Your Daily Phil: Jewish Funders Network confab kicks off in Music City
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the first day of the Jewish Funders Network conference in Nashville, Tenn. We interview Sandor “Sandy” Frankel of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and examine the growing requests for IVF grants from the Jewish Fertility Foundation in the wake of the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts and layoffs. We feature an opinion piece by Stephen Bronfman and Michael W. Sonnenfeldt about their aims for Jewish Climate Trust. As part of Diaspora Week, we will publish essays from the upcoming edition of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education’s Peoplehood Papers series, with the first coming from Adam Levi. Also in this newsletter: Jael Silliman, Robert Gottesman and Patti Harris.
What We’re Watching
Diaspora Week begins in Israel this week, with events and educational programming scheduled across the country.
The Jewish Funders Network kicked off its annual conference yesterday in Nashville, Tenn. It continues through Tuesday evening. Read more about it below.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis is hosting its annual conference in Chicago, which started yesterday and continues through Wednesday.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) is holding a press conference at the Capitol this morning to call for the release of Israeli-Russian researcher Elisabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton researcher who has been held for two years by an Iran-backed Iraqi militia group.
What You Should Know
Speakers and organizers at this year’s Jewish Funders Network conference sought to maintain the sense of urgency that defined last year’s conference, which was held in Israel six months after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, as hundreds of donors, foundation executives and their staff gathered in Music City this week, reports eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross from the gathering.
“Although it feels like we’re navigating a once-in-a-century crisis every year, we know we are now in a very pivotal moment. As funders, it is no longer acceptable to continue with ‘business as usual,’” Zoya Raynes, JFN’s board chair, told the roughly 700 attendees from nine countries, during the opening session at the JW Marriott in downtown Nashville. “Oct. 7 was a day that shook us all to our core. In its aftermath, it is clear that philanthropy must evolve.”
Referring specifically to rising antisemitism on college campuses, Raynes called for funders to be more strategic about their donations to universities. “For far too long, we were picking wallpaper and naming buildings, while the other side was picking professors. Many thought we had the most resources and the most influence in the room, and the truth is, we didn’t,” she said.
The opening plenary featured a much-discussed panel on allyship, featuring media personality Van Jones and progressive activist Brianna Wu — both of whom have emerged as vocal supporters of the Jewish community post-Oct. 7 — as well as David Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University (located just a few miles southwest of the venue).
Jones and Wu credited formative, personal relationships with Jews as the motivating factor behind their connection and support for the community. Post-Oct. 7, Jones specifically highlighted his relationship with Amanda Berman at Zioness as helping him and other progressives “get our heads out of our butts” as it relates to Israel, quipping that the organization served as “political proctologists” — drawing laughs from the crowd.
Jones warned that the Black-Jewish alliance was fraying, but said that the issue was primarily one of ignorance, not animosity.
“We live in completely different algorithmic universes,” he said, noting that Black Americans would almost certainly not have seen news about the Bibas family last month in their social media feeds and Jewish Americans would not have seen that the federal layoffs have disproportionately affected “the backbone of our community,” the educated Black women who went to work in the public sector in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The danger now is that the best people in the Jewish community and the best people in the Black community — for the first time in 100 years — are moving away from each other. Now that is bad. It’s not just bad for Blacks and Jews. The Black-Jewish alliance is a necessary precondition for democratic advancement,” he said, calling for increased engagement between the two communities.
Diermeier, whose university has not seen a fraction of the antisemitic and anti-Israel protests that other elite schools have, trumpeted institutional neutrality, a commitment to civil discourse and a rigid focus on “transformative education for students and pathbreaking research.”
??He also highlighted the ideology of dividing the world into oppressors and oppressed, which he said is a common lens for understanding the world among the political left. “There’s a radical version of that that says these systems of operations have to be dismantled by any means necessary. And the consequences of that I think you saw on campuses last year,” he said. “I think that’s wrong. I think the whole framework has to be rejected.”
