Your Daily Phil: Capital Jewish Museum fetes Josh Harris, Sen. Ben Cardin
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the findings from a 10-year volunteering initiative by UJA-Federation of New York, and feature an opinion piece by Dyonna Ginsburg and Jeremy Hockenstein highlighting the financial squeeze affecting Jewish and Israeli organizations focused on global humanitarian efforts. Also in this newsletter: Aaron Dorfman, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Benioff. We’ll start with the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum’s inaugural gala last night.
Members of Washington, D.C.’s, Jewish community took a welcome break from the intensity of upcoming elections to look back with nostalgia to seemingly simpler times in the nation’s capital when top-of-mind topics included which competing deli offered the thickest pastrami sandwich, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen from the event.
More than 300 Jewish professionals and politicos — including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and a handful of senators — gathered on Monday evening for the sold-out Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum inaugural gala, held at the French Embassy. As guests sipped on Côtes du Rhône during cocktail hour and savored French hors d’oeuvres, including gougère cheese puffs and tomato tartare on crispy baguette slices, artifacts from the museum lined the walls of the embassy’s event space, La Maison Française.
Heirlooms brought from the museum and put on display at the event depicted the past and present of Jewish life in the nation’s capital and surrounding suburbs. These included an invitation to Passover Seder at Woodmont Country Club from 1968 and a “community cookbook” fundraiser organized by a local family in honor of their son’s bar mitzvah to benefit residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
The ceremony honored several local leaders for their contributions to the fight against rising antisemitism — on a national level as well as at home in Washington. The event honorees were Washington Commanders owners Josh and Marjorie Harris; Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and his wife, Myrna; and Israeli-American violinist Pinchas Zukerman.
Harris, who was among the first NFL team owners to release a statement condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, reflected on his history of “being Jewish in Washington.” Being honored by the museum was “bashert,” Harris said, using the Yiddish word for “destined.”
Monday’s gala surpassed its fundraising goal of $150,000, Dee Sanae, a member of the event committee, told eJP. Funds raised from the event will go towards free admission to the museum.
The Capital Jewish Museum “is a place where people can both find community and learn the history of the DMV [D.C., Maryland and Virginia] and how the Jewish community has thrived over the years — and is going to continue to thrive,” Sanae told eJP. “It’s a cultural safe haven for Jews and all of the community.”
“We hope the inaugural gala will turn into an annual event,” Sanae continued.
WHO CAN HELP
Concluding 10-year program, NY federation finds volunteering amplifies organizations’ efforts — if they do it right
Effective use of volunteers can magnify a nonprofit’s capabilities and its return on investment dramatically, the UJA-Federation of New York found following its 10-year “Time for Good” program, which supported a host of volunteering initiatives in a number of organizations in the city, reports Nira Dayanim for eJewishPhilanthropy. In 2023 alone, an investment of $1.7 million was able to return the equivalent of $12 million in labor, according to a study about the program conducted by the federation.
Doing more with less: The report’s authors also cited specific cases of volunteers having an outsized impact on the organization’s activities. The Jewish Community Council of Rockaway Peninsula in Queens was able to keep its food pantry open 50% more hours each week because of its additional, better equipped volunteers. Emily Ward from the New York Legal Assistance Group, another grant recipient, estimated the value of its “pro bono lawyers, law students and other volunteers… at over $53.5 million, which is more than NYLAG’s operating budget.”
Use what they have: UJA’s “strategic volunteerism” model also relies on, among other practices, placing volunteers in areas that align with their interests and professional skill sets. “You’re really honing into things that people are proud of. Things that they developed in their personal resume… They know accounting, they’re willing to serve as pro bono lawyers. They really want to open their Rolodex of professional contacts and engage people,” Alexandra Roth-Kahn, managing director of UJA-Federation’s Caring Department, told eJP.
