Your Daily Phil: Australian Jewry reels after Melbourne synagogue arson

Good Friday morning. 

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: Jewish community, Conservative movement mourn Omer Neutra, American-Israeli soldier slain on Oct. 7; New Kafka exhibit at Israel’s National Library offers rare glimpse into the author’s personal life, including his Zionism; and The left’s answer to Joe Rogan has an antisemitism problem. Print the latest edition here.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the apparent arson attack on a Melbourne, Australia, synagogue and on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $27.8 million effort to boost hard-hit Israeli cities and towns. We  feature an opinion piece by Carol Schiller stressing the need for nonprofits to invest in telling their story.Also in this newsletter: Rabbi Shai Piron, Nathan Diament and Cantor David Shukiar.

Shabbat shalom!

What We’re Watching

Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies is hosting an event this afternoon featuring a conversation between its president and CEO, Rabbi Marc Baker, and CNN’s Van Jones.

On Sunday, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s JCamp 180 and the Foundation for Jewish Camp will kick off their joint Jewish Camp Summit in Chicago, looking at the accomplishments of and challenges facing Jewish camps. The gathering will feature an array of speakers from across the Jewish communal world, including HGF’s Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, FJC’s Jeremy J. Fingerman, AJC’s Ted Deutch and JFNA’s Eric Fingerhut and Julie Platt.

Also on Sunday, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and Jonathan Haidt are among those slated to speak at the Tikvah Fund’s annual Jewish Leadership Conference in New York.

What You Should Know

Australian Jews headed into Shabbat tonight uneasy as police in the state of Victoria continued to search for the two suspects who were seen setting fire to Congregation Adass Israel in Melbourne in the predawn hours of Friday morning while congregants were inside, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.

The fire caused burn injuries to the hands of some of those inside, apparently from trying to open doors that were scalding from the nearby flames, and considerable damage to the building and to some of the religious books inside. The Torah scrolls in the synagogue do not appear to have been damaged and were removed from the building and taken elsewhere for temporary storage.

“For Jews, the sight of Torah scrolls being carried from a burned-out synagogue evokes some of our worst collective memories. References to Germany in the 1930s no longer seem quite so hysterical,” the local Australian Jewish Independent newspaper wrote in its lead editorial on Friday.

Shortly after the fire, Melbourne police removed a man wielding a hammer and wearing a balaclava from a Jewish bakery where he’d been verbally abusing customers.

So great were the community’s safety concerns that a leading Orthodox rabbi in Melbourne — Rabbi Alan Kimche —issued the highly irregular decision to permit Jews to carry their phones with them on Shabbat in case of emergency. “And he’s a pretty machmir [strict] sort of guy,” quipped Jeremy Liebler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia umbrella group, speaking to eJP earlier today.

Australian authorities had yet to determine the motivation for the apparent arson attack, yet Liebler and other Australian Jewish leaders indicated that the community believed it to be related to the Israel-related antisemitism that has been seen in the country since Oct. 7, 2023.

“You can’t be surprised when you allow people to march through Sydney chanting ‘Globalize the intifada’ — well, this is what globalizing the intifada looks like,” Liebler said.

Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, called on his co-religionists to lean into their heritage after the attack. “Our security and place in society has been eroded. No more,” he wrote on X. “I urge every Jewish Australian to do something today to deepen their connection to their community and their people. Light Shabbat candles. Put on [tefillin]. Put on a kippah. Give to charity. Put on a Star of David necklace. Do not be afraid. You belong to an extraordinary nation.”

Read the full report here.

LOCAL IS GLOBAL

Bloomberg’s $27.8 million project to boost Israeli cities hit hardest by war is ‘up and running’

Michael R. Bloomberg meets with mayors at the at the Bloomberg Sagol Center for City Leadership at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv on April 18, 2024. (Courtesy/Kfir Ziv/Bloomberg Philanthropies)

Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed $27.8 million (NIS 100 million) toward its efforts to rehabilitate and improve the hardest-hit areas in Israel following the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the past 14 months of war in Gaza and Lebanon by building up the municipal governments within those areas through so-called “innovation hubs,” reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. This plan was first announced in April, when former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Israel, meeting with Israeli mayors and other officials. 

