Your Daily Phil: JFNA confab in D.C. comes at pivot point for world Jewry
Add EJP on GoogleIn today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we preview the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, which kicks off on Sunday. We report on a new Israeli venture health fund focusing on pediatric medicine out of Schneider Children’s Medical Center, and on the future of the Trump administration‘s efforts to crack down on campus antisemitism. We feature an opinion piece by Jessica Zmood and Shelly Steinwurtzel about holding the American Jewish community together as members react to the midterm results in sharply different ways; plus Peter Samuelson reflects on his philanthropic endeavors, current events and more. Also in this issue: Yakir Englander, Adam Karst and Matt Levitt.
Shabbat shalom!
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
More than 500 Black American and African Christian leaders are visiting Israel this week to honor the pilgrimage that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. planned for 1967 but was never able to complete, with organizers aiming to bring 5,000 pastors next year.
The San Mateo County (Calif.) Historical Association will open the Taube Family Carriage House and Automobile Gallery on Saturday, as part of “History in Motion,” a free grand-opening celebration of the museum’s $25.5 million campus expansion. Dianne Taube and the late Tad Taube provided the project’s lead gift through Taube Philanthropies.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will hold additional consultations today as he determines who will get the first mandate to form a government. This comes despite Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar party getting endorsements from parties representing 67 seats of the 120-seat Knesset, in an apparent push by Herzog to form a “unity government,” which would include at least some members of the outgoing coalition.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is organizing a lunch today in support of the Jewish-owned restaurants being targeted by an antisemitic bike rally on Sunday that has drawn criticism from local and statewide officials. Mayor Cherelle Parker on Thursday condemned the bike ride, days after she was asked about the event and pointed reporters to a statement from the city’s Commission on Human Relations rather than issuing a response of her own.
The Jewish Federation of North America’s General Assembly kicks off on Sunday in Washington. The opening plenary will feature a sit-down with former Secretaries of State Tony Blinken and Mike Pompeo in their first public conversation together. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Jay Deitcher!
Some 6,500 Chabad emissaries from 100 countries are gathering this weekend in Brooklyn for the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim.
On Monday morning local time, the city of Jerusalem will host EduNation Jerusalem – Israel’s first international education conference.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S JAY DEITCHER
From across North America, Israel and even Australia, nearly 2,500 people will flock to Washington for this year’s Jewish Federations of North America annual General Assembly, hoping to network with fellow Jewish professionals, drum up interest in their initiatives and influence the agenda of the Jewish federation system for the coming year.
The event, which kicks off on Sunday and runs through Tuesday, takes place at a time when JFNA sees the Jewish community as standing at “an inflection point,” according to the event organizers. It’s been a common theme from past years’ gatherings, which were also held during periods of crisis and change for the Jewish world — from the COVID-19 pandemic to the 2023 GA that was held in the shadow of the judicial overhaul protests and, for the past three years, wars in Israel and rising antisemitism around the world. This year’s gathering also comes days after the midterm elections in the United States, and less than two weeks after Israel’s parliamentary elections.
“There is an energy at the General Assembly that is hard to express in words when 2,500 leaders come together who are committed to the work of strengthening Jewish life day in, day out,” Shira Hutt, executive vice president at JFNA, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “There’s a chance for people to be inspired, to be connected, and it’s also strengthening to be together as a community.”
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.
News
HEALTHY RETURNS
Clalit, Schneider Children’s launch $50M venture fund that turns donations into pediatric health investments
Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest HMO, and its Schneider Children’s Medical Center announced its $50 million venture fund earlier this week. A third of the interest that the fund generates will go back to Clalit and Schneider for research, and the fund is working with donor-advised funds to allow funders to invest — and potentially grow — their charitable donations, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.
Charity’s not enough: Schneider Children’s Venture Capital spent eight months in “stealth mode” before its public debut earlier this week. The fund has raised $20 million from private and institutional investors so far, managing partner Ronen Gadot told eJP. “Philanthropy is great, but it’s not sufficient to cross the chasm between research and clinical use,” he said. “What the hospital and Clalit bring to the table are significant assets to enhance the chances of success.”
CAMPUS CROSSROADS
Federal campus antisemitism crackdown faces uncertain future after Democratic sweep, Dhillon exit
The Trump administration’s campaign against campus antisemitism may be entering a new phase, Jewish advocates and a former administration official told Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider — one complicated by a Democratic takeover of the House, the departure of a key Justice Department official and growing questions about the White House’s commitment to enforcement.
