Your Daily Phil: Jewish groups ‘horrified’ by Charlie Kirk’s slaying, rising political violence
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the Jewish communal world’s wall-to-wall condemnation of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday and on the New Israel Fund’s efforts to raise money for Gaza aid projects. To mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we feature an opinion piece by Arnold Roth about his own family’s experience with devastating loss at the hands of terrorists and how grief-born charities can live on long past the tragedies that summoned them into being. Also in this issue: Geneva ‘Cis’ Maisel, Mira Stahl and Rebecca Feinglos.
What We’re Watching
Today is the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Ceremonies and commemorations will be held around the country today in remembrance of the attacks.
Carry The Load, a veteran and first responder nonprofit, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs is organizing volunteers to clean headstones and beautify the grounds at nearly 70 national cemeteries across the country.
In Israel this evening, the Jewish National Fund and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem are jointly holding a Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony.
Also in Israel, the Jefferies TechTrek wraps up today.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
Jewish organizations expressed wall-to-wall condemnation and horror at yesterday’s killing of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, with even those who disagreed with his right-wing beliefs denouncing the assassination and the proliferation of political violence in the United States.
Kirk’s killing comes as the Jewish and broader philanthropic communities are growing increasingly concerned about the threats posed by polarization and extremism. Though no suspect has been arrested and law enforcement has yet to comment on the motive of the shooter, the deadly attack was widely seen as political in nature.
Kirk, 31, who emerged as a major force on the right flank of the Republican Party during the 2016 election, was a divisive figure within the Jewish community. Some considered him antisemitic for spreading claims of wealthy Jews financing “philosophical foundation of anti-whiteness” and other canards, as well as his platforming of white nationalists. Other Jewish donors and leaders have staunchly defended him against allegations of antisemitism and hailed him as a “stalwart friend of Israel and the Jewish people.” Kirk has also received considerable financial support from Jewish funders, such as the late Bernie Marcus, who donated heavily to Kirk’s Turning Point USA over the years. “He was really holding back some really nasty stuff in some very young, far-right online circles,” Josh Hammer, a conservative political commentator and a personal friend of Kirk, told Jewish Insider. “He was doing more than maybe anyone in the country to fight that. Part of me kind of worries, frankly, about what that energy does from here in his absence.”
Responding to the shooting, President Donald Trump, who has in the past encouraged violence against political opponents, denounced the divisive rhetoric that he said led to the shooting and vowed to crack down on the organizations and funders that he said demonized Kirk. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” he said.
Progressive Jewish figures also denounced the killing, with Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, calling it a ”horrific, unconscionable, depraved murder.” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called political violence “among the most dire threats to our democracy and our safety” and warned that Kirk’s killing could be used to “pit communities against one another.”
In Israel, Kirk, an evangelical Christian, was eulogized as an ally. “Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media.
KOSHER AID
NIF surpasses $3 million in Gazan aid, offering American Jews a ‘hechsher’ for supporting Palestinians, CEO says
Six months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, as Israel pressed its retaliatory war in Gaza, Daniel Sokatch, the New Israel Fund’s CEO, faced a thorny decision. He knew that he wanted to partner with organizations to support Gazan civilians, but nonprofits in Gaza were almost universally viewed skeptically by the mainstream Jewish world, some were actively vilified, he told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. “We have to find people who we trust,” he said, “and we have to trust them the way our donors and supporters trust us.” Since then, the NIF has raised over $3.2 million for aid to Gazan civilians provided by World Central Kitchen, Clean Shelter and the International Rescue Committee, organizations that provide food, water, shelter and sanitation services.
Board on board: According to Sokatch, NIF offers American Jews “a hecksher” for donations to Gaza aid efforts, referring to the stamp of kosher approval. “If it’s NIF, I know that it’s not anti-Israel. It’s anti-this-Israeli-policy and this-Israeli-government’s-approach,” he said. When he pitched the campaign to the board, he expected pushback, but it never came. “Everybody on the board unanimously supported this,” he said. “Israeli, American, European, Australian, Canadian, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Christian.” After the campaign launched, NIF donors showed nothing but enthusiasm. The only people upset were those “who criticize us for everything,” Sokatch said.
