Your Daily Phil: Free Jewish summer camp for upstate New Yorkers
Good Friday morning.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Birthright Israel turning its post-Oct. 7 volunteer initiative into a larger, permanent program; Lauder, Yael foundations give $15.45 million to revamp Rome’s Jewish school, with more plans to invest in European Jewish education; and What’s giving Shari Redstone hope about the Middle East. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the Farash Foundation providing free camp to upstate New Yorkers and on Jewish brothers’ $75 million donation to the University of Wisconsin. We feature an opinion piece by Joel Citron highlighting the role of his family in his commitment to fighting antisemitism and defending Israel. Also in this issue: Tammy Hoffman, David Rubenstein and Daniel Herz. We’ll start with how a state voucher program has sparked a rise in enrollment at Florida Jewish day schools. Shabbat shalom!
Bucking national trends, Jewish day schools in Florida have seen a major period of growth in enrollment in recent years, apparently owing to a combination of state-sponsored scholarships, innovative educational approaches and strategic investments. According to recent research by the Orthodox Union-affiliated Teach Coalition’s office of Jewish Education Policy and Research, in partnership with Step Up for Students, enrollment in Jewish day schools grew by 58% — from 8,492 students in 2007 to 13,379 in 2023, reports Efrat Lachter for eJewishPhilanthropy.
The study attributes much of this growth to Florida’s state-sponsored education choice scholarship programs. The author of the study, Gabriel Aaronson, director for policy and research at Teach Coalition, told eJP, “In 2011-12, only 10% of Jewish school students in Florida received scholarships, but by 2022-23, this number had risen to 60%, with the average scholarship amount doubling from $3,820 to $8,090.”
Daniel Mitzner, director of government affairs at Teach Coalition, emphasized the importance of these scholarships in promoting Jewish enrollment across both Orthodox and non-Orthodox schools. “The numbers here are incredible and point to the effect of state scholarship programs on promoting Jewish enrollment across the Orthodox and non-Orthodox spectrum,” Mitzner said. “Advocating similar scholarship programs in other states should be a top priority for the Jewish community.” (While Teach Coalition supports such voucher programs for private schools, as do most other Orthodox groups, non-Orthodox Jews tend to be less supportive of these measures, prioritizing government investment in public schools.)
The study found that many schools are struggling to keep up with the demand, facing difficulties in expanding due to limited suitable properties and rising real estate prices. Danny Aqua, Southern states political director at Teach Coalition, warned: “Without legislative and regulatory action to reduce the hurdles to opening new schools, the lack of school building space may throttle growth in Florida’s Jewish day schools.”
While these school vouchers have had a major impact on enrollment, tuition costs for Jewish day schools can still remain high. The Jewish Leadership Academy (JLA), a Jewish middle and high school that opened in Miami last fall, is pioneering a new approach to providing scholarships through what it calls the JLA Scholarship Fund in order to address this issue.
Gil Perl, head of school at JLA, explained that because the institution is new, it “does not have a large donor base to rely upon,” requiring it to develop an alternative fundraising strategy: the JLA Scholarship Fund, which operates as a “fund of funds,” a finance term referring to a hedge fund that invests in other hedge funds rather than directly into businesses.
Under the initiative, Kawa Capital Management agreed to manage the fund without charging fees on investments of up to $20 million from its flagship fund. Investors in the fund agree to donate 50% of their gross returns to the school.
“For investment managers, managing a small amount of capital pro bono is often significantly easier than actually giving hard dollars. And given that generally 30% to 40% of the returns in a traditional hedge fund are retained by the investment firms, investors are also giving up only a small part of their returns,” Perl said.
“We’re essentially asking philanthropists to invest in something they believe in, with the potential for significant financial returns, all while making a tangible impact on education,” Perl said.
BUNK BOOST
Farash Foundation donates $16M to give free Jewish camp to all upstate New Yorkers
For many kids, September marks not only the return to school but more importantly begins the nine-month countdown until the return to summer camp. When Camp Seneca Lake’s summer 2025 registration opens on Friday, dozens of children in the Rochester, N.Y., area whose families would otherwise be unable to afford the soaring costs of camp will have the opportunity to partake in Jewish overnight camp at no cost as a result of a new initiative from the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports.
Free camp for all: Last week, the Farash Foundation launched Project Campfire. Over the next nine years, the foundation said it expects to commit $16 million to the project — which will provide children who self-identify as Jewish, are in grades three through nine and reside in the upstate New York counties of Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, Livingston, Orleans, Genesee and Yates a “campership” that will fully fund one session of attendance at Camp Seneca Lake, regardless of the families’ income level. One four-week session at Camp Seneca Lake costs about $5,000.