The sessions that followed — and their attendance — seemingly reflected the priorities of Jewish funders, with the workshop on taking advantage of “The Surge” in Jewish engagement post-Oct. 7 featuring a standing-room-only crowd, compared to the more sparsely attended discussion on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel or the practically female-only session on innovative philanthropy and impact investing on gender equity.
Of course, alongside the formal offerings, the conference also allowed for ample sideline conversations with every nook, cranny and cluster of chairs in the main floor of the hotel occupied throughout the day by colleagues and potential partners discussing and debating pressing issues and potential solutions for them, or just sharing the latest professional gossip.
The organizers capped off the first day with flowing bourbon, trays of meat, pans of cobblers and a Jewish country band — Joe Buchanan — in the lobby of the Country Music Hall of Fame. We may be in a “very pivotal moment,” but it’s still Music City.
BARE BONES BUT BIG
How an ‘accidental philanthropist’ donated over $700 million to Israeli causes in 15 years
Nearly 20 years ago, attorney Sandor “Sandy” Frankel’s life forever changed as his former client, Leona Helmsley, named him as one of five trustees of her charitable foundation. When she died in 2007, that trust was just a small fraction of what it eventually became, only being used as a vehicle for individual, low-level donations. But as her assets and wealth were posthumously transferred into the trust, it suddenly became worth some $5.4 billion — for him and his counterparts to award as they saw fit. “We had to determine what programs the trust would have. My interest was Israel, and we all agreed on that. That’s how this all started,” he told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. Since 2010, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has issued more than $700 million in grants to institutions and organizations in Israel, mainly universities and hospitals, but also the Jewish Agency for Israel, agricultural projects, emergency services and advocacy programs.
‘No fat on the bone’: Frankel arrived in Israel last Tuesday for his first visit since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks to review existing grant recipients and consider future ones, he said last Sunday ahead of the 12-day visit. “We are going to go to a number of our grantees to see what’s happening on the ground, to some of the hospitals and some of the other places we’ve funded. We’ll go to the [Israel] Antiquities Authority campus [to which the trust donated $3 million]. We’ll go to the south for several days and the north for several days,” Frankel said. “It will be a hectic and packed trip.” Frankel said that the trust operates with minimal staff — they have no Israel-based personnel — and keeps its overhead as low as possible. “There’s no fat on the bone,” he said. “Our staff is excellent but very small — a program director, two program officers and an executive assistant… We just try to have an impact, and we deal directly with the institutions and the people who will control our money.”
WASHINGTON WOES
Jewish Fertility Foundation sees ‘unprecedented’ demand for IVF grants as funding cuts rock D.C.
On a Monday morning earlier this month, Beth Linas received notice that her company — a heavily federally funded research nonprofit — would have to reduce its workforce in response to the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts. By the next morning, Linas was informed that 150 employees would be laid off. Hours later, she found out that she was one of them. On top of losing her job, she had to grapple with the loss of her insurance, which would run out at the end of the month. But there was an added layer of uncertainty for Linas: she was in the middle of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. “The first thing I said was, I will be OK without a job, but I’m in the middle of IVF, and I need my health insurance. Like, I really need my health insurance,” she told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Linas is one of a number of Jewish women who, affected by federal layoffs and funding cuts, has turned to the Jewish Fertility Foundation (JFF) — an Atlanta-based nonprofit that provides grants, education and emotional support to women struggling with fertility.
Ripple effects: According to Sarah Shah, JFF’s director of operations, the Washington office is new, and does not yet have a manager to do outreach to prospective clients. In spite of that, as waves of federal layoffs have buffeted Washington, JFF’s Washington office has been faced with a still climbing surge in demand for grants, which support families struggling with fertility. According to Shah, overall dispensation has increased by 250% — last year, JFF dispensed $9,000 in grants in January and February. This year, JFF dispensed $32,000. “Many of the individuals that are facing infertility, maybe they were financially prepared for treatment,” Shah told eJP. “The unexpected job losses have suddenly put their family building plans at risk.”
