Your Daily Phil: Food insecurity plaguing Israeli families, survey reveals
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we break down a new study on food security in Israel, cover the second day of the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Washington and report on the latest departure from the Heritage Foundation over its handling of right-wing antisemitism. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Igael Gurin-Malous proposing a different date for GivingTuesday, and one by Yoni Heilman about Israel engagement on college campuses rooted in professional advancement, not politics. Also in this issue: Ariella Saperstein, Assaf Gamzou andRabbi Gershon Litt.
What We’re Watching
The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly wraps up today in Washington. This morning’s closing plenary includes addresses by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and “Call Me Back” host Dan Senor, as well as a musical performance by The Tamari Project. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Nira Dayanim.
Also in Washington, the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is holding a daylong conference on “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right.”
Sotheby’s is putting up for auction today a collection of Gustav Klimt works owned by art collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder, who died earlier this year, which is expected to sell for more than $400 million.
The One Israel Fund is holding its annual gala tonight in New York. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is keynoting this year’s event.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
More than a quarter of Israeli households — comprising some 2.8 million people, including roughly 1 million children — did not have regular access to healthy food last year, according to the country’s National Insurance Institute’s just-released annual Food Security Report. This marks a slight improvement over the year before, when more than 30% of households faced so-called “food insecurity,” but remains far higher than in most other developed countries.
The study found that 27.1% of households had “inaccessibility to healthy food” or “inability to afford food that is not damaging to health” in 2024. The issue is particularly acute among Arab Israelis, with 58% of households having some level of “food insecurity” and nearly a quarter having it to a severe extent. A quarter of Haredi households also struggled with the issue, 9.9% of them severely, along with 37% of residents of Jerusalem and 36.7% of residents of northern Israel.
John Gal, a Hebrew University social work professor and a principal researcher at the Taub Center think tank, told eJewishPhilanthropy that in a country like Israel, the issue of “food security” is not about “are people starving or not starving,” but about access to healthy, nourishing food. “Is your child able to eat more than two slices of bread and some chocolate spread?” he said, referring to a cheap Israeli staple.
As demonstrated during the recent government shutdown in the United States, which sent nonprofits scrambling as federal food assistance benefits dried up, philanthropy and civil society can play a role in alleviating issues of hunger and poverty; however, the problem is fundamentally one for the state, with its far greater resources, to address.
According to Gal, a leading expert on Israeli welfare policy, these problems long preceded the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the past two years of war, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. “Now that hopefully the war has ended, we can go back to [addressing] the problems of poverty and inequality and food insecurity that we had before the virus and before the war. We didn’t deal with them very well then. Now we’ve got to deal with them,” he said.
In addition to the direct issues that this lack of access to healthy food poses to individuals, the National Insurance Institute found that these levels of food insecurity have a significant impact on the wider economy, raising health care costs and decreasing productivity. “Food insecurity is not just a social problem but an economic issue that demands system-wide intervention. Families that cannot afford healthy food are families with a higher rate of disease, missed work and lower academic achievements. Long-term policies in this field will contribute not just to social welfare but to sustainable growth of the market,” Nitza (Kaliner) Kasir, the National Insurance Institute’s deputy director of research and planning, wrote in the report.
SECURITY SERVICE
Day 2 of JFNA gathering highlights threats to Jewish community, from without and within
The Jewish Federations of North America will deepen its focus on advocacy and civic engagement as part of its efforts to combat antisemitism and ensure the safety of Jewish communities, the group’s executive vice president, Shira Hutt, announced at the JFNA General Assembly on Monday in Washington, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the event. “Antisemitism has seeped into the mainstream of public life, into our schools, workplaces, universities and online spaces, and that means our next challenge is not only to secure our buildings, but to strengthen the front lines of civic engagement and bridge-building across our communities, to build relationships with our neighbors, educators, business leaders and public officials,” Hutt said.
Polarizing forces: In an onstage interview, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) highlighted the kind of “social, political and cultural” threats that Hutt referenced, warning that a growing number of young people were being pushed by social media to become antisemitic and anti-Israel. Later in the day, in a session focused on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Noa Rothman — the granddaughter of the slain Israeli prime minister — lamented that the kind of polarization and extremism in Israel that preceded the murder has not dissipated. “To my great sorrow, the assassination did not bring sobriety or unity. Instead, it deepened the divide,” Rothman said. “The tension continues to rise, and we have yet to find the places where we can all coexist in harmony and mutual respect. Yet despite how worrying, dangerous and heartbreaking this tension is time and again, I do not believe it is our destiny.”
