Your Daily Phil: Education, security top JFNA’s inaugural ‘State of the Jewish Union’ address
Add EJP on GoogleGood Friday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover Jewish Federations of North America President and CEO Eric Fingerhut’s inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address yesterday. We interview the incoming board chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation, spotlight a therapeutic trip to Chicago by a group of female IDF veterans and speak with the Yael Foundation, Ronald Lauder Foundation and Roman Jewish community about their joint effort to expand the city’s Jewish school. We feature an opinion piece by Stacie Cherner about the future of Jewish communal thought leadership and one by Sharona Israeli-Roth about how Jewish philanthropy should respond to the rise of universal transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds in states like California. Also in this issue: King Charles III, Yardena Schwartz and Naomi Eisenberger.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
We’re monitoring developments in the Middle East this weekend as President Donald Trump mulls military action against Iran.
The Chabad Lubavitch CTeen youth movement’s International Summit kicks off today in Brooklyn, N.Y.
AIPAC’s annual Congressional Summit begins on Sunday in Washington.
What You Should Know
As antisemitic incidents continue to roil Jewish communities nationwide, Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut called on Congress yesterday to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion annually and to “make the program more flexible and simpler to use,” reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Fingerhut also called on governors to support an educational tax credit during JFNA’s inaugural “State of the Jewish Union” address at the organization’s Washington headquarters.
The call for increased security comes as American Jews have faced several high-profile hate crimes in the past year, including the recent arson attack at Mississippi’s largest synagogue. Less than two weeks after the attack on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Congress allocated $300 million for NSGP for 2026. While that figure is a small increase from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025, it is lower than the allocations initially proposed by both the House and Senate and the amount requested by Jewish leaders.
American Jews have responded to the increase of hate and the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks with what JFNA has coined “The Surge,” describing a rise in Jews engaging or seeking to engage more in communal life, including higher enrollment in Jewish schools and summer camps. “This is why we strongly support the new federal education scholarship tax credit and urge all 50 states to opt in so the funds can reach the families and schools in every community,” Fingerhut said on Thursday.
JFNA confirmed to eJewishPhilanthropy that the group plans to hold sideline meetings with state leaders on Friday during the National Governors Association summit in Washington to encourage Democratic governors to participate in the school choice legislation, which would provide tax incentives for scholarships for Jewish day school and yeshiva education.
Following Fingerhut’s address, three heads of local federations shared challenges in addressing security and social needs in their communities. Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; Scott Kaufman, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation; and Miryam Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation echoed that — despite varying degrees of antisemitism in their communities — there is a significant “antisemitism tax,” an increased financial burden to protect Jewish institutions.
“Every dollar we’re spending [on security] we can’t spend on the ‘joy’ part of being Jewish,” said Kaufman.
Q&A
With Michael Rashes as chair, Birthright Israel Foundation aims to boost fundraising, participation
Michael Rashes, who was tapped as board chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation last month, takes over as the organization presses forward — with ambitious goals — following a tumultuous few years both for the foundation and for the field of Israel travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Oct. 7 terror attacks. In the next five years, Birthright Israel and its foundation have set their sights on a new goal — raising $900 million (of which $220 million had already been secured in November), and bringing 200,000 participants to Israel.
Earlier this month, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim spoke with Rashes about his first month on the job and his vision for the foundation.
ND: The foundation has embarked on an ambitious long-term fundraising goal. That’s happening even as many Jewish institutions are facing donor fatigue and competing post-war priorities. What case do you plan to make to funders?
MR: Wearing my hat as a donor, I genuinely believe that this is an “and” decision, not an “or” decision. Birthright is serving a crucial role in defining what Judaism looks like. Creating another generation of strong, proud, joyful Jews… One of my greatest regrets since joining the Birthright board in 2020 is that we had a waiting list of 20,000 kids in 2023. We could have sent an additional 20,000 kids. We just didn’t have the funding to do that… I just think about how different the tone on campuses would have been if we’d sent those 20,000 kids, and let’s say 12,000 of them would have still been on college campuses on Oct. 7… I think that it was a real loss for our young adults, that we didn’t have those proponents of Israel, supporters of Israel, on campus, who had just been there on Birthright trips… The current campaign is really a massive undertaking, but it’s what we need to do. And I don’t think failure is an option.
