… Head of climate data at Watershed, Jonathan H. Glidden… Research fellow at Emory University law school, David Jonathan Benger… Entrepreneurial investor, Noah Swartz turns 33… Medical resident at UCLA Health, Amir Kashfi…