Investment in the future: “In trying to think through the future of the Jewish community, and recognizing that Jewish camping, in particular overnight camps, are one of the top predictors of a Jewish child identifying as a Jewish adult, this seemed like the perfect way to invest in the youth of today, which will make the future of Rochester,” Jennie Schaff, CEO of the Farash Foundation, told eJP. The initiative comes on the heels of an earlier one that offset the cost by about 18% for children in the area to attend any Jewish camp of their choice. But free camp for all local Jewish children is “the first of its kind” in the U.S., according to Schaff.
MAJOR GIFTS
Marvin and Jeffrey Levy donate $75 million to UW-Madison in honor of their brother who died in 2021
Marvin and Jeffrey Levy, brothers and University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, donated $75 million to their alma mater for a new engineering building that will be named in honor of their brother, Phillip, another graduate of the university, who died in 2021, the school announced on Wednesday. This represents the largest ever donation made to the university, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Stately gift: “Our family deeply appreciates the vital role engineering plays in driving innovations that advance our society and contribute to people’s quality and enjoyment of life. Jeff and I view support of this new engineering building as a gift to the state of Wisconsin,” Marvin said at an announcement event at the university.
History of giving: The brothers previously donated $20 million to help build a new UW-Madison College of Letters & Science academic building, which was named in honor of their parents, Irving and Dorothy Levy. In addition to the university, the pair donate to a large number of causes in Madison, including to the city’s rotary foundation’s scholarship program, its symphony orchestra, children’s museum, public library and Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as to the city’s Beth El and Beth Israel Center synagogues.
ALUMS TAKING ACTION
A responsibility to our past, our present and our future
“As the son of two Holocaust survivors, I always felt blessed to be born at a uniquely peaceful and prosperous moment in Jewish history,” writes USC alum Joel Citron — chair of the Board of Councilors of the USC Shoah Foundation, member of the university’s Presidential Leadership Council and vice chair of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation — in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “That sense of gratitude has been increasingly replaced with a powerful fear that in a world that’s moving backward, the fate of my children and future grandchildren will look more like that of Jews in the past.”
Danger revealed: “The nearly 16 million Jews around the globe today are divided primarily between Israel and the United States, but neither country feels like a refuge. My family was visiting my mother in Tel Aviv when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7. Returning to the U.S., we witnessed deeply troubling eruptions of antisemitism on college campuses — Jewish students being blocked from classes and told to go back to Poland, where my parents were lucky to have escaped with their lives… For the first time in their lives, my adult children are asking themselves: Is this where I belong? And if not here, then where am I safe?”
A new initiative: “Something has clearly gone awry in higher education, and it’s time for alumni and campus leaders to speak out with moral clarity and demand change… It is also vitally important that institutions like the USC Shoah Foundation lead efforts to assess and respond to antisemitism in all its forms — including antisemitism at USC, one of our country’s foremost universities… [T]his week, the foundation launched a major initiative, the Countering Antisemitism Laboratory, which will provide a platform for more research, education and a large testimony-based archive focused on the world’s oldest hatred.”
A collective obligation: “After Oct. 7, I vowed to my mother I would redouble my efforts to confront antisemitism, defend Israel’s right to exist and promote tolerance with unwavering determination. I understand and embrace the responsibility that survivors have bestowed upon us through their stories. I call on professors and administrators to listen, to reflect and to ensure that students are no longer taught to hate Jews. Will these efforts matter? I don’t know. But I owe it to my children to try.”
