Your Daily Phil: Critics decry Zionist Supreme Court’s wrist slap for election fraudsters
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we consider the significance of the World Zionist Congress in light of the Zionist Supreme Court’s recent rulings on the widespread voting irregularities in the latest elections. We spotlight a new initiative by JIMENA to train health-care and social workers to provide more culturally appropriate care to Sephardi and Mizrachi clients. We feature an opinion piece by Michael Waxman-Lenz with advice for translating a post-Oct. 7 surge in giving to your institution into long-term donor relationships. Also in this issue: Sara Brown, Michael Masters and S. Fitzgerald Haney.
What We’re Watching
The 2025 Sami Rohr Prize will be presented to novelist Sasha Vasilyuk in a private ceremony this evening for her book, Your Presence is Mandatory, after the original award ceremony that was meant to be held in July in Jerusalem was called off following the Israel-Iran war; there will be a public event with Vasilyuk at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan next Monday.
The Youth Renewal Fund and Greenberg Traurig, LLP are hosting a discussion with Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan this afternoon.
Also in L.A., the Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania, in collaboration with the Valley Outreach Synagogue & Center for Jewish Life, is hosting “An Evening of History, Heritage & Diplomacy” tonight in Los Angeles about the Jewish experience in Lithuania.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
There are those who consider the World Zionist Congress and the related so-called National Institutions — the World Zionist Organization, Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Keren Hayesod — to be anachronistic. They were, after all, created in the days before the foundation of the State of Israel, when only such semiofficial bodies could represent the Jewish People and its dreams of a national homeland.
Today, critics ask, when such a nation-state exists, why should a nongovernmental body like JNF-KKL control a sizable portion of the land of Israel or oversee immigration, as the Jewish Agency does? Should these not be the domain of a democratically elected government?
Such questions are certainly legitimate and warranted, but throwing out such institutions would eliminate one of the few venues through which rank-and-file Jews from around the globe can influence events in Israel. Every five years, 525 delegates are selected from around the world to the congress, just over one-third from Israel, just under one-third from the United States and the rest from everywhere else.
Those delegates control an annual budget of roughly $1 billion — coming from JNF-KKL’s aforementioned land holdings, philanthropic funds and service fees — that can be used to build infrastructure projects in Israel, create and run programs around the world and support a range of partner organizations. Ordinarily, such powers only rest in the hands of wealthy donors and the executives that run them. The WZC effectively gives them to any Jewish adult at the cost of $5 (the fee paid to vote in the elections).
As readers of eJewishPhilanthropy will know well, this was one of those years, with elections held in the U.S. from March 10 to May 4.
Yet only now, nearly four months after the polls closed, are the votes being certified due to the widespread irregularities and suspected fraud that plagued this year’s election. More than 10% of the total votes cast have been rejected on technical grounds or, in most cases, on suspicion of intentional fraud. In some cases, the majority of the votes that slates received were deemed fraudulent.
At the end of last week, the Zionist Supreme Court — the ultimate judicial authority in the world Zionist movement — issued a series of rulings on these widespread irregularities. Read more about the rulings below.
Though they expressed dismay at the rampant voter fraud, the judges largely limited their punishments for the slates involved to monetary fines and harsh words, rather than disqualifications and loss of delegates. This was based on their belief that such measures were undemocratic and stripped good-faith voters of their right to vote for the party of their choice. Some slates disagreed with these rulings, seeing them as permitting fraud with minimal consequences.
In any case, going forward, the American Zionist Movement will have its work cut out for it to convince the American Jewish public of the integrity and significance of its elections. This year saw nearly 240,000 votes cast in the elections, representing both a record high and a small fraction of the potential voting public.
At a time when the relationship between Israel and world Jewry is simultaneously strengthening in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and the global rise in antisemitism and also growing increasingly fraught, the World Zionist Congress offers a rare venue for practical dialogue — but only if people trust in it.
FINAL RULING
Zionist Supreme Court permits slates that benefited from fraud to serve in congress, keep remaining votes
Days before the deadline to certify the World Zionist Congress elections, the organization’s ultimate judicial authority, the Zionist Supreme Court, ruled last week against disqualifying slates as a penalty for apparently fraudulent votes and other irregularities in this year’s election, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim, which is being reported here for the first time. Over 25,000 votes — more than 10% of the total votes cast — were annulled earlier in the summer due to a combination of suspected voter fraud and “administrative cancellations.” For six slates — Herut North America, Achdut Israel, Shas, ZOA Coalition, Eretz Hakodesh and Am Yisrael Chai — invalid and fraudulent votes made up a significant proportion of their total votes, the ruling revealed.
