Your Daily Phil: How a Jewish-Arab gap year navigated a post-Oct. 7 Israel
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Shanie Reichman, the Israel Policy Forum’s new director of strategic initiatives. In the latest installment of eJewishPhilanthropy’s exclusive opinion column “The 501(c) Suite,” Lisa Eisen writes about maintaining relationships and standing up for priorities as Jewish funders in a post-Oct. 7 world. Also in this newsletter:Larry Robinson, Leon Black and Lev Littman. We’ll start with how a Jewish-Arab Israeli gap-year program made it through a challenging year.
A gap-year program for 80 Jewish and Arab Israeli youth had been running for a month when Hamas launched its bloody terror attack on Oct. 7, rampaging through southern Israeli communities with terrorist fighters and a massive rocket barrage, an attack that did not distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish victims, reports Judith Sudilovsky for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Five Bedouin Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas — two siblings were released in a November prisoner exchange; the rest are still captive — and at least 17 Bedouin were killed in the attack.
“It was a serious shock for everyone,” said Rona Keshet, the joint society co-director of AJEEC-NISPED, an Israeli coexistence organization, which runs the pre-army program along with the Israeli Scouts. “Immediately [the participants] sent messages to each other, Arabs and Jews, asking if they were OK.”
Despite the challenges and complexities posed by the war, both in general for the country and particularly for a Jewish-Arab initiative like the pre-army gap year, all of the participants chose to remain in the program and face those issues head-on, Khawla El-Turi, AJEEC joint society co-director, told eJP. The program came to a close at the end of last month.
The gap-year initiative, going into its 20th year in September, aims to bridge cultural divides and promote mutual understanding through shared experiences between pre-army Jewish youth from throughout Israel and Arab youth of the same age from Bedouin communities in the Negev and from the mixed cities of Ramle and Lod in central Israel.
“We realized that the only way to overcome the separation and hatred is the way of respect, understanding and cooperation,” Nadin Abu Doba, 19, from the Bedouin village of Abu Talul, told eJP shortly after the program ended.
The program consists of four communal groups with a total of 80 participants, half of whom are Jewish and half Arab. The Jewish participants spend the year in communal living arrangements in Beersheva, Ramle and Lod, while the Arab participants remain living in their homes. Arab and Jewish participants volunteer in pairs during the year in Arab and Jewish schools.
Immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks, the participants felt the gap between their societies and the differences of their experiences. Three days later, the scouts were flown to Eilat to help with the Gaza border communities who had been evacuated there, while the Arab participants remained in their homes, afraid they would be attacked if they went out to buy food and other supplies, Keshet said.
Though the scouts could have remained in Eilat to volunteer, after three weeks they chose to return to their program, she said.
“They realized that in this real-time political situation such a joint Arab-Jewish partnership program was too important for them to disappear from,” said Keshet. “There was a feeling that both groups wanted to return to the joint circle. This would not have been possible without the strong interpersonal relations they had already created. The glue was the moment the Arab participants felt the empathy of the Jewish participants. I think this was the first time they felt their feelings were not being erased and they were being believed.”
As the counselors began a series of dialogue sessions with the teens — first separated, Jews from Arabs, and then together — the teens showed a surprising deep sense of empathy for one another and a commitment to the program, Keshet recalled. They were given tools to learn how to deal with differing opinions and created a safe reality for a complex truth, said Mika Eshel, 19, a Jewish participant from Tel Aviv.
“We learned to understand that there is no single truth,” said Eshel. “Despite the disagreements, the room was full of love and giving that didn’t always come easily but was worth every effort, we created sanity in a reality without limits.”
EMERGING LEADERS
Shanie Reichman rises in the ranks of the Israel Policy Forum
Shanie Reichman’s goal of keeping the liberal Zionist tent as wide as possible has met a fraught moment. In the months since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel — and the subsequent war in Gaza and global rise of antisemitism — Reichman has walked a tightrope trying to balance the wide range of views within the American Jewish community. Last month, the 27-year-old was named Israel Policy Forum’s director of strategic initiatives, a role she took on while still continuing her position as director of IPF’s young professionals’ network, Atid (Hebrew for “future”). As she begins her new post at IPF, Reichman sat down with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen to talk about her role, the growth of Atid and its future.
Easier because it’s harder: “It’s been easier to get people involved since [Oct. 7], especially because of the loneliness they felt after,” she said about millennial and Generation Z engagement. “We were already [seeing more engagement] but Oct. 7 definitely expedited it. A lot of Jews hadn’t felt the need to engage with Israel before, and they were all very activated not just by Oct. 7 but also as a result of friends not showing up and asking how they were doing.”
