Your Daily Phil: Flyers, encampments, testimonies: Archiving post-10/7 life on campus
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the public divisions in the Jewish communities in the United States and United Kingdom over the Trump administration‘s university crackdowns and the war in Gaza, respectively. We spotlight a new initiative to create an archive to document the past 18 months of anti-Israel protests and a new athletics center being built in southern Israel, and report on a Jewish-inspired fund created by venture capitalists. We feature an opinion piece by Scott Braswell and Rachel Fish about the potential of JCCs as education hubs for and about the Jewish community, and one by Alon Tal about a delegation from Israel’s high-tech and philanthropy sectors joining this week’s March of the Living. Also in this newsletter: Rabbi Richard Hidary, Dr. Miriam Adelson and David Siegel.
What We’re Watching
Pope Francis died this morning, setting up a weekslong succession process. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and some Jewish organizations have already released statements on his death.
What You Should Know
On both sides of the Atlantic, Jewish communities are grappling with a similar problem — consensus — albeit on different topics, writes eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross.
Last week, 10 American Jewish organizations representing a large swath of U.S. Jewry issued a joint statement condemning what they described as the Trump administration’s violations of democratic norms, ostensibly in response to universities’ responses to antisemitism and anti-Israel protests on their campuses, including deportation efforts against foreign students as well as mass federal funding cuts.
“These actions do not make Jews — or any community — safer. Rather, they only make us less safe,” wrote the group, which was led by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and included the Union for Reform Judaism, the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, Reconstructing Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, American Conference of Cantors, Central Conference of American Rabbis and HIAS.
“We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights,” wrote the group, which pointedly referred to itself as a “broad coalition of mainstream Jewish organizations.”
Yet to other parts of the American Jewish community, such criticisms lie outside the bounds of the mainstream. In an email sent to Jewish Community Relations Councils across the country, Jewish Federations of North America President and CEO Eric Fingerhut described the joint statement as lacking the diversity of opinion held by the American Jewish community, according to independent journalist Ron Kampeas, who obtained a copy of the letter.
“A robust dialogue to develop a letter that truly reflects mainstream opinion would reference the diverse views we hold, which this letter does not,” Kampeas quotes Fingerhut as writing in his email on the same day as the JCPA open letter.
Fingerhut also disputes the facts presented in the statement, writing that the foreign students facing deportation “are receiving due process” — a claim that is at least contested by their attorneys and some independent experts who question the legality of the way in which some of them were detained.
This is not the first time that major American Jewish organizations have publicly disagreed with one another under the Trump administration — see: Elon Musk’s post-inauguration arm gesture or the responses to President Donald Trump’s Gaza resettlement plan — and it likely will not be the last.
In the United Kingdom, the divisions are over a different but equally thorny matter: Israel’s war in Gaza.
Also last week, 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews — an umbrella group comprising 300 representatives of British Jewish groups — published an open letter in the Financial Times condemning the Israeli government for its ongoing war in Gaza, calling it “unbearable” and saying that it showed that the return of the hostage was not a top priority. Written not as individuals but explicitly as “members of the Board of Deputies,” the letter drew swift criticism from within the United Kingdom and Israel, particularly as the open letter did not mention the Oct. 7 terror attacks or Hamas’ role in prolonging the conflict.
The president and CEO of the Board of Deputies each wrote opinion pieces decrying the open letter, partially for its content but primarily for presenting the false impression that the three dozen signatories were writing on behalf of the organization.
“Any individual deputy, or group of deputies has the right to speak their mind publicly. But our community is not served by any single group misrepresenting itself, intentionally or unintentionally, as speaking for us all,” wrote Michael Wegier, the organization’s CEO, in the Jewish Chronicle. “Nor is it reasonable or wise for any group within the community, however passionate or committed to their view, to expect the Board of Deputies to adopt a position that does not reflect a broad consensus within our community.”
Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg denounced the distorted view that the letter represents. “In this I believe the Financial Times needs to learn to count: 90% of Deputies is a bigger number than the 10% who signed this letter,” he wrote in the Jewish News.
Rosenberg said that it also fed into “an underlying and dangerous narrative about ‘good Jews’ and ‘bad Jews.’”
“I believe that the signatories to this letter have a strong and completely genuine concern for the situation in Israel and Gaza. But they are now experiencing what I and other senior board representatives know all too well; that it is remarkably easy to get the media to listen to you in this country if you highlight your Jewish identity while vocally criticising Israel or its government,” he wrote.
Both of these cases raise the question: Who speaks for the Jewish community? Is there even a singular Jewish community to speak for, or is that kind of consensus — if it ever truly existed — a thing of the past?
FOR THE RECORD
National Library of Israel’s U.S. arm creates archive of post-Oct. 7 campus antisemitism
Hana Halff is a senior at Smith College who is working to chronicle life on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. She asked her best friend from high school to share her experiences. “I pressed end to the recording, and we were both crying,” she told Jay Deitcher for eJewishPhilanthropy. “We both recognized how we’ve repressed a lot of what happened in order to function.” Halff is a student researcher for the National Library of Israel’s American branch (NLI USA) who is creating an archive documenting campus experiences across the United States and Canada in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks 18 months ago. Since the organization began collecting last fall, it has amassed over 5,000 documents, including flyers, photographs, videos, syllabi, event announcements, student group statements, newspaper op-eds and written and verbal testimonies.
Bigger picture: The college archive is part of the NLI’s Bearing Witness Archive, which launched within days of the massacres to gather and organize massive amounts of documentation from the attacks and their aftermath. In Israel, NLI is “collecting as comprehensively as possible,” Raquel Ukeles, head of collections for the NLI, told eJP, but in North America, they zeroed in on campuses because they “have become a laboratory for early 21st-century identity politics and cultural discussions and debates.”
CONSTRUCTIVE PROJECTS
New athletics center in hard-hit Sha’ar Hanegev region aims to build resiliency
With funding from Israel, the United States and France, workers broke ground last month on a new multimillion-dollar athletics center in southern Israel’s Sha’ar Hanegev region — one of the hardest-hit areas in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres — fulfilling the longtime dream of the region’s former mayor, Ofir Libstein, who was killed in the terror attack and for whom the facility will be named, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Sports as healer: “The revival of Israel after the war is the most significant Zionist challenge today. We view this project as an important milestone in the renewed development of the Gaza envelope, following the crisis it endured. This initiative promotes sports in the region, which is essential for both physical and emotional healing,” Maia Ifrah, director of international relations and partnerships at Sha’ar HaNegev’s Regional Council, told eJP. “In the first weeks, we were busy trying to find funds to be able to address the immediate needs of our residents… As time progressed, we saw that we had no choice — although it was very, very hard to do — but to start looking towards the future.”
BAD BALLOTS
World Zionist Congress election committee tosses nearly 2,000 suspicious votes
Days after identifying swaths of suspect votes in the ongoing World Zionist Congress elections tied to seemingly randomly generated emails, prepaid credit cards and other irregularities, the organization’s US Area Election Committee will be dismissing the nearly 2,000 votes in question and is working to identify those behind the apparent fraud, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Further investigation: “Intentionally submitting fraudulent votes is not just immoral, it is a federal crime. We intend to conduct a forensic analysis to identify all those who submit suspect votes and we will continue our vigilant observation of this election. If appropriate, we will refer the matter and any perpetrators to the relevant law enforcement authorities,” the statement, signed by AEC chairs Abraham J. Gafni and David J. Butler, said. The AEC chairs said they had not yet found evidence of the involvement of the two slates for whom the votes were cast, which have not been identified. “As advised by counsel, we will continue to investigate this serious breach and determine the proper course of action going forward, including by imposing all appropriate remedial measures,” Gafni and Butler wrote.
