Your Daily Phil: Federal cuts offer nonprofits a chance to recruit fresh talent, study finds
Add EJP on GoogleGood Wednesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a new Leading Edge study about how Jewish nonprofits can better recruit employees, and we examine a major $107 million Israeli government investment in Arab Israeli culture. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Seth Goren about adjusting to the post-“post-Oct. 7” era as a Jewish campus professional, and Mikhael Kesher and Dan Tatar share how post-Oct. 7 trips to Israel for teachers have influenced changes in Israel education. Also in this issue: Jordan Chandler Hirsch, Gal Gadot and Doug Berman.
What We’re Watching
The International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries begins today in New York City, bringing together 6,200 rabbis from 111 countries.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama will appear at Washington’s Sixth & I Synagogue this evening to discuss her forthcoming book, The Look.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JAY DEITCHER
Since its founding in 2014, Leading Edge’s work has been primarily focused on employee retention in the Jewish communal world, but its latest study zeroes in on tapping into the new talent flooding the market, particularly Gen Zers and former government and nonprofit workers who have lost their jobs due to recent cuts.
The study, “Talent Unlocked: Recruitment Solutions for the Jewish Nonprofit Sector,” surveyed over 3,300 potential Jewish nonprofit employees and conducted six focus groups, looking at how both Jewish and non-Jewish potential workers viewed working in the Jewish nonprofit world. “The Jewish world already has great talent, and there’s lots more phenomenal talent that we’re not reaching, and we wanted to understand why,” Gali Cooks, president and CEO of Leading Edge, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
One lesson that the study revealed was that both Jewish and non-Jewish potential employees didn’t know enough about Jewish nonprofits or the work that they do. When potential employees realized the impact they could have working at a Jewish organization, both groups showed increased interest. “The first step to the recruitment funnel [is] you have to be aware of something, then you can consider it, then you can actually put your hat in the ring for something, and then you’re hired,” Cooks said.
For most potential employees, salary is the biggest motivator. “If we want amazing talent, we have to pay for it,” Cooks said. “Even if you have a wonderful mission, even if your manager is going to be awesome, and even if there’s career opportunities,” if the compensation isn’t there at “the point of purchase,” when employees are considering jobs, they will choose one with the most pay and benefits.
The positive is that what matters isn’t simply salary, but “whole pay,” which includes benefits such as health-care plans, parental and family leave and professional development. Many Jewish nonprofits are getting more creative with “whole pay,” subsidizing Jewish day schools, camps and synagogue memberships, and some federations match retirement benefits for employees at Jewish nonprofits.
Recently, tens of thousands of federal workers have been laid off. Secular nonprofits have suffered massive cuts. Incredible talent has flooded the market, Cooks said, and Jewish nonprofits should “double down on” the messaging around the great work their employees are doing. “They’re taking care of the community,” she said. “They’re teaching a child. They’re feeding the hungry. They’re helping Holocaust survivors. They’re making camp available to folks, which is magic.”
CULTURAL REVOLUTION
As Arab Israelis struggle with high murder rate, arts institutions see major influx of state funds
For Israel’s Muslim and Arabic-speaking populations, the past four years have been among the most consequential in their history. First, in 2021, the Islamic Ra’am party joined the so-called “change” government, marking the first time that an Arab-majority party served in an Israeli coalition. The following year, they were voted out, with the government replaced by one of the most right-wing coalitions in the country’s history. That change in government has coincided with an unprecedented rise in homicides in the Arab Israeli community. Then came the Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent two years of war, which have killed dozens of Arab and Bedouin Israelis. But alongside all of these obvious, high-level political and social developments, a quieter cultural revolution has slowly been taking hold in Arab Israeli society as more than $107 million in government funding has flown into the community’s arts institutions, establishing new galleries, theaters, museums and schools throughout the country, reports Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Now more than ever: Ayat Rahal, a Ministry of Culture and Sport official, has been leading this five-year program, along with Husni Shehade, who also serves as a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy. “My goal is that the Arab public won’t need to travel far to enjoy culture, watch a movie, or see an art exhibition. Therefore, I try to look at the unique needs of Arab society. This is a long-term strategic plan,” Rahal told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Specifically now, in these times of division and the period after Oct. 7, we know how much culture has a significant role in strengthening community resilience and social resilience… and also in creating dialogue in Israeli society between our communities,” she said.
