Your Daily Phil: Don’t forget us: Rising needs, flagging support as Ukraine war marks 4 years
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What We’re Watching
The New York City Council is holding a hearing today on the bill that would create a buffer zone around places of worship.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Ethiopia today for a one-day visit. While in Addis Ababa, Herzog is meeting with Ethiopian political leaders and with representatives of the local Jewish community.
Jewish Family Service LA is holding a discussion tonight on adult homelessness at the Gunther-Hirsh Family Center.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
A bill that would effectively criminalize egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, including in the southern section where today many Reform and Conservative families celebrate bar and bat mitzvahs, passed its initial reading in the Knesset today by a 56-47 vote. The measure was hailed by Haredi and other Orthodox politicians as a victory for traditionalism and sharply denounced by progressive Jewish leaders and Israeli opposition members as a blow to religious freedom and an insult to Diaspora Jewry.
From here, the bill heads to the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, where it will be subject to further debate and amendments, before it can head back to the plenum for its final two votes.
The bill, which was proposed by Knesset Member Avi Maoz, the head of the far-right religious Noam Party, comes amid renewed debate over the long-stalled Western Wall Compromise, a 2016 agreement that would have given progressive movements official control over the egalitarian plaza, following a High Court of Justice hearing related to the matter earlier this month, as well as a separate, larger dispute in Israel over the role and authority of the court system.
In a heated response to the bill, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari noted that the bill comes as American Jews have come to Israel’s aid for the past two-plus years since the Oct. 7 terror attacks. “What will you say the next time you visit the American Jewish community? What will you say to them? What will you say to those amazing people who after Oct. 7 donated [$2 billion]? … Who brought the money to Sderot and Ofakim, to the reconstruction of the [Gaza] envelope…? The Jews of the Diaspora,” Ben Ari said. “Instead of saying thank-you to them, you are passing this bill, which is a thumb in the eye.”
In the days before the bill was put forward, the Jewish Agency for Israel, along with the Reform and Conservative movements and other international Jewish groups, sought to scuttle the vote, holding high-level talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and other Israeli political leaders on the matter, sources told eJewishPhilanthropy. They warned that altering the status quo at the Western Wall would drive a wedge between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, particularly American Jews, most of whom identify with the Reform and Conservative movements.
While the bill does not have practical ramifications until it passes its final readings, which could take several months, activists have told eJP that even its initial passage could affect the ongoing High Court proceedings, allowing the government to credibly claim that the judiciary should not intervene as the matter is being addressed by the legislature.
WAR STORIES
Four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, philanthropy is dwindling, even as needs grow
Four years into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jewish human service organizations are struggling to maintain funding. “The Jewish community stepped up philanthropically in very significant ways, but four years in, it’s hard to continue to maintain that interest and attention,” Dyonna Ginsburg, CEO of OLAM, a network of Jewish organizations and individuals working in international aid, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
More, more, more: Even as much of the philanthropic and American federal funding has dried up, the needs of Ukrainians have only increased, Alena Druzhynina, country director of IsraAid Ukraine, told eJP. Because of the winter’s bitter cold temperatures and the power outages caused by Russia’s targeting of the country’s electrical grid, Chabad’s Jewish Relief Network Ukraine has established shelters in Odesa and Zhytomyr, where more than 100 people are living indefinitely. Overall, JRN Ukraine provides food, medical care and social services to over 50,000 Jewish Ukrainians. “More people need food” than ever, Judi Garrett, the chief operating officer of JRN Ukraine, told eJP. Families have drained their savings, and women are carrying the brunt of the struggle at home and work, while men ages 18-62 are serving in the military, unless they are disabled or wounded. “More people need help paying for medicine. More people need help with their utilities.”
MODEL OF CHANGE
Amid rising challenges, Jewish day schools nationwide must invest in local collaboration
Rising costs, unprecedented security threats and an ongoing national teacher shortage “are posing real challenges” to the capacity of Jewish day schools to serve communities across the U.S., write Peg Sandel and Adam Eilath, heads of school in San Rafael and Foster City, Calif., respectively, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Amid this difficult reality, we can’t afford to continue operating as normal and hope it will work out. Schools and their supporters must adopt an innovation and agility mindset and try new ways of working together.”
Coordinated strength: “Too often, schools are working in silos and duplicating programming or initiatives that could benefit their peers in their region. As leaders representing the NorCal Jewish Day School Collaborative, a network of day schools in Northern California, we have spent the past six years building a regional infrastructure that has already reshaped how Jewish day schools operate together…. The future of Jewish day schools will not be secured by isolated excellence. It will be secured by coordinated strength. In Northern California, we are proving that model is not only possible — it is already underway.”
CRITICAL ARCHITECTURE
A frontline response to antisemitism: Jewish education through a counter-extremism lens
“I find my world of national security unexpectedly intersecting with Jewish education,” writes Sheryl Saperia, CEO of Secure Canada, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The same psychological and social mechanisms that make people vulnerable to extremist recruitment are operating on Jewish students — not to recruit them into terror groups, but to draw them into ideological ecosystems that normalize antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Jewish shame.”
What we can do: “Security policy protects people physically through intelligence, enforcement and deterrence. Education protects something else: the internal architecture that determines whether a student can stand upright under pressure, distinguish argument from intimidation and resist coercive or immoral demands. … If Jewish education is central to Jewish resilience, it must also be accessible. That means making serious philanthropic and communal choices that expand affordability, reduce barriers and ensure that strong Jewish education is within reach of every Jewish family that wants it. We cannot control what the world demands of Jewish students, but we can ensure that, when those demands come, our children meet them as Jews who know what they believe, where they come from and why their identity is worth carrying proudly.”