Worthy Reads
Teachable Moments: In The Times of Israel, Tammy Hoffman draws a lesson for teachers grappling with the approach of the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks from what educators discussed (or rather, didn’t discuss) after 9/11. “The central messages conveyed by the education system in the United States during the first months after 9/11 are a touchstone that can inform the response of the Israeli education system to the events of Oct. 7 and the ongoing war. The perspective gained over the 23 years since 2001 allows us to understand longer-term social processes, including the impact of how 9/11 was presented and discussed in American education, particularly regarding the boundaries of discourse… The students who have just begun the new school year should be exposed to the deeper questions that the war poses regarding the possibility for unity and cohesion, and the future of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. They must hold conversations about the different views that exist regarding these questions in classrooms with educators and not just on social media… Educators must rise to the occasion and discuss current events with their students, and deliberate on the implications of different positions regarding the war and its long-term effects. Failing to do so might well leave us with slogans of unity and patriotism but without the possibility of an actual foundation for change.” [TOI]
Solutions Ready and Waiting: There are key actions that could help reverse the infant and maternal mortality rates in regions around the world facing humanitarian crises, write Dr. Petra Khoury, Dr. Sanjana Bhardwaj and Dr. Kelle Moley in Devex. “Weakened health care systems and depleted essential health resources contribute to staggeringly high rates of maternal and newborn deaths. Some 64% of maternal deaths and 50% of newborn deaths occur in the 29 countries identified by the World Health Organization as being affected by humanitarian crises. Governments, NGOs, donors, development agencies and the private sector must come together to end all preventable deaths, including those in humanitarian settings. At this year’s World Health Assembly, a resolution was passed committing to expedite efforts in reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality. To support this, we hosted a roundtable of representatives from across the maternal and newborn health community, who have the ability and influence to deliver change, to drive a path forward to reduce maternal and newborn death, focusing on humanitarian crisis settings. The discussions brought to light that many of the solutions needed to reduce these deaths are already available, even in humanitarian crisis settings.” [Devex]
Around the Web
Baltimore Orioles owner and philanthropist David Rubenstein is donating $1.5 million to the Jewish Museum of Maryland allowing it to complete the modernization project for its public spaces…
The Simon Wiesenthal Center held its Humanitarian Award gala in New York City last night, in which it honored investment banker and documentary producer Aryeh B. Bourkoff…
The board of trustees of Chapman University in Orange, Calif., rejected a proposal to divest from companies that conduct business with Israel…
The Washington Post highlights the changes that some U.S. colleges are making to their policies in response to last year’s anti-Israel demonstrations…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged nine anti-Israel demonstrators and two counterprotesters who were involved in incidents at the University of Michigan relating to the school’s anti-Israel encampment…
Hillel of Washington University in St. Louis appointed Laura Whalen as its new board of chair…
Ashley Herman joined the Jewish Federation of St. Louis as annual campaign associate…
The New York City Council voted on Thursday to officially recognize Landing Day, when the first Jewish community of 23 people arrived in New Amsterdam, now called New York, in September 1654…
Through his eponymous foundation, Bernie Marcus awarded a $25.9 million grant to Emory University School of Medicine and Grady Health System’s Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center to study treatment options for intracerebral hemorrhages…
JEWISHcolorado, the state’s Jewish federation, named Daphna Strelitz its next manager of its Jewish Community Foundation…
In The Free Press, Matti Friedman reflects on the Afghan Liturgical Quire, a roughly 1,400-year old Hebrew book — the oldest of its kind — and on the issue of who is entitled to claim ownership of ancient Jewish artifacts…
New York’s YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will host the “After Orthodoxy: Cultural Creativity and the Break with Tradition” on Sunday and Monday, celebrating the contribution to Jewish and general culture of the formerly Orthodox who left their religious lifestyle…
Josh Kesselman, the founder of RAW Rolling Papers, donated $50,o00 to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)…
The Jewish Standard interviews Daniel Herz, the new president of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, about his family’s connection to the Jewish community and legacy of giving…
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue launched its second cohort of 24 early-career rabbis to the Amplify Israel Fellowship; read eJP’s coverage of the fellowship here…
American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies appointed Ilene Berman as vice chair of its advisory board. She most recently served as the president of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue in Encino, Calif…
Two major Jewish security groups, Community Security Initiative New York and Community Security Initiative Los Angeles, held a summit for Jewish security heads from more than 15 major cities across the U.S. this week in New York to strengthen the collective response to emerging threats…
The mayor of Palo Alto, Calif., and other local elected officials withdrew from a multifaith 9/11 memorial vigil after the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined as a co-sponsor…
Pic of the Day
More than 1,000 female medical volunteers convened at Tel Aviv’s Hangar 11 venue on Wednesday to mark the official dedication of United Hatzalah’s Adele and Joel Sandberg Women’s Unit, Israel’s first all-female emergency medical response team.
The unit, comprising 1,763 female volunteers from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, was established in 2021 with the support of Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Meta. It honors her parents, who are also key supporters of the initiative.
