Your Daily Phil: EXCLUSIVE Israeli NGO to distribute aid to displaced Lebanese

Good Tuesday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a new documentary about the 1991 Crown Heights riotsand on the Chicago Jewish community’s frustrations over the city’s handling of the shooting of a Jewish man on Saturday. We feature an opinion piece by Jacob Schimmel about balancing the pain of the past year with the joy of Simchat Torah; one by Rabbi Ana Bonnheim about making Jewish learning more flexible; and another by Alice Kuhn in honor of her friend Rabbi David Saperstein’s 50-year tenure at the Religious Action Center. We’ll start with an Israeli nonprofit, SmartAid, that is preparing to deliver humanitarian aid to displaced people in Lebanon.

The Israeli humanitarian tech relief nonprofit SmartAid will begin delivering aid kits to Lebanese civilians through a local Lebanese charity this week, in a rare case of Israeli organizations operating within the country, which does not have official ties with Israel, the organization’s founder eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky has learned.

With an initial donation of $70,000 from private Jewish donors, as well as one organization — all of whom asked to remain anonymous — SmartAid will provide 200 kits containing basic hygiene items, such as toothbrushes, soap, rehydration salts and solar lights, to some 6,000 people, said the organization’s founding director, Shachar Zahavi.

According to the International Organization for Migration, as of Sept. 30, there were 346,209 internally displaced people in Lebanon who had fled their homes in light of the ongoing fighting between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces. Though the two sides have been fighting since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began launching rocket and drone attacks across the border — forcing more than 60,000 Israelis from their homes — earlier this month, the IDF expanded its attacks against the Iran-backed terrorist militia, launching a limited ground invasion of southern Lebanon and conducting airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley. 

Zahavi said his organization was approached recently for the assistance by a local Lebanese charity, which also asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, that SmartAid had assisted following the 2020 Beirut Port explosion of a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate fertilizer that left 218 people dead and thousands injured.

“We looked into this a hundred times because we don’t want to get into a situation where…by mistake [the aid] goes to the wrong hands. We’re working with this organization because we trust this organization,” said Zahavi. “[In] Israel…we see the leadership — depending on which country — as the enemy, not the people themselves who are affected.”

While the local logistics for delivery are in place, details for the cargo flight from a Western country to Beirut still needs to be coordinated, he said, and the final geographical destination of the aid still needs to be chosen as the local charity works in numerous locations.

Zahavi noted that starting in January, SmartAid has similarly worked in Gaza providing thousands of tents to civilians in partnership with an American relief group. In the next few weeks SmartAid will also be bringing in a full container of similar hygiene aid kits into Gaza through the Ashdod port, he said.

Unlike with Lebanon, however, there has been an established channel for aid distribution into Gaza through Israel even before Oct. 7, he noted. “With Gaza you are following all the directives which are needed by the Israeli government. In Lebanon there isn’t a channel that has been working for years so it’s a little bit different,” he said.

Both sides suffer from war, he said, stressing that SmartAid is also providing aid in Israel. “We work in areas [hit by] catastrophes, in areas affected by natural and war-related disasters, all across Africa, in Asia. We’re still in Ukraine, we’re still in Moldova. We work where disaster hits, whether it’s war-torn Sudan or the Middle East,” Zahavi said. “You can’t blame people for what their government or leadership is doing. I think it is just a humane thing to do.”

Read the full report here.

BACK TO THE SCENE

‘Get the Jew’: A new documentary reexamines the 1991 Crown Heights riot with a timely warning

Police arrest looters of a Jewish-owned store on Utica Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the riots that took place there on Aug. 20, 1991.
Police arrest looters of a Jewish-owned store on Utica Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the riots that took place there on Aug. 20, 1991. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Drawing parallels between past and present antisemitism, the documentary “Get the Jew: The Crown Heights Riot Revisited” explores the 1991 Crown Heights riot in New York City. Widely considered the worst antisemitic riot in American history, the violence that erupted in the Brooklyn neighborhood that is home to both the Chabad movement and a large West Indian population serves as a stark warning in this 23-minute film, which was released on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attack, reports Efrat Lachter for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Lessons for today: “The patterns of antisemitism and leadership failures that ignited the Crown Heights riot haven’t gone away — they’re still with us today,” warns filmmaker Michael Pack, the film’s director. “It’s a sensitive story, and maybe one that many people don’t want to have told.” Part of the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Docs series, the film challenges familiar narratives and exposes how these same forces continue to fester — on college campuses, in public protests and in the reluctance of political leaders to confront them head-on.

