Your Daily Phil: Jewish groups fear overreach with bill to revoke nonprofit status for terror support
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on how a bill that would make it easier for the federal government to revoke tax-exempt status from nonprofits suspected of supporting terrorism is dividing Jewish groups and on the Jewish Food Society’s scrumptious inaugural auction. We feature an opinion piece by Zev Eleffon the need for Jewish educators and Jewish studies academics to better cooperate. Also in this newsletter: Jessica Tisch, Bill Clinton andSteven Lowy. We’ll start with the Israel Tennis and Education Centers Foundation’s New York gala.
Some 300 people gathered in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Tuesday night for a candlelit gala fundraiser for the Israel Tennis and Education Centers Foundation, hearing how the organization has shifted focus in the past year to support its participants who have been affected by Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the event.
The event featured a performance by Jewish reggae artist Matisyahu; an appearance by retired Israeli Olympic tennis player and ITEC alum, Andy Ram; and a paddle raise auction that brought in nearly $500,000 for the organization in half an hour. The organization also honored the contributions of the Eisenberg Sellinger family, which has been a regular donor to the center since 2007.
Over the past year, as some of its locations in southern and northern Israel have closed or reduced operations as a result of rocket fire, ITEC has focused its energy beyond the courts. The organization has leveraged its preexisting network to support relocated families, provide mental health services, help rehabilitate wounded soldiers, build bomb shelters and supply food vouchers, hot meals and toys to those impacted.
“Israel is really at a juncture, and we’re taking part in the healing and resilience of the communities in Israel, the children’s communities. We’re doing that in places that others are not,” Eyal Taoz, ITEC’s global CEO, told eJP.
The organization has seen a 20% increase in donations over the last year, Taoz said. Donations, specifically from North Americans, have been mostly focused on ITEC’s social impact programs. “We can give them in a place, in a sports space, not a psychologist’s couch and not in a hospital. They come to the tennis court, which is totally different. Donors give us the ability to do that,” he said.
According to Taoz, ITEC has a strong alumni network with nearly 80% of current employees having participated in one of the center’s programs prior. Many of these alumni are currently serving in Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
In July, ITEC’s Jerusalem location dedicateda community therapeutic center in memory of Israel Defense Forces Maj. David Shakuri, a tennis player and ITEC alum killed in Gaza in February.
TALKING TAXES
Jewish groups divided over House bill addressing terror-supporting nonprofits
A growing list of Jewish groups, including the Conservative movement, joined the Reform movement and progressive Jewish groups on Wednesday to oppose a House bill, set for a vote on Thursday, that allows the secretary of the Treasury to unilaterally determine that a charity is supporting terrorism, rather than requiring a court decision as under current law, reports Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Growing opposition: In a joint letter to members of Congress led by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), 55 Jewish groups expressed “strong opposition” to the legislation, arguing that it “threatens to politicize decisions that should be made neutrally and deliberatively” and that the current procedures are “less susceptible to political interference or the chilling effect on speech and activity.” Notable signatories to the letter include Hadassah, Jewish Women International, National Council of Jewish Women, Mazon, the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
On the other hand: Unlike the other major denominations, the Orthodox Union is supporting the legislation. AIPAC is supporting the bill, as is the Anti-Defamation League, although the ADL is urging lawmakers to add due process protections before it passes the House.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD
Jewish Food Society auctions off celebrity chef-guided tours, 4-course Seders in new fundraising drive
Have you ever wished you could get a behind-the-scenes tour of New York’s famous Katz’s Deli to see how the pastrami is really made? How about a chance to pick the brain of Start-Up Nation author Dan Senor over lunch? Or maybe you’d rather stay home and have chef Ai Ito bring a contemporary Japanese tasting menu to you and seven friends. These are a few of the experiences available to bid on through an inaugural online auction launched on Monday by the Jewish Food Society, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy.
The way to a person’s heart: “With the funds we raise from each experience, we will continue building the largest archive of Jewish family recipes and the histories behind them,” Naama Shefi, founder and executive director of Jewish Food Society, who also founded Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel, told eJP. “Over the last decade, we have seen how food has become a fundamental tool in Jewish engagement. We have created a movement and we need to deepen and expand its impact.”
