Your Daily Phil: Echoes of Tree of Life: Jewish groups’ heartbreak, resolve after Minn. church shooting
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on Jewish communal leaders’ and organizations’ reactions to yesterday’s deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school church and interview Whitney Fisch about the decision to shut down the teen mental health nonprofit BaMidbar. We speak with colleagues and acquaintances of real estate developer and philanthropist Stephen Muss, who died on Saturday, and look into the threats posed by Iran against Jewish institutions around the world. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Mary Zamore in honor of Labor Day spotlighting a disconnect between paid leave policies and workplace practices in Jewish institutions. Also in this issue: Ethan Daniel Davidson, Dick Wolf and Jennifer Feldman.
Ed. note: The next edition of Your Daily Phil will arrive on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Shabbat shalom and happy Labor Day weekend!
What We’re Watching
Jewish sports fans in Washington are taking part in Jewish Community Day at Nationals Park on Sunday, when the Nats take on the Tampa Bay Rays.
The school year begins in Israel on Monday (save for some Haredi schools, which opened earlier this week on Rosh Hodesh Elul).
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
Local and international Jewish organizations and leaders decried yesterday’s deadly shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which was carried out by a shooter who had reportedly written antisemitic statements and praise for mass murderers on the assault rifle used in the attack. Two students, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, were killed in the shooting, and 17 people, 14 of them children, were injured, with seven in critical condition, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Responses to the shooting ranged from general horror and condemnation to specific calls for stricter gun control, with some groups comparing the Minneapolis tragedy to past mass shootings, including the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
In a joint statement, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Minneapolis Jewish Federation and St. Paul Jewish Federation stressed unity and highlighted the ties between the state’s Jewish and Catholic communities. “Minnesota’s Catholic community has shown up time and time again for our Jewish community when we have faced moments of heartbreak and suffering,” the statement read. “During this time of crisis, we stand with you, offering our prayers and our support. … Sacred spaces must remain sacred; sanctuaries remaining as sanctuaries and schools as schools – all free of terror and hate.”
The Orthodox Union noted that the attack took place at a Mass held in the school’s adjoining church as students prayed together ahead of the start of the school year. “We must pause and consider the multiple dimensions of this epic tragedy. The hopeful anticipation and excitement of the beginning of the school year for the children, the family, and the school community, was destroyed today in the senseless and intentional murder of school children engaged in worship,” the OU wrote. “Our hearts are broken, but our resolve is strong to stand together against hate.”
Unverified images of the alleged shooter’s gun and ammunition magazines showed that they had been covered in phrases, such as “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Burn Israel,” “Israel must fall” and “Destroy HIAS,” referring to the Jewish immigrant resettlement organization. The assailant’s gun also included praise for mass killers “across the ideological spectrum,” including white supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government actors, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which released a study of school shooters last week.
“Our community knows all too well the pain, grief, and fear of violent attacks against those who come together to learn, pray, and partake in community. We are also alarmed by the vile statements of hatred uncovered in the alleged shooter’s social media accounts,” the Jewish Federations of North America wrote in a statement.
A HIAS spokesperson told eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider that the attack at the Annunciation Catholic Church “echoes the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, when Jews were murdered in their place of worship,” as the Tree of Life shooter specifically invoked HIAS’ work as a motivation for his attack.
In response to the Minneapolis attack, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center demanded congressional action to address gun control. “Thoughts and prayers will never be enough; indeed, the victims themselves were children at prayer. Congress must take immediate action to stop gun violence,” Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of RAC, said in a statement.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, similarly called for government action on gun control, as well as anti-extremism programs. “This doesn’t need to keep happening. Our children, and all of us, deserve to live free from gun violence,” Spitalnick said. “Our government isn’t powerless to stop these acts of hate and violence. Yet this administration continues to decimate key anti-extremism and hate crime prevention programs, while Washington fails to move forward sensible gun reforms, all while our communities pay the price.”