CLIMATE COLLABORATION
Jewish Climate Trust — why now?
“This week sees the public debut of Jewish Climate Trust, a new think-and-do tank which we co-founded and co-chair. Its mission is to improve the performance of both the Jewish people and the State of Israel in relation to the climate crisis,” write Stephen Bronfman and Michael W. Sonnenfeldt in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “We want to explain not only why this is vitally necessary but also how, as philanthropists and Jewish leaders, we can step up on this issue.” Read eJP’s coverage of the launch of Jewish Climate Trust here.
Adaptation, mitigation and innovation: “‘Adaptation’ means starting to plan — seriously — for extreme weather events coming down the pike. We want to prepare to survive and thrive even on a changing planet. ‘Mitigation’ is our moral obligation today. We must double down on reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Each one of us, including every Jewish institution, synagogue, school and JCC, must reduce our own annual greenhouse gas emissions and spend hard dollars to offset those emissions we cannot reduce. ‘Innovation’ is shorthand for our determination to see the Jewish people punch above our weight on climate. Jews are only 0.2% of the world’s population, but 22% of Nobel Prize winners. Can’t we aim for a similarly outsized impact on solving the climate crisis, creating positive change within and beyond our communities? In this, the private sector and the world of investment and finance have a significant role to play. We are determined to do all that we possibly can to amplify our own positive impact, and to be a resource to help others to step up.”
THE PEOPLEHOOD PAPERS
A vision-based approach to Israel engagement
“The Zionist Movement, from its inception, has been a battleground of competing visions for the Jewish future,” writes Adam Levi, co-director of the Israel-Diaspora relations nonprofit Hechalutz, in an exclusive preview essay for eJewishPhilanthropy from the upcoming edition of The Peoplehood Papers, which will be published next month by the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education. “While much has changed, the past five years demonstrate that we continue to live within the struggle between competing visions.”
Claim an active role: “Within the DNA of the American Jewish communities’ relationship to Israel, there exists an intentional distance — sometimes outright disinterest — from many of these more ‘particular’ discussions about Israeli society’s inner workings… Educationally, it is reproduced as building general identification with Israel while expanding Israel literacy (history, politics, culture). This approach proves increasingly insufficient and untenable in our current reality… Jewish young people today are challenged to navigate their own relationship with Israel in an incredibly hostile environment, and our current model provides inadequate tools to do so. While identification and literacy are essential, they offer insufficient answers to the genuine questions that are shaking our country to its core. And any thinking young person will pick up on this, as they already have. A vision-based approach to Israel enables true critical engagement coupled with the value of participation and action.”
Worthy Reads
Forgotten Friends: In The Jerusalem Post, Austin Reid reveals centuries of historical examples of financial assistance from non-Jews for Jewish institutions in Diaspora communities. “Jewish communities have long relied on their own members to support synagogues, schools, and relief organizations. Yet history tells a more complex and hopeful story: In many places, non-Jews were instrumental partners in the development of Jewish communal life… Consider Lima, Ohio, in the early 20th century. Its Jewish community, just 30 families strong, sought to build its first synagogue, Temple Beth Israel. Lacking sufficient funds, they turned to their non-Jewish neighbors. Local Christians contributed significantly, allowing the synagogue’s completion in 1915. The building bore an inscription from Isaiah 56:7, “Mine House Is a House of Prayer for All People” — a reflection of the interfaith generosity that made it possible. A successor to this congregation, Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek, continues to exist in Lima. Portsmouth, Ohio, saw a similar story. In 1858, local Christians helped fund the city’s first synagogue, Beneh Abraham. When the synagogue was dedicated, so many non-Jews attended that the space was overwhelmed, forcing many to be turned away… Remembering non-Jewish philanthropy offers a fuller, more hopeful vision of Jewish history. These stories challenge the idea that Jewish life in the Diaspora has always been defined by persecution and inevitable catastrophe… By reclaiming these forgotten histories, we do more than celebrate the past — we set a foundation for the future.” [JPost]
You Have to Laugh: In The Times of Israel, Leah Grossman explores the rise of a fresh crop of Jewish comedians in the wake of Oct. 7, including L.E. Staiman (aka Lyle Culpepper). “Perfectly portrayed by Staiman, Lyle is a spot-on caricature of the clueless Gen Z terror sympathizer we’ve become all too familiar with. Sporting a keffiyeh and disheveled wig that suggests he’s spent far too many nights in a college encampment, Lyle inserts himself into the latest (atrocious) news scenario and then the fun begins… ‘The first iteration of Lyle was a one-off video that I made in response to the Osama bin Laden charter going viral, which was shortly after Oct. 7. All these videos started popping up on TikTok where people had turned Osama bin Laden into this folk hero, and were citing his charter as this incredible work. It was such a weird upside-down world, so I made one video where I was jumping on the bandwagon… I have a few rules that I don’t think I’ve ever really said out loud, but there are specific things that I look for. One of the things I look for is obvious hypocrisy that I can make fun of, and an obvious spin where it’s one level deeper than whatever is being said. So my parody is pretty close to the things that are being said in real life, but there’s a level of absurdity where most people should be able to process the fact that this is parody and this is satire.” [TOI]
