Your Daily Phil: Funders brace for Israeli election results
Add EJP on GoogleGood Tuesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Sigal Yaniv Feller, executive director of Jewish Funders Network-Israel, about what Israel’s election means for philanthropy in the country, and spotlight Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary as he travels the country giving grants to young entrepreneurs. We feature an opinion piece by Laura Merage reflecting on the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism’s inaugural conference last week in Denver focused on allyship, and a piece by Jason Plotkin and David Contorer recounting how Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which was seriously damaged in a terror attack in March, managed to reopen in time for the High Holy Days. Also in this issue: Tovah Feldshuh, Michelle Rojas-Tal and Gal Gadot.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
It’s Election Day in Israel, with early figures indicating high turnout. Israelis have until 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) to cast their ballots, after which polling stations close and Israel’s major broadcasters will carry unofficial exit poll results.
American Friends of Magen David Adom is hosting its annual New York City gala tonight. This year’s gala, which is hosted by actor Tovah Feldshuh, will honor political commentator Van Jones and Aaron Dahan, whose Caffè Aronne on the Upper East Side faced threats and vandalism over Dahan’s support for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S JUSTIN HAYET
As Israelis cast their ballots today in the long-awaited election, the first since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, much of the Jewish philanthropic world is also anxiously awaiting results, refreshing the news and messaging Israeli colleagues and family. For many, the outcome of the election will not only be a matter of political or ideological concern but also a matter of significant professional consideration, shaping funders’ priorities and opportunities for years to come.
Some major foundations have been holding off on large strategic commitments until a new government takes shape and opportunities for government matching and collaboration grow clearer. Meanwhile, in recent years, some funders have moved into political philanthropy and are waiting to see whether their efforts paid off. Ahead of today’s election, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet spoke with Sigal Yaniv Feller, the executive director of Jewish Funders Network-Israel, on the trends reshaping Israeli giving ahead of the vote and the issues likely to stay on funders’ agendas once a new government forms, as well as her reasons for optimism.
Justin Hayet: How are philanthropic foundations preparing for the next government?
Sigal Yaniv Feller: There are quite a few foundations that have been investing over the past year and a half in in-depth policy papers, white papers, research, mapping, to be able to be ready to whichever government is elected and offer them well-thought-through and strategic plans around different fields in Israel, ranging from education to welfare to domestic violence to gender equality to climate to employment to mental health. These funders want to ensure that the new government has reliable data and policy proposals so the government can move quickly and hopefully promote some of these.
News
TIES THAT BIND
Jewish Federations survey finds deepening ties between U.S., Israeli Jewish communities
The bond between American and Israeli Jews has strengthened significantly over the past five years, with a growing number of Americans now viewing Israelis as an extension of their own family, according to a recently commissioned survey by the Jewish Federations of North America, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Family affair: The survey found that 62% of American Jews now view Israeli Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 46% in an American Jewish Committee survey in 2021. Among Israeli Jews, 53% now view American Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 45% in 2021. While American and Israeli Jews share a strong sense of identity, they differ on how much obligation comes with it. While 78% of Israeli Jews agreed that Jews around the world share a common fate and must act accordingly, 56% of American Jews said the same.
FUNDING FOUNDERS
‘No experience necessary’: Spin Master’s Harary wants to fund the next generation of founders
Parked outside Barnard College in Upper Manhattan earlier this month, amid a thicket of food trucks and students’ e-bikes, sat a 30-foot 1976 Airstream Sovereign. Somewhat out of place on Broadway and 117th, the travel trailer belonged to Ronnen Harary, the Jewish philanthropist best known as a co-founder of Spin Master, the Canadian toy and entertainment company behind “Paw Patrol” and “Bakugan,” reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Through November, that airstream will be Harary’s home base as he embarks on an unorthodox cross-continent tour for his book, No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make.
Pre-seed donating: Stopping at campuses across the U.S. and Canada, Harary is inviting students and passersby to deliver minute-long business pitches — and handing $500 on the spot to the ones he deems “winners.” By the end of his tour, Harary is aiming to cast a cadre of eager young people who will then participate in a competition to become one of 10 winners of $25,000 grants that will allow them to further develop their idea; it’s a model borrowed from pre-seed investing, where backers bet on a founder long before there is a business to evaluate. The key difference is that Harary is donating, not investing, as he will not be taking any equity.