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, who represented Parkland, Fla., as its congressman during the 2018 school shooting there, lamented that he “[wished] there is more I could do than say I’m sorry that a killer attacked a Catholic school and church during mass, but I am so very, very sorry. And I’m thinking of every victim, family member and survivor of gun violence from Parkland and the many communities who have suffered the enormity of loss that the Minneapolis community is feeling today.”
INTO THE WILDERNESS
Teen mental health nonprofit BaMidbar to shut down Sept. 1 due to financial struggles
After expanding to meet the growing mental health needs of teenagers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Oct. 7 terror attacks, the nonprofit BaMidbar will end operations on Sept. 1, the organization’s CEO, Whitney Fisch, announced on Wednesday in an email to supporters, report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Judah Ari Gross.
Mission first: Fisch, who joined the organization last October, told eJP that BaMidbar did not have the funding necessary to continue in its current form into the coming year. Instead of laying off workers and scaling back operations, she opted instead to shut down, noting that the decision was based, in part, on a recent eJP opinion piece. “I can’t remember which very thoughtful colleague wrote it, but it was a woman and she was talking about how we have so many small, niche Jewish nonprofits, and… are we being responsible with donor dollars, with all of these smaller nonprofits instead of joining together as established communities or institutions and using donor dollars to affect the biggest, most impactful change. When we were in a financial situation where we might not be able to move forward, that op-ed kept ringing in my head,” Fisch said, apparently referring to a piece by Maayan Aviv.
BARUCH DAYAN EMET
Netanyahu will again not sit down with American Jewish leaders during D.C. trip
Stephen Muss saved the Alexander Muss High School in Israel from bankruptcy by treating it like a hotel — an industry the Miami Beach businessman knew well, having similarly rescued the famed Fontainebleau Hotel. He understood that “a not-for-profit organization cannot simply have its hand out and beg,” Ron Werner, AMHSI chairperson and president emeritus, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. “But [it] needs to be fiscally responsible and managerially responsible to fulfill its obligations. When you do that, it’s a lot easier to have people who will invest in you.” Muss, who died on Saturday at 97, left a legacy of rebirth for organizations in both the Jewish community and the greater Miami Beach community, acquaintances told eJP.
Planning ahead: Jacob Solomon, president and CEO emeritus of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, recalled his meetings with Muss, who had “a booming voice and impressive shock of white hair that he brushed straight back so there was a leonine quality to him.” Muss was convinced of the need to get more teens to visit Israel, specifically through the high school that Muss had named after his father. “We spent hours and hours and hours thinking through what the best organizational structure for what the Alexander Muss High School in Israel should be,” Solomon recalled. “He knew that that it wasn’t just going to be one intifada or two intifadas, it was going to be wars, it was going to be boycotts, it was going to be all kinds of things, and he knew that for the program to survive, it needed to have deep financial roots and backing.”
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
Security experts warn of Iranian threats to Jewish communities around the world
National security experts are warning that Jewish communities around the world could face increased Iranian threats following the recent accusation by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps orchestrated attacks last year on a synagogue and kosher restaurant in the country, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
‘Casing out institutions’: “We’ve seen Iranian penetration in many Westernized countries, with Australia now being the latest. Though to see direct evidence of a linkage to actual violence — not just disinformation campaigns or cyber campaigns — is very frightening,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “The FBI and NYPD have had live investigations that have resulted in arrests of Hezbollah operatives in New York City casing out institutions,” Mitch Silber, executive director of the Community Security Initiative, which works to safeguard Jewish communities, told JI. “Iranians have a long timeline. Just because [an attack] hasn’t happened in the last six to eight weeks [since the Israel-Iran war] doesn’t mean that the Iranians haven’t stopped plotting.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
SURVEY SAYS
Labor Day reminder: Policies aren’t enough when it comes to paid leave
“The need for community-supported leave isn’t without precedent in Jewish tradition. In this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, Moses shares laws that recognize human needs even during times of communal urgency,” writes Rabbi Mary Zamore, executive director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The same principle applies to modern Jewish workplaces: We must recognize and financially support employees’ needs to tend to their personal lives during pivotal moments.”
