Your Daily Phil: Instagram’s pro-Nazi proliferation problem
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we speak with antisemitism expert Luc Bernard about the pro-Nazi content spreading on Instagram. We report on the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board’s unexpected rejection of a virtual Jewish charter school in the state, and on the J7 Task Force persuading the U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to host a seven-country antisemitism convening. We feature an opinion piece by Brett Schwartz with advice for holders of donor-advised funds and one by Bari Rogoff identifying a gap in the American approach to Holocaust education. Also in this issue: Amy Handlin, Tamar Hermann and Elazar Yair Wilensky.
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
The Global Jewish Educators Summit, hosted by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, continues through Thursday in Jerusalem.
The USC Shoah Foundation is hosting the grand opening of its Washington office today, with dinner and a Q&A with Wolf Blitzer, moderated by the foundation’s CEO, Robert Williams.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
There are those murky, blurry areas, those sometimes fuzzy lines between harsh criticism of Israel and antisemitism, between a blunt remark about crime rates and racism, between a questionable comment about gender roles and sexism. And then there’s out-and-out Nazism — fawning posts about Adolf Hitler, praise for the SS, explicit support for the Holocaust.
One would think that the latter would be easy to identify and remove from social media, and yet Luc Bernard, an antisemitism expert, Holocaust educator and video game designer, has found that Meta, in particular, has failed to remove pro-Nazi content from its video platforms, Instagram and Facebook reels, which he believes is “brainwashing the next generation to become Nazis.”
Bernard, who created the video game “Voices of the Forgotten,” which educates players about the Holocaust, and has worked closely over the years with social media platforms, told eJewishPhilanthropy that he believes a large part of the problem is that the main Jewish organizations focused on combating antisemitism have begun focusing almost exclusively on far-left antisemitism, allowing pro-Nazi content to flourish unchecked.
“They are focusing on the far left, but the Nazis are rising, and it’s combining into one,” Bernard said. “It’s becoming part of the culture.”
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ ?
News
TWISTS AND TURNS
Oklahoma state board rejects Jewish charter school’s application, despite federal judge’s OK
In an unexpected turn of events, the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board failed on Monday to approve the establishment of a virtual Jewish charter school in the state, despite a federal judge granting permission to do so, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Community relations: William Pearson, told The Oklahoma Voice that he did so because of the local Jewish community’s opposition. “I think it all goes back, to me, with the Jewish community in Oklahoma that actually had submitted letters to the board recommending that we not approve it,” Pearson said.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
Miliband agrees to host international antisemitism meeting at urging of J7 Task Force
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband agreed on Monday to host a meeting of ministers from seven countries to coordinate efforts against antisemitism, reports AJ Rodriguez for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. Representatives of the J7 Task Force Against Antisemitism — representing Jewish communities in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Argentina and Australia — said they expressed to Miliband their “serious concern” about recent British government measures and rhetoric targeting Israel.
Frank talk: William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JI that their discussion with Miliband was “frank and direct.” “We called him to task for the U.K. government’s sanctions against Israel and its rhetoric, which exacerbate antisemitism and increase the risks Jewish communities face. We made clear that these consequences cannot be brushed aside,” they said.
Opinion
GIVING ADVICE
Treating your DAF with the intentionality of a family foundation
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Brett Schwartz shares his family’s approach to giving through The Seacove Fund, its donor-advised fund housed at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego.
“Even though we chose a different model, we took the idea of acting like a family foundation seriously and became interested in applying some of those best practices to how we managed our DAF.”
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING
Oct. 7 exposed a gap in Holocaust education that we must fix
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Living Links CEO Bari Rogoff argues that the willingness of college students to take up the call for a global intifada highlights the shortcomings of the mandated Holocaust education taking place in states across America.
“We need to teach students how to recognize antisemitism, not only as it appeared in Nazi Germany, but as it has mutated and resurfaced across centuries. We need to teach how this ancient hatred reinvents itself in every era, often presenting itself as a righteous cause and repackaging itself in the language of the day.”
Worthy Reads
Good Neighbors: In The Times of Israel, Amy Handlin, a former deputy mayor and county commissioner in New Jersey, urges American Jews to fight antisemitism by befriending local officials before any crisis, recalling how an Orthodox neighbor’s years of face-to-face outreach helped win approval for an eruv. “Before we need an ally, we can become good neighbors. Before we face a controversy, we can build durable bridges. And before we assume that someone who disagrees with us is hostile to us, we can do what Yaakov did: introduce ourselves, explain who we are, and give people a chance to know us.”
Prep School Exodus: In The Free Press, Ashley Rindsberg investigates why at least 10 Jewish families have pulled their children from San Francisco University High School since October 2024 with parents alleging administrators ignored their antisemitism complaints. “But when it came to antisemitism, parents said, that fluency simply switched off. “Nobody is triggered,” one parent told me. In the end, the only option was to leave. “We needed to safely land the plane,” said another parent about his younger son, “before they hurt him.”