Not that simple: Professor Cheryl Greenberg, a scholar of African American history and Black-Jewish relations at Trinity College, offered a different perspective on the Crown Heights riot and underscored that, while antisemitism was a factor, the riot was also deeply rooted in broader issues of race and inequality that have historically fueled clashes between communities in America. “People often label this as a Black-Jewish conflict, but it wasn’t that simple,” Greenberg explains. “While the rioters knew they were targeting Jews, it wasn’t just about antisemitism or Black versus Jewish tensions. These were two minority communities facing shared struggles over economic and social resources within the larger community.” 

Read the full report here.

ANTISEMITISM WATCH

Chicago Jewish leaders ‘disappointed’ law enforcement seen as downplaying antisemitism as motive in shooting

Chicago Police car in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, on Oct. 19, 2022. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jewish leaders in Chicago are urging the local prosecutor to upgrade the charge against a Muslim man who allegedly shot a Jewish man walking to synagogue on Saturday in West Rogers Park, home to one of the city’s largest Orthodox Jewish populations, to a hate crime, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Less so the mayor: “Law enforcement has been very forthcoming with us,” said Lonnie Nasatir, president of the Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation, and a former prosecutor, president of the Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation, and a former prosecutor. “This is a serious crime that will be thrown at this guy, including shooting a police officer, and in Illinois you add a hate crime offense, which in some cases can up charges from a misdemeanor to a felony, but in this case you’re already getting attempted murder.” But Nasatir said he was less impressed by Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, who as of Monday had not released a statement about the shooting.

At risk: “We’re very disappointed,” Shlomo Soroka, Agudath Israel of Illinois’ director of government affairs, told JI. “I hope they add hate crime charges on later but regardless, even if there are technical reasons that they didn’t file hate crime charges, they have to understand what this really was — not even this specific incident — but what we have been saying for a long time, that the visibly Jewish community, which is the Orthodox community, is at grave risk. And it’s not just here in Chicago.”

Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.

CHARITY STARTS…

Lessons from a year of crisis at home

An IsraAid member works with Israeli community leaders in a training session on May 12, 2024. (Courtesy)

“A year ago, like so many other Israelis, I sat glued to the news watching as the unimaginable unfolded. By the end of the day, over 1,000 Israelis were killed, over 200 were taken hostage, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands had been evacuated from their homes. The next morning, IsraAid, the international humanitarian aid organization that I lead, launched its first full-scale response at home,” writes Yotam Polizer, global CEO of IsraAid, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

To the end: “Emergencies continue far beyond the initial shock, and recovery is a long process. At the beginning of any crisis, there is what I, somewhat cynically, refer to as the ‘aid circus.’ There is an outpouring of aid and well-meaning volunteers, who after several weeks subside to a trickle and then disappear… A year later, just like we promised, we’re still accompanying some 10 kibbutzim and moshavim that were attacked on Oct. 7.”

Case by case: “Each kibbutz, moshav, and community have their own unique needs and capacities. Our job was never to dictate, but to offer our expertise as a supplement. To ask the right questions, really listen to the answers, and be ready to ask again and adapt as the situation changes. No two communities are the same. That openness and flexibility has allowed us to serve communities from all over Israel — from kibbutzim in the Gaza border region, to communities under bombardment across northern Israel, and the Bedouin communities in the south that lack shelter.”

Post-traumatic growth: “If we can remain committed and let the communities lead us, every emergency offers the opportunity to bounce forward. Post-traumatic growth is possible, and every challenge has within it an opportunity to not only heal but to build back better. We have a long way to go, but it’s something we will continue to work for. I have held on to this belief through every disaster and emergency I have witnessed. And I must believe in it now too.”

Read the full piece here.

LIVING WITH THE PAIN

Will we dance again?

People celebrate ‘hakafot shniyot’ at the Western Wall on Oct. 25, 2024. (WESTERN WALL HERITAGE FOUNDATION)

“How could we dance again? The question hung heavy in the air, like a cloud we couldn’t quite reach, drifting through the dust and fragments of everything shattered on Oct. 7. How could we move when the ground beneath us felt so unstable, when the rhythm that once carried us through life had been stolen, leaving only silence? And yet, on Simchat Torah itself, there we were, standing in that space, dancing with the Torah in our arms, singing with a joy that seemed impossibly far away. How did we dance, even when the world felt split wide open and we stood among the cracks?” writes Jacob Schimmel, a father of three sons who have served in the war, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Bearing the burden: “And yet, we do — because this is what our tradition calls us to do. The dance is not about forgetting the pain or pretending everything is OK. It’s about holding the brokenness and still finding a way to move… How can we dance again? It’s not just a question for Simchat Torah; it’s a question for every moment we face after loss, after tragedy, after the world splits wide open. The Torah shows us that the dance of life isn’t about waiting for everything to be perfect. It’s about moving in the middle of the brokenness, with all the weight we carry.”

