Your Daily Phil: Beyond the library: Dolly Parton’s lessons for our community
Add EJP on GoogleGood Wednesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we reflect on the layered legacy of Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday at 80, and report on the pilot year of the Tzedek Center, the Rabbinical Assembly’s advocacy institute. We feature an opinion piece by Laura Liebman offering lessons from Dolly Parton’s approach to philanthropy and a piece by Mark Ginsberg that focuses on steps Jewish communal institutions and donors can take to defend against digital scams. Also in this issue: Max Naumann, Eli Horvitz and Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country — prompted by the December 2025 terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach — concluded today in Sydney. Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, the Chabad of Bondi director whose son-in-law was one of 15 people killed in the attack, was among the final witnesses to address the panel today.
More than 300 dancers from 25 countries are gathering at the JDC-Lauder International Jewish Youth Camp in Szarvas, Hungary, for the first day of Machol Hungaria, an annual Israeli folk dance camp.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S RACHEL KOHN
Tributes and thought pieces have been churning out from 9 to 5 since the announcement that singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist Dolly Parton died yesterday at 80.
The Jewish community’s response in particular has been to spotlight her role in inspiring the creation of PJ Library, a Jewish connection featured in eJewishPhilanthropy over the years. Other articles since Parton’s death have focused on the biblical references, some of them deep cuts, in her songs, as well as the Jewish connections involved in her professional trajectory — the talent agent, the producer, the songwriters.
But there is something about Parton herself — her unapologetic embrace of her origins, her willingness to stand out in a world that often rewards softening what makes someone different — that offers a lasting lesson for our community about being a changemaker.
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.
News
ADVOCACY ARM
After pilot year, Rabbinical Assembly unveils name of new policy institute
The Rabbinical Assembly, the rabbinic arm of the Conservative/Masorti movement, has long been engaged in advocacy through its social justice commission. But last year, the movement piloted a policy institute that focused on grassroots advocacy across the movement — and last week, the RA announced the institute’s name: the Tzedek Center, tzedek meaning justice in Hebrew. The center has set three priorities to focus on: Jewish safety, which includes advocacy for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and support for the Jewish American Security Act now before Congress; advocacy for federal food security programs; and advocacy for affordable, clean energy, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
Common ground: Emily Jaeger, the center’s director, went on a five-month listening campaign last year, connecting via Zoom and in person with over 150 stakeholders, lay leaders and clergy. Her goal was to identify the issues that united people across the movement. “One of the strengths of our movement is that we are a big tent,” she told eJP. “In the policy landscape, that gives us a unique advantage, because we’re able to find issues that have a bipartisan focus and then work across differences towards consensus,” she said.
Opinion
WORDS TO LIVE BY
Let’s remember the Torah of Dolly Parton
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Laura Liebman, director of development for The Bronfman Fellowship, looks back on her pilgrimage last summer to Dollywood and shares lessons that Jewish funders, leaders and people of all walks of life can take from the multi-hyphenate cultural icon’s life and legacy.
“As a die-hard Dolly Parton fan, I was heartbroken to read news of her death yesterday. My obsession over the years has included a collection of blonde wigs from each of Dolly’s eras, and visiting Dollywood was something I had dreamed about for years. For those of you who are not fully versed in all things Dolly, please indulge me as I share why I found her approach to life and philanthropy relevant to the American Jewish community today.”
SAFETY FIRST
Your rabbi’s voice on the phone is not always your rabbi
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, AI and cybersecurity writer Mark Ginsberg spotlights the technology being used in digital scams targeting Jewish communal institutions and donors, along with advice for how to defend against it.
“Israeli security researchers have tracked online campaigns built on fabricated outrage and invented victims for years, and the same machinery now powers scams aimed directly at Jewish donors: fake charity sites after every disaster, AI-written appeals that mirror the language of real organizations, and manipulated video. ”
Worthy Reads
Coat of Many Cultures: In The Forward, Seth Rogovoy traces Dolly Parton’s connection to Jewish life through her biblical songwriting, her Imagination Library — the children’s book program that inspired Harold Grinspoon’s PJ Library — and her longtime manager Sandy Gallin who steered her crossover to pop stardom. “After Gallin died in 2017, Parton [who died on Tuesday] told an interviewer, ‘Nobody could quite get how the Christian Southern girl and the New York Jewish boy could have so much in common. But it was real.’”
Buried as a German: In The Atlantic, historian Timothy W. Ryback recounts the story of Max Naumann and the League of Nationalist German Jews, a German faction that backed Hitler’s rise even as the Nazis stripped its members of citizenship and basic rights. “Naumann’s remains were interred in a Protestant cemetery… It bears his name and military rank, along with his dates of birth and death, but no indication of faith or family. Persecuted and forgotten as a Jew, he was buried as he’d wished to be — as a German.”
From Morocco to Indiana: In J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Miriam Zimmerman reflects how a Jewish heritage tour of Morocco’s emptied communities led her to reflect on her own dwindling hometown of Terre Haute, Ind., where the synagogue of her childhood was just sold to become an event venue. “Morocco and Indiana, separated by a vast ocean, shared more than I imagined. Who would have thought that Morocco would become the place where this Hoosier rediscovered her Indiana roots?”rds crystallized everything I had come to believe about philanthropy.”
