In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we speak with Jewish Funders Network President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny about what today’s midterm elections mean for philanthropists, and report from Birthright Israel’s inaugural Global BusinessSummit in Tel Aviv. We feature an opinion piece by Dean McKay, Miri Bar-Halpern and Joshua Simmons about the allegations of antisemitism facing the American Psychological Association, and how inconsistent standards for anti-Jewish discrimination impact the field and beyond; and a piece by LizAnn Eisen that reflects on the principles left behind by Elie Wiesel that guide the foundation that bears his name. Also in this issue: Charles BronfmanandJeffrey R. Solomon, Catherine E. Clark and Boy George.

Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

It’s Election Day as Americans head to the polls for heated, consequential midterm elections. More on this below. 

Meanwhile, tensions in the Gulf continue after the U.S. conducted what it said were limited defensive strikes targeting Iran’s Qeshm Island.

Taglit wraps up its Global Business Summit with meetings at Israeli tech companies and a day of volunteering alongside Taglit participants in the South.

United Hatzalah is hosting its annual Young Leadership Benefit in Midtown Manhattan this evening. 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will begin his government-formation consultations tomorrow morning at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, beginning with the Religious Zionism-Zehut party led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

What You Should Know

As American Jews head to the polls today in the country’s midterm election, many in the traditionally liberal-leaning community will be feeling a sense of “political homelessness.” Historically liberal Jews are increasingly finding themselves at odds with the Democratic Party on the issues of Israel and antisemitism. At the same time, they oppose the conservative nationalism at play in parts of the Republican Party, whose adherents have also staked out sharply anti-Israel positions and embraced blatantly antisemitic figures.

But while for many this may be the most significant element of this election cycle, it is far from the only one. The midterms have the potential to significantly shift the partisan makeup of Congress two years into President Donald Trump’s second term — a term that has already significantly impacted philanthropy through federal funding cuts, a wave of congressional investigations into nonprofits and new challenges to organizations’ tax-exempt status.

On the eve of the U.S. midterm elections, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanimspoke with Andrés Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, about the sense of “political homelessness” among Jewish funders, philanthropy’s role in politics and the impacts of political uncertainty in both Israel and the United States. 

Nira Dayanim: I’m speaking to you between two elections, last week in Israel and today in the US. In your view, what’s at stake for philanthropy in today’s midterms, whether control of Congress changes hands or stays put?

Andrés Spokoiny: There are threats from both the left and the right to philanthropic freedom in this country. And that has a lot of funders very concerned. … For example, the political left… has an ideological problem with philanthropy in many cases. Let’s put it this way: They think that people should just pay more taxes and not do philanthropy. I’m caricaturizing it, but it’s where the opposition comes from…

From the perspective of the right, there is paradoxically a similar threat, but from the other ideological spectrum, the right believes that the philanthropic sector is not transparent enough and does political things that are not philanthropic, and therefore proposes restrictions to philanthropic freedom. Some of those restrictions make sense, but there is a fear that when the government starts messing with philanthropy, it’s a slippery slope. 

Read the full interview here.

News

TAGLIT TIME

Birthright courts global donors at Tel Aviv summit, as some speakers court controversy

It felt more like a ritzy international conference befitting an Israeli media conglomerate than a Jewish engagement nonprofit — and that was exactly the point. Taglit’s Global Business Summit, which concludes on Tuesday, had the sleek, exclusive feel of a business conference and featured top Israeli tech and philanthropy leaders, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet from the conference. A Taglit spokesperson told eJP that the strategy with the summit was to gather the biggest donors from around the world under one roof and skip the roughly 15 separate country missions it would otherwise take to reach them.

Tachles at Taglit: Israeli high-tech entrepreneur and Mellanox founder Eyal Waldman, one of Taglit’s larger supporters in Israel, also made headlines when he called the Israeli government “one of the worst we’ve ever had in Israel,” as an awkward hush fell over the crowd. Taglit receives tens of millions of shekels a year from the Israeli government. That did not stop Waldman from doubling down, saying, “We have to take the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu out; if not, we will be in serious trouble.”

Read the full report here.

Share