Your Daily Phil: Israelis feel connected, devoted and deeply pessimistic — survey
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a new Israel Democracy Institute study on Israelis’ attitudes toward their country and on last week’s Hillel International Global Assembly in Boston. We look at Mazon’s latest grants to Israeli nonprofit and speak with young leaders in Eastern Europe Jewish communities who only recently discovered their Jewish roots. We feature an opinion piece by Michelle Friedman about making the donor experience a distinctively Jewish one. Also in this newsletter: Yossi Klein Halevi, Jen Algire and Naomi Reinharz.
What We’re Watching
Jewish Federations of North America, along with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Medical Association and Hadassah, are hosting a panel on Capitol Hill this afternoon about antisemitism in medical schools and the healthcare industry.
The Israeli humanitarian relief group IsraAid has dispatched an emergency team to the South Pacific Ocean nation of Vanuatu after a large earthquake struck the country this morning, destroying buildings and infrastructure.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is holding his annual Hanukkah reception at Gracie Mansion tonight.
What You Should Know
Most Israelis — Jews and Arabs alike — believe that Israel is a good place to live and feel connected to the country and the challenges that it faces, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s annual Israel Democracy Index, which it released today. The majority of Israelis also believe in each other. More than 80% of Jewish Israelis believe that they can count on their fellow citizens in times of trouble, compared to 25.5% who believe they can rely on the state when times are tough. In 2017, nearly half of Israelis — 46% — said they trusted in the state, a decline that preceded the Oct. 7 terror attacks but has intensified, writes eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Alongside this sense of solidarity and connection, Israelis are also concerned about the state of the country, with 19% of those surveyed saying that Israel is in a “good” or “very good” situation, compared to the 48.5% who said that the overall situation is “bad” or “very bad.” (In 2018, those figures were more or less flipped.) In addition to pessimism about the present, most Israelis are also pessimistic about the future, with 54% of Jewish Israelis and 77.5% of Arab Israelis agreeing that “democratic rule in Israel is in grave danger.”
The index shows that Israelis generally do not trust the state’s institutions. The sole exception is the military, which — despite a dip in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks — remains the only national institution that is trusted by the majority of Israelis, 77% of them, according to this latest survey. Similarly, the majority of Israelis — 64% — believe that civil society serves the country better than state institutions do.
The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) found that while some of these figures have shifted since the Oct. 7 attacks, particularly those regarding faith in the state, most have stayed relatively stable — and negative.
The authors of the index attribute this to the fact that Israel was already experiencing a “deep sense of crisis” that predated the massacres and the government’s bungled response in the early weeks of the war — Israelis trust in the state effectively did not have much room left to fall.
Writing in eJP last month, IDI Board Chair Amir Elstein called on fellow philanthropists to address this precise issue, to focus on rebuilding those state institutions as part of broader reconstruction efforts.
“If we care about Israel’s ability to survive and prosper in the long-term, we cannot make do with provision of short-term emergency relief or funds for reconstruction, as much as these are necessary; we must make sure that the Israeli state emerges stronger from this ordeal, and vastly more capable of dealing with future challenges, which will not disappear even after this war is won,” Elstein wrote.
GLOBAL ASSEMBLY
Campuses on track to again see high rates of antisemitic incidents, Hillel finds
College campuses are on track to see roughly as many antisemitic incidents this academic year as last year, in which Hillel International tracked 1,854 incidents, a 700% increase from the 2022-2023 academic year, the organization announced during its Global Assembly last week. According to Hillel, at least 864 antisemitic incidents have been recorded on college campuses as of mid-December — roughly halfway through the academic year, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy.
The buzz in the room: More than 1,000 Hillel International professionals gathered in Boston last Monday through Thursday for the 10th annual Global Assembly, which largely — but not solely — focused on campus antisemitism. Conversations at the conference also centered around the incoming Trump administration, which has threatened to cut federal support and accreditation to universities that do not combat campus antisemitism. “We do expect the incoming administration to support our efforts and the efforts of others to ensure that administrations are complying with Title VI and other legal requirements,” Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel, told eJP after the gathering. “With that we expect that universities will be more accountable for meeting those requirements.”
FOOD SECURITY
Mazon gives ‘partner grants’ to Israeli groups to combat hunger at local and environmental levels and in Bedouin communities
The food security nonprofit Mazon awarded new “partnership grants” to three Israeli nonprofits as it looks to combat hunger in Israel, focusing on efforts in local government, in the environmental sector and in the non-recognized Bedouin communities in southern Israel. The three recipients are: Tzedek Centers, a relatively new nonprofit in Israel focused on advocacy in local governments; Life & Environment, an umbrella organization that works with Israel’s environmental and climate change groups; and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the country’s oldest civil rights groups, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
New areas: Each grant is worth $30,000, which will allow the organizations to expand or deepen their work as it relates to food insecurity, Ishai Menuchin, Mazon’s Israel director, told eJP. “Mazon is committed to ending hunger at a systemic level by tackling the issue at its root, and we are delighted to join with three new partners who are equally dedicated to our mission,” Mia Hubbard, the group’s executive vice president, said in a statement.