ISRAEL-DIASPORA RELATIONS
Trip to Chicago offers ‘peace of mind’ to female IDF tatzpitaniyot, who monitor Israel’s borders
Sitting on a bus in Chicago, thousands of miles away from her home in central Israel, Shirel Zafrani realized that for the first time in years, she had both of her earphones in. Zafrani, a former IDF tatzpitanit, or observer, never usually “allows” herself the privilege of fully immersing herself in her music — instead staying always alert, at least one ear open. Zafrani, 26, was one of 17 former tatzpitaniyot — female soldiers who monitor surveillance cameras and other equipment — who were hosted by North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Ill., for eight days last summer as part of Metiv: The Israel Psychotrauma Center’s Peace of Mind program, which for the past 18 years has helped former Israeli soldiers cope with combat trauma, report Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve and eJewishPhilanthropy’s Rachel Kohn.
Turning point: The idea behind the program, which provides participants with 60 hours of group counseling plus individual therapy, is that the distance from Israel, combined with the love and support of Diaspora Jewish communities, plays a key role in creating a safe, quiet, and meaningful environment for former soldiers. Tzlil Aloni, founder of the Israeli Tatzpitaniyot Association, who approached Metiv about the trip, described the trip as a turning point for tatzpitaniyot. “The powerful silence, after years of intensity, was met with endless love from the local Jewish community. Within a truly safe space, they went for seven days between tears of processing and unloading and liberating laughter,” she said. “For many of them, this was the first time they felt that it was not only them who were watching and protecting everyone — but that someone saw them.”
M’DOR L’DOR
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but this Roman Jewish school is going up quickly
For four decades, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation has been dedicated to reviving Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe. It has done so largely alone. That is, until five years ago, when Uri and Yael Poliavich, founders of the Yael Foundation, arrived on the scene, eager to support Jewish education around the world. Josh Spinner, CEO of the Lauder Foundation, was the only other person in the room the day Lauder and Uri Poliavich met. “It was just very nice to watch,” Spinner told Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy. What came out of that room was the largest joint investment either foundation has ever made in European Jewish education: a €14 million ($15.5 million) commitment, split 50-50, toward a €25 million ($27.6 million) expansion of Rome’s 100-year-old Jewish school, Scuole Ebraiche di Roma.
Getting buy-in: The project, which was first announced in September 2024, is rolling out in two phases. Phase 1 — renovating the Sant’Ambrogio building and moving the high school there — is fully funded and already underway, with completion expected in two years. Phase 2 — renovating the existing main school building with the space freed up by the high school’s departure — still carries an €11 million ($12.1 million) funding gap. The Jewish community of Rome itself is undertaking the largest internal fundraising campaign it has ever mounted, pledging €5 million ($5.5 million) from within its own community. “This was very important for both of us external funders because we needed to see that if they want us to value this project at that level, we need to see them really not just say it but do it. And they’re doing it,” said Spinner.
NEW RESEARCH
Making space for Jewish thought leadership
“[E]ven as we talk frequently about the importance of Jewish thought leadership, we rarely ask some basic questions,” writes Stacie Cherner, director of research and learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “What do we actually mean when we say ‘thought leadership’ in a Jewish context? Who is a Jewish thought leader today, and how did they become one? What enables thoughtful, courageous voices to emerge and endure and what gets in their way? What might it look like to be more intentional about cultivating Jewish thought leadership to strengthen our capacity for learning, meaning-making, connection and dialogue?”
Diving deep: “Over the past year plus, the Jim Joseph Foundation and Maimonides Fund commissioned Valerie Ehrlich of Mission Bloom Consulting to conduct a research study to explore those questions. The result is ‘Ideas that Influence: Understanding and Supporting the Ecosystem of Jewish Thought Leadership,’ a set of four connected ‘deep dive’ reports that look at Jewish communal thought leadership from different angles: what it is, who is doing it, the ecosystem that shapes it and the choices facing the field if we want this work to thrive.”
FROM TK LOSS TO TKO
We need to invest in Jewish ECE like Jewish life depends on It
“The expansion of no-cost universal transitional kindergarten (TK) — a well-intentioned public investment designed to increase access, equity and affordability for families — is gaining momentum nationally and is reshaping the early childhood landscape,” writes Sharona Israeli-Roth, founding president and executive director of EarlyJ, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “For many families, particularly those facing financial pressure, choosing free public TK over tuition-based private preschool is entirely rational. But as 4-year-olds leave Jewish preschools in growing numbers, the consequences are both broad and deep.”