A vulnerable position: “[A new WRN] study, which focuses on paid leave experiences among Reform movement professionals, presents a striking paradox. While nearly all respondents believe paid leave should be standard — 98% for parental leave, 97% for medical leave and 89% for caregiving leave — significant barriers persist that prevent many from accessing these benefits when needed. Despite formal policies existing in 75% of organizations represented in the study, confidence in being able to use that leave varies dramatically. … Rather than serving as a protected right, leave paradoxically became a trigger for job insecurity.”
Worthy Reads
A Digital Town Square: In J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Emma Goss spotlights the genesis of the Noe Valley Chavurah, a WhatsApp group turned neighborhood communication hub for this San Francisco Jewish community. “Just weeks after Oct. 7, 2023… [a] provocative anti-Israel mural appeared on 24th Street, the five-block commercial thoroughfare of Noe Valley, riling the Jewish community and upsetting Jewish residents… ‘I was horrified,’ said [Galya] Blachman, whose family made aliyah from South Africa to Israel when she was young; she moved to the Bay Area after getting her Ph.D. Blachman began messaging her friends in the neighborhood, exchanging ideas on how to respond to the mural while also respecting the artist’s right to free speech. … Soon after, Jewish friends of friends connected with Blachman over WhatsApp, eager to get involved… In the nearly two years since the mural brought some neighbors together with a common purpose, the group has grown to more than 400 people…” [J.Weekly]
The Good News: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Drew Lindsay reports on new data regarding foundation assets, which have soared to “an all-time high.” “FoundationMark, which analyzes foundation investments, estimates that assets stand at $1.68 trillion, topping the $1.62 trillion recorded at the end of 2024. That’s also 15% higher than the $1.46 trillion in endowments at the close of 2023. The stock market’s strong run over the past two years has helped push grant maker assets to this new level. The result will be increased giving in 2025, says FoundationMark CEO John Seitz, even if foundations do nothing more than meet the legally mandated 5% payout. … The new data arrives as funders big and small are promising to increase their endowment draw to boost grant making this year in light of federal cuts and other challenges. Among them: the Freedom Together Foundation, which is doubling its payout to 10% of assets; the Weissberg Foundation (10%); and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (6%).” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Capacity-Building is Key: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Roshan Paul and Kamal Kapadia emphasize the importance of investing in “climate talent” to address climate change. “[W]e’ve found that thousands of skilled, accomplished people around the world are hungry to tackle climate change. Yet in our conversations with climate philanthropists, we’ve seen too little interest in supporting talent development and deployment. … The path to a zero-carbon future isn’t paved solely with technologies and laws — it runs through people’s livelihoods, labor, and leadership. To make real progress, the field must invest in the next generation of climate leaders, create cheap and scalable green skilling pathways, strengthen organizational capacity, and connect new talent to meaningful climate careers.” [SSIR]
Word on the Street
Folk musician and philanthropist Ethan Daniel Davidson, who serves as treasurer and chairman of the grants committee of the William Davidson Foundation, which was started by his father, received rabbinic ordination yesterday…
President Donald Trump called for federal prosecutors to charge philanthropist George Soros and his son, Alex, with racketeering for their alleged support of violent protests in the United States through their Open Society Foundations…
The Jewish Solar Challenge is opening applications on Monday for matching grants of up to $50,000 for the installation of solar panels on Jewish nonprofits’ buildings…
The Conversation spotlights a new nonfiction book by Katia Ariel, The Ferryman: The Life and Deathwork of Ephraim Finch, about a Melbourne man who converted to Judaism and served for decades in the city’s Jewish burial society, overseeing the posthumous purity rituals for tens of thousands of burials…
A new Quinnipiac survey found that 60% of Americans do not support sending additional military aid to Israel; half of those surveyed — 77% of Democrats and 20% of Republicans — said they believed Israel was commiting genocide in Gaza…
Microsoft fired two employees who participated in a sit-in in the Washington state office of the company’s president, Brad Smith, and demanded the company cut ties with Israel…
The Beverly Hills Unified School District, in a 3-2 vote, approved a proposal to fly the Israeli flag inside all schools and district buildings; the proposal also designates Oct. 7 as a day of remembrance and recognizes May as Jewish American Heritage Month…