‘THE DAY AFTER’ IS HERE
Post-adrenaline leadership
“In Israel, there’s a ceasefire, however shaky, in place. The hostages who remain alive are home. Campus antisemitism continues to poison campuses, but the large-scale mass demonstrations have largely ended, with fewer, more extreme individuals taking more extreme action on a less frequent basis. None of this is the wide-ranging success or complete victory we might have been hoping for, but it’s drawn the immediate post-Oct. 7 era to a close,” writes Rabbi Seth Goren, CEO of Hillel Ontario, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Getting our bearings: “Some of us might experience it as burnout, but to me, it’s more like dislocation or displacement from where we’d been existing professionally and personally. Yes, this work itself is, always has been and always will be critical and needed. This significance was easy to bear in mind when we were up at 10 p.m. keeping students safe from antisemitic mobs roving campus; it’s harder to recall at the same hour of the night when we’re responding to a batch of emails about swag branding. To quote Rabbi Sandy Sasso, ‘At the heart of what it means to be a Jew is to ask questions’; but right now, part of me is the child who doesn’t know how to ask.”
SURVEY SAYS
Educating about a changed Israel
“More than two years after the Oct. 7 attacks, Jewish educators are still grappling with what it means to teach about Israel in a world transformed. Many are drawing strength and insight from their own firsthand encounters with a changed Israel,” write Mikhael Kesher, director of Israel education at The Jewish Education Project, and Dan Tatar, interim CEO of The iCenter, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
What they’re bringing home: “There are at least three primary ways in which trip alumni are reinventing Israel education in their schools, camps and communities. They are sharing the personal stories of those most directly impacted; incorporating the variety of cultural artifacts created by Israelis in response to current events into their lesson plans; and working to move Israel education beyond isolated lessons or holiday celebrations, integrating it meaningfully into the full scope of their educational practice.”
Worthy Reads
It’s the Economy, Stupid: In the latest edition of Sapir Journal, which was published yesterday, Jordan Chandler Hirsch argues that a Jewish sovereign wealth fund is necessary in light of the deterioration of American institutions . “Institutional America was relational, running on shared values and social mores that fostered trust. Anti-institutional America, by contrast, is transactional, with everyone haggling at arm’s length?—?ad hoc, opportunistic, often devil-may-care. To prosper in the coming transactional disorder of anti-institutionalism, the Jewish community must disentangle itself from the institutions. Instead of investing so much financial and political capital in lobbying efforts to preserve our establishment station, we should invest that money in something we directly control: a Jewish sovereign wealth fund. A Jewish sovereign wealth fund would represent a new form of Diaspora power, suited to the transactional age. Much like the wealth funds of other nations, it would wield capital as statecraft on behalf of Jewish interests, without apology or pretense.” [Sapir]
Where We Go From Here: In The Forward, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove responds to Zohran Mamdani’s successful bid for mayor of New York City. “While the electoral outcome is not what I hoped for, I wish Mayor-elect Mamdani and his administration every success in leading this city we love. As the prophet Jeremiah instructed the Jews of his time, ‘Seek the peace of the city … for in its peace you will find your peace.’ … Mayors come and go. But the Jewish people must persist, and this election has brought a fault line within our people into full relief.” [Forward]
Combine or Align?: At its current growth rate, the nonprofit sector could soar to over 2 million organizations within the next three years, writes Kate Harris in Nonprofit Quarterly. “It turns out that there’s no evidence to suggest that more nonprofits necessarily equate to more public good. This is in part because our growth in number has not been accompanied by commensurate growth in resources and support. The resources that nonprofits rely on — philanthropy, government grants and contracts, fees for service, and volunteerism — have been largely static (especially when adjusted for inflation) or on the decline. While it’s easy to point fingers at the lack of resources, there’s another issue at play, and it has everything to do with what happens between our nearly two million nonprofits, just as much as what happens within and to them.” [NonprofitQuarterly]
Word on the Street
Israeli actress Gal Gadot won Israel’s Genesis Prize, sometimes called the “Jewish Nobel,” for her outspoken support of Israel in Hollywood since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Gadot said she will donate the $1 million award to organizations “that will help Israel heal”…
The leadership of the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and his team during his visit to Washington this week; the JHS Foundation has been advocating for the new Syrian government as it seeks to have sanctions against it removed…
Writing in Haaretz, Ronni Gamzu, the chairman of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, says the group will not be intimidated after flares were set off at its performance in Paris last week, which he called an act of violence, not protest…
Israeli authorities arrested four suspects — quickly releasing three of them — after dozens of Israeli settlers launched an arson attack in the Palestinian villages of Bei Lid and Deir Sharaf in the West Bank, amid a growing wave of violence against Palestinians in the area…
The Vatican is investigating a member of the papal Swiss Guards for allegedly spitting at members of the Jewish delegation present for the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate declaration, which recognized the legitimacy of non-Christian religions…
The National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation has applied to open a religious virtual charter school in Oklahoma, adding to a debate about state funding for religious schools…