Worthy Reads
Shoot for the Moon: In an interview in the latest issue of Sapir, Joshua Foer and William Foster call for more moonshots in Jewish philanthropy. “Jewish moonshots are high-risk bets on building something that the Jewish world lacks but badly needs, in situations where there’s a real chance of not just underperformance but total failure. They are large-scale, or at least have a path to scalability. They’re non-incremental, and they have a long time horizon to effectuate change. And they can become infrastructure for Jewish life writ large. Birthright was a moonshot. Sefaria, the digital library of Jewish texts, was a moonshot. But we have too few in the Jewish world these days. … The risk of doing too little is much greater than the risk of doing too much. And it’s not like we’re losing Jews to reckless innovation. I see us losing them to irrelevance and to Jewish infrastructure that’s simply not meeting them where they are. The comfortable path of funding safe and incremental work might feel prudent, but it’s actually just slow-motion abdication.” [Sapir]
Constructive Conflict: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Jenny R. Yang and Rachel Godsil encourage organizational leaders to consider the systems needed to effectively navigate — and ultimately benefit from — workplace conflict. “Many organizations orient toward avoiding complaints, lawsuits, and regulatory scrutiny, but in doing so, they miss opportunities to surface and correct problems early through systems that build employees’ trust. And when employees do not trust that leaders will hear and fairly address their concerns, productive dialogue and solutions are less likely to emerge. This risk avoidance posture leaves leaders without the tools, skills, and structures they need to respond to fairness concerns in ways that maintain accountability while preserving healthy working relationships.” [SSIR]
Word on the Street
During last night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump highlighted Michael and Susan Dell’s recent $6.25 billion donation to create investment accounts for most American children. Read Jewish Insider’s recap of Trump’s speech, including his remarks about returning the hostages from Hamas captivity and his warnings of a possible military strike against Iran…
Building on a monthslong battle between the Trump administration and the University of California, the Department of Justice filed a suit on Tuesday against the university system, alleging that its Los Angeles campus failed to protect Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The Jerusalem Post interviews Israeli philanthropist Ronny Douek about charitable giving by Israelis post-Oct. 7…
The Jewish Federation of Kansas City and the local Jewish Family Services launched a joint interest-free loan program for people in need in the Jewish community…
The former head of a San Francisco homelessness services nonprofit, the United Council of Human Services, has been charged with misappropriating more than $1.2 million in public funds…
A coalition of Australian Jewish organizations have appointed the Arnold Bloch Leibler law firm as their representative in the government’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion…
The Journal & Courier spotlights congregation Ahavath Achim in Lafayette, Ind., the oldest synagogue in the state, which has been put up for sale and which a group of local Jews is trying to save…
Cheryl Stumbo, the survivor of a deadly 2006 shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, died on Feb. 14 of bone cancer at 63…
Major Gifts
Foundation for Jewish Camp awarded grants worth a total of $1.5 million to five Jewish summer camps to make them more accessible to young adults with disabilities; the grants were part of a $4.35 million donation to FJC from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation…
Pic of the Day
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A delegation from Friends of the Israel Defense Forces reopens a basketball court yesterday at the Reim military base in southern Israel. The sports center was repaired as part of a $23 million renovation of the base by FIDF after it was heavily damaged in the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“I remember when we first built this gym and facility and coming back over the years to see how much they meant to you. When we returned in December 2023, just two months after Oct. 7, we saw the damage and the bullet holes throughout the gym and fitness center,” Marty Berger, co-chair of FIDF’s New York Tristate Real Estate Affinity Group, said at the reopening ceremony. “To see this place rebuilt and to have played a small part in restoring it is deeply humbling.”
Birthdays
Founding partner of Parallel Capital and board chair of the Holocaust Museum LA, Guy Lipa…
Former talk show host, Sally Jessy Raphael (born Sally Lowenthal) turns 91… Owner of both the MLB’s Chicago White Sox (since 1981) and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls (since 1985), Jerry M. Reinsdorf turns 90… Former president of the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, executive vice president of the UJA-Federation of New York and first-ever CEO of United Jewish Communities, Stephen Solender turns 88… Science and medicine reporter for The New York Times and author of six books, Gina Bari Kolata turns 78… Former CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Steve Gutow turns 77… Jerusalem-based attorney and chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, Marc Zell turns 73… Former Israeli minister of foreign affairs and chief of the general staff of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenazi turns 72… Opinion columnist for The New York Times since 2016, after serving as the NYT’s editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal turns 70… Former VP of communications at CNN, Barbara Levin… Policy editor at The Bulwark, Mona Charen Parker turns 69… Vice chair of strategy and client relations at Blackstone, he served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021-2023, Thomas Richard Nides turns 65… CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo from 2015-2024, now a senior advisor there, Rob Goldberg… Mayor of Burlington, Vt., from 2012-2024, Miro Weinberger turns 56… Founder of “News Not Noise,” she was previously the chief White House correspondent for CNN, Jessica Sage Yellin… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, she is now vice president of product content engineering for Meta, Anne Elise Kornblut turns 53… Co-founder of Singapore-based Alchemist Travel, Lauren Raps… Comedian, actress and writer, Chelsea Joy Handler turns 51… Actress best known for her roles in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and Fox’s “Boston Public,” Rashida Jones turns 50… Managing director of Covenant Wines in Berkeley, CA, Sagie Kleinlerer… Former assistant director at San Francisco-based EUQINOM Gallery, Lyla Rose Holdstein… Actor best known for his role in Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle,” Justin Berfield turns 40… Born in Tel Aviv, raised in Arizona, now a business correspondent for CNN, Hadas Gold turns 38… 2013 U.S. national figure skating champion, now a VP at Franklin Templeton, Maxwell Theodore “Max” Aaron turns 34… Julie Goldman… Founder of Ramah in the Rockies and former chairman of National Jewish Health, David Engleberg…