Partisan Politics: In The New York Times, Isabel Kershner examines how Israelis’ politics have changed in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks — or more accurately, haven’t changed. “‘Like everyone, after Oct. 7, I thought there would be an earthquake,’ said Tamar Hermann, a professor of political science and expert in public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem. Instead, she said, it has reinforced people’s previously held positions as they retreated to their political ‘comfort zones.’”
Major Gifts
The Robert and Lisa Moser Family Foundation donated $3 million to kick off the public phase of Saratoga Hospital’s $22 million campaign for a new center for older adults in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.…
Cleveland’s Mt. Sinai Health Foundation approved more than $3.1 million in new grants, including $2.1 million for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 2027 annual campaign and community security…
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his family pledged $10 million to help renovate the William J. Clinton Library and Museum in Little Rock, Ark….
Transitions
San Francisco Hillel promoted Sophie Case to chief operating officer…
Agudath Israel of America hired Ephraim Gurell as its new associate director of government relations for New York…
Chad Martin was laid off by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism last month after 10 years of serving as the ministry’s director of the Northeast region of the U.S.…
Word on the Street
Elazar Yair Wilensky, a 13-year-old ninth grader, was named as the student killed when unexploded Hezbollah ordnance detonated during a hike near the Lebanon border, injuring 24 others…
In The Wall Street Journal, philanthropist Jeff Yass urges donors to follow Ken Griffin’s $3 billion Carnegie Mellon gift by funding new challengers to elite universities…
The Gaza Children Village, a U.S. charity running schools in Gaza, plans to record classrooms and use AI to flag teacher speech it deems hateful or inciting…
The BBC reports Deloitte’s Cyprus arm helped Russian billionaire and philanthropist Roman Abramovich hide $672 million of assets and evade tax with backdated records…
U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a public inquiry into the murders of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby in last October’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation attack in Manchester…
“Torn,” a documentary on New York’s Oct. 7 hostage poster fights, won best documentary at the New York Emmys…idation charges after police said he punched a Jewish man in Surfside, Fla., cursed the victim and his wife and threatened to kill them…
Pic of the Day
Eight Jewish educators from around the world stand with Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli (fourth from right) and Israeli educator Miriam Peretz (in pink jacket) after being presented the Global Jewish Teacher Award last night at the Global Jewish Educators Summit in Jerusalem.
The award, which is given each year to eight recipients, is a joint initiative of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the World Zionist Organization, Herzog College, The Jerusalem Post and the Mayberg Foundation, which also gives each recipient a $2,500 cash prize. This year’s winners are: Rabbi Zvi Lew of the United States; Tal Katan of South Africa; Meir Bonito of Mexico; Anat Kemp of the United States; Raquel Hakim of Argentina; Dina Jacobson of England; Marina Grushevskaya of Russia; and Rachel Israelovitch of France.
Birthdays
Esta Epstein, past chair of the Anti-Defamation League (seen with ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt)
Richard D. Siegel, former deputy assistant secretary at the USDA, he retired in 2024 as an attorney working on organic food law, turns 87
Paul Simon, musician, singer, songwriter, best known for his role in the Simon & Garfunkel duo, turns 85
Peter Osnos, founder of PublicAffairs Books, an imprint of Perseus Books at Hachette Book Group, turns 83
Mollie Katzen, author of 12 cookbooks, turns 76
Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, turns 68
Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, now a media consultant and Fox News contributor, turns 66
Jack Krumholz, partner at FGS Global until 2024
Steven Gutkin, former AP bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, now a home builder in the Indian state of Goa
Douglas Emhoff, second gentleman of the United States throughout the Biden-Harris administration, turns 62
Dana Freedman Walden, president and chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Company, turns 62
Richard Lamke
Michael Ellis, former attorney general for England and Wales, he was a member of the U.K. Parliament for 14 years until 2024, turns 59
Amy J. Berg, Emmy Award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter, turns 56
Sacha Baron Cohen, award-winning actor, comedian and screenwriter, turns 55
Caron Blau Rothstein, Jewish life program director at the Rose Community Foundation, turns 54
Shiraz Tal, Israeli fashion model, turns 52
Leonard Lebrecht Friedman, offensive lineman in the NFL for eight seasons (Broncos, Redskins, Bears and Browns), now the COO of Raleigh-based VetOvation, turns 50
Sarah Livingston, director of member engagement at the Academic Engagement Network
Emily Gould, e-bookstore owner and author who rose to prominence when she was an editor at Gawker, turns 45
Oren Liebermann, Jerusalem bureau chief for CNN, turns 44
Josh Friedmann, land-use attorney at Seattle-based firm of Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson
Rebecca Shabad, political reporter for NBC News
J.D. Lifshitz, film producer, turns 34
Joel Schwitzer, regional director of AJC Dallas
Rabbi Randy Brown, chaplain at the U.S. Department of Defense