Through the courts: In a June decision on the suspected fraud, the Area Election Committee, which oversaw the voting, ruled that slates would lose additional mandates relative to their proportion of suspect votes, with monetary penalties issued based on an individual slate’s willingness to cooperate with an investigation. In July, most of those decisions were overturned by the American Zionist Movement Tribunal, which argued that eliminating valid votes alongside problematic ones would undercut WZC voters’ democratic expression. The Zionist Supreme Court largely upheld the tribunal’s ruling on eliminating votes but upheld the fines, even increasing them in some cases.
APPROPRIATE ASSISTANCE
JIMENA teaches social service providers to offer culturally responsive care to Mizrahi, Sephardic clients
In 2010, Sarah Levin contacted synagogues seeking congregants to participate in an oral history project for JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, where she had recently become executive director. The Sephardic Congregation in Evanston, Ill., pointed her towards a Syrian and Turkish couple who had immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. “So I went to their house, and they were clearly in desperate need of health interventions, of social service interventions,” Levin told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. The couple needed support, but didn’t know where to find it or how to ask for help, she said. That experience inspired the latest cohort of JIMENA’s “Sephardic Leaders Fellowship,” which equips social service professionals, namely social workers and health-care workers, with the tools to provide culturally responsive care to Mizrahi and Sephardic clients. The three-month national cohort began in July, meeting virtually biweekly.
Communal focus: Social work and psychotherapy programs teach theories “birthed in North America and Western Europe,” said Mastaneh Moghadam, executive director of the Cross Cultural Expressions Community Counseling Center in Los Angeles, who is leading the cohort’s final session. So many therapists treat clients with a Western, individualistic worldview that “goes directly against” how many Middle Eastern clients see the world, which traditionally places community before individual, she said.. The important thing is “to not blindly follow any of these theories, but to really look at the person and what’s working for them, what isn’t working, given their culture, given their upbringing, their beliefs,” Moghadam said.
Change of Plans
When a perfect storm drives donors
“Giving to your alma mater is one of the most popular philanthropic pathways for the average donor; far rarer in the charitable giving space is donating to another university with which you have no previous affiliation. Yet this is exactly what happened at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology over the last several months,” writes Michael Waxman-Lenz, American Technion Society president and CEO, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Seizing the moment: “Amid a spring marked by campus protests and surging antisemitism at American universities, ATS saw a significant increase in planned giving — not only from legacy donors, but from individuals lacking any prior engagement with our work or the university. … To encourage those donors to take the final step and name ATS in their estate plans, we knew that we had to connect with them through consistent strategic messaging and deliberate visibility measures. Our proactive approach allowed us to meet this moment of change and effectively bring new members into our community… [I]t also has reinforced several key, evergreen principles of effective donor outreach that refine our ability to connect with our community, especially in pivotal moments like this one.”
Worthy Reads
Bond of Faith: In The Times of Israel, Rabbi Yakov Nagen shares a portion of his recent speech at the G20 Interfaith Forum in South Africa. “We have a dream: that our deep religious identities will serve not as a source of conflict, but as a bond of connection. That our friendships and sense of brotherhood will not exist despite our differences, but will be deepened and blessed by them. We firmly believe this to be the will of our Creator — that this is the authentic truth that emerges from our sacred texts. We stand together against those who weaponize religion, who use God’s name to divide and destroy. That is a betrayal — not only of each other, but of the very books and the very God who guide us.” [TOI]
Drawing People In: Writing for the Associated Press, Glenn Gamboa reports on the efforts of nonprofits big and small to raise the production value of their videos, podcasts and other storytelling vehicles. “Philanthropic support of storytelling has been ongoing for decades, mostly through donors funding documentary projects. … But Lance Gould, founder and CEO of media strategy firm Brooklyn Story Lab, says what Elevate Prize Foundation and others are doing is different. He says it reflects both technological improvements that have lowered the cost of documentary storytelling and the rise of social media, which allows nonprofits to interact with donors directly.” [AP]
Word on the Street
Sara Brown, the American Jewish Committee‘s regional director in San Diego and a former longtime board member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars criticized the group’s passage of a resolution on Monday accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, calling the move deeply flawed and arguing that “the whole premise and tenor of the resolution is deeply problematic,” in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov…