Like David: “There’s a story about King David, who danced before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought into Jerusalem. He danced wildly, without restraint, in a way that made others uncomfortable. But David’s dance was not just a celebration — it was an act of vulnerability, of laying everything bare before God, of saying, ‘This is who I am, in all my brokenness and all my wholeness.’ His dance wasn’t neat; it wasn’t polished. It was raw, and it was real. Maybe that’s what our dance needed to be — not a perfect, choreographed expression of joy, but a raw, messy, vulnerable movement toward life. We danced because we refused to let the darkness win. We danced because in the act of moving, we created a new rhythm, a new song. And as we danced, we were not alone.”

Read the full piece here.

TORAH ON DEMAND

Expanding Jewish education: The gig economy for learning

Getty Images

“More than 1 in 3 American workers, or 58 million adults, hold freelance jobs or project-based contracts as part of the gig economy. Economic shifts and advances in technology have brought the innovation of side gigs to nearly every industry, and now it’s reaching Jewish education,” writes Rabbi Ana Bonnheim, founding executive director of the Jewish Learning Collaborative, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Spread the word: “The Jewish learning gig economy empowers talented people who love to teach and were previously underutilized by our community. The number of teachers who want to work with us has quickly positioned JLC as one of the largest employers of Jewish educators in the country and revealed an existing demand for personalized learning and teaching… Effective platforms for teaching empower Jewish clergy and teachers to join professionals in other sectors who enjoy flexibility and customization in their careers and supplemental income – all while enriching our community.”

Read the full piece here.

SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

A friend and supporter reflects on Rabbi David Saperstein’s 50 years with the Religious Action Center

Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, speaks at a voting rights rally outside the White House on Oct. 19, 2021.
Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, speaks at a voting rights rally outside the White House on Oct. 19, 2021. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

“As I reflect on Rabbi David Saperstein’s 50th anniversary of leadership at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, I am filled with a deep sense of both awe and responsibility. This milestone not only celebrates a remarkable career but also highlights the transformative role that community organizing plays in the quintessentially Jewish concept of tikkun olam, the sacred task of repairing our broken world. It also represents a call to action, reminding each of us that we, too, have a role to play in sustaining and advancing this essential work,” writes philanthropist Alice Kuhn in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, ahead of an event celebrating Saperstein’s tenure with the organization.

Why we give: “My late husband, Michael, and I first connected with Rabbi Saperstein in 1996, as we conceptualized a philanthropic foundation that would enable us to support our Jewish community and the world at large. We created The Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation because we believe deeply in the power of community organizing to effect true and lasting change — and because we recognize that social justice organizations need financial support to enable them to carry out their vital everyday work.”

Up to us: “We face a critical moment in history that demands strong, well-resourced community organizations with skilled and dedicated staff — and no organization can do it alone. As the forces of division, inequality, and injustice continue to rise, so too must our communal commitment to the work of tikkun olam. Rabbi Saperstein’s legacy will continue to inspire activists for years to come, but it is up to us — philanthropic organizations and individual contributors alike — to ensure the financial resources to sustain and amplify this vital work.”

Read the full piece here.

Worthy Reads

Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy: In The Times of Israel, Rabbi Kenneth Brander reflects on this week’s upcoming Haftarah from the Book of Isaiah and its poignancy following the recent death of Rabbi Avi Goldberg, a captain in the reserves in the Israeli military who was killed in battle in southern Lebanon last week. “As we read the prophet’s poignant words of consolation after the destruction of Jerusalem, we cannot help but be reminded of where we were just one year ago… [In] these times, Yishayahu’s prophecy offers a comforting vision, assuring that God will bring solace to those who grieve for the struggles of Jerusalem. That the sounds of rejoicing will once again fill the streets of Jerusalem. Yet the text points out that only those who empathize with Israel’s hardships will merit this shared joy that will eventually resonate throughout the land. The Talmud (Megilla 30b) underscores this idea through Yishayahu’s words of this week’s haftorah, ‘rejoice with [Jerusalem] all who mourn for her,’ (66:10)… This paradox defines our situation: we can participate in the jubilation of an independent, prosperous Israel while deeply mourning precious lives, such as our friend, our former student, our rabbi, Avi Goldberg. He is one of the holiest amongst us… As we grieve together, we also pray that we will one day rejoice together, witnessing a renewal that reaches from each mourning heart to the entire nation. May we see that day soon; a time when Jerusalem’s streets once again resound with joy, and our shared pain transforms into collective strength – and peace.” [TOI]