GUIDING STAR
The quirky new VC guided by Jewish values
When Long Journey Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, announced that it had raised a new fund totaling $181,818,181.80, that figure may have confused some fellow tech investors — but since the firm’s guiding ethos is investing in the “magically weird,” it may have seemed like just another oddity from a VC that has proven itself a serious early stage investor in the competitive world of Silicon Valley. But the number was not just a … well, weird, coincidence, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
What’s in a number?: Long Journey founder and managing partner Lee Jacobs published a blog post last month outlining his thinking behind the number. “The horrific attacks in Israel on October 7th awakened something dormant at my core — a deep inner knowing of my purpose and what I’m willing to fight for,” wrote Jacobs. “This fund, with its repetition of 18s, embodies my commitment to supporting life and creation.” JI talked to Jacobs and co-managing partner Arielle Zuckerberg about how the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel fundamentally altered both their worldview and their approach to investing.
Read the full interview here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
TODAY’S TOWN SQUARE
How JCCs are meeting the moment in the fight against Jew-hatred
“Some may ask why JCCs — spaces perhaps best known for their summer camps, early childhood programs and fitness classes — are wading into advocacy. But that’s precisely what makes them so effective: Their deep, personal ties to the community make them trusted messengers, able to challenge ignorance with empathy and education,” write Scott Braswell, CEO of Merage Jewish Community Center in Orange County, Calif., and Rachel Fish, co-founder of Boundless and special advisor to the Brandeis University President’s Initiative on Antisemitism, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Filling the information gap: “A nationwide survey by Boundless and the research firm BSG reveals that only 14% of Americans accurately define Zionism as ‘the movement that supports the Jewish people having a state in their ancestral homeland, Israel.’ The remaining 86% either don’t know or think it means something else, interpreting it in ways that range from misguided to outright malicious. Importantly, the survey also reveals that even a small amount of education radically transforms perceptions. After being given this simple definition of Zionism, for instance, respondents who identify as Zionist jump from 9% to 38%. If clarifying this definition yields a fourfold return, imagine the impact of a conversation, class or program delivered by trusted voices at a local JCC… As the Boundless research noted, offering clear definitions of terms, building relationships and providing basic education and awareness are critical if JCC leaders are to guide their communities effectively at this moment of collective fear and uncertainty.”
YOM HASHOAH 2025
Why we must march together
“This week, a unique group is coming together to support the Holocaust survivors walking side by side through the haunting grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of the March of the Living. For the first time ever, a delegation of dozens of employees from the high-tech and philanthropic sectors will join the March of the Living in an initiative spearheaded by Nir Zohar, president of Wix, and Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr,” writes Alon Tal, founder and CEO of fintech group Alpha and founder of the Merit Spread Foundation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The participants will come from different sectors but are united by a cause: To stand and march for memory, truth and the dignity of survivors.”
Beyond Yom Hashoah: “As a philanthropic leader, I know that community and memory are inseparable. Together, we support survivors not only because they endured history’s worst atrocity, but because they remind us of what resilience and humanity look like. Many live with fragile health and precarious economic conditions. They deserve more than our reverence — they deserve our resources, our advocacy and our presence. Supporting the March of the Living is not a ceremonial gesture for me. It is a commitment to partnership across industries, generations and ideologies. It is about raising our voices on platforms digital and physical to say that facts matter, that survivors matter and that the lessons of Auschwitz must not be buried with those who survived it… We invite others — from high-tech, finance, education, entertainment and civil society — to join us. Not just to march, but to act: to fund survivor care, to amplify their stories, to fight hate in all its forms and to ensure that the world they helped rebuild continues to stand on the pillars of justice and truth.”
