Your Daily Phil: Birthright Israel Foundation announces $900M fundraising campaign
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover last night’s Birthright Israel Foundation gala marking the organization’s 25th anniversary and the launch of its new $900 million fundraising campaign, and we get the scoop on a new power-sharing agreement in the World Zionist Congress. We feature an opinion piece by Mitchell Schwartz and Yosef Abramowitz encouraging funders to support nonprofits making the switch to solar energy; plus Susan Rich spotlights a group committed to keeping the multiple daily minyanim at their Conservative congregation in St. Louis going strong. Also in this issue: Carole King, Julie Fisher and Dov Ben-Shimon.
What We’re Watching
It’s Election Day in a number of states and cities around the country. In New York City, voters head to the polls today to cast their ballots for mayor and city council.
The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors three-day meeting concludes today in Jerusalem.
In New York City, the World Zionist Organization and Temple Emanu-El are holding an event marking the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin’s grandson Jonathan Benartzi, Shalom Hartman Institute President Yehuda Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick and peace activist Alana Zeitchik are slated to speak.
Elsewhere in New York, the La’aretz Foundation is holding its annual benefit event to support Israeli families in crisis.
What You Should Know
In 1999, with the lofty goal of bringing every young Jewish adult to Israel free of cost, the nascent Birthright Israel Foundation launched its first trip to the Jewish state. Over the next 25 years, the organization would bring over 900,000 young Jews from some 70 countries to Israel. Last night, at a gala marking a quarter century of activity at Manhattan’s Pier Sixty, Birthright Israel Foundation’s CEO, Elias Saratovsky, announced two new goals: a $900 million fundraising campaign aimed at securing the organization’s future and bringing 200,000 participants to Israel over the next five years.
The campaign has already secured more than $220 million in commitments, Saratovsky told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim — $132 million toward its $650 million goal for trips, and $90 million toward its $250 million goal for legacy commitments.
“We have a solid foundation of gifts,” he told eJP. “We’re grateful to everyone who has given so far, and now the opportunity we have in front of us is to ask the entire Jewish community to support an organization that has impacted the entire Jewish world over the last two and a half decades.”
Nearly every major Jewish foundation and individual donor family turned out for the Manhattan gala — a sprawling, candlelit affair packed to capacity. At the event, which was attended by nearly 1,000 trip alumni, along with Jewish professionals and donors, Lynn Schusterman was honored for her contribution to the project.
The event was emceed by Jonah Platt. Schusterman’s daughter, Stacy, and the co-president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Lisa Eisen, co-chaired the event. Other speakers included Birthright Israel co-founder Charles Bronfman, Saratovsky and Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark.
SCOOP
After initial agreement collapsed, World Zionist Congress reaches new tentative power-sharing deal
A new proposal is emerging to break the impasse in the World Zionist Congress coalition talks, which have been stalled for nearly a week after an initial deal collapsed over plans to appoint the prime minister’s divisive son, Yair Netanyahu, to a top post in the World Zionist Organization, those involved in the negotiations told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. The new power-sharing arrangement would see an even split between the center-left and center-right blocs in the control of the World Zionist Organization and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, though with some significant changes from the initial proposal regarding the specific leaders.
Musical chairs: The main change to the new proposal concerns the leadership of the WZO, which runs education and civil projects in Israel and around the world. Under the initial plan, Rabbi Doron Perez, the chair of the religious Zionist World Mizrachi movement and the father of slain IDF officer Daniel Perez, whose remains were held captive by Hamas until last month, would have been named WZO chair for the first half of a five-year term, followed by a representative from the centrist Yesh Atid party. Under the new agreement, which was tentatively hammered out in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning, WZO leadership would instead be split between World Likud — with current WZO Chair Yaakov Hagoel serving in the role for the first half of the five-year term — followed by an as-yet-undecided Yesh Atid representative. Perez would be appointed to another senior position, either as president of the WZO, which is a largely ceremonial role, or as chair of the international fundraiser Keren Hayesod, a WZO official, who is part of the center-left negotiating team, told eJP today.
