Your Daily Phil: Brandeis University cuts staff amid ‘financial challenges’
Good Friday morning.
Ed. note: In observance of Memorial Day, the next edition of Your Daily Phil will arrive on Tuesday, May 28.
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, including: Peace-focused environmental group looks to bring Israelis, Palestinians together to address Gaza’s water shortage; Israel tech sector comes together to support children who lost parents in Oct. 7 attacks, war; Lehrhaus, Boston’s popular Jewish tavern, to open in D.C. in 2025; For a group of Jewish 2nd grade girls, a lesson in advocacy — and a life-changing trip to Washington. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a gathering of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition in Washington, D.C., and feature an opinion piece by Arthur Katz and Rabbi Leibel Baumgarten questioning the the exclusion of Chabad in the UJA-Federation of New York census census of Jewish life. Also in this newsletter: Meir Y. Soloveichik, Yael Jaffe and Ari Emanuel. We’ll start with the financial challenges facing Brandeis University. Shabbat shalom!
Brandeis University will lay off dozens of employees, restructuring its business and social policy schools and cutting back its doctoral programs, among other steps, as it contends with significant “financial challenges,” the university’s leadership told employees in an email this week, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
The staffing cuts and restructuring come as Brandeis University is looking to position itself as a viable alternative for Jewish students concerned about antisemitism and antipathy toward Israel at other universities.
One area that the university did not plan to cut — or at least try to minimally affect — was its undergraduate programs, whose tuitions generate significant revenue for the school. To that end, Brandeis was pressing ahead with the construction of a new undergraduate residence hall, the university leadership noted.
In the letter, Brandeis’ president, Ronald Liebowitz; its provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Carol Fierke; and executive vice president for finance and administration, Stewart Uretsky, told staff that they would be eliminating approximately 60 full- or part-time staff positions across the university. As of fall 2023, Brandeis had approximately 1,450 staff members, according to the university.
Julie Jette, Brandeis’ interim senior vice president of communications, told eJP that the layoffs would not affect faculty but would likely include adjunct professors. “The need for contract faculty will be reviewed as contracts come up for renewal,” she said.
In the letter, Liebowitz, Fierke and Uretsky clarified that these layoffs and reductions would not be made uniformly across all departments but would be based on what they contributed to the university, financially and in terms of mission.
“These decisions have not been made lightly,” they wrote. “We have examined spending across the university to find savings. Unfortunately, it was not possible to identify sufficient savings without needing to reduce positions.”
Brandeis faculty members, who spoke to eJP anonymously after they received the email, described the atmosphere at the university as chaotic, confusing and frustrating.
Liebowitz, Fierke and Uretsky did not elaborate on the “financial challenges” that the university was facing, but they said that it included both issues that academic institutions across the United States are experiencing, as well as specific “structural issues that have been present at Brandeis for decades.”
Jette attributed the financial challenges to “declines in enrollment in our master’s degree programs and increases in expenses due to inflation and other changes in the economy.” She said other issues are “related to long-standing structural inefficiencies that the university must address.”
Alongside the “most difficult step” of laying off some 60 employees, Brandeis will also halt construction of a new Science Center expansion. In addition, it is reviewing the future of its doctoral and masters’ programs and has already placed some of its doctoral programs on hiatus. The university was also merging its Heller School for Social Policy and Management and its MBA programs into one program with multiple tracks that will be administered by its International Business School, beginning in fall 2024.
In addition to the cuts and restructuring, the university had also secured approval from the board of trustees to temporarily increase the amount of money they can withdraw from the university’s endowment, which as of June 2023 stood at $1.22 billion.
“We believe that the path we have outlined will put the institution on a more solid foundation,” Liebowitz, Fierke and Uretsky wrote. “We are optimistic that by making challenging but thoughtful decisions now, we will enable Brandeis to thrive and prosper as a center for academic excellence through the next 75 years, and beyond.”