Haaretz examines the growing phenomenon of trash burning and criminally connected wildcat sanitation services in cash-strapped Arab towns in northern Israel, which have local residents and environmental groups up in arms…
Israel began pumping desalinated water into the rain-starved Sea of Galilee, representing the first time that a freshwater lake has been replenished in this way…
The Times of Israel profiles Joe Buchanan, a Bible Belt-based country music singer who converted to Judaism after his wife revealed her Jewish heritage over a decade into their marriage; Buchanan performed at the opening of the Jewish Funders Network conference in Nashville earlier this year…
Argentine President Javier Milei met with Rabbi David Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel; Isaac Sacca, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Argentina; and Eyal Sela, the Israeli ambassador to Argentina…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency retraces the history of Roswell, N.M., a hub for extraterrestrial conspiracy theories after Stanton Friedman, an Ashkenazi Jew, discovered what he claimed were “extraterrestrial materials” on a nearby ranch in 1947…
Israeli pop star Noa Kirel and soccer player Daniel Peretz tied the knot yesterday in an A-lister affair: spotted at the nuptials were Israeli celebrities Eden?Daniel?Gabay, Idan?Raichel, Eran?Zahavi, Reef Neeman, Ron?Bitton, Ron?Aluf and Mor?Hamami…
Major Gifts
As the government shutdown drags on, UJA-Federation of New York is awarding $1 million in emergency funding to food banks and emergency food procurement operations across New York City…
The Canadian fundraising arm of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev raised $2.3 million at its annual gala last week, the group told eJewishPhilanthropy…
In its latest tally, Jewish Federations of North America determined that it allocated $1 billion more in 2024 than in a typical year, more than half of it — $683 million — as part of its Israel Emergency Campaign; in total, the group distributed some $3 billion last year…
Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a new $92 million public-private partnership fund to convert Brazil’s bus system to cleaner energy vehicles…
Transitions
Doug Berman has been elected chair of the board of Hillel International, beginning in mid-2026…
Justin Pearlman was hired to serve as executive vice president of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, and Beth Mann has been hired as its chief development officer…
Betsy Marantz has been named the next executive director of the U.S.-based Friends of Jerusalem College of Technology; Marantz previously served as the organization’s director of development…
The Florida Holocaust Museum appointed Debbie Sokolov as its next chief development officer…
Repair the World hired Jessica Chait to serve as the organization’s next chief operating officer and Amy Weiss as its senior director of field activation strategy. The hires come as the group expands following a recent influx of philanthropic donations…
Avraham Bronstein was named the next director of development of the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi in Jerusalem…
Pic of the Day
Honorees Alyssa Hatem, Nina Ross, Judith Stern Peck and Suzanne Peck are seen on Monday at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Lions Lunch at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. Hatem received the Martha K. Selig Young Leadership Award; Ross received the Spirit of Peggy Award, which is named for community leader Peggy Tishman, who died in 2004; and the Pecks were presented with the Generations Award, which honors “intergenerational dedication to philanthropy.”
Birthdays
New Jersey-based primary care physician known as Doctor Mike, he is an internet celebrity on YouTube and Instagram, Mikhail Varshavski turns 36…
Co-founder and dean of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky turns 101… Professor emerita of history at Columbia University and expert on Japan, Carol Gluck turns 84… Author and senior fellow at USC’s Annenberg School, Morley Winograd turns 83… Accountant and former PwC partner in Phoenix, Steven M. Scheiner, CPA… Former New York state senator, he is a descendant of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the former Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Stephen M. Saland turns 82… Sportscaster for “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video, after more than 50 years at NBC and ABC, Al Michaels turns 81… Attorney in Brooklyn, Bernard C. Wachsman… Member of the New York state Assembly since 2006, her district includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Linda B. Rosenthal turns 68… Author of young-adult fiction and winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman turns 63… University of Chicago professor, he won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, Michael Kremer turns 61… Mayor of Oakland, Calif., until 2023, Elizabeth Beckman “Libby” Schaaf turns 60… Rabbi of the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary, Róbert Frölich turns 60… Partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, Sanford E. “Sandy” Perl turns 60… White House chief of staff for the last two years of the Biden administration, Jeffrey Zients turns 59… British journalist and political correspondent for BBC News, Joanne “Jo” Coburn turns 58… Hasidic lecturer with many thousands of followers, Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Biderman turns 58… Senior vice president and general manager of MLB’s Minnesota Twins from 2016 until 2024, Thad Levine turns 54… Member of the Knesset until 2019 for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Robert Ilatov turns 54… Restaurant critic and food writer for the Boston Globe, Devra First turns 53… Israeli fashion model and actress, Nina Brosh turns 50… Former member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party, Eliyahu Hasid turns 49… Campus support director at Hillel International, Aviva Zucker Snyder… Actress best known for her roles on “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” Kelly Kruger turns 44… Co-founder of Purple Acorn, Dave Weinberg… Assistant professor of Jewish studies at Oberlin College, Matthew D. Berkman turns 41… Director of strategic talent initiatives at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Spencer F. Lucker… Activist in the fight against antisemitism throughout the U.S., Adela Cojab turns 29… Catcher in the Washington Nationals organization, Cameron J. Stubbs turns 29…