Future planning: Reichman started her career at IPF in 2017 as a program associate amid what may now seem like a less divisive time for young, pro-Israel Jews. The young professionals’ group delves into “a range of issues” that are addressed by IPF, Reichman said, such as strategy for postwar Gaza and reforms for UNRWA. But among the highlights, she added, is the programming uniquely designed for the next generation of policy leaders. “The focus is on what can actually be done to make the situation better, as opposed to who is more right, who is the bigger victim,” she said. “We delve into those questions too, but that’s not the core of our work. The core of our work is what do we want the future to look like and how do we get there.”
THE 501(C) SUITE
Holding both: Being a universal and particular funder in a post-Oct. 7 world
“At the core of Jewish tradition is a set of interwoven obligations to look after our own while simultaneously working toward a better future for all. We are, as Rabbi Sid Schwarz describes, both ‘Exodus Jews,’ focused on our survival as a tribe, and ‘Sinai Jews,’ bound by our covenantal calling to care for others,” writes Lisa Eisen, co-president of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, in the latest installment of eJewishPhilanthropy’s exclusive opinion column “The 501(c) Suite.”
Don’t give up: “These dual tribal and prophetic roles are a source of continued inspiration for us at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. They are what drive us to invest in strengthening the Jewish people and Israel, as well as in building more just and inclusive societies… The impulse [after Oct. 7] to restrict our focus to Israel and Jewish causes is understandable, as is the pull to give in to the ideological forces that would have us recuse ourselves from the fight for a more just world. But ceding our spot at the table of humanity will not serve us, now or in the future. Our job as funders and practitioners is not to unravel the sacred bonds of our tribal and prophetic responsibilities, but rather to hold both. To choose both. ”
Be true to you: “Even before Oct. 7 and especially since, we have found that being as clear as possible with our grantees about who we are and what we stand for has allowed us to continue serving our mission alongside a diverse array of partners. For us, this has meant helping our secular partners understand our Jewish and Israel work, and our Jewish and Israel partners understand our secular work. It has also meant being more upfront about our core values and non-negotiable red lines. We strive to stay in relationships with our grantees and to foster open, respectful conversation when tensions do arise. While we have not always succeeded and while we continue to improve how we do this, we have found that in many cases, these conversations lead to deeper understanding, shared learning and opportunities for repair.”
Worthy Reads
Please Apply What We Already Know: In a letter to the editor in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, Anna Harwood-Gross, Danny Brom, Sarit Schramm-Yavin, Eyal Fruchter and Eric Vermetten question how philanthropy has been responding to Israel’s post-Oct. 7 mental health crisis, if too much attention was paid to immediate projects and not enough to long-term, scientifically rigorous interventions. “[A] wider public-health discussion is warranted surrounding what mental health care is offered, to whom and when… The wild growth of initiatives [in Israel] brings up many questions about the professional and ethical background of providers and the long-term strategies for strengthening familial and community support while offering targeted care… [W]hile the influx of volunteers and grassroot[s] organisations, specifically those integrating peer and community group models, may be appropriate for earlier stages of acute stress and depressive reactions, later stages of PTSD and prolonged traumatic or traumatic grief reactions, as have now been established in the current population, require both highly trained professionals and a staged treatment approach… Rather than inundate the field with an abundance of interventions and one-off treatments, greater funding and attention are recommended to be given to effective treatment assessment and allocation and the reduction of barriers to care.” [EuropeanJournalofPsychotraumatology]
Practitioners Push Back: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Jodi Nelson and Fay Twersky respond to a critique of strategic philanthropy featured prominently in the publication’s most recent issue. “[Authors Mark Kramer and Steve Phillips] find evidence of strategic philanthropy’s failure in the country’s growing social challenges and argue it should be replaced by ‘empowerment philanthropy,’ a combination of unconditional cash transfers, voter education and mobilization, and collective impact tactics that give people agency to help themselves. They warn that strategic philanthropy is dangerous because ‘it diverts attention from fundamental reforms less palatable to wealthy donors and from the fact that government and corporate behavior are responsible for the ills of society.’ This is not our experience with strategic philanthropy. We see Kramer and Phillips’ depiction as an almost cartoonish caricature that confuses the role of philanthropy with that of government. Perhaps more importantly, they dismiss philanthropy’s critical role in society, ignore evidence of philanthropy’s role in successful social change, and fail to recognize how philanthropists and practitioners have learned and improved over time.” [SSRI]
Around the Web
The Shabbat meal initiative OneTable is marking its first decade, during which it has facilitated more than 1 million reservations for 137,600 dinners with 270,000 participants at more than 700 locations…
Larry Robinson, the president of Florida A&M University, resigned on Friday in the aftermath of a failed $237 million donation earlier this year…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy examines the significance of Michael Bloomberg’s $1 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University…
Some Republican leaders are taking issue with the party’s new platform on combating antisemitism, finding that it lacks substance…