CLERGY CONFAB
Zionist Rabbinic Coalition gathers in D.C. to bond, hear speakers and hold meetings on Capitol Hill
As some 70 rabbis and lay leaders from around the country gathered in Washington, D.C., for three days this week to offer collegial support and affirm their commitment to Israel in its war against Hamas, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz found himself reflecting on a simpler time — one in which the term “Zionism” and belief in it wasn’t so fraught. “I don’t think any denomination creates the kind of Zionist space that’s needed at this moment,” Lebovitz, who leads Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif., told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen. But for three days this week, Lebovitz relished being in such a “Zionist space,” at a conference organized by the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, an organization comprised of hundreds of rabbis across the denominational spectrum.
Rabbinic fortification: This year’s conference, the third that ZRC has held, was designed to “help fortify rabbis with information so we’re able to go back to our communities better understanding both the issues and the importance of the issues, [which includes] support for Israel and Jewish unity,” according to the organization’s founder, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, the senior rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a Conservative synagogue in Potomac, Md. Lebovitz, a ZRC board member, said that it falls on American rabbis to address the “second most important outcome of Israel’s war,” which he explained was “the preservation of the strong unique bond that has always existed between the U.S. and Israel.”
Bipartisan support: Attendees heard from a number of speakers on Tuesday — whom Lebovitz described as “some supportive of Israel and some supportive and critical of Israel.” Several of the speeches focused on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses and in K-12 schools. On Wednesday, the rabbis and lay leaders went to Capitol Hill, where they met with seven Republican and Democratic lawmakers to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and the state of U.S.-Israel relations. “Being on Capitol Hill and hearing from a number of members of both sides of the aisle, of both parties, was reassuring,” Weinblatt told eJP.
READERS RESPOND
The missing ingredient in the 2023 UJA-Federation of New York population survey
“Last week, eJewishPhilanthropy covered the release of the long-awaited UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish population survey. The results are full of important data that will be helpful in understanding the challenges facing the Jewish community and point us in the direction of solutions. What leaped out at us, however, is that the survey did not include queries that assess the scope of the involvement of Metro NYC Jews with Chabad,” write Arthur Katz, board chair of Chabad of Long Island, and Rabbi Leibel Baumgarten of Chabad of the Hamptons in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Data gap: “On Long Island alone, Chabad has grown by almost 300% to 40 centers in the last two decades. How many people do they serve versus congregations of other denominations? We don’t know, because the survey didn’t collect that information. In the survey’s data about denominational affiliation in Suffolk County, for example, less than 5% of respondents indicated they are Orthodox, 20% indicated Conservative, and 30% Reform. The largest percentage of Jews, over 40%, said they are ‘Other.’ What does that mean? Are they Jews who are really not engaged, or Jews attending Chabad? And how many of those who self-identified as Reform and Conservative actually attend or support Chabad?”
Why it matters: “In Nassau County, which hosts 25 Chabad Centers, nine building projects have been completed in the past 10 years with a capital investment of over $26 million. Chassidim in Brooklyn are not moving to Long Island — the growth is indicative that many Jews in Nassau today are involved with Chabad… If Chabad is growing rapidly, and more and more Jews are becoming involved with Chabad in some capacity, then Chabad is doing something right. A survey that included Chabad could have encouraged UJA-Federation to dedicate more resources to what is clearly working… It is much easier to exclude Chabad proposals for funding when you don’t have real data on the scope of their success.”
