Your Daily Phil: Focal Point: Aid, development NGOs strive to innovate amid massive cuts
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Rebecca Voorwinde, CEO of The Bronfman Fellowship, about the decline in philanthropist-backed leadership development programs in recent years. We cover Olam’s Focal Point conference that was held in New York City this week. We feature an opinion piece by Mike Leven calling on funders to urgently prioritize expanding day school access, and a piece by Aviva Klompas highlighting the implications of new findings on the evolving spread of antisemitism online. Also in this issue: Channa Lockshin Bob, Rabbi Michael Melchior and Sir Leonard Blavatnik.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
The Israel Democracy Institute’s Eli Hurvitz Conference on the Israeli economy wraps up today in Jerusalem.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s Voice of the People initiative is hosting an open discussion showcasing the various programs that have been developed by participants as the first cohort makes it halfway through its two-year term.
The Altneu Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is launching a new art exhibition tonight examining the “golden age” of American Jewry.
What You Should Know
In the past two years, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies shuttered both its eponymous leadership development fellowship and its ROI Community for young Jewish “change-makers.” Add to that the Wexner Foundation, which told alumni last week that it is spinning off its flagship leadership programs into an independent nonprofit.
“There’s a change happening that no one is discussing,” Rebecca “Becky” Voorwinde, CEO of The Bronfman Fellowship, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher in a recent interview. Philanthropist-funded leadership fellowships “have mostly fallen out of favor in the last few years, at the same time as younger people are expressing views that don’t match the standard thinking of prior generations. And, I think there’s a correlation between this generational attitude to institutions and the overall demise of these programs as ‘pet projects’ of specific philanthropists.”
JD: You’ve managed to raise money beyond the original funder, Edgar Bronfman Sr. How have you done so, and what have you learned?
RV: The benefit of these in-depth leadership programs that have a long arc to them [is that] they were mostly created by individual funders, and it’s time for the whole Jewish community to grow up a little and recognize that these have been some of the most important engines for creativity and leadership in the Jewish community for the past 40 years. They don’t just belong to one funder. They are an asset for the whole Jewish community.
ON THE SCENE
At Olam conference, Jewish aid and development workers learn to innovate as field squeezed by cuts
On the first day of this week’s Focal Point conference, the annual gathering in New York of Jewish and Israeli aid and development professionals hosted by the umbrella group Olam, one of the most attended sessions focused on developing alternative funding and financial sustainability models — a sign of the growing financial challenges facing the field. “Since I started coming to Olam, this is the first time that really everyone is having a hard time,” Jacob Sztokman, the founding director of Gabriel Project Mumbai, an India-based holistic development organization, who attended the session, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim at the conference.
Silver lining: “The opportunity that’s there when the bottom falls out of a sector is that you have to innovate and you have to try new things, because the funding isn’t flowing in,” Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, the director of leadership and learning at the Pears Foundation, one of the main funders of Olam, told eJP.
Opinion
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN JEWRY
We already know how to strengthen Jewish continuity. So why aren’t we doing it?
“The truth is that we already know one of the strongest tools for building lifelong Jewish identity, literacy, confidence and continuity: Jewish day school education. And yet, we have still not found the will to make it the norm,” writes businessman and philanthropist Mike Leven, founder of the Jewish Future Promise, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Blueprint for change: “For years, many assumed expanding Jewish day schools required building massive stand-alone campuses costing $35 million or more. That model may work in some communities, but it cannot scale quickly enough or affordably enough to meet the moment we are now facing. But another model is emerging, one rooted in operational efficiency, scalability and smart growth. As someone who spent decades building franchise businesses and hospitality companies, I recognize a scalable model when I see one.”
SURVEY SAYS
The new antisemitism problem our institutions weren’t built for
A recent national survey on media consumption and antisemitism conducted by Boundless has found that exposure to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel content online “cuts across age groups and political ideologies,” writes Boundless CEO and co-founder Aviva Klompas in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. Moreover, “[o]ne-third of Americans report seeing claims about ‘Zionist control’ online, and roughly one in four consider these statements to be true or a fair political opinion.”
In the ether: “Antisemitism now spreads less like an organized movement and more like an atmosphere: ambient, repeated, absorbed through constant exposure to suspicion, conspiracy and ideological framing. This changes the strategic challenge facing the Jewish community. People do not need to join extremist groups to absorb antisemitic ideas. They simply need to spend enough time online.”