Sanders in: One key enforcer of the Justice Department’s efforts to crack down on campus antisemitism, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, resigned from the agency on Thursday, just as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is set to return as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the committee with jurisdiction over universities.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff.
Opinion
WHAT COMES NEXT
Remaining a community across political divides
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Jessica Zmood and Shelly Steinwurtzel, co-founders of Gesher Community Care, acknowledge that the Jewish community’s reactions to the results of this week’s midterm election are both mixed yet also deeply felt, whether someone is celebrating what they see as a victory for the values that keep their family safe, or alarmed at what they interpret as signs that antisemitism is no longer an obstacle but a stepstool to political office.
“As clinical psychologists, we help people navigate relationships, conflict and the complicated emotions that emerge when people see the same situation differently. This election has us thinking about what happens when those differences move beyond individual relationships and into the institutions that hold our communities together, because the challenge facing American Jewish leadership isn’t simply how to respond to the election results — it’s how to keep our communities from fracturing over them.”
BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS
Finding happy in troubled times
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, veteran film producer and philanthropist Peter Samuelson takes the occasion of his 75th birthday to share reflections on his nonprofit work, this week’s “blue tsunami” and the importance of fostering a society of kindness.
“The tool kit of a film producer turns out to transfer directly to creating new charities to address old challenges. First, you have to be able to tell the story of something that doesn’t yet exist, whether it’s a film or a cause. The seven nonprofits that I’ve had the privilege of founding all started with the ability to tell the story.”
Worthy Reads
Ears and Evidence: In Stanford Social Innovation Review, Sasha Dichter of 60 Decibels and Kate Labeille of Root Capital make the case that social impact groups should pair what participants say about their experience with hard outcome data, pointing to a Kenyan farmer training program that drew high marks from users yet left their knowledge unchanged. “Outcome evidence is what justifies the capital in the first place, but a satisfied customer is a necessary condition for impact, not a sufficient one. How organizations handle the gap between those two things is, in our experience, one of the more consequential measurement questions in the sector.”
Kol Nidre Coalition: In The Wisdom Daily, educator Yakir Englander draws on Yom Kippur’s Kol Nidre prayer to argue that Israel’s anti-Netanyahu bloc boxed itself in by ruling out Haredi and Arab parties as partners, urging leaders to treat rivals as part of the community instead of existential enemies. “This is the enduring lesson of Yom Kippur for political life: A healthy community is not one without conflict, nor is it one without sin. A healthy community is one that remembers how to sit with its transgressors — without turning them into enemies, and without shirking its share of responsibility for the whole.”
Deli Drama: In The Wall Street Journal, filmmaker and screenwriter Stuart Creque slams New Jersey’s kosher fraud regulators for fining a Cherry Hill kosher-style deli $1,000 over its “Jewish Cheesesteak,” arguing the word “Jewish” makes no kashrut claim and the citation protects no observant diner. “Business is tough enough without a pointless enforcement effort — especially one that doesn’t actually protect the people it purportedly serves.”
Major Gifts
The Farmer Family Foundation pledged up to $100 million to Miami University’s business school, a school record that lifts its capital campaign past $1 billion…
Transitions
Foundation for Jewish Camp named Matt Levitt as its new chief operating officer…
Adam Karst joined the Community Security Service as its inaugural Los Angeles-based regional director of training and security, the group told eJewishPhilanthropy…
Michael Basch is returning to Harvard’s Kennedy School as a research fellow at the Center Public Leadership’s Social Innovation and Change Initiative to investigate how to take full advantage of the incoming wave of centimillionaires emerging from the artificial intelligence boom…sident of the Catholic Biblical Association of America…
Word on the Street
Mimimelon, a Jewish-owned kosher bakery in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent neighborhood, was destroyed this week in a suspected arson attack, its second fire in 48 hours, prompting police to assign hate crimes investigators despite finding no evidence yet of an antisemitic motive…
Two months after John Galliano withdrew from a planned Met exhibition and gala amid donor backlash over his antisemitic remarks, the Costume Institute will instead build its spring show around high fashion’s take on everyday staples like jeans, T-shirts and puffer jackets…
In partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, 10 JCCs will join an effort, launched in Tampa, Fla., to connect community members with Parkinson’s research, a priority given genetic risks common among Ashkenazi Jews; the JCCs are those in Boston; New York City; Pittsburgh; Denver; Hartford, Conn.; Charlotte, N.C.; St. Paul, Minn.; Tucson, Ariz.; Oceanside, N.Y.; and North Miami Beach, Fla…
Inside Philanthropy tallies the foundation and nonprofit veterans who won office in the midterms, led by Ohio Gov.-elect Amy Acton, a onetime Columbus Foundation grants manager…
Anthropic’s stock match of employees’ charitable gifts generated more than $660 million in noncash expenses over six months…
Kol Hadash, Northern California’s lone secular humanistic Jewish congregation, is winding down its formal operations after four decades as its leaders, all of whom are over 70, step aside and members shift to an informal mailing list…
Oklahoma’s incoming schools Superintendent Robert Franklin said he opposes the proposed Ben Gamla Jewish online religious charter school on church-state grounds, even as the state charter board presses its federal appeal…
Vanity Fair covers Ye’s first runway show in four years where celebrities and fans packed his new Los Angeles Yeezy flagship store despite his string of antisemitic incidents…
Salon, the pioneering online magazine launched in 1995, shut down yesterday after 31 years, saying its publishing model could no longer survive the economics of independent digital journalism..