NEW JEWS
In Eastern Europe, many young leaders only recently discovered their Jewishness
In many Eastern European countries, Jewish identity skipped a generation as — following the devastation of the Holocaust — fear of the Soviet communist regime suppressed the expression of any Jewish or other religious expression and any Jewish connection was kept secret. Now, a generation of young leaders who are only now discovering their Jewish roots are finding new ways to support the continent’s Jewish communities, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky.
Do it for them: Serhii Chupryna, a board member at the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, Poland, discovered his Jewish heritage while looking into what he thought was his grandmother’s Polish ancestry as he was preparing to move to Poland. The discovery that she had been oppressed into hiding her Jewish identity drew him closer to the grandmother who died when he was four years old, and to her religion. “I am living my Jewish life because she was not able to live hers,” Chupryna said. “It is literally the creation of the Jewish future that we are seeing right now… This is exactly what Judaism is about, to inherit from your elders, the best that you can do, and ensure that you continue their legacy.”
GIVING JEWISHLY
Balancing modern means and Jewish values in fundraising
“As we come off of GivingTuesday and begin our end-of-year campaigns, I find myself reflecting on the fact that in the world of Jewish philanthropy, the act of giving is more than just a transaction — it’s an expression of values deeply embedded in Jewish tradition,” writes veteran lay leader Michelle Friedman in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Jewish organizations can create a unique and robust fundraising culture that not only meets financial goals but also deepens connections to Jewish identity and purpose.”
Values-added: “Jewish nonprofits have a unique opportunity to lead by example, demonstrating how timeless ethical principles can enhance cutting-edge fundraising techniques. By centering fundraising efforts on Jewish values, organizations can stand out in a crowded and competitive philanthropic landscape, offering donors not just a chance to give but to engage in a meaningful, values-driven experience.”
Worthy Reads
Dangers of Anti-Zionism: In The Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi argues that anti-Zionism doesn’t need to fall under the rubric of “classical antisemitism” to be the greatest threat facing the Jewish people today. “Anti-Zionism threatens the Jewish people in three ways. First, its vision of the dismantling of a Jewish state would existentially threaten Israel’s 7 million Jews. To conclude, after Oct. 7, 2023 — when we experienced a pre-enactment of the consequences of the anti-Zionist plan — that Israelis can survive in the Middle East without the protection of national sovereignty and an army defies reason. Second, anti-Zionism is an assault on the legitimacy of the mid-twentieth-century Jewish story of overcoming annihilation. The fulfillment of the Jewish people’s longing to return home was the foundation of the post-Holocaust recovery. To turn that story of faith, courage, and persistence into a crime is to subvert the pillar of contemporary Jewish identity, shared by the strong majority of world Jewry. Third, anti-Zionism threatens the historic achievement of American Jewry, which is unconditional acceptance by the non-Jewish mainstream. In the past, Jews were accepted as Americans — provided they ‘toned down’ their Jewishness. Anti-Zionists have reintroduced conditionality; now, Jews must renounce their attachment to Israel as the condition for their acceptance.” [TOI]
A Moral Imperative: In The New York Times, Laurie Zoloth calls for science to take the reins in an arena where public health and philanthropy have dreamed big but fallen short: eliminating malaria. “For a time in the early 2000s, it seemed as if the world was gaining ground against malaria, but progress has stalled, cases have risen and the hopes for its near-elimination by 2030 have been scuttled. Global warming, armed conflict and lack of funding are all factors. And while new vaccines certainly will help, they are limited in their effectiveness (they reduce the risk of severe malaria by 30% and require four separate clinic visits). For much of the world’s poor, we still rely on the 19th-century technology of bed nets and insecticide. For the past two decades, scientists have explored whether a new technology known as a gene drive might hold the tantalizing promise of eliminating malaria by targeting the mosquitoes that carry the deadly parasite. The reason the gene drive is so potentially revolutionary — but disturbing — is that it uses genetic engineering to introduce changes in mosquitoes that do not stop with one generation, but are preferentially inherited by all future generations… All such powerful technology presents an ethical puzzle because it is impossible to predict precisely how it could reshape the world… But given the realities in the W.H.O. report — the tragic, preventable deaths — not using all the ingenuity we have seems ethically irresponsible.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
The Union for Reform Judaism appointed Jen Algire as its next executive vice president. Algire, who has served as president and CEO of the Greater Clark Foundation in central Kentucky, succeeds Julie Lerner, who is retiring after seven years in the role…
The Jewish Solar Challenge announced grants worth $318,000 in total to seven nonprofits to allow them to purchase and install solar panels and solar batteries. The recipients are: Temple Emanu El in Burbank, Calif.; Beth El Congregation of South Hills in Pittsburgh; Hillel at the University of California, Los Angeles; Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Encino, Calif.; Hamakom Synagogue in West Hills, Calif.; Camp Jori in South Kingstown, R.I.; and the nonprofit Tikvah Chadasha in Uganda…