Worthy Reads
What’s In a Name: In Commentary, Meir Y. Soloveichik finds irony in the takeover of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall by anti-Israel protesters brandishing antisemitic slogans. “Alexander Hamilton had overseen the transformation of the institution once known by the royalist name ‘King’s College’ into the American institution called Columbia, and he had also placed a Jew — the New York spiritual leader Gershom Mendes Seixas — on Columbia’s board. This was the first time in the history of the West that a Jew was so honored, a sign of how Hamilton understood the uniqueness of America and the place of the Jews within it… After leaving George Washington’s government, Hamilton earned a livelihood by returning to his legal practice in New York. One of his clients was a local merchant by the name of Louis LeGuen… Given that several witnesses for LeGuen were Jewish, [opposing counsel Gouverneur] Morris chose to focus on the veracity of their testimony… What is remarkable about Hamilton’s response is that it not only denounced Morris’s bigotry; it also made a case for American philo-Semitism… We can now find a deeper meaning to the fact that the Columbia mob chose to vent its anti-Semitism on an edifice named for, and featuring a statue of, Alexander Hamilton. These hoodlums had chosen a target that allowed their assault to serve as a metaphor for the political battle that now faces us: between those Americans who understand the profound connection between the American republic and the Jewish story, and those who are all too eager to revive an age-old bigotry and to give it new power in a land where, thank God, it has so rarely had purchase.” [Commentary]
The Shteig Gap: In The Lehrhaus, Yael Jaffe shares insights from her research on culture of women’s Torah learning in Modern Orthodox spaces today. “In Modern Orthodox (MO) communities, it is observed that over 90% (if not more) of beit midrash attendees, Gemara shiur [class] attendees, and people with a regular Gemara havruta [learning partner] are male, despite the fact that women’s talmud Torah [Torah learning] at the highest level is embraced as a value within this community. As much as we say that women’s learning matters, we have not developed a culture of learning amongst women. Our actions belie the belief that high-level learning is of utmost importance to both men and women alike… Learners, especially in their formative years, will only go the extra mile if the culture pushes them to do so. It is for this reason that self-help experts recommend surrounding oneself with others striving for a similar goal when trying to reach that goal. Experimental studies have found that witnessing the success and greater commitment of others leads people to try harder in areas such as their commitment to exercise and their performance at work… Equal opportunity and equal access rings hollow when the culture guides students toward unequal time for study, and two 18-year-olds, classmates since pre-K, are in very different places in their learning.” [Lehrhaus]
All Hail the Hoi Polloi: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Victoria Vrana decries the loss of low-level donors and recommends how to get them back. “During my many years working in the nonprofit and philanthropic communities, I have come to deeply appreciate the everyday donor — regular folks who give via credit cards, checks, “donate” buttons, and collection-jar coins. They typically give in amounts that don’t make headlines, but collectively their generosity powers our work… Which is why we should be worried about the decline in the number of individuals who donate… It also represents a threat to democracy itself. Donations are a civic expression, a tangible investment in an individual’s hopes and vision for the country. Just as lagging voter turnout and deepening political polarization suggest atrophy of our will to civically engage, advocate, and even dream of a better America, so, too, does declining support for charity… We have to rise to meet this challenge, and our response must be swift and strategic… These givers are more than voters and contributors; they are the architects of a thriving, inclusive, and resilient civil society.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Around the Web
The Israel Defense Forces retrieved the bodies of three hostages, Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux, from Jabaliya, Gaza, overnight. Israeli officials said that all three were killed in the Oct. 7 terror attacks…
Top entertainment executive Ari Emanuel denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a failure while receiving an award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center earlier this week, drawing both applause and boos from the crowd. The organization later criticized his remarks, not for the content but for expressing “personal political opinions” at the gala…
Meir Hoyzman, who has served as executive director of Ramah Israel for the past 12 years, announced he was stepping down at the end of the summer. Yael Yamin, the associate director of the organization, will succeed him in the role…