Up and running: “The Bloomberg Philanthropies Regional Initiative, announced in April, is now up and running,” James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, told eJP. “We’re beginning to support impacted municipalities with the support they will need to recover and rebuild stronger than ever.” The charity, which focuses much of its efforts on cities and municipal governments, said its “regional innovation hubs” are meant to help the communities “rebuild stronger” by making the local governments more efficient, better able to meet the needs of residents and more attractive to private enterprise.

Read the full report here.

YOU ARE YOUR STORY

How Jewish organizations are missing out on their own magic

Courtesy/Rumble Marketing

“Imagine trying to run a nonprofit organization without a strategic development team. Unthinkable, right? And yet, this is exactly how too many Jewish organizations approach marketing and communications — as an afterthought, a tactical role, rather than the growth force multiplier it should be. The truth is: The story you tell is 80% of how you raise money, recruit talent and attract people to participate in your mission,” writes Carol Schiller, the founding partner of the strategic communications firm Rumble Marketing, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Make the most: “Jewish organizations don’t just have a story to tell — they have a 3,000-plus year story to tell. This is your magic. It’s the idea that donors, participants and partners want to be part of something bigger than themselves: a legacy of continuity, education and impact. But magic doesn’t just happen. It requires intentionality, investment and vision… Are you telling the story of your mission in a way that resonates? The story you tell isn’t just part of your work — it is your work. Make it count.”

Read the full piece here.

Worthy Reads

What Success Looks Like: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Erin K. McFee and Jonathan Röders call for donors to think carefully about the goals they set for themselves, ensuring they align with the needs of the communities that they are looking to help. “Most donors, whether they are governments providing foreign aid, foundations making grants or individual people who give nonprofits money, expect or demand reports on what was accomplished with their funding. And what is measured for that purpose and how it’s measured tend to shape entire programs — often missing the mark on what truly matters to the communities involved… There’s a glaring and crucial question we’ve rarely heard asked when projects are being designed: What does success look like to the people meant to benefit from development funding?… Setting goals that are more relevant to local conditions requires a radical shift in how development projects are designed and evaluated. Rather than imposing predetermined outcomes, we believe that it is crucial to ask of the communities and individuals on the ground: What does success look like to you?” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

A Little Gratitude: In the Jewish Journal, Ron Wolfson argues that we should do a better job of acknowledging the good work of not only our subordinates but also our superiors. “As Jews, we are instructed to say 100 blessings every day, each of them making us aware of the many things for which we are grateful – from simple bodily functions to the beauty of the world in which we live… I have been thinking about the way in which we show, or don’t show, gratitude to our leaders in the workplace, especially in the Jewish community. ‘We often think of our leaders as we do our parents,’ my friend, mentor, and business consultant Stuart Matlins says to me. ‘We believe our parents know everything and they’ll solve every problem. Same thing with our leaders. We “parentize” our leaders, especially our CEOs and presidents of organizations. And just as we children hardly ever [compliment] our parents, when do we ever [compliment] our leaders? We rarely say to them, “You’ve done a good job”’… Whether boss, employee, teacher, student, child, parent or anyone serving you, these are the words most people want to hear the most, not just during the holidays. Yet, in this time of thanksgiving and rededication, take the opportunity to tell your supervisor, your boss, your parents: ‘You’re doing a good job.’ They may even return the favor.” [JewishJournal]

Word on the Street

GivingTuesday reported that donors gave $3.6 billion on the annual fundraising day this week, marking a 16% increase from last year…

The Times of Israel interviews former Israeli Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron about what he calls a “very, very big crisis” in Israeli schools and his recommendations to address it…

The Israel ParaSport Center, which supports Israelis with disabilities through sport, is significantly expanding its U.S. personnel, bringing on board Jackie Shapiro as its East Coast director; Shaina Sugar as its Midwest director; Jeff Pearlman as its director of development; and David Gutbezahl as its director of marketing and communications…