LET THE SUNSHINE IN
Why Jewish philanthropy should back solar for nonprofits, even after incentives end
“According to an annual study of U.S. nonprofits, 47% of respondents said they do not have the adequate funds to execute their programs and services in 2025 and 50% are concerned about their current financial situation. Yet many organizations overlook one of the most effective ways to cut overhead — a solution that’s literally on the roof over their heads: switching to solar power,” writes Mitchell Schwartz, founder of the Jewish Solar Challenge, and Yosef Abramowitz, an entrepreneur and activist who serves on the board of the Jewish Solar Challenge, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Panel discussion: “The Inflation Reduction Act included unprecedented federal solar incentives for nonprofits, houses of worship and schools. While those tax credits sunset at the end of the year, you shouldn’t let that stop your nonprofit from embracing what is now the cheapest form of energy available. … In the past three years, the Jewish Solar Challenge has helped synagogues, schools, Hillels and Jewish camps add $2 million worth of solar panels, preventing 1,272 metric tons of CO2 emissions and saving grantees nearly $500,000 in annual electricity costs.”
CONNECTING A COMMUNITY
Who wants to be a Minyanaire: How WhatsApp saved our minyan
“For many years, each daily Shacharit and Mincha-Maariv service at Congregation B’nai Amoona in suburban St. Louis was led by a volunteer who took weekly responsibility for that service. The congregation’s grassroots ‘Minyanaires Club,’ led by congregant Ronald Heller, z”l, had approximately 100 members who committed to completing the minyan at a time and day that suited their work or personal schedule,” writes Susan Rich in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Congregant-driven, with a little help: “Looking toward the future, it was clear that the Minyanaire program needed modification if B’nai Amoona was to remain one of the approximately 90 Conservative congregations in the U.S. with daily minyanim. … ‘The culture here is to empower our laypeople to show up and make things happen,’ [Assistant Rabbi Jared] Skoff observed. ‘Most synagogues of our size are rabbi-driven, or staff-driven or board-driven. I would argue that B’nai Amoona is heavily volunteer-driven, and we’re using new technologies to place the future of our minyan in the hands of our congregants. They are our secret sauce.’”
Worthy Reads
Group Project: In The Times of Israel, Hillel Schenker, who was present for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s final speech before his assassination, reflects on Rabin’s legacy and the pursuit of peace today, 30 years later. “[A]t the time of the ‘Yes to Peace, No to Violence’ rally, it was possible to believe that Israelis and Palestinians could be the primary drivers for a peace agreement between the two nations. The 1993 Oslo Agreement, led by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, and signed on the White House lawn by Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, was a totally Israeli-Palestinian led initiative, backed by strong civil society elements in both societies… Today it is not possible to imagine a peace process initiated and led by the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. International involvement is absolutely essential.” [TOI]
An Oldie but a Goodie: In Nonprofit Quarterly, Jan Masaoka offers nonprofits advice for optimizing their use of Facebook. “Facebook, by social media standards, is old; it was founded in 2004. These days, it gets less attention than other platforms like TikTok. However, it is still hugely important and remains, other than YouTube, the single most used social media platform in the United States: according to Pew Research Center, it’s used by an estimated seven in 10 US adults. … [A] remarkable 96% of nonprofits have Facebook pages, and many nonprofits even forego a website and use Facebook and Instagram instead. … Facebook provides an enormous and geographically widespread reach with great potential for many nonprofits.” [NonprofitQuarterly]
Word on the Street
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said that 5 million of the approximately 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust have now been identified by name…
A new poll released Monday by the Democratic Majority for Israel finds Democrats broadly support the ceasefire and hostage-release deal reached between Israel and Hamas and a majority of them think President Donald Trump played at least a “somewhat important role” in reaching the agreement, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports…
The Washington Post reviews Jane Eisner’s biography of Carole King, which does a deep dive into the singer’s Jewish upbringing…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country would be sending humanitarian aid and a medical delegation to Jamaica in the wake of Hurricane Melissa…
An international coalition of Jewish organizations, organized by Global Jewry, issued a declaration calling for a multinational effort to address climate change at the 30th Conference of the Parties, better known as COP30, underway in Belém, Brazil…
Stanley Chesley, a controversial attorney who spearheaded multiple successful class-action suits and supported many Jewish causes, died on Sunday at 89…
Transitions
Julie Fisher was named the next executive director of The Good People Fund, beginning July 1. Fisher, the associate executive director of the foundation, succeeds founding Executive Director Naomi Eisenberger, who will become executive director emeritus and “master mentor”…
Dov Ben-Shimon has been hired as the next CEO of World ORT; Ben-Shimon previously served as CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest (N.J.), followed by a brief stint at the helm of the Community Security Service…
Adam Dawson was appointed chair of the board of trustees of the U.K.’s National Holocaust Museum…
U.S. Friends of Yad Sarah hired Rebecca Ehrlich as its next major gifts officer…
Rabbi Matt Rosenberg has been selected to serve as the next executive vice president and chief rabbi of the Jewish Grad Organization…
Pic of the Day
Representatives from the Reform and Conservative movements speak yesterday in the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs in Jerusalem about the State of Israel’s relationship with progressive Jewish denominations.
