Your Daily Phil: Jewish groups back Israel’s strikes on Iran, laud Trump
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the escalation of Iran’s bombardment of Israel, a joint statement about the war by the members of the Conference of Presidents and a new emergency campaign by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. We feature an opinion piece by William C. Daroff responding to criticism of Jewish legacy organizations’ post-Oct. 7 performance, and one by Rafael Medoff with a lesson from history about how communities can show support for Jews in danger. Also in this issue: Paul Bernstein, Jay Cranman and Rachel Charnick.
What We’re Watching
Global Jewry and the Israeli Jewish Peoplehood Coalition are hosting a joint online event tonight, titled “Rising Up Together,” focused on the war in Israel, with a panel of Israeli experts moderated by eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
The sirens blared just after 7 a.m., from the tiny moshav of Hatzeva in the Arava desert to the Upper Galilee village of Julis, and it quickly became clear that this Iranian bombardment was different, representing an escalation in the intensity of attacks, even as the number of Israeli casualties was comparatively low.
Israeli emergency services reported multiple impact sites in the country’s center and the south, and images emerged of massive plumes of smoke and dust rising out of multistory buildings.
One of the incoming missiles struck Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center, the primary hospital for Israel’s south, causing massive damage to its old surgical ward. The building had been evacuated only days before, reportedly due to the insistence of nurses, who warned of its vulnerability. The hospital was shut down for new patients — save for life-threatening conditions — as emergency crews assessed the damage and ensured that it was safe.
“This morning, the Soroka Medical Center sustained a direct hit — an unprecedented strike in the history of the Israeli medical system,” the hospital said in a statement, noting that there were no serious injuries in the attack as the building had already been evacuated.
In the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, near the country’s stock exchange, another missile struck in the vicinity of multiple high-rise buildings, shattering large numbers of windows. And in nearby Holon, south of Tel Aviv, a missile struck multiple apartment buildings.
In total, six people were seriously hurt in the three missile strikes, two were moderately injured and at least 42 others were lightly wounded by shockwaves and shrapnel. In addition, 31 people sustained light injuries while running to bomb shelters, according to the Magen David Adom medical service.
The Israeli military later determined that some 30 missiles had been launched from Iran in the fusillade — more than in most barrages — and that at least some of them were cluster bombs, a far deadlier weapon than had been used until now. “This morning, we experienced a strike by a missile with the ability to scatter small munitions across a relatively large area,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
COMMUNAL MESSAGING
In joint statement, wide range of Jewish groups hail U.S. support for Israel in war with Iran, call for world to hold Tehran ‘accountable’
With Israel’s aerial campaign against Iran’s nuclear and military sites ongoing and Tehran continuing its barrages of ballistic missiles and drone attacks, the members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on Wednesday for the international community to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Conference of Presidents’ members do not often issue a joint statement, as the dozens of movements and organizations that make up the umbrella group represent a wide spectrum of political beliefs. Indeed, a small number of member organizations, mainly on the political left, did not sign on to the statement, which lauded President Donald Trump and his White House. (Other non-signatories stressed that their abstention was a matter of long-standing political neutrality or logistical issues.)
Hold Iran accountable: The statement comes during a period of ambiguity regarding the Trump administration’s plans to pursue negotiations with Iran or contribute to Israel’s aerial campaign, particularly with the “bunker-busting” bombs that are believed to be needed to penetrate the Fordow uranium enrichment site that is built deep within a mountain. “The international community must hold Iran accountable for its continued defiance, aggression, incitement of antisemitism, fostering of global terrorism, and its declared intent to wipe Israel off the map,” the statement said. “Iran’s actions also threaten American lives, American allies, and American national security. A regime that arms proxies from Gaza to Yemen cannot be trusted with the world’s most dangerous weapons.”
‘I AM HERE’
IFCJ launches emergency campaign, installing bomb shelters and providing direct aid to victims
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) has allocated nearly $3 million for programs in Israel in response to the Israel-Iran war as part of a new emergency campaign, with most of it going toward the installation of bomb shelters and the rest to aid for victims of the ongoing Iranian ballistic missile strikes and evacuees, the group told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky.