A CRITICAL ABSENCE
Even in Israel’s darkest hours, Jewish values demand that global compassion endures
“In times of crisis, our collective response reveals who we are as a people,” write Dyonna Ginsburg, CEO of Olam, and Jeremy Hockenstein, managing director of the Livelihood Impact Fund, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
A blind spot: “Following Oct. 7, global Jewry immediately mobilized, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Israel to support victims of the attack, their families, displaced people and others. As a community, we should be proud. But in our exemplary support for Israel, some of us may have inadvertently neglected other vital causes that express our deepest values as Jews… Several [of our] partners report losses as high as 40-75% of their overall budgets since that tragic day.”
Teaming up: “Recognizing the gravity of this situation, we decided to embark on an unprecedented partnership: The Livelihood Impact Fund opened a grant pool exclusively for Olam partners that lost funding due to shifting philanthropic priorities since Oct. 7, allocating $1 million in emergency bridge grants to 23 organizations. This partnership enabled us to leverage our relative strengths, as a foundation and as a field-builder. The Livelihood Impact Fund brought resources to the table and called upon its expertise in grant management, while Olam drew on its knowledge of field-wide needs to help shape the grant criteria and ensure the funding was utilized in the best possible way.”
Worthy Reads
Deep Philosophical Questions: In Jewish Insider, Gabby Deutch interviews French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy about the forthcoming English translation of his new book, Israel Alone. “Israel’s battle against Hamas in Gaza is more than a small regional fight against a terror group, Lévy argues. It’s an existential battle for all of the West against Iran, and the other authoritarian nations with which Tehran aligns itself… Israel Alone is a relatively slim volume, using sparse prose to describe the horrific events of Oct. 7 and their world-shattering impact on Israelis and Jews and, Lévy hopes, for democrats the world over… The book raises several questions stemming from the Oct. 7 attacks: Why Israel? What to make of the settler-colonial narrative targeting Israel? Why has there been such fierce denial of the attacks? And, most painful for Lévy, how should Israel’s backers make sense of the innocent Gazans killed in the ensuing war? Lévy attempts to answer them with a philosophical precision, placing the events of the past year in a broader historical context. This moment, Lévy argued, should be one of moral clarity. ‘Even during the Cold War,’ he stated, ‘we have never been in such a critical situation, we democrats.’” [JewishInsider]
Kehilla-Minded: In Singapore, the traditional value of kampung — a sense of close-knit community and mutual care — is often thought to have fallen by the wayside, a sacrifice to rapid modernization, writes Zat Astha in The Peak magazine. “GoodHood[dot]SG is on a mission to change that. Founded by tech entrepreneur Nigel Teo, the platform aims to foster a renewed sense of community in Singapore, bringing neighbours closer together through technology and human connection… ‘Many people think that GoodHood.SG is an app, but we are first and foremost a citizen-led movement,’ [Teo] stresses. At its core, GoodHood.SG is about community. ‘When it is community-first, we are most concerned with driving real impact to the community, instead of being influenced by various stakeholders who may have other objectives for doing community like profits[.]’ … The platform encourages residents to connect with their neighbours, whether it’s through borrowing a tool, offering help with groceries, or simply engaging in conversation. GoodHood.SG also enables people to share goods, services, and information in real-time, intending to make neighbourhoods happier and healthier?.” [ThePeak]
Beyond 2024: In The Times of Israel, Aaron Dorfman, the founder and executive director of A More Perfect Union: The Jewish Partnership for Democracy, emphasizes the necessity of Jewish communal involvement in supporting the democratic process in the United States, ahead of the group’s virtual summit today. “It is essential for civil society organizations, including those in the Jewish community, to take a clear and proactive stance in defending democratic values like the rule of law, nonviolence, free speech and free expression, and supporting free, fair, safe, and accessible elections. Not only is it critical to make these commitments in the abstract, but it is also important to step up to defend them when they’re under threat… In the coming weeks, we will all be focused on the campaigns and working hard to ensure our preferred candidates win. That’s entirely appropriate and a healthy feature of a representative democracy. But we also need to ensure that our democracy holds together over the long term.” [TOI]
Around the Web