Worthy Reads
How We Got Here: In The New York Times, Jeremy W. Peters and Andrea Fuller offer a history lesson on the until-recently “mutually beneficial bargain” of federal support for universities. “For over eight decades, American universities and the federal government wound themselves into an ever tighter embrace. The United States wanted to build the most powerful bombs and cure the worst diseases. It wanted to be first to explore the outer edges of the solar system. It wanted to grow more efficient crops. And so, it offered millions, and then billions, to researchers at universities across the country — in Cambridge, Mass., and Berkeley, Calif., but also in Minnesota, Indiana and Mississippi. The schools took the money. They built the best labs and attracted top-notch professors and students from around the world. They also became increasingly and, at first, somewhat warily beholden to the whims of politicians in Washington… Dismantling the system as Mr. Trump and many conservatives seem intent on doing could partially rewind the clock to when the federal government largely left research in the hands of the private sector.” [NYTimes]
My Brother’s Keeper: In Tablet magazine, Rabbi Richard Hidary writes about his recent visit to the impoverished Jewish community in Ethiopia with the Struggle to Save Ethiopian Jewry, seeking to understand who they are and why they are still there. “So why doesn’t Israel let them in? It’s a complicated issue that Israel has been dealing with for decades, especially since 2015, when it decided to allow family reunifications for the remaining members of the community in Ethiopia… However, some critics in Israel have expressed opposition, questioning whether all the newcomers were Jewish and thus eligible for aliyah under the Law of Return, and not simply Christians looking to move to a richer country… Having witnessed their living conditions, one could begin to understand… This community has had a heroic advocate for the past 37 years. Joseph Feit, a Yale-trained lawyer, practiced tax law until age 52 when he experienced a midlife search for meaning. He was involved as an activist in demanding that the USSR ‘Let my people go!’ At the personal behest of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, he transferred that energy into this new cause, calling on Israel to ‘Let my people in!’.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee presented his credentials today to Israeli President Isaac Herzog. During the ceremony, Herzog noted the attendance of philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson at the event, whom he praised for advocating for the hostages being held captive by Hamas in Gaza…
Herzog called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to express solidarity with him after the governor’s mansion was set on fire by an arsonist hours after Shapiro hosted a Passover Seder there last week, in an attack that the culprit said was in response to the governor’s support for Israel…
OpenAI named labor leader Dolores Huerta and three others — Monica Lozano, Robert Ross and Jack Oliver — to a temporary philanthropy advisory board as the artificial intelligence nonprofit shifts into a for-profit business…
The Donor-Advised Fund Research Collaborative conducted a study — one of the first of its kind — surveying more than 2,000 DAF donors about their demographics, giving strategies and motivations…
The Simons Foundation committed $100 million and the Carson Family Charitable Trust pledged $25 million to support the New York Genome Center through 2029…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy spotlights a new report by the fundraising think tank Rogare about fundraiser burnout and what organizations can do to prevent it…
J Los Angeles, formerly the Westside Jewish Community Center, has named David Siegel as its next CEO…
The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles’ Tikun Olam Foundation awarded a $25 million gift to establish the Stein Tikun Olam Early Connections Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles…
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust awarded $10 million in grants to two Hawaiian hospitals: Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children and The Queen’s Medical Center–West O‘ahu Cancer Center…
Sidney Kimmel and his wife, Caroline, donated $27.5 million to Temple University for the construction of a new arts and communications center, which will be called the Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication…
The Schultz Family Foundation has invested some $3 million to develop artificial intelligence tools to help people navigate and find new careers…
The Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College named Bill Robinson as its next director of national leadership initiatives…
The New York Times reports that the list of demands sent to Harvard University by the Trump administration earlier this month was sent in error; the letter set off a showdown between administration and the university in which billions of dollars of federal funding to the school was frozen…
The Trump administration is planning to pull an additional $1 billion from Harvard’s health research programs over the escalating tensions…
The Associated Press examines if and how the Trump administration could revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status…
Gary Cohn was named the lead independent director at Apollo Global Management; CEO Marc Rowan is taking on the additional title of board chair at the management firm…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency looks at how Jewish groups in Texas split over a $1 billion school voucher program, which some hailed as a boon to Jewish day schools and others saw as a blow to public schools…
Neta Meltzer has been named the executive director of Kansas City’s Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee (JCRB|AJC), having served as interim executive director for 10 months…
Ha’aretz reports on a new survey of Israeli teens that found that many harbor hatreds against other ethnic groups (Jews against Arabs; Arabs against Jews), but that most hope for better relations…
The Wall Street Journal interviews Melinda French Gates about her new memoir, The Next Day, which is being published this month…
Elaine Wynn, co-founder of Wynn Resorts and a major patron of the arts, died last Monday at 82…
Tamar Lubin Saposhnik, a Las Vegas-based Jewish educator, died earlier this month at 91…
Lord Stanley Kalms, a key figure in British Jewry, died earlier this month at 93…
Former Israeli First Lady Reuma Weizman, who worked with children orphaned in the Holocaust and used her position to support Israelis in need, died last week at 99…
Pic of the Day
A group of Black and Jewish leaders host a Freedom Seder in Los Angeles last Thursday aimed at highlighting and improving Black-Jewish relations.
