Your Daily Phil: Central Synagogue attack highlights dilemma for communal leaders
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover the ongoing discussion of how to balance maintaining synagogues as welcoming spaces while protecting the people inside in the wake of a frightening attack at Central Synagogue in New York City. We report on a record-setting gift by the Marcus Foundation to support stem cell research and the second annual Sephardic Rabbinic Conference in New York City. We feature an opinion piece by Yaron Neudorfer that urges nonprofits in Israel to make better choices about the information they share, both with funders and with beneficiaries, and a piece by Sara Forman rejects the notion that the Jewish community should pursue engagement with political actors seeking to divide us. Also in this issue: Rachel Canar, Evyatar David and Maya Natan Mozer.
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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
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is holding its primaries across Israel today.
Hawaii’s Gov. Josh Green is working to secure state and federal recovery resources after Hurricane Lala (since downgraded to a tropical storm) resulted in major flash floods and widespread power outages and road closures, with search-and-rescue operations underway.
The second annual Sephardic Rabbinic Conference kicks off today in New York City, bringing together over 150 rabbis and communal figures. Read more about it below.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S NIRA DAYANIM
When a man stood up from among the congregation and stormed the bima at Friday night services at Central Synagogue, a prominent Reform congregation in Midtown Manhattan, it sparked fresh conversation within the Jewish community about how to respond to an increasing number of threats and attacks and the rising cost of that response.
The suspect, identified as Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, managed to strike a 63-year-old congregant to the floor and headbutt a police officer who was working a paid security detail at the synagogue before being removed from the premises. According to transcripts of Montes’ arraignment released by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, he referred to the congregants as “swine” and “fake Jews” during the incident and admitted to his crime and its religious motivation after his arrest. He was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime.
In March, shortly after the synagogue attack in West Bloomfield, Mich., Mitchell Silber, executive director of the Community Security Initiative, warned that American Jewry might be approaching a “tipping point,” telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Jewish institutions may now need additional layers of protection: specifically, multiple armed guards outside entrances and increased security screening prior to entry. “We’ve gone to a new level, where really what’s required to secure a Jewish institution in the US starts to look like almost a Europeanization of security,” he said.
But while heightened security has become one of “the largest budget items” for synagogues and other Jewish institutions in America, the goal of making congregants and visitors feel genuinely welcome is equally important, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, told eJP.
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ ?
News
MAJOR GIFTS
Marcus Foundation donates $28.7M to support stem cell research at USC
A $28.7 million donation from The Marcus Foundation to Dr. Chuck Murray, director of University of Southern California’s Stem Cell Center, will go toward advancing clinical trials of stem cell-based therapies to regenerate damaged tissue after a heart attack, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Rachel Kohn. The award will also support a parallel track of research on the immune response to cell transplantation that could reduce or eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs in patients receiving regenerative cardiac therapies.
Bernie’s big bets: Support for medical research is a priority area for The Marcus Foundation, established by Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billi. Marcus, who died in 2024 at 95, had a particular interest in both stem cells and the heart, Jay Kaiman, the foundation’s president and director, told eJP. As Fortune recently reported, Marcus’ original ambition was to be a physician. “Bernie might not have been able to become a physician because of quotas, but one could argue he has had a very significant contribution to the medical field,” Kaiman said.
SEPHARDIC SUMMIT
Sephardic rabbis and leaders gather in New York to build a stronger voice in Jewish institutional life
Some 150 rabbis, communal leaders and young professionals from a dozen countries will convene in Manhattan today and Tuesday for the second annual Sephardic Rabbinic Conference, Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. The conference, titled “The Art of Leadership,” will bring together rabbis and rebbetzins from Mexico City to Moscow, Cape Town to Queens, to lead sessions on halachic authority, mental health, pastoral care, connecting to Israel and what organizers describe as the urgent work of building long-lasting Sephardic institutions in the Diaspora.
Punching above their minyan class: Despite making up just an estimated 10% of the American Jewish population, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the U.S. report higher rates of Jewish communal participation, a stronger connection to Israel and are more likely to say that being Jewish is somewhat or very much a part of their daily life compared to Ashkenazi Jews, according to a 2025 report by JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa).
Opinion
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Donor fatigue isn’t a crisis of generosity. It’s a crisis of information.
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Yaron Neudorfer, co-founder and CEO of SFI Group, explains why it is so important to clearly communicate to donors not just how their money is used but what changes because of their giving.
“When there is no answer, the donor does not conclude that the program failed. They conclude something worse: that it cannot be known. And when it cannot be known, the next contribution goes somewhere it can. The intuitive response is to demand better reporting from the organizations. But in most cases nonprofits are not concealing their outcomes. They do not know what they are, because nobody ever funded the capacity to find out.”
READER RESPONDS
The new antisemitism problem our institutions weren’t built for
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Sara Forman, a senior advisor at Optimistic Labs and author of the Substack “Shtetl & State,” argues that the Jewish community should stop courting leaders like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom she accuses of tolerating Jews only as a private faith rather than a people, and turn instead toward its proven allies.
“The answer is not to plead our way into rooms that hold our peoplehood up for debate. It is time for Jews to retire the idea that we must belong where we aren’t wanted. It’s time we think about ourselves and stand with those who actually stand with us. Our religion is Judaism, but we are the Jews. No leader, no matter how charismatic, gets to decide otherwise.”
Worthy Reads
Post-Exceptionalism: In his Substack “Notes from a Liminal Time,” Jewish Funders Network’s Andres Spokoiny argues that American Jewish exceptionalism is ending and urges Jews to abandon party loyalty and reinvest in Jewish education, Zionism and self-defense. “Every Jew has wondered, at some dark hour, whether their neighbors would have hidden them from the Nazis. After elections like the recent New York primaries, that question returns in a more mundane but painful form: Would they even inconvenience themselves politically to protect us?”