Much of the discussion focused on the egalitarian section of the Western Wall, whose status was meant to be formalized by the Israeli government, but which pulled out of an agreement on the matter in 2017. Since then, fallen rocks have made it impossible for visitors to the section to reach the actual wall.
“Israel must engage more with the liberal Jewish communities across the world,” the committee chair, Labor MK Gilad Kariv, who is also a Reform rabbi, said during the session. “I thank all the Jewish communities worldwide that mobilized for Israel during the [Gaza] war. I am not sure the citizens of Israel fully understand the depth of the support the Jewish communities worldwide provided in our hardest times.”
Birthdays
Professor emeritus of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, Daniel Sperber turns 85…
Vice chairman emeritus of AllianceBernstein, he is a former chairman of the Tikvah Fund, Roger Hertog turns 84… Political scientist who has published works on grand strategy, military history and international relations, Edward Luttwak turns 83… Member of Congress and chair of the House Budget Committee until 2023, he was Kentucky’s first Jewish congressman, John Yarmuth turns 78… Former chief of the general staff of the IDF, then minister of defense and member of Knesset for Kadima, Shaul Mofaz turns 77… Uruguayan biologist, he served as mayor of Montevideo and then as a national cabinet minister, Ricardo Ehrlich turns 77… Professor of medicine at England’s University of Birmingham and a leading British authority on organ donation and transplantation, James Max Neuberger turns 76… Board member of Jewish Funders Network and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Dorothy Tananbaum… Marketing and communications consultant focused on Israel advocacy and the Jewish community, Robert L. Kern… Professor at UCSF and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in medicine, David Jay Julius turns 70… U.K. politician who served as a Conservative party MP and cabinet minister, he was chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Baron Richard Irwin Harrington turns 68… Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2013, Kenneth I. Gordon turns 66… Ombudsman at CBS and Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, Kenneth R. “Ken” Weinstein turns 64… Author of five books, comedic actress and television host, Annabelle Gurwitch turns 64… Professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, she is known for her expertise on feminist theory and modern Jewish thought, Claire Elise Katz turns 61… CEO and Chairman of RXR Realty, he also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors, Scott Rechler turns 58… Israeli screenwriter and film director, Eran Kolirin turns 52… Partner at Paragon Strategic Insights, a consulting firm for non-profits, Jeremy Chwat… Co-founder of Semafor, Benjamin Eli “Ben” Smith turns 49… MLB pitcher who appeared in 506 games over his nine-year career, John William Grabow turns 47… Global head of strategic communications at McKinsey & Company, Max Gleischman… Opinion columnist at The Washington Post, she is also a commentator for CNN and a correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour,” Catherine Chelsea Rampell turns 41… Founder and CEO at Denver-based Fresh Tape Media, Jared Kleinstein… Founder and CEO of a health organization working for early detection and prevention of cancer, Yael Cohen Braun turns 39… Acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Addar Weintraub Levi… Senior coordinator for management at the Office of Management and Budget, she is a White House nominee as a CFTC commissioner, Julie Brinn Siegel turns 38… Former White House special representative for international negotiations, Avi Berkowitz… Recording artist, songwriter and entertainer known as Yoni Z, Yoni Zigelboum turns 34… Israeli professional stock car racing driver, he is the first Israeli to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series, Alon Day turns 34… Founding editor of Healthcare Brew, a vertical of Morning Brew, Amanda E. Eisenberg… Bob Rubin…