Marjorie Fiterman, 102, robbed the cradle on Sunday, marrying Bernie Littman, who is two years her junior, after nearly a decade of dating, in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi Adam Wohlberg in Philadelphia…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency examines how the Israeli sketch comedy television show, “HaYehudim Ba’Im” (“The Jews are Coming”), is responding to the Oct. 7 terror attacks…
The National Association of Jewish Legislators will join the Jewish Federations of North America as part of its public affairs team…
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City hired Carly Stein as its next chief operating officer…
Many nonprofit employees will likely receive overtime pay for the extra hours they work or a general pay raise in light of new federal rules that go into effect on July 1 that sets the salary an employee must earn to be exempt from being paid overtime…
The Jerusalem Post spotlights a solidarity march involving Arab and Jewish students from southern Israel, which was organized by AJEEC-NISPED, the Negev Institute, the Scouts organization, Arab schools in Israel, the Neve Midbar Regional Council and the Education Ministry…
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, announced the recipients of its 2024 Leaders of Tomorrow Award: Shira Babajanov, 17; Nomi Gedzelman, 17; and Talia Pierson, 15…
Newton, Mass., police charged a Boston man with defacing property, defacing property to intimidate and larceny for vandalizing memorials in the town for the hostages being held in Gaza…
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was expelled from a far-right pan-European group over a series of incidents; the tipping point was a recent interview with an Italian newspaper in which a senior AfD leader equivocated on whether members of the Nazi SS were criminals…
Northwestern University President Michael Schill testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee yesterday, facing a grilling from Republican lawmakers, some of whom called for his removal over his handling of anti-Israel demonstrations on campus…
Hundreds of students and faculty members walked out of Harvard University’s commencement ceremony yesterday in solidarity with 13 anti-Israel student protesters who were denied degrees as a result of their involvement in the school’s illegal campus encampment…
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev awarded an honorary doctorate to Michael M. Crow, the president of Arizona State University, during its 54th annual board of governors meeting this week, in appreciation of his “collaborative efforts with BGU over the past 15 years”…
The Forward looks into how internal divisions prevented HIAS from funding humanitarian aid in Gaza…
The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston is awarding $105,000 in security micro-grants to local Jewish institutions…
Dr. Miriam Adelson has contributed some $9 million to political campaigns in Texas, where she recently purchased the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and reportedly plans to lobby for relaxed gambling laws to allow her Las Vegas Sands Corp. to open casinos in the Lone Star State…
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law a bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…
The World Jewish Congress’ executive committee made a two-day solidarity trip to Israel, visiting the sites of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog…
Pic of the Day
Dayeinu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action brought a delegation to participate in Faith Day of Action at the New York Statehouse in Albany, N.Y. on Monday. Faith Day of Action was one of a series of events in Climate Justice Action Week organized by the NY Renews coalition.
Birthdays
Co-founder and CEO of Mobileye, he became a senior vice president of Intel after Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017, Amnon Shashua, celebrates his birthday on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Co-founder of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, he is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Herbert Wachtell… Professor emeritus of statistics and biomedical data science at Stanford, Bradley Efron… Biographer of religious, business and political figures, including Elizabeth II, the Dalai Lama, Nixon, JFK, Billy Graham and Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, Deborah Hart Strober… Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, his Hebrew name is Shabsi Zissel, he is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of his generation, Bob Dylan… Social media and internet marketing consultant, Israel Sushman… Member of Congress since 2007 (D-TN), his district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis, he is Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman, Steve Cohen… Former director of planned giving at American Society for Yad Vashem, Robert Christopher Morton… Former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, he is the author of more than a dozen books, Jorge Castañeda Gutman… President of the Israel ParaSport Center in Ramat Gan and vice chair of Birthright Israel Foundation, Lori Ann Komisar… First-ever Jewish member of the parliament in Finland, he was elected in 1979 and continues to serve, Ben Zyskowicz .. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer, one of his novels is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon… U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the Obama administration, he is now general counsel of KraneShares, David Adelman… Senior advisor at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication and VP at Cortico, Debby Goldberg… Ukrainian businessman, patron of the Jewish community in Ukraine, collector of modern and contemporary art, Gennadii Korban… Film director, in 2019 he became the second Israeli to win an Academy Award, Guy Nattiv… Swedish criminal defense lawyer, author and fashion model, Jens Jacob Lapidus… Actor who starred in the HBO original series “How to Make It in America,” Bryan Greenberg… Host of “Serving Up Science” at PBS Digital Studios, Sheril Kirshenbaum… Chief of staff at The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Benjamin E. Milakofsky… Synchronized swimmer who represented Israel at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Anastasia Gloushkov Leventhal… Travel blogger who has visited 197 countries, Drew “Binsky” Goldberg… Member of the Iowa House of Representatives since 2023, Adam Zabner… Social media influencer, Emily Austin…
SATURDAY: Academy Award-winning film producer and director, responsible for 58 major motion pictures, Irwin Winkler… Holocaust survivor as a young child, he is now a professor of physics and chemistry at both Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, Micha Tomkiewicz… Co-founder of the clothing manufacturer, Calvin Klein Inc., which he formed with his childhood friend Calvin Klein, he is also a former horse racing industry executive, Barry K. Schwartz… Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1986, he is now on senior status, Douglas H. Ginsburg… British journalist, editor and author, he is a past VP of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Alex Brummer… Of counsel in the Chicago office of Saul Ewing, Joel M. Hurwitz… Screenwriter, producer and film director, best known for his work on the “Back to the Future” franchise, Bob Gale… Los Angeles area resident, Robin Myrne Kramer… Retired CEO of Denver’s Rose Medical Center after 21 years, he is now the CEO of Velocity Healthcare Consultants, Kenneth Feiler… Israeli actress, Rachel “Chelli” Goldenberg… Actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian sometimes referred to as “Yid Vicious,” Bobby Slayton… Professor of history at Fordham University, Doron Ben-Atar… U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)… Senior government relations counsel in the D.C. office of Kelley Drye & Warren, Laurie Rubiner… Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania since 2020, Yossi Avni-Levy… Actor, producer, director and writer, Joseph D. Reitman… Cape Town native, tech entrepreneur and investor, he was the original COO of PayPal and founder/CEO of Yammer, David Oliver Sacks… Member of the Australian Parliament since 2016, Julian Leeser… Former Israeli minister of Diaspora affairs, Omer Yankelevich… Senior political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Bluestein… COO at Maryland-based HealthSource Distributors, Marc D. Loeb… Comedian, actor and writer, Barry Rothbart… Senior communications manager at Kaplan, Inc., Alison Kurtzman… One of the U.S.’ first radiology extenders at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Orli Novick… Former MLB pitcher, he had two effective appearances for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, Ryan Sherriff… Olympic Gold medalist in gymnastics at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Alexandra Rose “Aly” Raisman… Laura Goldman…
SUNDAY: Public speaker, teacher and author of more than 30 books on the English language, he writes the weekly column “Looking at Language” that is syndicated in newspapers throughout the U.S., Richard Lederer… Journalist and educator, the mother of Susan (retired CEO of YouTube), Janet (a Fulbright-winning anthropologist) and Anne (co-founder of 23andMe), Esther Hochman Wojcicki… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-IL) since 1999, Janice Danoff “Jan” Schakowsky… Former senior vice president of news at NPR, Michael Oreskes… NYC real estate developer, board member of The Charles H. Revson Foundation and a former commissioner on the NYC Planning Commission, Cheryl Cohen Effron… Former brigadier general in the IDF, she has been a member of the Knesset for the Likud party since 2009, Miriam “Miri” Regev… Counsel in the government affairs practice in the D.C. office of Paul Hastings, Dina Ellis Rochkind… Photographer, her work has appeared in galleries and been published in books, Naomi Harris… South Florida entrepreneur, Sholom Zeines… Program officer for media and communications at Maimonides Fund, Rebecca Friedman… Former minor league baseball player, he has become one of the leading agents for NBA players, with five contracts of over $100 million each, Jason Glushon… Freelance journalist, Yardena Schwartz… CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Mark Goldfeder… Former deputy Washington director of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Arielle Gingold… Visiting assistant professor of law at Villanova University’s law school, Benjamin L. Cavataro… Toronto-born Israeli actress and singer, Melissa Amit Farkash… Federal practice engagement manager at U.S. Pharmacopeia, Morgan A. Jacobs… Catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Garrett Patrick Stubbs… Eytan Merkin…
