Your Daily Phil: CultivAid’s Tomer Malchi wins 2026 Bronfman Prize
Add EJP on GoogleGood Monday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Tomer Malchi, CEO of CultivAid, who was announced today as the 2026 winner of the Charles Bronfman Prize, and report on a newly launched Maryland Jewish federation’s fight for security grants. We feature an opinion piece by Eveline Shekhman about how funders can help combat antisemitism in healthcare, a piece by Rabbi Steven C. Wernick responding to assertions about aliyah among non-Orthodox American Jewry and a piece by Rabbi Dan Roth highlighting the importance of production and distribution infrastructure in Jewish education. Also in this issue: Sen. Ron Wyden, Efrat Shaprut and Chevy Rubin.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
Public hearings began today for Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which was launched after last year’s deadly terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. This comes after the release of the commission’s interim report last week.
The Milken Institute’s 2026 Global Conference continues today. Among the sessions: Milken Foundation EVP Richard Sandler is moderating a panel on “What Faith Means to Me” with Rabbi David Wolpe, Kelsey Grammer, Farah Panidth, John Studzinski and Gregory Boyle. Milken Institute EVP of philanthropy Melissa Stevens is moderating a panel discussion on the future of philanthropy with Tonya Allen, of the McKnight Foundation; John Palfrey, of the MacArthur Foundation; Maura Pally, of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation; Shamina Singh, of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth; and Mark Suzman, of the Gates Foundation.
Lag B’Omer begins tonight. In Israel, police are preparing for potential unrest in the vicinity of Mt. Meron, a Hasidic pilgrimage site in northern Israel where tens of thousands normally gather for the holiday, but which has been largely closed off due to concerns that Hezbollah could attack the festivities.
What You Should Know
Tomer Malchi, the co-founder and CEO of CultivAid, an Israel-based nonprofit focused on agriculture and water use in eastern and southern Africa, has been named this year’s Charles Bronfman Prize laureate, the organization announced today.
Malchi, 44, launched CultivAid in 2016 alongside Ben Cohen, the organization’s chief technical officer, and Yair Keinan, its chief financial officer. With degrees from Cornell University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s agricultural school, Malchi brought his background in water conservation and agricultural studies to Africa, focusing not on aid projects but on strengthening and stabilizing the local agricultural economy.
After the announcement, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spoke with Malchi about his selection, his plans for the future and what philanthropists and for-profit companies should understand about the need to develop Africa’s agricultural markets.
JAG: The field of humanitarian aid and international development has been struggling in recent years, both in general, with the cuts to USAID, and within Israel, in light of the past 2 ½ years of war. How has that impacted your work?
TM: CultivAid works differently from other organizations. Everything we do has to be market-driven. Aid often suppresses markets, giving away seeds to farmers. We emphasize selling seedlings, so farmers are kept in mind and made more productive. Aid and development are really two completely separate fields that have been merged into one.
We’re trying to create a market so that farmers know where they are selling [their produce] before they even plant. It is very different from anything else that we are seeing in the field. We are trying to develop ourselves as an organization alongside the private sector, whether it’s processors, exporters or distribution lines.
If you look at aid, it is normally done through project-based development. But we don’t plan on leaving where we are. We have our farms, our local teams. The goal is to develop an ecosystem.
MARYLAND MAYHEM
Md. Jewish group ‘not taking no for an answer’ after county denies security grants
The recently formed Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake (Md.) is “not taking no for an answer” after the Anne Arundel County executive repeatedly declined to include funding for security grants requested by Jewish institutions in his proposed budget, saying that the amount that could be allocated would anyway be insufficient to address the needs, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
At the table: “Our federation is brand new and we have a long way to go to play catch up,” Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, co-founder and secretary of the federation, which launched last year, told JI. “One thing we have learned is that if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu. When a county can find $400,000 in funding for more pickleball lighting, but can’t find security dollars, we know we need to work in partnership for a better future.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
GOOD MEDICINE
Keep healing spaces safe through philanthropic partnerships
“I am hearing from physicians, trainees and allied health professionals across the country facing challenges at an unprecedented scale,” writes Eveline Shekhman, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “What we are seeing now is a breakdown, where identity is no longer neutral, and institutions are struggling to respond with consistency and clarity. This is not a series of isolated incidents, but a structural gap in how healthcare recognizes and addresses antisemitism and bias within its own system.”
What’s missing: “We know how to do healthcare well, and we know how to build strong Jewish institutions. We have done it before. What we lack is the infrastructure to connect those strengths at a national scale. There are few mechanisms to track these patterns, educate institutions consistently, support professionals in real time or ensure accountability when standards are not upheld. … For funders, the conversation has moved beyond whether this issue exists to whether we are prepared to build what is required to address it — thoughtfully, collectively and at scale.”