Lost Communities: In The Scroll, Jael Silliman traces the history of Kolkata, India’s Jewish community, which once had thousands of members, through a century-old Jewish school in the city that has not had Jewish students for decades. “The legacy of the Elias Meyer Free School and Talmud Torah in Kolkata’s Bowbazaar, which is celebrating its centennial year, is intertwined with that of the small Baghdadi-Jewish community that built a life in the city from the 19th century… Shalome Obadiah Ha Cohen, the first Jewish settler of Kolkata, came to the city in 1796. He prospered and, realising the opportunities the mercantile city offered, called his family from Syria to join him. Other Jews from across West Asia, the majority coming from Iraq, made the city their home in the 19th and 20th centuries. Community institutions such as synagogues and a burial board followed… Calcutta’s Jewish community peaked by the 1940s, numbering 4,500, as Baghdadi Jews from Burma joined the community. Many community members, however, emigrated following a series of tumultuous national and global events… By the 1960s, there were 600-700 Jews left in Calcutta… Over this centennial year, a series of events will be organised at the school to celebrate this landmark year that will conclude with a meeting for students, alumni, staff and well-wishers where a centenary booklet will be released… This Baghdadi-Jewish educational legacy continues in Calcutta and in the other port cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai where the community flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries.” [TheScroll]
Word on the Street
Robert Gottesman has been named chair of the American Friends of Ogen, the Israeli social lender…
Amitim, a mentorship program connecting former North American Jewish federation executives with Israeli nonprofit leaders, has joined Global Jewry as a signature initiative. Read eJewishPhilanthropy’s coverage about Amitim here…
Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, speaking at a press conference after the Tigers’ 82-70 win over Creighton in the NCAA tournament, called for the release of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander…
Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she had not been consulted before Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli invited far-right European leaders to appear at an antisemitism conference being held later this week in Jerusalem…
The Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs held a session yesterday about the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry’s controversial conference…
An 85-year-old man was killed and an IDF soldier was severely injured in a terror attack this morning near the town of Yokneam in northern Israel…
Columbia University agreed to meet the Trump administration’s demands, including rules around the wearing of masks on campus as well as oversight of the school’s Middle East studies department, as a first step toward restoring $400 million in government funding…
Cornell University named Michael Kotlikoff as the school’s new president; Kotlikoff had been serving as the school’s interim president since July…
Some 300 Jewish university students and allies from around the world attended the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s “Rise & Respond: Global Student Summit Against Antisemitism” in Midtown Manhattan yesterday…
An Orthodox man is suing United Airlines, alleging that the pilot forcibly removed him from the bathroom and made antisemitic comments while doing so…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet moved toward removing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from office, passing a no-confidence motion on Sunday despite ??Baharav-Miara’s objection that the vote was not part of the formal process required for her dismissal…
Jewish groups in the United Kingdom are warning of budget cuts to disability benefits in the country…
The New York Times spotlights a thwarted synagogue shooting and speaks with the two young men who were arrested before they could carry it out…
Patti Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour — France’s highest order of merit — for her philanthropic work…
Rabbi Eliyahu Fink, who ran the FinkorSwim blog, died in a car accident early last Friday morning at 43…
Kazakh Israeli businessman Alexander Mashkevitch, a major funder to Jewish causes in Europe, died on Saturday at 71…
Kitty Dukakis, the wife of Gov. Michael Dukakis who was a key player in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, died at 88…
Former New York Times Executive Editor Max Frankel, who escaped Nazi Europe as a child, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Andre Druon, president of the Jewish community of Orleans, France, speaks to the press yesterday at a synagogue in the city after the community’s rabbi, Arié Engelberg, was assaulted the day before as he was walking on the street with his son.