State legislators in California are weighing new legislation that would establish an Office of the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator and would prevent the use of learning materials “that would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination”…
Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Jonathan Glazer signed on as executive producers of an upcoming film about the death of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl alleged to have been killed by IDF fire in January 2024…
Authorities in Argentina raided a Buenos Aires villa in search of the “Portrait of a Lady,” a 17th-century portrait by Italian artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi that was believed to have been looted nearly a century ago from its Jewish owners by a Nazi official who took the artwork to South America after the war…
Harris “Shrub” L. Kempner Jr., a longtime member of the board of governors of the American Jewish Committee, died on Aug. 9 at 85…
Sid Stevens, who founded Montreal’s Sun Youth and other welfare nonprofits in Canada, died on Aug. 17 at 85…
Major Gifts
Television producer Dick Wolf donated $10 million to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Maine, for construction of a new emergency department, upgraded surgical suites and a new entrance…
Las Vegas Sands, the casino firm created by Sheldon Adelson, donated $300,000 to Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth…
Transitions
Jennifer Feldman was elected national president of the Jewish sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi…
Rabbi Maccabee Avishur was hired as the next head of school at the Philadelphia-area Kohelet Yeshiva…
Arieh Miller was appointed the next CEO of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, representing Jewish communities across the British Commonwealth…
Pic of the Day
A Haredi man receives a box of food yesterday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ahead of next month’s Rosh Hashanah holiday as part of an annual distribution event organized by Met Council and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, which was attended this year by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (second from left).
Birthdays
Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees and former chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, Merryl Hiat Tisch…
Artist and chemist, he survived the Holocaust by living in a hole in the ground for seven months, Tibor Spitz… Independent international trade and development professional, Bernard Kupferschmid… Professor emeritus of quantum physics at Tel Aviv University, now on the faculty of Chapman University in Southern California, Yakir Aharonov… Honorary president of the Israel Policy Forum and the immediate past president of American Jewish Committee (AJC), Robert H. Elman… Filmmaker and the founder of Brave New Films, Robert Greenwald… Retired general counsel of Queens College of the City University of New York, Jane Denkensohn… Founder and CEO of retail chain Indigo Books & Music and co-founder and past chair of Kobo, Heather Maxine Reisman… Psychoanalyst and author of a 2019 memoir about her father Norman Mailer, Susan Mailer… CEO of the Consumer Technology Association and author of The New York Times best-seller Ninja Innovation, Gary J. Shapiro… Senior rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Jose Rolando Matalon… Actor, best known for his roles in two “Home Alone” films and two “City Slickers” films, Daniel Jacob Stern… British actress, known professionally as Emma Samms, she is best known for her soap opera roles, Emma Elizabeth Wylie Samuelson … Professor at George Washington University, he was deputy counsel in the Biden administration and the National Security Council legal advisor, Jonathan G. Cedarbaum… Television writer and producer, he is best known as the original showrunner and executive producer of the animated comedy series “Family Guy,” David J. Zuckerman… FCC Commissioner from 2002 until 2009, then CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, Jonathan Steven Adelstein… CEO and founder of PharmStars and managing partner and co-founder of Ambit Health Ventures, Naomi Fried, Ph.D…. COO of Meta / Facebook from 2008 until 2022, Sheryl Sandberg… Actor, comedian and musician, in 2018 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Thomas Jacob “Jack” Black… Early pioneer of contemporary Jewish rock music, Richard Samuel “Rick” Recht… General counsel of The Guardian US, she is a lecturer at Columbia Law School, Kai Falkenberg… First vice president in the Hunt Valley, Md., office of Newmark Valuation & Advisory, Daniel “Doni” Greenwald… Olympic gold medalist in four-man bobsleigh in 2010, he is the co-founder and CEO of Classroom Champions, Steven Michael Mesler… Israeli soldier held captive for over five years by Hamas, released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal, Gilad Shalit… Offensive lineman for five different NFL teams since 2017, he was cut by the San Francisco 49ers earlier this week, Michael Dunn… Ari Willner…