The New York Jewish Week spotlights the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan’s annual Other Israel Film Festival, which opened this week…

Brigham Young University’s Jewish star quarterback Jake Retzlaff inked a sponsorship agreement with Manichewitz; as part of the deal, the kosher food company will sell boxes of matzah with Retzlaff’s image on the packaging…

In a New York Post opinion piece, Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, demands that Congress pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act

By a voice vote, the House passed a bill providing a Congressional Gold Medal to Holocaust-era diplomats who helped Jews flee the Nazi regime, sending the legislation to the president’s desk…

Jersey City, N.J., marked the fifth anniversary of an attack on a kosher supermarket in which four people were killed…

Cantor David Shukiar of Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks, Calif., organized prayer services in Rakovnik in the Czech Republic, using a Torah scroll that had been rescued from the town during the Holocaust; this was the first Jewish prayer service held in the town in more than 80 years…

The New York Times published the obituary for Shalom Nagar, the executioner who hung Adolf Eichmann in 1961, who died last month…

Pic of the Day

Al Seib for the Holocaust Museum LA

Cousins Amanda Markowitz Wizenberg and Amy Conroy stand with 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Ella Mandel, who survived Auschwitz with their grandmother, Tonia Kohn Rosenblatt, at the Holocaust Museum LA gala on Tuesday in Los Angeles. 

Conroy and Markowitz Wizenberg received the museum’s Jona Goldrich Visionary Award at the event for their Holocaust work through public speaking events and social media.

Birthdays

Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Concordia Summit

Founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure (named after her late sister), she also served as U.S. ambassador to Hungary and chief of protocol of the U.S., Nancy Goodman Brinker, celebrates her birthday today… 

FRIDAY: Moshe Hochenberg… Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for 20 years until 2014, Lawrence S. Bergman… Renowned artist, Bruce Nauman… Israeli-born art collector and producer of over 130 full-length films, Arnon Milchan… Professor emeritus of Talmudic culture at the University of California, Berkeley, Daniel Boyarin… Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio, he has served as a trustee of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Judge Dan Aaron Polster… Cell and molecular biologist, he is a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, David L. Spector… Founder of Craigslist, the San Francisco-based website used around the world, Craig Newmark… Film, stage and television actress, Gina Hecht… Faculty member at Harvard Law School since 1981, she served as dean from 2009 until 2017, Martha Minow… Author of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha, with over four million copies sold, Arthur Sulzberger Golden… Senior vice president and general counsel at United Airlines, Robert S. Rivkin… Former executive vice president and COO of the Inter-American Development Bank, Julie T. Katzman… Emmy Award-winning producer, writer, director, actor and comedian, Judd Apatow… Israel’s minister of education, he was a fighter pilot for the IDF and then a civilian pilot for El Al before entering politics, Yoav Kisch… Professor of economics at the University of Chicago, he previously served as the chief economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, Michael Greenstone… Professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, he is a son and grandson of rabbis, Julian E. Zelizer… Editor-in-chief of J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Chanan Tigay… Senior director of Milltown Partners and host of the “Dejargonizer” podcast, Amir Mizroch… Managing director in the NYC office of PR firm BerlinRosen, Dan Levitan… Editor-in-chief at The Air Current, Jon Ostrower… Atlanta native, now a venture capitalist in Israel, Ilan Regenbaum… Licensed community association manager in South Florida, now a regional associate at Bozzuto, Beth Argaman… Psychologist and psychoanalyst, founder and director of professional staff at Beit T’Shuvah in Los Angeles, Susan Krevoy, Ph.D.… Assistant professor in international relations and global politics at the American University of Rome, Andrea Dessì… Joe Blumenthal…