Around the Web

Following a five-year silent fundraising phase, Hillel at UCLA reached its $10 million milestone, a third of the way toward its total endowment goal. This round of fundraising  was met through a series of individual contributions in the form of legacy gifts and outright contributions and 92% of the funds contributed were six- and seven-figure donations…

Some 12,000 Israeli soldiers — 66% of them reservists — have been treated by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department since Oct. 7, 2023; of these, 43% are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and 14% are defined as having moderate to severe injuries, including head injuries, amputations and lost eyesight…

Adam Stanfield has been named the next chief development officer of the Florida Holocaust Museum

The New York Times spotlights the work of the Jewish climate action nonprofit Dayenu ahead of next week’s election…

Stéphane de La Faverie has been selected to serve as the next CEO of the Estée Lauder cosmetics firm, ending a prolonged succession struggle for the top spot at the company…

Irwin M. Jacobs and his family have pledged an additional $15 million to the Center for Precision Nutrition and Health in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, which will now be named for his wife, Joan Klein Jacobs, who died earlier this year; the new commitment comes on top of a $10 million donation last year that helped establish the center… 

In a Times of Israel opinion piece, Yehuda Yaakov reflects on the work of the Israeli Justice Ministry’s National Anti-Racism Coordination Unit, including new training sessions coordinated with the Israeli nonprofit Matzmichim, which brings anti-racism lessons into Israeli youth soccer clubs…

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated roughly $50 million to Future Forward USA Action, a nonprofit supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign…

Authors Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy and Rachel Kushner are among 1000 authors and literary professionals who have signed a letter pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions in a campaign organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature

J. The Jewish News of Northern California examines a bitter dispute over the San Francisco Bay Area Jam Camp’s decision to rescind an employment offer to an Israeli counselor and the music camp’s general response to the Israel-Hamas war…

Rabbi Walter Jacob, who returned to his native Germany 60 years after fleeing as a refugee to help revive its liberal Reform Jewish community,diedonOct. 20 at his home in Pittsburgh at 94…

Jan Shrem, a winery owner and book publisher who was born to Jewish-Lebanese parents in Colombia and donated heavily to the arts in Northern California, died last month at 94…

Pic of the Day

HALEY COHEN/EJEWISHPHILANTHROPY

Former Israeli hostage Mia Schem, standing next to her mother last night at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, recounts the horrors she experienced being kidnapped from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and held in Hamas captivity for 55 days.

Schem’s speech was part of an Oct. 7 commemoration ceremony — held close to the anniversary of the attacks on the Hebrew calendar — that was organized by the Consulate General of Israel in New York, the Israeli American Council and the La’aretz Foundation.

Birthdays

Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Emmy Award-winning television producer, writer and actor, best known for NBC’s “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” Michael Schur

Haifa-born director and screenwriter of animated and live-action films including “The Lord of the Rings,” Ralph Bakshi… Dean emeritus of the Yale School of Management, he has served in the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations, Jeffrey E. Garten… Academy Award-winning actor, who played Yoni Netanyahu in the 1976 film “Victory at Entebbe,” Richard Dreyfuss… CEO of the Center for the National Interest, Dimitri Simes… Former director of the social justice organizing program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Mordechai E. Liebling… Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor of The New Yorker since 1998, David RemnickBernard Greenberg… Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Phoenix, Dana Evan Kaplan… Author, satirist and public speaker, Evan Sayet… Classical pianist, Susan Merdinger… Sports agent who has negotiated over $7 billion of player contracts, Drew Rosenhaus… Actor who appeared in 612 episodes of daytime soap opera “As the World Turns,” his mother, Rina Plotnik, served in the IDF, Grayson McCouch… Screenwriter and film director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Andrea Dorfman… Mathematician, cryptologist and computer scientist, Daniel J. Bernstein… Israeli collaborative artist, designer and photographer, Moshe Hacmon… VP for strategic communications and business development at Anchorage-based Northern Compass Group, Rachel Barinbaum… Jockey who has won more than 1,600 races with earnings of more than $65 million, David Cohen… Marketing director for Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group, Leigh Shirvan Helfenbein… Senior product manager at Audible, Samantha Zeldin… National spokesperson for the Harris Walz campaign, Seth Schuster… Ph.D. candidate in Russian and East European history at Harvard, Leora Eisenberg… Booking producer at NBC Universal, David Siegel