READER RESPONDS
The aliyah conversation belongs to all of Am Yisrael
Yossi Aloni/Flash90“Adam Ferziger has done the Jewish philanthropic community a genuine service in his recent op-ed for eJewishPhilanthropy, “The aliyah imperative and the philanthropic dilemma” (April 6). His analysis of the April 2026 YU ‘Torah To-Go’ symposium names something real: The strategic logic that once held North American Jewish philanthropy in place — invest heavily in Diaspora institutions, support Israel from a distance — is fracturing,” writes Rabbi Steven C. Wernick, the senior rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto and chair of the Jewish Agency’s Aliyah Committee, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Important to note: “Ferziger suggests that for non-Orthodox Jews, Zionism is ‘predominantly expressed through political support,’ and that even this is fading. That characterization of our communities is wrong. … Per capita, Orthodox Jews make aliyah at roughly six times the non-Orthodox rate. … Perspective also matters here. The Jewish Agency and its partners facilitate roughly 3,500-4,000 North American olim per year out of a Jewish population of 6 million — less than one-tenth of 1% annually. … The real question is not why Conservative and Reform Jews lag behind the Orthodox; it is why virtually all North American Jewry has not answered the call at scale.”
READER RESPONDS
The sixth path: What 18 years of Jewish education media taught me about Doron Kenter’s ‘denominator’
“Doron Kenter’s recent piece in eJewishPhilanthropy, “Don’t overlook the denominator in the Jewish talent pipeline crisis” (Dec. 21, 2025), is one of the more honest things I’ve read in this space in a while. The field tends to treat human capital conversations as a recruitment problem. Kenter treats it as a math problem, and he’s right,” writes Rabbi Dan Roth, founder of Torah Live, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Structural issue: “His core challenge is simple and clarifying: every fraction has a numerator and a denominator. We obsess over one and largely ignore the other. Recruiting more rabbis and educators matters, but if we never address the structural inefficiencies that determine how far each professional’s impact actually travels, we’re pouring water into a leaky bucket. I want to affirm his framework and push it one step further, with 18 years of field data as context.”
Worthy Reads
Shared Fate, Different Views: In The Jerusalem Post, William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents, warns that rising antisemitism is testing the foundational cohesion of American Jewry. “In the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, those patterns [periods of exclusion and hostility] have reasserted themselves with force. Antisemitism no longer sits at the margins. It appears on campuses, in public spaces, and in civic life, often framed in political language but unmistakable in its targets. Assumptions that once felt settled no longer hold… One thread runs through this history: cohesion. American Jewish life has never been monolithic. Religious, political, and cultural differences persist. But at decisive moments, a sense of shared fate prevails. Unity without unanimity defines that balance.” [JerusalemPost]
Britain’s Breaking Point: In his Substack Everyday Hate, Dave Rich, policy director of British Jewry’s Community Security Trust, frames the recent surge in antisemitic violence not just as a threat to the Jewish community, but as a “national security emergency” that needs a coordinated response. “Platitudes like ‘there is no place for antisemitism in this country’ are unhelpful because they are simply untrue. There clearly is a place for antisemitism in parts of Britain, and tackling it begins by facing up to that fundamental, if depressing, truth. This is not some unfathomable phenomenon with no rhyme or reason that appears from nowhere and then disappears again into the ether: it is a pattern of behaviour shaped by a set of ideas and beliefs, and driven by activists and movements. … The flip side of countering extremism is building social cohesion, and with it, bolstering the strength of our democracy.” [EverydayHate]
Post-Consensus Chaos: In The Times of Israel, Steven Windmueller examines the “coming institutional wars” within the Jewish communal sector as a clash between 20th-century legacy structures and a fast-moving, polarized 21st-century landscape. “There are several real pressures that make the next decade unusually challenging. … Major donors are increasingly linking their giving as if it were an investment and will require measurable outcomes, transparency, and speed. Traditional nonprofits—especially legacy institutions—often move slowly and prioritize consensus, which may look like underperformance. … This transitional moment is in part generational, as younger donors and participants tend to have communal different priorities. … What can we expect, replacement, takeover or reform? It would appear, moving forward, all three will be in play.” [TOI]
Word on the Street
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) accused the Justice Department of politically targeting progressive nonprofits like the Southern Poverty Law Center and using government powers to threaten their tax-exempt status in a press conference last week…
A group of six seniors at the Jewish Theological Seminary called on the school to cancel Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s upcoming graduation speech at the Conservative institution, saying they would feel “morally conflicted” about attending the commencement; the JTS administration has rejected the demand, and four times as many students signed a letter in support of having Herzog speak…