The challenge: “When a classroom for that age cohort is forced to close, the entire preschool budget quickly becomes unsustainable due to the significant loss in enrollment; families with children from birth to age 4 are all affected when the financial pyramid that sustains [early childhood education] is destabilized. Budgets rapidly fall out of alignment, triggering a cascading crisis: staff layoffs, program contractions and, in some cases, permanent preschool closures. When a Jewish early childhood program closes, a central gateway to Jewish life disappears with it. … With universal TK here to stay, the question for Jewish philanthropy is not whether this policy will change, but whether our investment strategies will adapt quickly enough to protect essential communal infrastructure. There are viable paths forward if funders and day school leaders are willing to act urgently, collaboratively and creatively.”
Worthy Reads
Month-to-Month: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Rasheeda Childress highlights the importance of monthly giving. “A year ago, the Picnic Project had 14 monthly donors. Mark Thompson, the group’s co-founder, knew he needed to find a way to keep those and bring in more recurring donations to help stabilize the group’s finances… Thompson got a $10,000 grant from the Big Nova Foundation to pay for training so he could learn the fundamentals about monthly giving, including how to name a program, build touchpoints for donors, and publicize it. Soon the Picnic Project rolled out its program. Less than a year later, it has nearly quadrupled in size, with 53 recurring donors who account for nearly 20% of its annual budget. Monthly giving programs can help nonprofits bring in desperately needed revenue, says Dana Snyder, CEO of the fundraising firm Positive Equation. Monthly giving, she notes, reliably provides big chunks of revenue because donors stick with the programs. ‘I’ve seen retention rates as high as 98%,’ says Snyder…” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Memory Hole: In Tablet, David Sclar looks at how financial challenges facing Jewish institutions have forced some to sell off documents and artifacts they had been entrusted to keep safe. “The point is not nostalgia. It is that institutions are tested precisely in the moments when preservation becomes inconvenient. Jewish learning has often emerged in distress. … The question is not whether Jewish institutions face financial pressure, but whether these challenges warrant the irreversible dispersal of the documentary record. To abandon the foundations on which an institution rests, and the cultural heritage it is entrusted to preserve, is to incur a loss that extends well beyond its boundaries. Yet these collections can be used as bulwarks against the very pressures Jewish leaders seek to confront.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump announced $17 billion in investments and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza and laid out a 10-day timeline for military action against Iran, during yesterday’s first meeting in Washington of the Board of Peace, comprising world leaders, as well as business figures, including Marc Rowan and Yakir Gabay, both of whom serve on its executive board, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Israel’s High Court ruled that the government must move forward with the restoration and upgrading of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, which has been delayed for nearly a decade due to resistance from the country’s chief rabbis and Orthodox legislators…
King Charles III made an unannounced visit to an employment fair that was organized by the British Refugee Employment Network and supported by World Jewish Relief…
The American Jewish Committee and Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, the umbrella organization representing French Jewry, announced a new partnership on Friday aimed at combating an increase of antisemitism that has caused many French Jews to consider leaving the country, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
The Washington Post reports that the White House is considering launching a new global disease surveillance initiative to replace one created by the World Health Organization, which the Trump administration pulled out of; the new program would come with a $2 billion price tag, far more than the U.S. paid to the WHO…
The Anti-Defamation League and Blue Square Alliance Against Hate are joining forces in a new partnership to combat the spread of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned.
Dozens of Israeli far-right activists, including Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech, illegally entered the Gaza Strip last night, calling for Israeli sovereignty to be applied there, before being returned to Israel by the IDF, which said that it “strongly” condemned the border breach…
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights met in Washington on Thursday to hold its first hearing on campus antisemitism in more than 20 years. The commission — a bipartisan federal fact-finding agency established in 1957 — is chaired by a Democrat and also includes two Republicans appointed by President Donald Trump, yielding a diverse group of witnesses who sparred over Trump’s approach to campus antisemitism and his administration’s firing of more than half of the attorneys in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Crystal City Entertainment is developing Yardena Schwartz’s 2024 nonfiction book Ghosts Of A Holy War, about the 1929 Hebron massacre, into a narrative feature adaptation…
French and Israeli officials unveiled signage of the newly renamed Place Shimon Peres in Paris, honoring the late Israeli leader…
Eric Dane, the “Grey’s Anatomy” star who raised awareness about ALS after being diagnosed with it, died yesterday from the disease at 53…
Pic of the Day
Naomi Eisenberger (right), the founder and executive director of the grassroots-focused The Good People Fund, and Julie Fisher, the group’s associate executive director who will succeed Eisenberger in July, at the organization’s 18th anniversary celebration last night at Tel Aviv’s Renaissance Hotel. Read eJP’s interview with Fisher from December here.