Standing up: As of Tuesday, the group has allocated $2.7 million in response to the conflict. Of that, some $1.9 million will go to the installation of mobile, heavily reinforced bomb shelters, and the rest will go to direct assistance to victims and evacuees through one of two mechanisms. IFCJ will distribute roughly $290,000 directly with pre-paid credit cards, and approximately $570,000 through two of its partners, Chabad Eshel and the Tzinor Fund. “We have hundreds of thousands of donors who are mostly Christians abroad who have throughout every crisis so far stood up and said, ‘Hineni muchan um’zuman’ — ‘I am here for anything you need’,” IFCJ’s president and global CEO, Yael Eckstein, who had just returned to Israel on one of the first flights able to reach the country, told eJP.
A LEGACY OF ACTION
This is what Jewish leadership looks like
“Recent columns in the New York Post raised questions about whether Jewish organizations meet the challenges of this moment with sufficient urgency and resolution. The concerns tap into a broader atmosphere of reflection, rooted in anguish, resolve and a call for leadership that meets the gravity of the hour,” writes William C. Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “But the critique misrepresents the reality. Far from retreating, the organized Jewish community responded with coordination, clarity and a deep sense of responsibility.”
Let’s review: “Assailants have targeted Jewish students. Arsonists have attacked synagogues. Extremists have disrupted peaceful gatherings from coast to coast. Through it all, the very institutions so often dismissed as slow or bureaucratic carried the burden of response. They delivered legal defense, briefed federal agencies, coordinated with law enforcement and mobilized communal security networks in real time. These leaders did not wait for permission. They met the threat as it arrived… Some critics claim that urgency demands disruption; that only by abandoning the existing framework can we meet this moment. But urgency without strategy cannot lead. Moral fervor, detached from responsibility, cannot protect a community. Outrage does not fortify institutions, and hashtags do not deter attacks. Criticism grounded in care is welcome; obstruction rooted in cynicism is not. This moment does not need more gatekeepers. It needs builders.”
THE COMMUNITY’S ROLE
When prayers are not enough
“The morning after the first Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were reported, there were announcements from a number of Jewish groups waiting in my inbox. I expected them to urge me to call my senator, or perhaps write to my local newspaper,” writes Rafael Medoff, founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Instead, a major Jewish religious organization urged readers only to ‘pray and yearn for peace and truth to reign.’ Another informed Jewish women that simply by lighting Shabbat candles, they themselves would qualify as ‘rising lions.’ A U.S. religious Zionist group called on the Jewish community to add three psalms to daily prayer services. The pattern continued in Shabbat sermons the next day.”
A multipronged approach: “There is a natural human tendency to become mired in business as usual, to adhere to familiar routines and modes of behavior, even in times of crisis… News of the mass murder of Jews in Europe was confirmed by the Allies in December 1942; yet in the weeks that followed, much of American Jewish communal life proceeded undisturbed… Obviously there are vast differences between today’s circumstances and those of the Holocaust years. Indeed, today a Jewish air force is in the process of ensuring that there will be no second Holocaust. Yet Iranian missiles are wreaking havoc and have already murdered dozens of Israelis. Millions are huddled in bomb shelters. Today, as in the 1940s, there are good people who are ready to act and are simply waiting for guidance from our leaders. The initiative undertaken by the three rabbinical students in 1942 offers a model for how Diaspora Jews should respond when fellow Jews are in danger in any country — a timeless strategy for caring and acting.”