RESIGNATION RIPPLE
Heritage board member resigns amid fallout over Tucker Carlson controversy
Robert George, a prominent board member of the Heritage Foundation, said on Monday that he was resigning from the conservative think tank, in the latest sign of continued fallout over its president’s controversial defense of Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview last month with a neo-Nazi influencer, reports Matthew Kassel from eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
What he said: “I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th,” George said in a Facebook post Monday morning, referring to the group’s president. “Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.” His decision to step down indicates that Roberts is likely secure, for now, in his role atop Heritage, as its board remains split about his future, according to a former Heritage staffer familiar with internal discussions.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
A QUESTION OF TIMING
It’s not GivingTuesday — it’s ‘Too-Late Tuesday’
“Every year, the same thought occurs to me: Thanksgiving is supposed to be a quiet pause in America’s noisy calendar, a day for gratitude — for naming what is enough. Yet every year, that pause lasts about eight hours. By midnight, the same hands that passed the stuffing are refreshing shopping carts for Black Friday deals,” writes Rabbi Igael “Iggy” Gurin-Malous, rabbi at Jewish residential recovery community and congregation Beit Teshuvah in Los Angeles, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Then, five days later, comes GivingTuesday, noble in spirit but often overshadowed by the sale stampede. By the time we ask people to pivot from discounts to donations, from Cyber Monday to sacred purpose, attention and credit limits are already maxed out.”
A proposal: “We need to flip the sequence. What if the Tuesday before Thanksgiving became the national day of giving, when gratitude is still fresh and wallets are still full? … If I could snap my fingers to make this cultural calendar change, I would move GivingTuesday to a week from today, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and make it a civic ritual of gratitude and philanthropy instead of a post-shopping frenzy add-on. Why does this matter? Because timing is not cosmetic: it shapes attitudes, budgets and behavior.”
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
The strategic majority: Rethinking Israel engagement on campus
“In the spring of 2024, when campus encampments were at their height, a public opinion survey from Generation Lab found that 8% of students were part of those protests. Who was focusing on the other 92%?” writes Yoni Heilman, CEO of Tamid Group, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
How we reach this group: “A common understanding among those of us who work with students regularly is that this ‘silent majority’ was paying attention to these protests and developing their opinions accordingly, but the vast majority of students weren’t standing in a ring around the protests — they were hurrying past on the way to class, circumventing the chaos to get to the library and finish their projects. These students, whose focus will not be deterred as they seek to build successful futures, land coveted internships and propel themselves ahead of their peers, are a powerful majority. And one model that has shown promise in reaching them about Israel is career-driven, experiential learning.”
Worthy Reads
Precipice of Change: In The Times of Israel, Avi Jorisch, CEO of the Israel Economic Forum, reflects on a recent meeting with the leader of the Asian kingdom of Bhutan as he seeks to modernize his country. “This was not merely a meeting with a king. It was a glimpse into how nations might rebuild themselves in an age of disruption — with humility, wisdom, and moral imagination. Bhutan is not trying to become the next Singapore. It is trying to become the first Bhutan. And if the world is wise, it will pay attention – because in this fragile Himalayan kingdom, a new model of national renewal may quietly be taking shape. One that could help us rethink not only the future of Bhutan, but the future of all of us.” [TOI]
Leadership Advice: In Nonprofit Quarterly, Isaiah Thompson interviews author Eveline Shen about her new book and nonprofit leadership in challenging times. “Eveline Shen has spent more than two decades as an executive director in the nonprofit sector, working closely with organizers and movement leaders across the country. Her new book, Choosing to Lead Against the Current, offers what she calls a ‘courageous operating system’ for leadership — especially for leaders from communities historically denied institutional power. Speaking with NPQ, Shen discussed burnout, the pitfalls of mission-driven leadership, and why courage should be understood as a collective practice.” [NPQ]
Word on the Street
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned recent attacks by Israeli extremists in the West Bank following the release of video that showed dozens of settlers setting fire to vehicles and homes in the Palestinian village of Jab’a…
A German auction house canceled the planned sale of more than 600 items that belonged to Holocaust victims after criticism by a Berlin-based organization for survivors…