DRIVEN TO ENDURE
What grief-born charities can teach about resilience and lasting impact
“In the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas’ brutal attack shook Israel to its core, dozens of families launched initiatives to honor loved ones lost to terror. These grassroots efforts, born of raw grief, offer glimmers of hope in a fractured time,” writes Arnold Roth, co-founder of Keren Malki — a foundation created in 2001 in memory of his teenage daughter murdered in the Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem — in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Staying power: “The post-Oct. 7 wave of grief-born initiatives underscores a broader truth: These efforts are more than memorials — they can be laboratories of resilience. They test solutions that larger, bureaucratic institutions often overlook. Yet too often, philanthropy leaders dismiss such charities as emotional outbursts, underestimating their potential to drive systemic change. Keren Malki’s model — nimble, family-centered, inclusive — shows how grief-born organizations can strengthen civil society’s capacity to heal trauma. Our work transcends politics, religion and ethnicity, uniting families in a shared commitment to parental love and dignity. To funders, I offer this challenge: See grief-born charities as investments in adaptive, enduring good. Backing them doesn’t just honor the past; it builds a more responsive future.”
Worthy Reads
Move the Field Forward: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Jewlya Lynn and Clare Nolan posit that nonprofits can turn disruptive situations into opportunities to create promising new norms and systems. “Systemic disruptions driven by natural disasters, disease, conflict and political instability are increasingly common. Yet funders often freeze in the face of uncertainty, and those that act quickly usually focus on filling gaps. Even funders committed to systems-level change tend to prioritize a return to ‘normal,’ partly because philanthropy tends to view risk through the lens of compliance and reputation rather than missed opportunities. Yet choosing not to fund structural change for fear of missteps — whether through inaction or only temporarily filling a gap — is still an exercise of power, just one that maintains the status quo. … In times of disruption, power dynamics shift, institutional norms loosen, and long-standing barriers often fall away, creating opportunities to strategically shift the system or even redesign it toward more equitable outcomes.” [SSIR]
Umpire Called Out: In Inside Higher Ed, Miriam Elman and Mark G. Yudof decry the American Association of University Professors’ recent anti-Israel bent. “In higher education, the American Association of University Professors for many decades has been the gold standard for impartiality. No more. In a recent disturbing interview published in Inside Higher Ed, the AAUP’s president, Todd Wolfson, made it unmistakably clear where the organization stands at a time when antisemitism on college campuses is spiking—against both students and Jewish faculty, whom the AAUP purports to represent. … The AAUP should not continue down this path without consequences. If it insists on using its platform to delegitimize Israel and trivialize Jewish concerns over antisemitism as “weaponization,” it will have forfeited its claim to represent all faculty. It will be behaving as a partisan labor union and not the trusted arbiter.” [InsideHigherEd]
Save the Library: In a blog post for Candid, Patrick Sweeney writes about recent and proposed cuts to federal and state support for America’s public libraries — which run 94-96% on local, state and federal funding — and ways philanthropy can step into the breach. “One of the boldest strategies would be to increase philanthropic support for citizen- and community-led library support organizations that can legally conduct broader advocacy and political activities to rebuild voter support and ensure success at the ballot box, where 90% of library funding originates. Philanthropic partners could bolster sustainability by underwriting advocacy and organizing efforts, not just one-time projects. A modest investment in a library ballot initiative could help secure significant increases in stable local funding — with the incalculable ROI of library services year after year.” [Candid]
Word on the Street
OpenAI inked a $300 billion, five-year deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle to purchase cloud computing software from the tech company; Ellison then surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s richest person after Oracle’s quarterly earnings report exceeded expectations, pushing Ellison to a total fortune of $393 billion…
Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman opened the U.S. Senate with a prayer ahead of the Jewish New Year; he was present at the invitation of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)…
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met at the White House yesterday with the siblings of Israeli captive Evyatar David as well as freed hostages Ohad and Raz Ben Ami…
The Trump administration will, following a judge’s order, restore some funding and grants to Harvard University that for months had been frozen; the government plans to appeal the decision…
The Detroit Jewish News spotlights local philanthropist Geneva ‘Cis’ Maisel, who marked her 100th birthday last month…
Josh Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner and philanthropist Robert Kraft, took a distant second place in the Boston mayoral primary yesterday; he will square off on Nov. 4 against the incumbent Michelle Wu, who earned 72% of the vote…
The House Appropriations Committee approved its 2026 funding bill for the Department of Education on Tuesday; in addition to new provisions on campus antisemitism and cuts to the Office for Civil Rights, the explanatory report accompanying the bill requests a report to Congress on antisemitism in health care and an update on the status of antisemitism investigations…