Major Gifts
The family of Marjorie S. Fisher marked her 10th yahrzeit with a $250,000 endowment at the Children’s Foundation of Michigan, creating the Grandparents Parenting Again Fund to support grandparents raising children in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood…
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews donated $2 million to open a new 36-bed rehabilitation wing named for the organization’s founder, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, at the Kaylie Rehabilitation Medical Center at ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran. The donation will help expand care for Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in the war…
Transitions
Cara Gillis is joining the Mellon Foundation as a program officer in the foundation’s higher learning division for a two-year term…
Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, former head of school at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School is now executive vice president at Legacy Heritage Foundation…
Alexi Dagan joined EarlyJ as its development director…
Jessica Liss Feuer is starting a new role at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts as its chief advancement officer…
Word on the Street
Fourteen Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish organizations, led by JIMENA, sent New York magazine an open letter charging that its “Habibi City” feature erases them by casting Middle Eastern identity in political terms that exclude Jews who won’t disavow Israel; in response, David Haskell, New York’s editor-in-chief, offered to meet with the groups in September…
Sefaria released to the public its AI-powered Library Assistant, a chatbot that helps users navigate its free digital collection of nearly 390 million words of Jewish texts by pointing them to primary sources…
In Maariv, Eddie and Jules Trump Family Foundation CEO Eli Horvitz argues that Israeli parents and teachers should steer teenagers toward math, physics and computer science as AI reshapes the job market, rather than letting students simply “choose what they like”…
Iowa’s Sioux City Council accepted a $1 million Missouri River Historical Development grant to help convert the long-vacant former Jewish Community Center into 24 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless residents as part of a $6.5 million project…
Former IDF Gen. Ofer Winter named Arab-Israeli influencer Yoseph Haddad as his pick for public diplomacy minister at his new right-wing party’s Jerusalem launch, where Haddad vowed to become the first Arab in Israel’s Security Cabinet…
A New York Times and Siena poll released on Tuesday found nearly half of likely Pennsylvania voters — 47% — consider Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro “about right” on Israel, with just 14% calling him too supportive, a boost for the Jewish Democrat as he weighs a 2028 presidential run, reports Matthew Kassel for eJewishPhilanthropy‘s sister publication Jewish Insider…
A Shoresh Institution study found that Israeli teachers trail their OECD counterparts in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving at every level of the school system…
Jmore interviews Goldseker Foundation president and CEO Matthew D. Gallagher as the Baltimore foundation marks its 50th anniversary, having grown founder Morris Goldseker‘s $11 million bequest into a foundation that has distributed over $140 million for housing, education and neighborhood revitalization…
The National Council of Jewish Women Australia debuted JW7, an international network of Jewish women leaders modeled after the J7 antisemitism alliance…
The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston hosted the city’s first forum pairing Jewish communal leaders with elected officials from local, state and national government, briefing them on surging antisemitism and pressing for stronger security funding…
A geocartography survey, commissioned by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, found nearly half of Israeli reserve families have taken a financial hit from prolonged IDF service…
The California state Legislature passed a bill guaranteeing that K-12 students will no longer need a parent’s written request and prior principal approval for an automatic excused absence for religious holidays and ceremonies…
Lenore P. Koppel, a Cleveland-born educator who spent much of her career in deaf education and later served as interim principal of Gross Schechter Day School, died Aug. 4 at 97…
Pic of the Day
Earlier this week, a delegation from India met with Krembo Wings, an Israeli youth movement that brings together children and teenagers with and without disabilities, at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to learn and share its inclusive model. Krembo Wings CEO Liat Ellert told eJewishPhilanthropy, “Meeting the delegation from India was especially meaningful because it reminded us that this idea is much bigger than Krembo Wings, and much bigger than Israel. In a world that can feel increasingly divided, young people can show us another way — one built on belonging, friendship and seeing the value in every person.”
Birthdays
Freada Kapor Klein, venture capitalist, social policy researcher and philanthropist, turns 74
Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Jacob of Atlanta, turns 99
Alan Siegel, CEO of Siegelvision, a brand identity consultancy, he is also the co-founder and chairman emeritus of global brand strategy firm Siegel+Gale, turns 88
Martin J. Portnoy, president of You Save On Meds
Ron Huldai, mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998, turns 82
Irving Slosberg, former Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives, turns 79
Jay Caplan, sales representative for ADT Security
Avner Eisenberg, vaudeville performer, clown, mime, juggler and sleight of hand magician, known by his stage name “Avner the Eccentric,” turns 78
Jane August, co-owner of Rochester, N.Y.-based August Moon Imports and World Tae Kwon Do Center
Roger Karoutchi, member of the French Senate, turns 75
Robert J. Fisher, director of Gap, a retail chain founded by his parents, turns 72
Michael J. Bloomfield, executive vice president and managing director of The Mellman Group
Julian Epstein, CEO of LawMedia Group (LMG Inc.), turns 65
Doug Korn, founder and managing partner of Victor Capital Partners, turns 64
Stephen Dubner, journalist and co-author of the Freakonomics series, turns 63
Shelly L. Hettleman, member of the Maryland Senate since 2020, turns 62
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America until 2021, turns 57
Perry Wallack, former CFO at Cornerstone OnDemand
Lorne Abony, managing partner of Austin-based Texas Venture Partners, turns 57
Robert Sacks, managing partner of RNS Strategies based in Portland, Ore.
Steve Malter, professor at the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis, turns 53
Samantha Eisner, deputy general counsel at ICANN, the coordinator of the internet’s naming system
Ariel Maurice “Ari” Ratner, co-founder and CEO of Danari Global, a strategic communications and policy advisory firm
Rami Matan Even-Esh, rapper known professionally as Kosha Dillz, turns 45
Yanni Hufnagel, founder and CEO of The Lemon Perfect Company, maker of the enhanced water brand Lemon Perfect, turns 44
Meirav Cohen, member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, she served in the previous government as minister for social equality and minorities, turns 43
Rob Cantor, singer-songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and co-writer for the indie rock band Tally Hall, turns 43
Brielle Joy Applebaum, principal and founder of Inspire Capital and Development
John Train
Carrie Shapiro