Haaretz interviews Somaya Bashir, an Arab Israeli activist who recently announced that she would run as a candidate in the Zionist Democrats Party…
Nantucket’s Jewish congregation, Shirat HaYam, has announced plans to convert the historic Surfside Lifesaving Station and former youth hostel into the island’s first permanent synagogue…
A new poll by The Jewish Majority indicates that 58% of New York City’s Jewish voters rate Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s performance as “poor,” largely driven by concerns over his handling of antisemitism and anti-Israel protests…
Haaretz details the developing mental health crisis in Israel, citing research that shows clinical levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and addiction affecting millions of citizens at an estimated annual economic cost of NIS 100 billion ($34 billion)…
The Israeli Cabinet has approved a NIS 120 million ($40 million) plan aimed at reducing school dropout rates among West Bank settler youth in order to prevent them from engaging in extremist violence…
The UN Plaza Grill in Midtown Manhattan dropped its kosher certification due to the high operational costs of maintaining the designation and will now operate as a non-kosher restaurant…
The New School in New York City dismissed a student senate vote that attempted to defund the campus Hillel over its ties to Israel. The university clarified that the student government does not have the authority to revoke funding or recognition from registered student organizations…
In an opinion piece in The Guardian, London Mayor Sadiq Khan responds to the Golders Green terror attack by proposing a permanent increase in police security, stricter action against hate speech at protests and a national security investigation into foreign interference…
The Washington Post spotlights JoJo and Yoni Kalin, a married couple that witnessed the killings last year of two Israeli Embassy staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and looks at how they have responded in different ways to the rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment…
Marc Rod, Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent, and Olivia Truesdale-Rod, program manager for Former Members of Congress, married on Friday at Meridian House in Washington. Rabbi Aaron Miller of Washington Hebrew Congregation officiated…
Major Gifts
Palm Beach, Fla., developer Ken Endelson donated $4 million to the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County. The funds will build the Endelson Sports Complex at the Palm Beach Gardens JCC to provide new athletic fields and seating for the growing Jewish community…
Transitions
Efrat Shaprut has been named director of the Joint Distribution Committee’s Israel Unlimited…
Chevy Rubin was hired as the executive director of The Lookstein Center, Bar-Ilan University‘ hub for training Jewish educators…
Ronny Zeman has joined Leket as its new private partnerships manager…
The Union for Reform Judaism elected its board members for new four-year terms…
Pic of the Day
A Jewish woman holds a tray of eggs on which personal prayers have been written today, on the eve of Lag B’Omer, as part of a ritual practiced by Tunisian Jews in the historic Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba.
The annual pilgrimage to the Tunisian island for Lag B’Omer resumed this year, after a yearslong suspension following a terror attack on the gathering in 2023 and tensions related to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Birthdays
CEO at Gigawatt Global, Yosef Israel Abramowitz turns 62…
Former chairman and CEO of American International Group, once the largest insurance company in history, then chairman and CEO of the Starr Companies, Maurice Raymond “Hank” Greenberg turns 101… Executive director of the Texas A&M Hillel for 30 years, now a security consultant for the tourism industry, Peter E. Tarlow turns 80… U.S. special envoy for climate change in the Obama administration, now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Todd D. Stern turns 75… Trustee of the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, Lee Sherman… Partner at NYC-based Mintz & Gold, he was EVP and general counsel for both the Las Vegas Sands and News Corporation, Lawrence “Lon” A. Jacobs… Northern Virginia-based portrait artist, Ilisa G. Calderon… Member of the House of Representatives (D-VT), Rebecca A. “Becca” Balint turns 58… Triathlete, she has a PhD from Johns Hopkins and is a winner of international ironman competitions, Joanna Sue Zeiger turns 56… Director of congregational education at New York City’s Park Avenue Synagogue, Bradley Solmsen… Former Florida state senator and state attorney for Palm Beach County from 2013 until 2025, Dave Aronberg turns 55… Chair and director at New York City’s Department of City Planning until last month, Daniel Garodnick… Mechal Wakslak… Executive advisor at Veterans Community Project, he served as the secretary of state of Missouri, Jason Kander turns 45… Chief operating officer at Repair the World, Jessica Chait… Tech entrepreneur, best known as a co-founder of both Vine and HQ Trivia, Rus Yusupov turns 42… Senior vice president at BerlinRosen, Allison Fran Bormel… Chief development officer at Ramah Darom, previously with Americans for Ben-Gurion University and AIPAC, Rebecca Leibowitz Wasserstrom… Script writer at Disney, Steven A. Rosenberg… Adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, Shana Mansbach… Manager of public policy and external affairs at Meta / Facebook, Sasha Altschuler… Actor best known for voicing the title character of the animated film “Finding Nemo,” Alexander Gould turns 32… Medalist in the women’s halfpipe event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Arielle Townsend Gold turns 30… Partner in the client services group at Signum Global Advisors, Elliot Miller… Finance lead at Shopify, Olivia Breuer…