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is nearing an agreement to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, which would make it the biggest-ever Israeli acquisition, more than 50% larger than Intel‘s 2017 purchase of Mobileye for over $15 billion…
Leon Black has unloaded more than $1 billion in Apollo Global Management Inc. stock since the start of the year, though he still controls roughly 14% of the company…
Rebecca Lederkramer was hired as director of individual giving at the Israel Policy Forum. Lederkramer previously worked as the senior grant writer for EcoPeace Middle East Environmental NGO Forum…
The Columbus Jewish News interviews Caitlin Sherman, the new vice president of individual giving and special campaigns at the local federation…
Suzy Gelman (not to be confused with the philanthropist and activist Susie Gelman) was appointed to Women of Reform Judaism’s national board…
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle spotlights the upcoming European Maccabi Youth Games in London, which kick off later this month…
Vandals set fire to a synagogue in Obninsk, Russia, last week, causing significant damage but no injuries…
French television networks simultaneously aired a short film highlighting the rise of antisemitism in the country ahead of the UEFA Euro Championship game yesterday; the film showcased the impact of rising antisemitism on a Jewish Parisian family from the vantage point of a non-Jewish friend…
The Telegraph considers the possible ramifications of a proposed change to England’s value-added tax on private Jewish schools…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency delves into the Portland, Ore., Jewish community’s decision to cut ties with a local food bank earlier this year after it put out an anti-Israel statement…
The Washington Post spotlights the friendship between a Holocaust survivor and a teenage volunteer at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center…
Celebrity fitness personality Richard Simmons died on Saturday at 76…
Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who survived the Holocaust as a teenager and fought in the Haganah in pre-state Israel before immigrating to the U.S., died on Friday at 96…
Attorney Abe Krash, who played a key role in the Supreme Court decision on Gideon v. Wainwright, died on July 6 at 97…
Pic of the Day
Lev Littman (front row, right) and 10 other graduates of the HaShomer Hatza’ir youth movement purchase 13 apartments in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya for their “urban” kibbutz, dubbed Ruth. Since September, the founders of Kibbutz Ruth have been living in rented apartments in the city.
“The strongest response to Hezbollah is a strong, living north,” Littman wrote in a Hebrew Facebook post about the purchase. “The strongest response to the government’s policy of abandonment is the choice to live in the north, to demand that it receive proper public investment and the choice to actualize the inherent human resources in our society in order to develop these areas, despite the trends of withdrawal, erosion and widening gaps.”
Birthdays
Former U.K. Labour Party MP, including three years as secretary of state for foreign affairs, now CEO of New York City-based International Rescue Committee, David Miliband…
President and chairman of the board of the Annenberg Foundation, Wallis Annenberg… Member of the British House of Lords, he is a professor, medical doctor, scientist, television anchor and Labour Party politician, Baron Robert Maurice Lipson Winston… Israeli composer and conductor, he composed and conducted the winning entry at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, Kobi Oshrat… Professional sports bettor and poker player, he is a four-time winner of the World Series of Poker, Mickey Appleman… Physician and life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. David Harris Lippman… Dean of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world with more than 9,000 students, Rabbi Dovid Schustal… Former congresswoman from Florida for 30 years, during her last two years she served as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen… Executive vice president at the Aspen Institute responsible for policy programs and its international partners, Elliot Gerson… Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. since 2021, Michael (Mike) Herzog… California-based appellate attorney, Feris M. Greenberger… Executive director of Friends of OU Israel, Miriam Baron (Mimi) Jankovits… Board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, Julie Beren Platt… Professor at the UCLA School of Law, Richard Harold Steinberg… Political news director at Bloomberg, Jodi Schneider… Member of Congress (D-RI) until 2023, his mother is Sabra née Peskin, David Nicola Cicilline… Anchorage-based attorney, a member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 2012, Andrew Lewis “Andy” Josephson… Co-founder and chief investment officer of Toronto-based EdgeStone Capital Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity firms, Gilbert S. Palter… Israeli actress and singer, she is the 1991 and 1998 winner of the Ophir Award (Israel’s Academy Award) for best actress, Dafna Rechter… Senior advisor at investment bank Greif & Co., he was the CFO of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, David S. Felman… Senior business development representative at Atera, Sam Kalmowicz… Rabbi, blogger and attorney, Eliyahu Fink… Senior correspondent at New York magazine and a CNN contributor, she is a co-author of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Irin Carmon… Israeli actor, he played Boaz in Season 1 of “Fauda,” Tomer Kapon… Filmmaker and co-founder of the Square Peg film production company, Ari Aster… Managing editor of the U.S. deals team at Bloomberg, Liana Balinsky-Baker… Deputy assistant secretary for travel and tourism at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Alexander Lasry… Vice president of the Israel Action and Addressing Antisemitism Program at Hillel International, Jonathan Steven (“Jon”) Falk… Director of news experimentation at Southern California Public Radio, Ariel Zirulnick… Senior NFL reporter at Yahoo Sports, she is also the author of a biography of a Holocaust survivor, Jori Epstein…