The event was organized by Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback of Stephen Wise Temple (left); media commentator Van Jones; Amanda Berman, founder of Zioness; Creative Artists Agency’s Deborah Marcus; and Bishop-Designate Michael Fisher of Greater Zion Church Family. It was attended by some 200 people, including local politicians, artists and religious leaders.
“The story of Exodus unites our communities and creates the foundation of a shared and prosperous future. Freedom Seder was a powerful evening that strengthened bonds, healed divisions and inspired hope and connection. The best people in the Black and Jewish communities have been together for a hundred years — and we’ll be together for a hundred more,” Jones said in a statement.
Birthdays
Founder of I Was Supposed to Have a Baby (IWSTHAB), an online community geared toward Jewish women experiencing infertility, Aimee Friedman Baron…
Comedian, screenwriter, film director and actress, she returned to Broadway in 2018 after a 60-year hiatus, Elaine May … Retired attorney and art collector, Don Kaul … President of the Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, Howard Rosenbloom… British chemist and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, Sir Alan Roy Fersht… Award-winning folklorist, author, poet and editor of dozens of books, Howard Schwartz… Former lieutenant governor of Connecticut, Nancy S. Wyman… Southern California-based interior designer, Marilyn Weiss… Emergency physician in Panorama City, Calif., Joseph Edward Beezy… UCSB mathematician, an early winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship, Michael Hartley Freedman… Rabbi, psychologist, writer and editor, Susan Schnur… Professor emeritus at George Mason University Law School, Michael Ian Krauss… Australian barrister who is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly following 31 years as mayor of Botany Bay, Ron Hoenig… Rabbi at Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, Calif., Michael Barclay… Co-founder of the Genesis Prize and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, Mikhail Fridman… Chicago-based lobbyist and attorney, Scott D. Yonover… Art collector and dealer, Alberto “Tico” Mugrabi… Washington correspondent for The New York Times’ “DealBook,” Ephrat Livni… Head of business development and innovation at Birthright North America and CEO of Unistream, Ifat Bechor… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and best-selling author, Jodi Kantor … Co-founder and managing editor at Zivvy Media, Eric Weisbrod… Retired actress and voice actress, her career included the voice of Regina “Reggie” Rocket on Nickelodeon’s “Rocket Power,” Shayna Bracha Fox… Investor relations officer at Gryphon Investors, he is a past president of the Berkeley Hillel, Robert J. Kaufman… Once the top ranked collegiate female tennis player in the U.S. and currently the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma, Audra Marie Cohen… Salesforce marketing and cloud consultant at Jackson Family Wines, Joshua Gibbs… Outfielder for MLB’s Texas Rangers, he is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All Star, he played for Team Israel in the 2013 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Joc Pederson… Writer, magazine editor and actress, Tavi Gevinson…