Eva Geller, a Holocaust survivor wounded in last December’s Hanukkah massacre at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, died yesterday from injuries sustained during the terror attack. She was 90…
Pic of the Day
A visitor examines the exhibits yesterday at the new Jewish museum in Baghdad focused on the ancient Jewish community in the Iraqi capital, which once totaled more than 120,000 people, nearly all of whom fled to Israel in the early 1950s amid rising antisemitism.
The museum features portraits of rabbis and community leaders, historical documents, school records and educational diplomas of former students.
Birthdays
Joy Bauer, founder of Nourish Snacks, nutrition expert on NBC and author of 15 New York Times bestsellers, turns 63 today
FRIDAY
Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, leading teacher in the Breslov Hasidic movement in Israel, turns 96
Ruth Messinger, former president and CEO of American Jewish World Service until 2016, now the organization’s inaugural global ambassador, turns 86
Andrew Saul, former commissioner of the Social Security Administration until 2021, turns 80
Sidney Blumenthal, former advisor to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, turns 78
Barbara Volsky turns 76
Joseph Shenker, senior chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, turns 70
Lori Singer, actor and cellist best known for her lead role in the 1984 film “Footloose” and the television series “Fame”
and her twin brother Gregory Singer, violinist, composer and conductor, he is the founder and music director of the Manhattan Symphonie, turn 69
Ira Fishman, former managing director of the NFL Players Association for 15 years, turns 69
Nicholas Goldberg, editorial page editor and op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times until 2023, turns 68
Erik Seidel, professional poker player from Las Vegas, he has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, turns 67
Joy Bauer, founder of Nourish Snacks, nutrition expert on NBC and author of 15 New York Times bestsellers, turns 63
Laurene Powell Jobs, philanthropist, she is the founder of the Emerson Collective and co-founder of XQ Institute, turns 63
Andrew S. Weinberg, principal and COO at Douglass Winthrop Advisors
Seth Radow, SVP of investments in the Beverly Hills office of Raymond James
Geoffrey Rochwarger, chairman at IDT Finance, he is a partner in Covenant Winery, turns 56
Dan Senor, host of the “Call Me Back” podcast, chief public affairs officer at Elliott Management and co-author of The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation, turns 55
Kari Alterman, founder of Good Name Advisors
Susan Downey, film producer, together with her husband Robert Downey Jr., turns 53
Earl Campos Devine, South Florida entrepreneur
Yaakov “Yanky” Lemmer, head cantor of Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City, turns 43
And his younger brother, Shulem Lemmer, the first Haredi-born Jew to sign a contract with a leading record label, turns 37
Robert Eric “Robbie” Widlansky, former outfielder in the Orioles and Angels systems, he played for Team Israel in 2012 and is now a manager of business development at Robson Forensic, turns 42
Jake Pollack, producer on “The Ben Shapiro Show,” turns 31
SATURDAY
Eric Kandel, neuropsychiatrist, a 1944 graduate of Yeshivah of Flatbush and 2000 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, turns 97
Rudy Boschwitz, former U.S. senator from Minnesota, he later served on the boards of AIPAC and JINSA, turns 96
Barbara Liskov, MIT professor in electrical engineering and computer science, turns 87
Donald Kohn, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he was the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, turns 84
Stephen Greenblatt, university professor at Harvard, expert on Shakespeare, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, turns 83
Beryl Weiner, founding president of Santa Monica, Calif., synagogue Kehillat Ma’arav and senior partner in the West Los Angeles law firm of Selvin & Weiner, turns 83
Thomas “Tom” Sudow, past international president of the FJMC International (formerly the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs), turns 74
Jonathan “Jon” Peter Taffer, entrepreneur, bar owner and television personality, turns 72
Laurie Tobias-Cohen, community affairs representative and constituent liaison for Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY)
Aaron Thomas Korsh, creator, writer and showrunner of the legal drama series “Suits,” turns 60