BETTER TOGETHER
Jewish studies and Jewish education in tandem, not at odds
“On Aug. 1, 1988, the philanthropist Morton Mandel convened the Commission on Jewish Education in North America. He was convinced that Jewish education was the best solution to combat assimilation and was eager to establish a set of philanthropic priorities to increase Jewish learning. Mandel’s Commission, 44 members in all, included lay leaders, education researchers and seminary heads. Harvard’s Rabbi Isadore Twersky was the only scholar of Jewish studies invited to the commission. The episode is a reminder of the disconnect between Jewish studies and Jewish education — and the urgent need to remedy this,” writes Zev Eleff, the president of Gratz College, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
The disconnect: “The commission determined that the impact of ivory tower Jewish studies was ‘limited.’ Many professors were also apprehensive; they worried that too deep a connection to everyday Jewish life and learning could weaken — in the minds of the academy — their scholarly bona fides as dispassionate researchers.”
Needed but not wanted: “Today, the tension between Jewish education and Jewish scholarship is even more complicated. On the one hand, educators are in greater need of reliable and sophisticated content… On the other hand, Jewish studies has not made the effort to ingratiate itself to the Jewish community. Many within its ranks share views on Israel that diverge from the American Jewish mainstream and its cadre of major donors.”
Can’t we get along?: “Our moment is too important to give up on this. Education remains the most important force in Jewish life, and we require the very best sort of it to fortify the Jewish present and ensure a flourishing future… We need Jewish studies scholars who ‘get it’ to collaborate with thoughtful Jewish educators to create fresh content. But to revolutionize Jewish learning, both groups require leadership and the invitation to make something of it.”
Worthy Reads
Tough All Over: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Jim Rendon looks at the budget cuts and other financial woes that nonprofits are facing. “Organizations across the country are facing dire financial straits that have led to hiring freezes, program cuts, layoffs, and in some cases, closures. The examples cut across geography and cause area… The financial picture can shift quickly with little warning, leaving nonprofits too little time to raise the funds they need… With the Trump administration set to take office in January, nonprofits face additional uncertainty in the volume of urgent needs they may have to meet, possible changes to laws and regulations, and the potential loss of government funding for important services. Put all these factors together, and you get a rocky financial landscape for the nonprofit world… With traditional sources of funding failing them, some nonprofits are turning to loans to augment their finances — something that can help groups that face short-term problems such as a delay in payment from a grant or contract.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
In It Together: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Jordan Fabyanske, Sonila Cook and Mariah Levin make the case for so-called collectively owned strategies, in which funders share ownership of an initiative with other stakeholders. “Our experience cocreating and stewarding systems-change initiatives at the nonprofit Dalberg Catalyst has led us to believe that funders’ domination over strategies may be limiting the field’s potential to address the world’s most significant challenges… For strategies to generate transformative change — change in the way parts of a system operate and relate with one another, leading to dramatically different outcomes and impacts — they must be collectively owned. Co-owning a strategy for transformation requires a shared intention among partners and funders to rebalance power dynamics, transcend silos, and embrace messiness and experimentation… To collectively own a strategy, we as social innovators and funders must let go of some features of conventional strategies that we have held dear: single-issue, reductionist, and glossy plans that treat global challenges as though they are less complex or more easily solvable than they are… Most important, we as social innovators and funders must evolve the ways in which we collectively think and plan, with an openness to working outside our usual silos. This includes a willingness to yield power and to rise above incentives to compete.” [SSIR]
Around the Web
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the first time the court has ever issued such warrants against leaders of a democratic country; the decision was denounced by Israeli politicians and Jewish groups…
New York Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a former deputy police commissioner whose family is deeply involved in Jewish philanthropy, was named the new head of the New York Police Department…