Police in Los Angeles are investigating the vandalism of a Jewish supplies store in the city’s Encino neighborhood; security camera footage captured the vandal spray-painting antisemitic graffiti on the side of the Mitzvahland goods store on Shabbat…
Pope Leo XIV is slated to meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday at the Vatican…
The British Jewish Leadership Council is creating an innovation fund for activities for young Jews, which will officially be launched at its “Spark the Future” summit in London next Monday…
The Religion News Service interviews Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, and other figures focused on security at houses of worship about the rise in safety concerns following the deadly church shooting in Minneapolis last month…
A new study from Kings College London found no differences in motivation and outcomes between those who donate kidneys to friends and relatives and those who donate them to strangers; the researchers hope that the findings will encourage such anonymous donations…
Israel’s national basketball team, led by Deni Avdija, secured a Sweet 16 spot in the EuroBasket tournament for the first time in more than a decade…
Major Gifts
The Lilly Endowment awarded a $2.5 million grant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to grow its programs on ethics, religion and the Holocaust…
Transitions
Former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica S. Fitzgerald Haney was named managing director – Latin America of the Genesis Prize Foundation to help launch the American Friends of the Isaac Accords in support of Argentine President Javier Milei’s initiative aiming to bring Latin American countries closer to Israel…
Hillel International hired Stefan Freiberg as its next chief financial officer…
UN Watch hired Daniel Radomski as its next chief strategy and diplomacy officer; until recently, Radomski served as head of strategy and programs at the World Jewish Congress and as executive director of the WJC Jewish Diplomatic Corps…
Julie Lipsett-Singer has been appointed the next global chief development officer for United Hatzalah…
Correction: In yesterday’s edition of Your Daily Phil, the name of the incoming interim CEO of the iCenter — Dan Tatar — was misspelled.
Pic of the Day
Senior officials from the Israeli disability nonprofit Beit Issie Shapiro open the doors to its newly inaugurated Beit Raz campus on Monday with the start of the Israeli school year. The campus features an inclusive early childhood education center that provides care for both children with and without disabilities. Read more about it here.
Pictured above: Amir Lerner, CEO, left; Naomi Stuchiner, founder; Edna Karni, director of Beit Raz; Chana Yamin-Cherki, vice president; Anat Greienfer, head of children and youth services; and Yael Weiss, head of the disabilities law implementation division.
Birthdays
Past chair of the Anti-Defamation League and later the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Robert G. Sugarman…
London-based advice columnist for the U.K.’s Cosmopolitan magazine for over 40 years, known there as an agony aunt, Irma Kurtz… Media personality, psychologist and socialite, also known as Dr. Estella, Estella Sneider, Psy.D.… Retired software engineer at IBM for 39 years, he persevered after many years to locate and inter the remains of the crew of a crashed WW II American B-24 in the Indian Himalayans, succeeding in 2008, Gary Zaetz… Actor best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on The Sopranos, more recently he has appeared in 146 episodes of CBS’ “Blue Bloods,” Steve Schirripa… Chair of the global sustainability platform at Apollo Global Management, Jonathan Silver… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints from 1982 to 1989, now a professional photographer, Brad M. Edelman… Producer and reporter at NBC and MSNBC, early in his career, he spent eight years as a volunteer broadcaster and reader for the Jewish Guild for the Blind, Adam Reiss… Executive chairman of Time magazine, Edward Felsenthal… Historian and journalist who has written four books on the rise of the American conservative movement (focused on Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan), Eric S. “Rick” Perlstein… Mayor of Haifa until 2024, she was the first woman to lead that city, Einat Kalisch-Rotem… Executive director at the Michael Reese Research & Education Foundation, Jason Rothstein… Vice president of data visualization at Moody’s Corporation, Todd Lindeman… CEO of PR and communications firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, Shawn Sachs… Founder of the Silverstein Group, providing strategic policy, crisis management and communications advice, Rustin Silverstein… Rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue, Avraham Bronstein… Chief advancement officer of Honeymoon Israel, Avital Ingber… Head of global public affairs marketing at Meta / Facebook, Joel Martín Kliksberg… Chief media correspondent for CNN until 2022, then a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, now back at CNN, Brian Stelter… South Florida-based attorney, she served as the co-chair of JFNA’s national young leadership cabinet, Lindsey Tania Glantz… Comedy writer, producer and performer, Megan Amram… Fashion model and actress, Kaia Jordan Gerber…