Birthdays
Executive chairman of MDC Holdings and prominent philanthropist, Larry A. Mizel, celebrates his birthday on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Retired motion picture editor, Avrum Fine… Columnist, author and etiquette authority known as Miss Manners, Judith Perlman Martin… Chairman of global brokerage at CBRE, Stephen Siegel… Folk artist, photographer and writer focused on European Jewish history, Jill Culiner… Retired after 57 years as a D.C. reporter for many print and broadcast media, Richard Pollock… CEO of the Democratic Majority for Israel, Mark S. Mellman… Ice dancer, who, with her partner Michael Seibert, won five straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1981 and 1985, Judy Blumberg… Founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, he is the author of 16 books, Rafael Medoff… Executive director of Aspen Digital, part of the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller… Senior lecturer in Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Chaim Kosman… Comedian known as “Roastmaster General” for his Comedy Central celebrity roasts, Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz… Attorney general of North Carolina, and candidate to become N.C.’s next governor in this year’s election, Joshua Stein… Member of the Los Angeles City Council, Robert J. Blumenfield… Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel and president of its U.S.-based support organization, Friends of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer… Israel’s minister of health, he is a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Uriel Menachem Buso… Regional director in the D.C. regional office of the Anti-Defamation League, Meredith Mirman Weisel… Former nine-year member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Jonathan Singer… Advocacy strategist with experience in opinion research, Gary Ritterstein… Senior editor and elections analyst at Cook Political Report focused on the U.S. House of Representatives and redistricting, David Nathan Wasserman… Founder and president of Reshet Capital, a boutique investment firm, Betty Grinstein… Director at Finsbury Glover Hering, Walter Suskind… Policy associate at Hadassah, Sierra DeCrosta… Senior software engineer at Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan Chase, David Behmoaras… Managing director at Page Four Media, Noa Silverstein…
SATURDAY: Actor, writer and director, Walter Koenig… Basketball coach enshrined in the Hall of Fame, Lawrence Harvey (Larry) Brown… Partner at San Diego-based CaseyGerry, a specialist in mass torts, Frederick A. Schenk… Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava… Plastic surgeon and television personality, Dr. Terry Dubrow… Chairman and chief investment officer of The Electrum Group, he is the world’s largest private collector of Rembrandt paintings, Thomas Scott Kaplan… Founder of Mindchat Research, Amy Kauffman… Founder of Vermont-based Kidrobot, a retailer of art toys, apparel and accessories, and Ello, an ad-free social network, Paul Budnitz… British secretary of state for defence until two months ago, he was a national president of BBYO, Grant Shapps… President of Strauss Media Strategies, during the Clinton administration he became the first-ever White House radio director, Richard Strauss… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ketanji Brown Jackson… Managing director at Gasthalter, Mark A. Semer… Comedian, television actor, writer and producer, Elon Gold… Managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, his clients include SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Elliot S. Berke… Former senior White House reporter for Bloomberg, Jennifer Jacobs… CEO of San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks, Dana Sheanin… Guest booking producer at CNN’s “Inside Politics with Dana Bash,” Courtney Cohen Flantzer… Governor of Florida and former 2024 POTUS candidate, Ron DeSantis… Israeli-American actress, Hani Furstenberg… Artist, photographer and educator, Marisa Scheinfeld… Staff writer at The Atlantic, Russell Berman… Co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive Indivisible movement, Leah Greenberg… Los Angeles- based attorney working as a contracts supervisor at MarketCast, Roxana Pourshalimi… New York Times reporter focused on in-depth profiles, Matt Flegenheimer… Executive vice president at Voyager Global Mobility, Jeremy Moskowitz… Founder and owner of ARA Capital, a British firm with holdings in e-commerce and energy, Arkadiy Abramovich… MSW candidate at Yeshiva University, Julia Savel… Artistic gymnast, she represented Israel at the 2020 (Tokyo) and 2024 (Paris) Summer Olympics, Lihie Raz…
SUNDAY: Founder and former CEO of Elektra Records, he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jac Holzman… Professor at the Hebrew University and a leading scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Emanuel Tov… Chief rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, known as the “Disco Rabbi,” Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman… Professor emerita of education at Boston University’s Wheelock College, Diane Elizabeth Levin… NYC-based composer and multi-instrument musician, Ned Rothenberg… Business litigator in the Miami office of Gunster, Aron U. Raskas… Film executive, she produced “The Hunger Games” film series, Nina Jacobson… Managing partner and chief technology officer at Differential Ventures in Philadelphia, David Magerman… NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik… Actor, best known for his roles on “Sports Night” and “The Good Wife,” Josh Charles… Comedian, writer and actress, Kira Soltanovich… VP of leadership at the Anti-Defamation League, Deborah Leipzig… Chicago public schoolteacher, event organizer and fundraiser, Shayla Rosen… Author and longtime education correspondent at NPR, Anya Kamenetz… Data scientist, economist and author of the 2017 New York Times bestseller Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz… Model and Israeli beauty queen titleholder, Yael Markovich… Partner in CHW Strategic Advisors and CEO of Harmon Face Values, Jonah Raskas… Tomer Zvi Elias… Chief strategy officer at PW Communications, Amanda Bresler… Reporter at The New York Times, Eliza Shapiro… Singer and actress, she was the 2009 winner of the Israeli version of “A Star is Born,” Roni Dalumi… Beauty pageant titleholder, she was crowned Miss Israel 2012, Shani Hazan…