A man arrested two years ago at New York’s Penn Station after making threats to attack Jewish sites in the city was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon as a crime of terrorism; Mitch Silber, the executive director of the Community Security Initiative, hailed the justice system for “recognizing the gravity of this crime, and we remain resolute in our commitment to preventing such threats in the future”…
Speaking at New York’s Beacon Theatre, former President Bill Clinton told actor Billy Crystal that he thinks about the failed Oslo peace process “every day”…
Three panelists at the Z3 Conference in Palo Alto, Calif., on Sunday — Rabba Mor Shimonie of The Kitchen independent congregation, Josh Ladon, of the Shalom Hartman Institute and Tablet editor-at-large Liel Leibovitz — suggested that the Jewish community’s conversations about Zionism have not fundamentally changed since Oct. 7, despite more Jews engaging in it…
Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented Steven Lowy, the outgoing board chair of Keren Hayesod (United Israel Appeal), with the inaugural Ze’ev Jabotinsky Award at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem yesterday…
The oldest known stone inscription of the Ten Commandments, a 1,500-year-old Samaritan tablet that has resurfaced after eight years, will be auctioned by Sotheby’s next month with the request that it remains publicly accessible…
The Hellman Foundation awarded a $2.5 million grant to the USA Cycling Foundation to support its women’s programs…
“We Are Brooklyn: Stories of Hope,” a comic book celebrating Brooklyn’s diversity and sharing stories of six nonprofit professionals from the We Are All Brooklyn Fellowship Against Hate, was released Monday. The project is a collaboration between the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York’s Center for Shared Society and the mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes…
An opinion piece in The Chronicle of Philanthropy argues that The Internet Archive’s recent loss in a copyright case highlights broader lessons for nonprofits about managing risks, considering who bears the costs of those risks and safeguarding their operations, especially when providing essential community services…
JBI International (formerly the Jewish Braille Institute) awarded $75,000 in scholarships to five legally blind Jewish university students through its annual Nathan L. and Suzanne K. Wolfson Merit Award: Jack McPadden, Anny Safier, Joseph Silfen, Daniel Solomon and Nola Timmins…
Pic of the Day
The families of Arlene Ditchek, the former librarian at Miami’s Hebrew Academy, and Rabbi Yossi Heber, the former principal, stand in front of the newly named “Arlene Ditchek Literacy Development Hallway” on Sunday, after the Heber family donated money to the school to dedicate the space.
After Heber died, Arlene Ditchek and her husband, Norman, stepped in to help Heber’s wife, Debbie, care for their six young children. At the dedication ceremony, Debbie (fourth from left) recalled that period and the assistance that she received from the Ditchek family. “The chesed [grace] that was done to me and the children I will never forget,” she said.
Birthdays
Academy Award-winning actress, director, producer and singer, she founded The Hawn Foundation to help underprivileged children, Goldie Hawn…
Director-general of the Mossad from 1982 to 1989, Nahum Admoni… British entrepreneur and philanthropist, Baron Harold Stanley Kalms… U.S. senator (D-IL), he is the Senate majority whip until Jan. 3, Dick Durbin… Founder, chairman and CEO of Men’s Wearhouse for 40 years, currently holding these same positions at Generation Tux, an online tuxedo rental platform, George Zimmer… U.S. senator (R-LA), John Kennedy… Beverly Hills resident, Julie Shuer… U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California, she is a past president of Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, Calif., Judge Beth Labson Freeman… Chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems, Thomas Rothman… Israeli media personality, Avri Gilad… Business development officer at the San Francisco office of Taylor Frigon Capital Management, Jonathan Wornick… VP of planned giving and endowments at UJA-Federation of New York, William Samers… CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan A. Greenblatt… Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and editor-in-chief of the Sapir journal, Bret Stephens… Founder and publisher of The Real Deal, Amir Korangy… Former NFL running back for the Raiders, Rams and Bears, he is now a schoolteacher, Chad Levitt… Political director of ABC News, Rick Klein… Director of global government relations at the Hershey Company, she was previously a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Joanna Liberman Turner… Consul general of the U.S. in Quebec, Danielle Hana Monosson… Reporter at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, Max Abelson… Member of the New York City Council from the Bronx, Eric Dinowitz… MLB pitcher in five organizations, now playing for the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Robert Stock… Director of sports engagement at the American Jewish Committee, Alexander Freeman… Judy Brilliant… Ruth Shapiro…