During the event, which also marked the impending leadership transition, Eisenberger got teary-eyed reflecting on the fund’s 18 years of work and her nearly 15 years of philanthropic activities at GPF’s predecessor, the Ziv Tzedakah Fund. “It has been an incredible, incredible honor for me to spend my days for the last time 30-plus years doing this… This, as I have said to Julie many times, this is holy work — with a capital H and a capital W. And that is the truth, that people give us their hard-earned money to take it and give it to people who are often invisible and to give them that boost,” she said, addressing the many grantees in the room, some of whom got their first funding from GPF.
“It’s very unusual for a small organization to be able to have its work continue. And I am sort of pinching myself that this organization will be able to continue,” Eisenberger said. “As I look around this room and I see so many of you who are from the early days — my cup runneth over, it really does. I cannot believe that this is what I was able to do with my life… Julie has guided this transition. When Julie came on board, we did a strategic plan, we came up with a plan. Founder-led organizations run a certain way, and when they get to be big, they have to be run a certain other way. And I’m living through the rules. Julie, it’s truly an honor for me to turn it over to you.”
Birthdays
New York City police commissioner since 2024, Jessica S. Tisch turns 45 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: U.S. senator (R-KY), Mitch McConnell turns 84… Former head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and later a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, Yaakov Peri turns 82… Co-owner of NYC-based TF Cornerstone, owner of 12 million square feet and 7,000 apartments in NYC and D.C., Kamran Thomas Elghanayan turns 81… Screenwriter, film director and novelist, he wrote the screenplay for “Blazing Saddles,” Andrew Bergman turns 81… University professor at Brown University, winner of a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for biography, David Kertzer turns 78… Physician and acupuncturist based in Valley Village, Calif., Andrea Hoffman Kachuck… Nursing home administrator in Hazlet, N.J., Benzion Schachter turns 75… Founder and publisher of “Punch,” M. Sloane Citron turns 70… Senior VP for daytime news programming at Newsmax Media, David M. Friend turns 70… Former NFL player who played for seven different teams over 16 seasons, he was one of the NFL’s original long snapper specialists, Adam Blayne Schreiber turns 64… Senior editor at Politico, David Cohen… Professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, Shmuel Aaron Weinberger turns 63… U.S. senator (D-AZ), Mark Kelly turns 62… Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum… Cantor and lecturer at Hebrew Union College, Kerith Carolyn Spencer-Shapiro… Actress, comedian and writer, Andrea Savage turns 53… Emmy Award-winning film and television producer, he is the founder of Hidden Pictures Media, Todd Darren Lieberman turns 53… Comedian, actor and writer, best known for portraying Gina Linetti on Fox’s series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Chelsea Peretti turns 48… Actor, best known for his role as Joel Maisel on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Michael Zegen turns 47… Owner of a baseball development facility in Denver, he was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball, Jason Hirsh turns 44… CEO at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Amy Spitalnick… Philanthropy consultant, Aimee Weiss… Ethiopian-born Israeli fashion model and television personality, winner of the Israeli version of “Big Brother,” Tahounia Rubel turns 38… Boca Raton, Fla., resident, Levi Yitzchok Shemtov turns 33… Ice hockey defenseman for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Jake Walman turns 30…
SATURDAY: Holocaust survivor and author of a book on systemic hate, he was the developer of the L’Ermitage Beverly Hills in 1976, Severyn Ashkenazy turns 90… Co-founder of Dreamworks and noted collector of American artists’ work, his name is on the Lincoln Center complex in NYC, David Geffen turns 83… Monica Oakes Agor… Vice chairman of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, he was previously a sports agent for basketball and baseball players, Arn Herschel Tellem turns 72… Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes during his 30 years reporting career, he is the director of a fiscal and monetary policy group at the Brookings Institution, David Meyer Wessel turns 72… Financial executive and real estate entrepreneur, he is the chairman of the KABR Group, a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm, Kenneth D. Pasternak turns 72… President of Yale University from 2013-2024, Peter Salovey (family name was Soloveitchik) turns 68… Fitness personality, he develops businesses through the “Body by Jake” brand, Jake Steinfeld turns 68… Owner of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns until 2012, he