Salesforce CEO and philanthropist Marc Benioff announced yesterday $23 million in new grants to San Francisco and Oakland schools at the company’s Dreamfest event, bringing their donations to local education to over $150 million. The company also donated $7 million to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital…
In a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Jewish Federation of North America Chair Julie Platt and President and CEO Eric D. Fingerhut condemned the conduct of the University of Washington Board of Regents at a Sept. 12 meeting when pro-Palestinian protesters prevented members of the Jewish community from speaking, and demanded that the Jewish community of Seattle receive an apology and the perpetrators of the outbreak be punished…
The American Jewish University and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies announced the launch of a partnership with the Central Conference of Jews in Germany to establish a rabbinic and cantorial education program at the University of Potsdam…
Holocaust education will be mandatory at all schools in the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday night at the annual Holocaust Education Trust dinner in London. He also pledged to bring back the country “from the abyss of antisemitism”…
Yachad’s national director of strategic partnerships, Liz Offen, is stepping down after 12 years with the organization…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill by Encino Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel empowering California residents to recover art and other personal property stolen during the Holocaust or other acts of genocide or persecution…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy looks into the areas that the children of Warren Buffett are expected to support with their father’s fortune, which is currently valued at $144 billion…
John and Jody Arnhold donated $20 million to the Juilliard School: $5 million to the endowment of Juilliard Jazz and $15 million in gifts to the school’s Creative Enterprise programming…
A new online poll by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Education Policy Program and Viterbi Center for Public Opinion found that a growing number of Israelis feel that the Israeli education system should emphasize “national unity and cohesion”…
The New York Times examines how the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the war in Gaza have affected religious celebrations for Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Middle East…
The Anti-Defamation League urged college campus administrators to take steps to ensure a safe environment for Jewish students in anticipation of the Oct. 7 anniversary…
Cornell University history professor Russel Rickford has returned to the university after taking a year of voluntary leave for calling Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack “exhilarating” and “energizing” at an off-campus anti-Israel demonstration. Rickford later apologized for his remarks and was not disciplined by the university…
Pic of the Day
Ishay Ribo performs at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night to a nearly sold-out crowd. This is Ribo’s second concert at the venue; his performance last September marked the first time that an Israeli artist headlined the arena.
Birthdays
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mandy Krauthamer Cohen…
U.S. senator (R-IA) since 1981, Chuck Grassley… Investment banker who once served as a New York City deputy mayor, Peter J. Solomon… Newbery Honor-winning author, Gail Carson Levine… Author and journalist, Joshua Muravchik… Former president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and then president of Gallaudet University, T. Alan Hurwitz… Rochester attorney, he has held positions at the UJA-Federation of New York and the Rochester Jewish Federation, Frank Hagelberg… Professional tennis player who achieved a world ranking of No. 5 in 1980, Harold Solomon… Comedian, writer and actress, she was a frequent guest of Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show,” Rita Rudner… Author, comic book writer and editor, best known as group editor of the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics, Daniel Fingeroth… Israeli businessman with real estate holdings in Israel and New York City, Mody Kidon… Author and graphic designer, Ellen Kahan Zager… Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Rina Frenkel… Rabbi of the New North London Synagogue, Jonathan Wittenberg turns 67… Former consultant at Quick Hits News, Elliott S. Feigenbaum… Washington columnist for the British daily newspaper The Guardian and author of two books on the Obama presidency, Richard Wolffe… Partner at Seven Letter, Adam Abrams… Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education, Nick Melvoin… Former Obama White House speechwriter who has since written a bestselling comedic memoir, David Litt… Principal product manager for CathWorks, Adina Shatz… National health-care reporter the Washington Post covering the FDA, Rachel Roubein… Communications director for the Democratic National Convention’s Chicago host committee, soon to be senior vice president at Magnify Strategies, Natalie Edelstein Jarvis… Founder of the Israel Summit at Harvard, now an investment professional at General Atlantic, Max August…