Veteran Jewish Theological Seminary professors Eliezer Diamond and Jack Wertheimer are retiring…
The Jewish Federation of Greater Naples, Fla., hired Nammie Ichilov, a career educator and nonprofit leader, as its next president and CEO. Ichilov will succeed Jeffrey Feld, who is retiring…
A recent effort to include the Antisemitism Awareness Act in a stopgap funding bill that Congress must pass by the end of the week has failed, making it increasingly unlikely that the act will be passed by the current Congress…
Naomi Reinharz, who has served as CEO of American Society of the University of Haifa, was hired as the next CEO of American Friends of the Rambam Medical Center…
Melinda French Gates announced $150 million in grants to a number of nonprofits to help increase professional opportunities for women…
USAID awarded a $500,000 grant to the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, which will be distributed over the course of 3 years…
A new report by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy finds that donors provided $1.7 billion in total donations for disasters in 2022. The study finds that there is still a need for increased philanthropy as disasters grow in size, frequency and complexity…
Actor, writer, director, and musician Josh Radnor will host “The People of the Book,” a new TV series and podcast sponsored by The Jewish Life Foundation that will launch at the end of 2025, which will explore Jewish identity and culture…
Sara Funaro was elected the next mayor of Florence, Italy, making her the city’s first female and first Jewish mayor…
The Wall Street Journal examines how Apollo Global Management co-founder and CEO Marc Rowan’s increasingly public political engagement is affecting the firm’s future…
After losing the election for Tel Aviv mayor, Orna Barbivai — a retired IDF general and former economy minister – was named the president of the Israeli nonprofit The Women’s Courtyard, which supports at-risk girls and young women…
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous is sending $323,700 to 83 “righteous gentiles” who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. This is the largest one-time seasonal award in the foundation’s history…
Lawrence “Muzzy” Rosenblatt, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, is resigning from the institution in protest of the decision to allow a professor who described the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks as “awesome” and “incredible” to teach a course about Zionism…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch that the University of Pennsylvania had “lost its way,” allowing antisemitism to thrive on campus, but added that the school is “working to get back”…
Police in Minneapolis are investigating a vandalism incident at the city’s largest synagogue, Temple Israel, where two swastikas were spray-painted on a pillar and a door of the building…
The University of Pittsburgh is creating a working group to address antisemitism on campus and in the Pittsburgh area…
Pic of the Day
Rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan (right) and Andrey Kozlov speak on Sunday about their time in Hamas captivity and their rescue by Israeli forces in June with realtor and TV personality Maya Vander at the opening of Israeli star chef Eyal Shani’s new kosher restaurant Malka in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“We felt it was vital for the residents of South Florida to hear what the hostages experienced and are still currently experiencing,” Shelly Pitman, the founder of the La’Aretz Foundation, which helped sponsor the event, said in a statement. “This outstanding community understands how critical each day is for the remaining hostages, and we must bring them home now.”
Birthdays
CEO of the New Legacy Group of Companies, he is also founder and chair emeritus of Project Sunshine, Joseph Weilgus…
Retired attorney and vice chair of The American Jewish International Relations Institute, Stuart Sloame… Former CEO of multiple companies including the San Francisco 49ers and FAO Schwarz, Peter L. Harris… Vice president of strategic planning and marketing at Queens-based NewInteractions, Paulette Mandelbaum… Professor of Jewish history, culture and society at Columbia University, Elisheva Carlebach Jofen… Retired chair of the physician assistant studies program at Rutgers, Dr. Jill A. Reichman turns… Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and senior foreign policy advisor to prime ministers Sharon, Barak and Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon… Former chairman and CEO of HBO for 28 years, he now heads Eden Productions, Richard Plepler… Israeli film director, screenwriter, animator and film-score composer, Ari Folman… President of Freedom House until this past May, now the director at Voice of America, Michael J. Abramowitz… Chief of the general staff of the IDF, Herzl “Herzi” Halevi… Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, Aryeh B. Bourkoff… Pastry chef, television personality and cookbook author, Jeffrey Adam “Duff” Goldman…Israeli soccer goalkeeper, then on the coaching staff for the national team, Nir Davidovich… Co-director of New Public, Eli Pariser… Senior writer at National Review and author of Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, Noah C. Rothman… Grammy Award-winning songwriter and musician, Benjamin Goldwasser… Director of foundation partnerships at the UJA-Federation of New York, Julia Sobel… National correspondent for Vanity Fair and author of the 2018 book Born Trump: Inside America’s First Family, Emily Jane Fox… Project leader at BCG / Boston Consulting Group, Daniel Ensign… Actor, singer-songwriter and musician, he starred in the Nickelodeon television series “The Naked Brothers Band,” Nat Wolff … Harvard College student and host of the “Voices of Impact” podcast, Isaac Raskas Ohrenstein…