Forbes spotlights Jared Kushner’s Brain Co., which he co-founded with Elad Gil and former Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, following the startup’s announcement on Wednesday that it had raised $30 million in its Series A funding round…
The New York Times looks at the deal taking shape between SkyDance’s David Ellison and The Free Press’ Bari Weiss that would give Weiss a C-suite role at CBS…
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who appeared at a Duke University event alongside former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, compared the “Free Palestine” movement to the KKK…
A Jewish Pittsburgh woman who pleaded guilty to vandalizing a Chabad house in the city earlier this year was sentenced to five years of federal probation…
Police in New South Wales, Australia, charged a man with a series of antisemitic attacks in the Sydney area, including the vandalism of the former home of the head of the country’s Jewish community and the firebombing of a childcare center…
Tennis Canada announced that the upcoming Davis Cup match between Canada and Israel will take place inside a closed venue with no spectators, citing security concerns…
Northern Arizona’s Jewish News interviews local psychologist Yisroel Loeb about the foundation he launched in memory of Mira Stahl, an Israeli counselor, educator and community leader from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks…
Argentine human rights activist Rosa Roisinblit, who became one of the leaders and founding members of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo after her pregnant daughter was disappeared during the country’s dictatorship, died at 106…
Major Gifts
New York Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen donated $2 million to the International Women’s Baseball Center, along with another $350,000 through their Amazin’ Mets Foundation…
Rebecca Feinglos donated $250,000 to The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in honor of her parents, both of whom worked for Duke Health, to establish the Susan and Mark Feinglos Grief Initiative…
Melinda French Gates announced a $100 million partnership between her umbrella group Pivotal and the nonprofit Wellcome Leap to focus on addressing areas of women’s health with the highest mortality rates…
Transitions
Ruth Marks Eglash will be the next editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report magazine, the Jerusalem Post Group announced on Tuesday…
Pic of the Day
Repair the World’s national board member Josh Sherbin, a Detroit resident, speaks on Tuesday alongside the group’s Detroit director, Becca Steinman-Degroot, at a retreat marking the organization’s 13 years of operations in the Motor City. During the event, the roughly 120 people in attendance packed hygiene kits for the Pope Francis Center Detroit and made tea bags for the local nonprofit Yad Ezra.
“Detroit is Repair’s longest-standing community and has been continuously operating as a hub of the Jewish service movement since our organization started,” Cindy Greenberg, president and CEO of Repair the World, said in a statement. “Tonight’s celebration, and micro-service projects honor the volunteers and service of the past 13 years in Detroit and inspire each of us for the future of our service movement.”
Birthdays
Percussionist, the only Jewish member of the Grateful Dead, born Michael Steven Hartman, Mickey Hart turns 82…
Wisconsin resident, Janis Gershon Kohlenberg… French physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for physics, Serge Haroche turns 81… 7-foot basketball center who played for the Bulls and Hawks in the NBA, David L. “Dave” Newmark turns 79… Senior U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Ohio based in Cincinnati, Judge Susan J. Dlott turns 76… Pediatric nephrologist, Dr. Jonathan Heiliczer… Member of the New Jersey General Assembly since 2006, he is the first Orthodox Jew to serve in the New Jersey Legislature, Gary Schaer turns 74… Television producer and executive producer, Jon Meyersohn… Global real estate advisor at ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, Rosy Lofer… Owner of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, he is the founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, David Tepper turns 68… Director of sales and marketing at Hillcrest Royale Senior Living in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Marian Rubinstein… Senior judge in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Ellen Ceisler turns 68… Co-founder of the U.K. hedge fund, Brevan Howard Asset Management, Alan Howard turns 62… London-based CEO and founding partner of Stanhope Capital, Daniel Pinto turns 59… CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Mark Dubowitz turns 57… Israeli journalist, political commentator and investigative reporter, Raviv Drucker turns 55… CEO of NYC’s 92nd Street Y, Seth William Pinsky… Executive director at JP Morgan Chase, Daniel E. Berger… Former member of the Illinois Legislature, now the CEO of NYC’s Chevra Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Service, Yehiel Mark Kalish turns 50… Arbi Tatevosian… Artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky turns 46… Stand-up comedian and podcast host, his YouTube channel has almost 260 million views, Steven Ira Hofstetter turns 46… Author and social media personality in Israel’s religious-nationalist community, Rabbi Avraham Stav turns 39… Jessica Sebella Setless Spiegel… Co-founder and rebbetzin of the Altneu synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and news editor for The Real Deal, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt… Chief of staff at The Jewish Agency for Israel, Gali Gordon… Betty (Yaira) Ilovici turns 31… Udi Ben Zeev…