Opinion
MOVED TO ACT
I was a little girl hiding from a mob. Now I’m standing up for my grandchildren.
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, artist and philanthropist Laura Merage, co-founder of the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism, highlights the diversity and hope-inspiring attitudes she encountered among the 450 participants at Together at the Crossroads: A Congress for Allyship & Unity, the foundation’s convening last week in Denver.
“But a feeling is not a result. We built this congress around action, and action is what people carried home. … I don’t expect to eliminate antisemitism in my lifetime. But I believe more firmly than ever that we can push it back to the margins, out of respectable conversation — the way it was, imperfectly, when I first came to this country.”
FRIENDS IN DEED
True community partners
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Jason Plotkin, executive director of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., and David Contorer, executive director of Hebrew Free Loan Detroit, describe how two institutions with a long-standing partnership serving community members in need navigated securing an interest-free loan of historic proportions to help the synagogue rebuild after the March 12 terror attack.
“It is one thing to say ‘we’re here for you’ after a tragedy, and it is another to say that same sentence while handing someone a $1 million check to help them rebuild. This is how you partner from friendship, community and belonging. Hebrew Free Loan and Temple Israel have become indelible parts of each other’s stories.”
Worthy Reads
Poison Pills: In Haaretz, journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that today’s Israeli election is less fateful than the 2022 vote that put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition in power, since an opposition win would bring only a slow, compromise-driven correction. “A bottle full of poison pills awaits the next prime minister on his night table, because the outgoing government inflamed each and every one of Israel’s crises and resolved none. The legacy of the last four years won’t be wiped out by an election.”
The Oldest Scapegoat: In The Atlantic, staff writer David Frum argues that a super PAC ad blaming U.S. aid to Israel for Michigan grocery prices revives an old antisemitic tactic of scapegoating Jews for economic pain. “In the case of the ad supporting El-Sayed, the sonofabitch targeted by the false accusation is not El-Sayed’s theoretical opponent, the Republican Mike Rogers—not really. The ad concludes, “Mike Rogers is for”—ironic chuckle—“they/them.” We all know who they are, and they are the real target of the ad.”
Wheels Up, Ballots In: In J. The Jewish News of Northern California, editor emerita Sue Fishkoff joins Bay Area Israelis flying home to vote in today’s election, many for the first time in decades. “‘If some of those ignorant folks ask what Zionism is, I invite them to look around at all the people here who have packed their bags and emptied their savings accounts because they want to save their country,’ [Hadar Aviram] said, waving at the crowded boarding area. ‘When you love something very, very, very much, you are willing to go to great lengths to save it.’”
Major Gifts
The Davis Family Charitable Foundation committed $2 million to Holocaust Museum Boston, which is preparing to open as New England’s first museum devoted entirely to Holocaust education…
Former Toronto Argonauts owner David Cynamon, who played receiver for York University’s football team in the early 1980s, donated $1.25 million to the school’s football program, the biggest donation York’s athletics department has ever received…
Donors from the Jewish Communal Fund gave more than $1.3 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a record and more than triple the total a decade earlier…
Transitions
The London School of Jewish Studies appointed Elaine Robinson as its new CEO…
American Friends of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel hired Michelle Rojas-Tal as its new executive director effective Nov. 1…
Allyson Berman Greenbaum joined American Technion Society as its managing director of central and western regions…
Word on the Street
Anthropic warned that its founders’ plans to donate 80% of their equity in the firm may result in a lower stock price than originally expected…
The Rockefeller Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the AARP Foundation are among more than 20 funders that launched All In For Jobs to mobilize $1 billion and match workers with open jobs as AI reshapes work…
The Weizmann Institute of Science, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Max Planck Society launched the Advanced Research Consortium in Berlin to host visiting scholars and offer postdoctoral fellowships…
Israeli high-tech company Similarweb launched another year of SimilarCare, a program that gives employee-nominated nonprofits full access to its platform and staff mentors…
Maimonides Fund’s Jewish Writers Institute announced its 36 fellows, drawn from a pool of more than 550 applicants, who will develop Jewish-themed scripts, podcasts and digital projects through its yearlong screenwriting and digital storytelling fellowships…
The National Jewish Advocacy Center is urging the Justice Department to open a civil rights inquiry into New York City’s school system, citing reports of antisemitism and Jewish families leaving public classrooms…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy dives deep into Ford Foundation President Heather Gerken’s plan to narrow the grant maker’s 19 program areas to seven as the foundation centers its work on bolstering democracy…
Intel is acquiring Israeli quantum-computing startup Classiq, founded by Nir Minerbi, Amir Naveh and Yehuda Naveh, for $2.3 billion in the first big exit for Israel’s quantum industry and the largest quantum acquisition in history…
Actress Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Adam Brody’s TV mother in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This,” warns that casting Jews as perpetrators of genocide mirrors Hitler-era tactics, after Brody told GQ that he believes Israel committed “genocide” in Gaza …
Religion News Service examines how Haredi draft exemptions have become a top issue in today’s Israeli election, as a new moderate party, The Haredi Public, vies for Knesset seats….