SATURDAY: Author or editor of 40 books including the New York Times best-selling Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins… Actor, director and producer, Larry Hankin… Hedge fund manager, he is the co-founder of Taglit-Birthright Israel and the founder of Hebrew language charter schools in NYC, Michael Steinhardt… Professor of mathematics at Princeton University, Nicholas Michael Katz… Novelist (17 books), essayist and screenwriter, Susan Isaacs… Former Israeli Foreign Ministry legal advisor and then Israeli ambassador to Canada, now at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Ambassador Alan Baker… Chair emeritus of the Longmeadow, Mass., Democratic Town Committee, Candy Glazer… Director and vice chairman of Simon Property Group, Richard S. Sokolov… Past board chair and president of AIPAC, Lillian Pinkus… Chairman of Loews Hotels and co-owner of the NFL’s New York Giants, Jonathan M. Tisch… Haifa-born composer and professor of music at Harvard, Chaya Czernowin… Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention throughout most of the Obama administration, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden… Teacher in the Elko County School District in the northeast portion of Nevada and leader of the local Jewish community there, Shawn Welton-Lowe… Provost and interim dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Dr. Jeffrey Kress… Co-founder of Laurel Strategies, a CEO advisory firm based in Washington, Dafna Tapiero… Director, producer, writer, actor and comedian, best known as the director of “Modern Family,” Jason Winer… President of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, Jed Hoyer… Leading actress in multiple television series including “Roswell” and “Unreal,” Shiri Appleby… Managing partner of New York City-based Capitol Consulting, Jeffrey Leb… Food critic for The New Yorker, she received a 2024 James Beard Award, Hannah Goldfield… Co-author of Union: A Republican, a Democrat, and a Search for Common Ground, he is the managing partner at America’s Frontier Fund, Jordan Blashek… Executive director at New York City’s Mission Staffing, Jaime Leiman… Founder and CEO of Go Dash Dot, Hannah Fastov… Physician practicing in the U.K., Carine Moezinia… Freelance content creator and social media manager, Hannah Vilinsky… VP and head of the startup division at the Israel Innovation Authority, Hanan Brand… Jeff Blum… Toby Lerner…

SUNDAY: Founder and CEO of Top Rank, a boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas, Bob Arum… Film, stage and television actor, composer of film and theater music, and son of concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein, John Rubinstein… Israeli folk singer, lyricist, composer and musical arranger, she has released more than 60 albums sold world-wide, winner of the Kinor David (David’s Harp) Prize, Chava Alberstein… Astrophysicist and senior scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Margaret Geller… Film director, producer and screenwriter, including box office successes such as “The Parent Trap” and “What Women Want,” Nancy Meyers… Canadian anthropologist and author of four books promoting Mussar, a Jewish ethical movement, Alan Morinis… Professor of human development at Cornell University, following high-ranking academic positions at the University of Wyoming, Oklahoma State, Tufts and Yale, Robert J. Sternberg… Writer, photographer and designer, founder of the Honey Sharp Gallery and Ganesh Café in the Berkshires, Honey Sharp… Bedford, Texas, resident, Doug Bohannon… Senior executive producer of special events at ABC News, Marc Burstein… Emmy Award-winning sports commentator and journalist, Roy Firestone… Chairman of a nationwide insurance brokerage, Bruce P. Gendelman… Author of Toward a Meaningful Life, a book that has sold over 400,000 copies, he is the chairman of the Yiddish English weekly, The Algemeiner Journal, Rabbi Simon Jacobson… Retired administrative law judge at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Nadine Lewis… Rabbi, speaker and musician known as Rav Shmuel, for 21 years he led the Yeshiva program run by the IDT Corporation in Newark, N.J., Shmuel Skaist… Co-founder of three successful companies, including Office Tiger in 1999, CloudBlue in 2001, and Xometry in 2013, where he is CEO, Randy Altschuler… Attorney by training but in real life a social media blogger and author, she is the co-founder of TheLi.st, Rachel Sklar… CEO of Executive Platforms, Aaron Kissel… Founder of newsletter “Popular Information” started in 2018, Judd Legum… President and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Aaron Lerner… Actor and musician, Dov Yosef Tiefenbach… Actress, comedian and television writer, Joanna “Jo” Firestone… Co-founder and former chief scientist at OpenAI, in June he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, Ilya Sutskever… Artist, Sophia Narrett… Venture capitalist in Israel, Alex Oppenheimer… Partner at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Ali Krimmer