Worthy Reads
Fund Jewish Futures: In the Summer 2025 issue of HaYidion: The Prizmah Journal, which centers on the theme of endowment building, Prizmah CEO Paul Bernstein makes the case for viewing Jewish day schools as “the endowment fund” of the Jewish People. “When we think about endowments, we usually call to mind large institutions like universities or hospitals, and with amazement and envy admire the multibillion dollar figures built up over decades and even centuries. The day school field is much younger, but no less worthy of this type of long-term support. One of the benefits of endowment funds is that, when well-managed, they provide revenue that almost effortlessly expands their institution’s annual budget, beyond what their board members and professionals need to raise as income or annual gifts. This enables institutions to take risks with a portion of their funds, to develop a new area of expertise or offer a new kind of incentive to attract or recruit talent. Like the research and development line of a pharmaceutical company’s budget, this is an essential way that institutions attain sustainability and ultimately grow.” [HaYidion]
Feeling the Impact: In communities reeling from recent heavy job losses, giving is also shrinking, raising worries about future giving if the U.S. enters a full-on recession, reports Rasheeda Childress in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. “Both the Washington, D.C., and Atlanta regions have had significant federal work force cuts due to DOGE, as well as private job losses from reduced government contracts. ‘We were not anticipating 2025 to be as difficult of a year as it was,’ says Scott Schenkelberg, CEO of Miriam’s Kitchen, a Washington nonprofit working to end homelessness. ‘People have literally lost income because they’ve lost their jobs, either because they were a direct federal government employee or they were working for an organization relying on government funding.’ That’s caused the giving environment in the city to change profoundly. The same is true in Atlanta, says Wesley Myrick, executive director of the Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center. ‘Without that stability, it’s a very challenging proposition to raise individual dollars, corporate dollars, or philanthropic dollars,’ he says. ‘All those things are working in an ecosystem that relies on the idea that people can predict what their expenses are going to be and where the money to support those expenses are going to come from.’” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
More Important Than Perpetuity: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Michelle Morales argues that foundations have an obligation to increase payouts in times of crisis. “Fiduciary responsibility has long been used to ensure protection of a foundation’s endowment with an explicit goal of perpetuity. But in a crisis, how can we justify perpetuity as a guiding star? The narrow definition of fiduciary responsibility that guides most of our investment policy statements comes at the cost of a broader ethic of fiscal responsibility — one that means showing up when it matters most, not pulling back, and one that strengthens communities by putting endowments to work now, rather than saving them for some uncertain future… If we believe in our partners, we cannot preserve our endowments at the cost of their survival. If we do not act with courage now, we must ask ourselves: What principles are we serving?” [SSIR]
Word on the Street
The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2025 class of foundation scholars — seven early career biomedical scientists awarded up to $110,000 annually for five years to pursue innovative research in areas such as neuroscience, cancer, immunology and pain…
An opinion piece in Inside Philanthropy argues that progressive donors ought to take a more active role in debates over tax policy…
The Jewish Women’s Giving Foundation, part of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, has awarded grants to seven programs in Baltimore and Israel that support underserved women and girls…
The Forward examines how a historic agreement LGBTQ+ Jews and Yeshiva University for the establishment of an on-campus club unraveled after 50 days…
A Maryland man was arrested Monday and charged with mailing dozens of threatening letters to Jewish organizations across the Northeast since March 2024…
Transitions
Pic of the Day
Joel and Miriam Westheimer, the children of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, stand in front of a plaque marking the stage that was dedicated to their mother last night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The noted sex therapist died on July 12, 2024.
Birthdays
Singer-songwriter, actress and television personality, Paula Abdul…
Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of New York City, Kenneth Lipper… Rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, N.J., Rabbi Bennett F. Miller… Historian of the Jews in Muslim lands in the modern era, he won the Israel Prize this year for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur… Retired territory sales manager for GlaxoSmithKline, Harry E. Wenkert… Retired president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, he was appointed president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson… Inna N. Zalevsky… Overland Park, Kan., resident, Kathi Shaivitz Rosenberg… Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll… Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D…. Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD… Co-founder of Centerview Partners, Blair Effron… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, now the chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Fund for the Victims of Terror, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin… Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water, and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman… Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt… Director of the export control department in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eitan Weiss… Director of affinities and major giving at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft… Founder of JSwipe dating app, David Austin Yarus… Rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Neta Rivkin… Vice president at Jewish Federations of North America, Anna Langer… COO at Lightning Inspiration, Alex Jakubowski… Organization director at Senate Leadership Fund & One Nation, Cydney Couch… Singer known as Skye, Daniel Skye…