“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all. I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a post on X. “Antisemitism is poison. We will not give in to silence or inaction.”
Birthdays
CEO of The Female Quotient, Shelley Zalis…
Beverly Hills-based estate planning attorney, Ronald M. Kabrins… Co-owner of Bond Distributing Company until 2022, Rochelle “Ronnie” Footlick… Member of the House of Lords and star of the U.K.’s version of “The Apprentice,” he was the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, Baron Alan Sugar… Film and television actress and director, Donna Gail Pescow… Attorney in Tarzana, Calif., Paul Marshall Leven… Jewish community activist in Austin, Texas, Deborah E. Rudy… Owner of Joslynda Capital, Michael Weiss… Former CEO of Microsoft, he is the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer…Veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, he had a mezuzah on his bunk in the Space Shuttle, Scott Jay “Doc” Horowitz… Professor emerita of art history at Hofstra University and widely published poet, Martha Hollander… Professional wrestler under a series of ring names including “The Star of David,” his wrestling career spanned from 1979 until 2000, Barry Horowitz… President of American Jewish University, he was previously president of both the Newseum and of Colgate University, Jeffrey Herbst… Former official at UJA-Federation of New York and JDC, now at NYC’s 92nd Street Y, Laura Spitzer… Actor who is best known for his roles on the Fox medical drama series “House” and the USA Network’s science fiction drama “Colony,” Peter Jacobson… Partner and co-founder at Renegade Axis Media Group, Fred Menachem… Veteran journalist, now working for the AFP News Agency in Jerusalem, Ruth Marks Eglash… Actress Alyson Hannigan… Director and senior tax counsel at Federal Policy Group, Aharon Friedman… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel – West Side Jewish Center on 34th Street in Manhattan, Jason Herman… Actor best known for his role as FBI Special Agent Aram Mojtabai in NBC’s “The Blacklist,” Amir Arison… Director of marketing at Window Nation, Eric Goldscher... Executive editor at Bloomberg Green, a vertical and print magazine focused on climate change, Aaron Rutkoff… Famed New York City photographer now working for the MTA, he is known for wearing vintage suits and hats daily, Marc A. Hermann… Pitching coach at San Jacinto College, he pitched for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and in the 2020 Olympics, Josh Zeid… Director of communications at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Joshua D. Cohen… Venezuelan-born featured celebrity chef, she is a caterer and a private chef in Los Angeles, Deborah Benaim… Program director at The Jewish Woman Entrepreneur, Jenna Nelson Beltser… Three-time all-star hockey player, now with PWHL Boston of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, Kaleigh Fratkin… COO at Bnai Zion Media until three months ago, Justin B. Hayet… Competitive pair skater for Israel at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, now a software development engineer for Amazon Web Services, Andrea “Anya” Davidovich…