also owned Aston Villa F.C. of the English Premier League until 2016, Randolph David “Randy” Lerner turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima and Hatnuah parties, Orit Zuaretz turns 59… Executive director of former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy organization, Advancing American Freedom, Paul Teller turns 55… Reality television star with frequent appearances on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and its spin-offs, Jonathan Cheban turns 52… NYT best-selling novelist (two of which have been made into movies), writer-in-residence in the graduate creative writing program at NYU, Jonathan Safran Foer turns 49… Chicago Cubs player best known for being hit in the head on the first pitch of his MLB debut resulting in a compound skull fracture, Adam Greenberg turns 45… Emergency medical physician at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and AIPAC National Council member, Dr. Miriam Fischer Wachter… Former member of the Florida House of Representatives for six years, now in private law practice, Katie Edwards-Walpole turns 45… French actress and film director, best known in the U.S. for her starring role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 war film “Inglourious Basterds,” Mélanie Laurent turns 43… Director of strategic philanthropy for the northeast region of American Friends of Magen David Adom, Samuel Zeev Konig… Rochester, N.Y., resident, Joshua Futerman… Pitcher for the Israeli team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier, he is now a sales associate at Stryker, Brad Goldberg turns 36… Israeli judoka, she won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Shira Rishony turns 35… Director of campus support and action implementation at Hillel International, Reuben Berman… Rhythmic gymnast who competed in the 2012 Olympics in London as a member of the Israeli team, Polina Zakaluzny turns 34… Monsey, N.Y., resident, Efrayim Katz… Former professional tennis player, in 2015 he was named the ACC Tennis Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, Noah Rubin turns 30… Associate at Jones Day, Jay S. Schaefer…
SUNDAY: Retired justice and deputy president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Shlomo Levin turns 93… Child survivor of Bergen-Belsen, in 2024 she donated $55 million to the University of Haifa, Herta Amir turns 93… Music journalist and former board member for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Rona Elliot turns 79… Former co-chair of Wisconsin Jewish Democrats and author of three “Jewish Miss Marple” books, Linda Frank turns 78… Dutch singer-songwriter especially popular in France, she converted to Judaism and her children live in Israel, Helena “Lenny” Kuhr turns 76… White House counsel to President Barack Obama, now a professor at NYU School of Law, Robert (Bob) Bauer turns 74… Marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles and founder of the Israel Institute for Alternative Energy Advancement, Daryl Temkin Ph.D…. Chief strategist for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, now a CNN commentator, David Axelrod turns 71… President of the New York Yankees since 2000, executive producer for the YES Network, Randy Levine turns 71… Winner of five major golf championships and 24 other LPGA Tour events, she is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, now a golf course architect, Amy Alcott turns 70… Former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home–Tkuma party, Mordechai “Moti” Yogev turns 70… Former director of administration and special projects at Cincinnati’s Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Lisa Shusterman… Writer, editor and publisher best known for his dark fiction, as well as his publishing imprint Aardwolf Publishing, Clifford Lawrence Meth turns 65… Senior rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Norfolk, Va., Rabbi Jacob Herber turns 63… Actress, comedian and cast member of “Saturday Night Live” for seven years, Rachel Dratch turns 60… Past leader of the Israeli Labor Party, he is now the CEO of Partner Communications (formerly known as Orange Israel), Avraham “Avi” Gabbay turns 59… Emmy Award-winning television producer, he served as showrunner for four seasons of NBC’s sitcom “The Office,” Paul Lieberstein turns 59… Actor, author and academic, Ari Hoptman turns 59… Soccer player on the Israeli national team and on teams in both Spain and Turkey, now a successful Israeli businessman, Haim Michael Revivo turns 54… Former president of the University of Florida, he retired as a U.S. senator from Nebraska in 2023, Ben Sasse turns 54… British stand-up comedian and broadcaster for GB News, Josh Howie turns 50… Winner of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2008, she has released six stand-up specials on Netflix, Iliza Shlesinger turns 43… Partner in the appellate practice of Norton Rose Fulbright, Peter B. Siegal… VP at Oddity, Miranda R. May… Former chair of the Washington chapter of the Israel Policy Forum Atid, Danielle Bella Ellison…