An American Jewish Committee delegation led by the organization’s chief policy and political affairs officer, Jason Isaacson, met with Ahmed Touizi, speaker of Morocco’s House of Representatives…
18Doors, a Jewish nonprofit for interfaith families, is regrouping under its new executive director Adam Pollack after donor gifts that fell through forced it to shed most of its staff and cut its budget roughly in half…
Bar-Ilan University awarded honorary doctorates to actor Gal Gadot, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Africa Innovation founder Sivan Yaari and the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Sandy Frankel at a gala last night marking its 70th anniversary…nched a Jewish man in Surfside, Fla., cursed the victim and his wife and threatened to kill them…
Pic of the Day
Israelis stand in line to vote today at a polling station in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv. This year’s election is on track to have one of the largest turnouts in decades, with 31.5% of voters having cast their ballots as of noon — the highest level in some 50 years by this time in the day.
Birthdays
Fran Lebowitz, author, actor and comedian, turns 76
Gordon Gerson, treasurer of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association
George Z. Singal, senior U.S. district judge in Maine, he was born in a refugee camp following WWII, turns 81
Rabbi Gary Glickstein, rabbi emeritus at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom, turns 79
Joel Schindler, SVP at MarketVision Research
Robert Goldfarb, president emeritus of Jewish Creativity International
Eric Steven Edelman, counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey, turns 75
Peter Marc Jacobson, television writer, director and producer, best known as the co-creator of “The Nanny,” turns 69
Kenneth Katzman, senior advisor and fellow at the Soufan Center following 31 years at the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the U.S. Congress)
Robert J. Bond, real estate agent and co-founder and president of Bond Companies
Bryan Glazer, co-owner of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, he is a son of the late Malcolm Glazer, turns 62
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Manhattan borough president, he was previously a member of the New York State Senate, turns 61
Matt Drudge, creator and editor of the Drudge Report, turns 60
Shlomo Simcha Sufrin, Hasidic cantor and singer known by his first and middle names, turns 59
Andrea Schlesinger, partner at HR&A Advisors, turns 50
Adam Zucker, sportscaster for CBS Sports, turns 50
Yotam Haber, music composer, associate professor of music composition at Boston University and director of the BU Center for New Music, turns 50
Gideon “Gidi” Markuszower, member of the Netherlands House of Representatives, turns 49
Stephanie Abrams, television meteorologist, currently working for The Weather Channel, turns 48
Elizabeth L. Silver, writer, attorney and creative writing teacher, she has published two novels and a medical memoir, turns 48
Idit Silman, Israel’s minister of environmental protection, turns 46
Alexander Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father George Soros, turns 41
Inbar Lavi, Israeli actor best known for playing Eve in the Netflix series “Lucifer,” turns 40
Elizabeth “Liz” Leibowitz, senior foreign policy and national security advisor for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Theresa Collington, executive producer of online content at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Stephanie Arbetter, content strategy lead at Amazon
Andrew J. Taub, account manager at Amazon Web Services
Ryan Eisenman, co-founder and CEO of NYC-based Arch