Worthy Reads
Hocus Focus: In The Chronicle of Higher Education, English professor Tyler Jagt laments his students’ diminishing ability to concentrate on longer texts. “Six weeks into the term, I assigned my rhetoric and writing students a 20-page article. It was the same length I had assigned for five years and the same length I had read without complaint as an undergraduate a decade ago. Not one student finished it. … The students who cannot read a 20-page article today are the voters who will not be able to read a bill, or the jurors who cannot follow a closing argument, tomorrow.” [ChronicleofHigherEducation]
Transitions
Channa Lockshin Bob, who has held a number of positions in educational organizations, has been named CEO of Drisha Institute, beginning next month; Rabbi David Silber, who has led the organization since founding it in 1979, will remain on staff as “founder and dean,” Bob told eJewishPhilanthropy…
Steven A. Baker has been selected as the next president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island…
Caron Blau Rothstein is leaving the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, following 15 years with the organization, most recently as chief planning and engagement officer…
Idan Markovich has been promoted to head of programs for the Middle East at IsraAid…
Word on the Street
The National Council of Jewish Women is disaffiliating from or shutting down a number of local chapters across the United States, including its large Los Angeles branch, as part of a restructuring effort…
In a rare moment of bipartisanship at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing yesterday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin agreed to work together to get delayed Nonprofit Security Grant Program FY 2025 grants “out the door as quickly as possible”; Murphy called the issue an area of “deep agreement,” with both pledging to get the number of funded applications “as high as we can”…
The American Jewish Committee and the World Union of Jewish Students have launched a new partnership to launch a North American Student Summit in an effort to empower international young leaders to strengthen global Jewish identity and advocacy…
Jewish leaders and elected officials in New York are condemning the participation of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other far-right Israeli politicians in Sunday’s Israel on Fifth parade, saying they did not have advance notice that they would be among those in the country’s delegation to the parade; Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which organized the parade, told The New York Times that “there was a complete lack of transparency” with regards to the Israeli delegation, and that the Israeli consulate in New York refused to provide names of delegation members to the JCRC in advance of the parade…
Dr. Emmanuel Moss, the chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, is leaving his position and moving to Atlanta, telling the Montreal Gazette that he was doing so because of rising antisemitism in Canada and growing problems in the Canadian province’s healthcare system…
The Boulder Jewish Festival is set to return to the Pearl Street Mall on June 7 under an enhanced multi-agency security protocol to mark one year since a deadly antisemitic firebombing at the same location…
The Times of Israel interviews Rabbi Michael Melchior, a former Israeli government minister and former chief rabbi of Norway, about his enduring religious commitment to advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians…
Joseph Sanberg, a fintech entrepreneur, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty last year to defrauding investors…
Career diplomat Donald Bruce Cofman, who served as spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Israel from 1987 to 1991 and remained in Israel throughout the Gulf War, died last month at 87…
Rabbi Stuart L. Kelman, the founding rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif., died this week…
Betty R. Sweren, a Baltimore-based children’s book illustrator, educator and philanthropist, died on May 22 at 94…
Pic of the Day
Sir Leonard Blavatnik (second from right), the founder of Access Industries and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, appears yesterday with the 2026 laureates of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel — Sergey N. Semenov (left), Uri Ben-David (second from left) and Paz Beniamini — at a ceremony held at the Peres Center in Tel Aviv.
Blavatnik flew into Israel for the ceremony on Monday after attending the UEFA Champions League final in Budapest this weekend. “It was a private trip for the award ceremony, as [it is] very close to his heart,” a spokesperson for this foundation told eJewishPhilanthropy.
Leading figures from the academic and business worlds in attendance included: Michael Kagan, CTO of Nvidia; Eyal Waldman, the founder of Mellanox Technologies; David Harel, president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Nicholas Dirk, president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences; Danny Cohen, president of Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment; Avi Fischer, founder and CEO of Clal Industries; Eyal Greenberg, CEO of Golf & Co; and Yochanan Locker, chairman of the board of Clalit Health Services.
Birthdays
CEO of Azrieli Group, one of the largest real estate development firms in Israel, she serves on the boards of both the Weizmann Institute and Tel Aviv University, Danna Azrieli Hakim turns 59…
Longtime San Fernando Valley, Calif., resident, Richard J. Munitz turns 88… Chairperson and co-founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Hilde Schwab turns 80… Attorney, author and 2024 candidate for Congress, she was awarded both a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D. from Yale, Jan Schneider turns 79… Tel Aviv-based attorney who served as an overseas representative to the French parliament, Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou turns 76… Retired director for legislative strategy, policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Ester Kurz… Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he heads its program in Judezmo (or Ladino) studies, David Monson Bunis turns 74… President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2007 until 2021, Eric S. Rosengren turns 69… Chief cantor of Vienna’s Israelitische Kultusgemeinde since 1992, Shmuel Barzilai turns 69… Rabbi emeritus of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Steve Leder turns 66… Racquetball player, he won two World Championships and 10 Canadian Championships, now an advertising account executive in Winnipeg, Sherman Greenfeld turns 64… Member of the British Parliament for the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2024, Jonathan Djanogly turns 61… Founding member of the band Phish, Michael Eliot Gordon turns 61… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge Ronnie Abrams turns 58… CEO of Ridgeback Communications, Andrew Samuel Weinstein… Executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, Jason Moss… Actor and model best known for her role as Nicole Walker on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” Arianne Zucker turns 52… Los Angeles-based PR consultant at Winning Progressive, Eric M. Schmeltzer… Major gifts officer at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Lauren Becker… Senior director of experiential marketing at the International Rescue Committee, Sophie Oreck… Chief of staff and special advisor to the president of the Baltimore Ravens, Adam Neuman turns 36… Chief political officer at the Israel on Campus Coalition, Brandon Beigler… Washington-based reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering immigration policy, Michelle Hackman… Gold Glove-winning center fielder for the San Francisco Giants, Harrison Bader turns 32…