Marcy Meyers, volunteer coordinator for the Fulton County Library System
Cindy Rowe, president and CEO of the Boston-based Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action
Michael R. Holub, funeral director at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel in Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Zakary Challen Brown, former professional racing driver, now CEO of McLaren Racing, turns 55
Dani Reiss, chairman and CEO of luxury apparel company Canada Goose, turns 53
Leon Tsoukernik, former casino owner and art collector, turns 53
Aryeh Yitzhak King, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, turns 53
Yoni Stadlin, co-founder of Eden Village Camp, an environmental Jewish summer camp based in upstate New York
And his twin brother, Rabbi Pesach Stadlin, wilderness guide, experiential educator and artist, turn 48
Jennifer Friedman, chief communications officer at NBC Universal
Daniel Libit, investigative reporter for Sportico
Brian Horwitz, former outfielder nicknamed “the rabbi,” he won two minor league batting titles, turns 44
Avi Zenilman, consultant for family foundations
Alexa Jordan Silverman, VP for the Northeast at AIPAC
Elena Schneider, national political reporter at The Washington Sun
Rachel Sumekh, CEO of TEN: Together Ending Need
Shane Feldman, founder and chairman of Count Me In, a global youth empowerment organization
Tomer Aharonovitch, co-founder and CEO at Moneta Labs Limited
SUNDAY
Herbert Stern, former U.S. attorney for New Jersey and U.S. District Court judge, now a trial lawyer, turns 90
Annie Korzen, actor, comedian and writer, she played the recurring role of Doris Klompus on “Seinfeld,” her solo theater shows include “Yenta Unplugged” and “The Yenta Cometh,” turns 88
Léone-Noëlle Meyer, French heiress, pediatrician, businesswoman and philanthropist, turns 87
Ira Magaziner, former CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, he was a senior White House aide to President Bill Clinton, turns 79
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, leader of the Sephardic baal teshuva movement in Israel, turns 73
Wayne Berman, senior managing director and global head of government relations for Blackstone, turns 70
Michael Sosebee, senior operations manager at EquipmentShare
Mohamed Alabbar, Emirati businessman who is best known as the developer of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, turns 70
Daniel E. Straus, healthcare executive, venture capitalist and real estate developer, turns 70
Michelle Silverstein, financial consultant at Retirement Benefits Consulting
Yoav Gallant, former Israeli minister of defense, turns 68
Helen Vivian “Nell” Scovell, television producer and creator of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” she is the co-author of Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book Lean In, turns 66
Charles “Chesky” Wertman, NYC-area attorney
Laurie Moskowitz, principal at Lore Strategies
Zehava Ben, popular Israeli female vocalist in the Mizrahi music genre, turns 58
Allison Gingold, board member at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles
David Moshé Faitelson, sports journalist for TelevisaUnivision Deportes Network, he was born in Ashkelon, Israel, and has covered both the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, turns 58
Beth Shak, professional poker player, turns 57
Yavilah McCoy, founder of Ayecha (a nonprofit advocacy group for Jews of color), turns 54
Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, former rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, turns 52
Daniel Milstein, Kyiv-born CEO of Gold Star Financial Group including sports management, mortgage lending, publishing, film production and venture capital, turns 51
Lior Narkis, Israeli singer, turns 50
Mira Kogen Resnick, senior director for global policy and defense cooperation at Saronic Technologies, turns 44
Harley Finkelstein, Canadian entrepreneur and public speaker, best known as the president of Shopify, turns 43
Aaron Bregman, director of K-12 student leadership and programming at the American Jewish Committee
Roei Eisenberg, executive director of ANU: A New Union, he is national chair of IPF: Atid, turns 39
Jared Kusnitz, film and television actor, turns 38
Alana Weiner, consultant on media, strategic communications, branding and podcast production
Cameron Elizabeth Fields, engagement and communications associate at Johns Hopkins Hillel
Allan Waxman