What You Don’t See: In The Times of Israel, Rachel Canar, executive director of Nature Israel, pushes back on Alon Tal’s bleak read of the government’s environmental record, arguing that quiet wins — including a long-sought construction-waste law and blocked rollbacks on beaches, reserves and clean air — are evidence that progress endures. “That is the paradox of environmental advocacy: success often looks like nothing happening. A stream remains clean. A harmful law never passes. A planning proposal quietly disappears. Yet the impact can be enormous.”
Major Gifts
B’nai B’rith Israel has joined a campaign to fund the rehabilitation of released hostage Evyatar David. More than 2 million NIS ($680,000) has been raised toward a 3 million NIS ($1.02 million) goal to cover his long-term medical, psychological and related recovery needs…
The family of Sgt. 1st Class Shahar Gamla, an Israel Defense Forces officer killed by an explosive drone in Lebanon in June, donated his organs to save six lives, among them 7-year-old Bel Finkelstein, who received a liver lobe transplant at Clalit-Schneider Children’s Medical Center…
Conservative donors Liz and Dick Uihlein committed $35 million over three years to Northwestern University’s football program…
Transitions
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Axelrod was inaugurated last week as Moldova’s chief rabbi…
Alyssa Katz left her role as editor-in-chief of The Forward…
Shelley Fogelson was named vice president of Jewish education at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta…
Former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg has joined the new Arab-Jewish Makom Lekulanu party ahead of Israel’s upcoming election…
Jessica Davidov was appointed president of Jewish Bar Association of Michigan…
Word on the Street
Community Security Service and American Friends of Magen David Adom launched a partnership to trains CSS security volunteers at synagogues across the U.S. in mass-casualty trauma response, drawing on MDA’s experience treating victims of terror attacks…
The Community Security Initiative is pressing the New York Police Department to use crime-cluster mapping and preemptive deployment to head off hate crimes after Friday’s attack at Central Synagogue in Midtown…
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the U.K. an “Islamic republic” on an Israeli podcast, the co-leaders of British Progressive Judaism, Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, responded by saying the prime minister does not speak for British Jews and branded the language as “dangerous”…
A new survey commissioned by the Jim Joseph Foundation found that nearly 4 in 10 Jewish young adults have scaled back or grown choosier about their involvement in Jewish life amid recent events, often citing polarized Israel-Palestine discourse, even as three-quarters still say they do something Jewish regularly…
Vandals targeted Kol HaNeshama Reform synagogue in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem during the night of Friday, smashing a window and tearing a Pride flag and a sanctuary artwork…
Politico reports that Israel is running a campaign to shape how AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity answer questions about Gaza and the IDF…
The Telegraph profiles Jewish comedian Alex Edelman upon his return to the Edinburgh Fringe for his first new stand-up show in eight years, drawing on his year in Israel and his family’s political divisions over Israel and Gaza…
In Calcalist, Elevation CEO Avi Snir casts Israel’s high-tech layoffs as a chance to redistribute talent, urging banks, hospitals and manufacturers to absorb experienced professionals…
??Maariv interviews Keshet founder and CEO Maya Natan Mozer about how Israeli tech entrepreneurs are reshaping philanthropy by donating pre-exit equity through donor-advised funds — a model that has channeled some 900 million NIS ($304 million) to more than 2,000 nonprofits…
Netanyahu’s Likud Party is vowing to petition the Central Elections Committee against the AID Coalition‘s “Fly and Vote” initiative, accusing the group of breaking party-financing laws. See eJP’s coverage of the initiative here…
Folsom Chabad in Sacramento (Calif.) broke ground on a new 23,483-square-foot Jewish community center and synagogue…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Israel’s battered tourism sector is showing tentative signs of recovery this summer as some Americans begin returning for vacation…
Denver’s Jewish Community Center marked the opening of its Community Baby Closet, which offers free diapers, wipes, clothing and other baby supplies to families in need…
Mark J. Safra, an Atlanta-based ophthalmologist who served the city’s Jewish community as a mohel for more than 30 years, died at 78…
Pic of the Day
After a three-year hiatus due to the war, the Hot Air Balloon Festival returned to southern Israel, filling the skies with color and drawing families and neighbors out to celebrate.
Birthdays
Raphael Bob-Waksberg, comedian, writer, producer and actor, turns 42
Rabbi Baruch Dov “Berel” Povarsky, leader of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, turns 95
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation, one of the wealthiest people in the world, turns 82
Millard “Mickey” S. Drexler, head of Drexler Ventures, turns 82
Norm Coleman, former U.S. senator from Minnesota, his family name was originally Goldman, turns 77
Eliot Lauer, partner in Katten Muchin Rosenman, he represented Jonathan Pollard
Louise Citron, audiologist and disability activist in the Boston area
Barry Ted Moskowitz, senior U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of California, turns 76
Sharon Taksler, retired special education teacher with an interest in Holocaust studies and human rights education
Jeffery Alan “Jeff” Smisek, former chairman, president and CEO of Continental Airlines and then United Airlines, turns 72
Lee A. Solomon, associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey until 2024, turns 72
Gail Berman, co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a television and film production firm, turns 70
Jordan Levy, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm SBNY, he is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo
Deborah Kessner Peskin, communications coordinator at Temple Beth El in Longmeadow, Mass.
Revital Swid, former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union and Labor parties, she is a leading Israeli criminal defense attorney, turns 59
Brian Kowitz, former MLB baseball player, now an insurance advisor in Baltimore, turns 57
Zvi Yehezkeli, Arab affairs correspondent on Israel’s i24 News, turns 56
Judd Milo Ehrlich, Emmy Award-winning documentary film director and producer, turns 55