The Orthodox Union is launching a new youth leadership development initiative, dubbed the OU Pipeline Initiative, for college-age leaders of Orthodox groups…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will step away from his upcoming public commitments following the release of extensive email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein that lasted until the day before Epstein’s arrest; Summers will continue teaching five classes this semester, and will stay on as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School…
Federal prosecutors in New York are seeking an 18-year prison sentence for a neo-Nazi leader who pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes for his role in a plot to give poisoned candy to Jewish children…
Canadian officials said that worker error was the reason an Israeli-born woman applying for a passport was told that she could not list Israel as her country of birth; an employee had reportedly told the woman that the denial was due to “the political conflict”…
The New York Times does a deep dive into the changes made to the National Endowment for the Humanities under the Trump administration, including the decision to award $10.4 million to the conservative Tikvah Fund, which was done after the NEH’s scholarly council voted against it…
WTAJ Altoona (Pa.) reports on a memorial service held in honor of Pennsylvania philanthropist Mimi Barash Coppersmith, who died in September at 92…
The New York Times spotlights psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein, who was believed to have been killed by a Nazi death squad in Russia in 1942, in its “Overlooked” series…
Major Gifts
Transitions
JLens added two new members to its board of directors: Michael Lustig, former managing director at BlackRock, andRachel Schnoll, CEO of Jewish Communal Fund and a former managing director at Goldman Sachs; Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which acquired JLens in 2022, and ADL Board Chair Nicole Mutchnik are also joining the board as ex officio members…
Ariella Saperstein will direct Maimonides Fund’s new Department of Policy Initiatives…
Assaf Gamzou has been hired to serve as the next vice president of engagement at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto…
Pic of the Day
Rabbi Gershon Litt (right), with philanthropist Jeffrey Solomon, last week after receiving the 2025 Jeffrey R. Solomon Prize from Birthright Israel and Birthright Israel Foundation. Litt, director of William & Mary Hillel, received the award in recognition of his nearly 20 years of work at the Virginia university, which included staffing more than 40 Birthright Israel trips. The award comes with a $5,000 cash prize, as well as up to $1,800 for professional development.
Birthdays
President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Broward County (Fla.), Audra P. Berg (seen with her dog, Kona)…
Theoretical physicist, at age 27 he became a professor and then later president of the Weizmann Institute, he is the founder of the Davidson Institute of Science Education at Weizmann, Haim Harari turns 85… Former president of East Bay Federation, Steve Goldman… Former national director of major gifts for the American Committee for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Paul Jeser… Lecturer at Boston University School of Law, he was formerly senior vice president and general counsel of Fidelity Management & Research Company, Eric D. Roiter turns 77… Atlanta resident, Lynda Wolfe… Israeli cantor and actor, known for his Broadway performance as Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” David “Dudu” Fisher turns 74… Professor emerita at Harvard Business School, Shoshana Zuboff turns 74… Professor of epidemiology and neurology at Columbia University, Walter Ian Lipkin turns 73… Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, she is a luxury handbag designer, Lana J. Marks turns 72… Singer-songwriter, he is also the author of a popular Passover Haggadah, Barry Louis Polisar turns 71… Longtime former play-by-play sportscaster for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, Marc Zumoff turns 70… Mayor of Dallas from 2002 until 2007, Laura Miller turns 67… Senior vice president and general counsel of HSP Group and ARF Financial, Robert Bruce Lapidus… Moroccan-born member of the Knesset since 2003 for the Shas party, he currently serves as the minister of welfare and social affairs, Yaakov Margi turns 65… New York City-based writer, activist and performer, Shira Dicker… Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington-based correspondent for The New York Times covering health policy, Sheryl Gay Stolberg turns 64… Retired Baltimore attorney who devotes her time to philanthropic and pro-Israel activities, Laurie Luskin… Rabbi of Burbank Temple Emanu El and former national coordinator of Rabbis Without Borders, Tsafreer “Tsafi” Lev turns 54… Chabad rabbi in Kyiv and executive chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, Raphael Rutman turns 53… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Michal Shir Segman turns 46… Freshman U.S. real estate agent at Coldwell Banker and a consultant for Bridals by Lori, Talia Fadis… Israeli singer-songwriter and music producer, Elisha Banai turns 37…
