Your Daily Phil: JFNA General Assembly focuses on unity, preventing burnout
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the representatives of Israeli nonprofits making their way to the United States and on the Jewish Federations of North America absorbing Be the Narrative, which combats antisemitism in K-12 schools. We feature an opinion piece by Cherie Brown on the need to build bridges to other communities in order to combat antisemitism on campus.Also in this newsletter: David Hazony,Sharon Nazarian and Sherri Goldberg.We’ll start with a roundup of the JFNA General Assembly, which ended yesterday.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks, 146 local federations across North America raised more than $850 million in emergency relief in one year to help Israel with its immediate and long-term needs to rebuild. From Los Angeles to New York, federation staff and lay leaders worked overtime to accommodate an explosion in Jewish communal participation, which Jewish Federations of North America has named “The Surge.” For the first time since the attacks, more than 2,000 Jewish professionals, many of whom have been at the forefront of those efforts, convened for three days at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Washington D.C., report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Haley Cohen from the gathering.
With operations in overdrive this year, conversations addressed professional burnout, the scourge of antisemitism facing Jewish communities, how to support both Israel and Ukraine amid their respective ongoing wars, and how to chart a path forward as a cohesive North American Jewish community in a time of increasing polarization.
“There is a high rate of burnout at every level,” said Jennifer Mamlet, acting president and CEO of the JCC Association of North America, during a panel on Monday addressing “The Surge” in Jewish life post-Oct. 7.
Though last year’s General Assembly in Tel Aviv was marked by controversy as demonstrators — and some participants — protested the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed out of speaking hours before he was scheduled to, this year was marked by calls for unity.
“Oct. 7 was a defining moment in Jewish history, not only because of the massive devastation, but because it reminded Jews what we need,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said during his address at Monday’s afternoon plenary. “We need each other… we have all seen how much strength we can summon and how much comfort we can draw from choosing to come together as one people.”
In sideline conversations at the gathering, many attendees were fixated on Sunday’s “Stand Together” event, which drew fewer than 5,000 attendees despite organizers hoping for 30,000. Though tied to a variety of factors — from cold, rainy weather and a difficult ticketing system to the decision by some progressive groups to forgo the event over disagreements about the lack of critical voice — the rally’s sparse attendance hampered the organizers’ stated goal of projecting unity and resilience in the face of a difficult year and divisive election season.
With the end of 2024 approaching — and end-of-year giving along with it – partner organizations from North America and around the world, particularly Israel, descended on the GA with a variety of objectives, from fundraising and new partnership agreements to brainstorming sessions and awareness campaigns.
Family members of Israeli hostages Yair and Eitan Horn, Arbel Yehud, Romi Gonen, Keith Seigel, Sagui Dekel Chen, Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, and Nimrod Cohen were also present, some addressing attendees of the “Stand Together” event on Sunday. Several met with members of Congress on the GA sidelines, and with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday.
Sheryl Sandberg, founder of Lean In and former COO of Meta, who created a documentary about the sexual violence committed by terrorists in the Oct. 7 attacks, said during a conversation with JFNA Board Chair Julie Platt on Tuesday that she has come to embrace her Jewish and Zionist identities since the Hamas attacks.
The GA concluded with Sandberg’s declaration: “I am female, I am a business leader, I am an American, and I am a Jew, and I sit on this stage as a proud Zionist and a proud Jew, in a way I wouldn’t have a year and a half ago.”
INBOUND FLIGHTS
Representatives from Israeli nonprofits flock to U.S. for large gatherings, ahead of end-of-year giving
The Israelis are coming! Representatives from numerous Israeli nonprofits are flocking to the United States this month to raise money, deepen relationships with new and existing donors, brainstorm ideas with American counterparts and show solidarity with American Jews amid rising antisemitism, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky.
Different goals: For many, the immediate impetus for their trip was this week’s Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Washington, D.C., which ended on Tuesday, or the Jewish National Fund-USA Global Conference for Israel in Dallas, which runs from Thursday to Sunday — both of which offer a chance for Israeli organizations to meet with large numbers of donors in one concentrated space. This period also marks the time when donors are considering their end-of-year giving.
Building new ties: “This is a great opportunity for so many like-minded people to come together,” said Ortal Margalith, director of development at American Friends of Latet, which raises money for the Israeli food security nonprofit. “Since October there’s [been] such a big wave of support from the U.S. for Israel, including from many people who haven’t supported Israel before, at least not to that extent.”
Time to learn: For the first time this year, Tzedek Centers, a national grassroots movement of local activist communities, sent a delegation of three people to the JFNA General Assembly. “Funding is always something that’s needed, but I think there’s also a lot to be learned from these federations and from developing partnerships. There are always opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences, and this is a time when we need to be learning as much as we can,” said Bar Kolodony, the organization’s partnership director.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
JFNA absorbs Be the Narrative, which combats antisemitism in K-12 schools
Be the Narrative, a nonprofit that works to combat antisemitism in classrooms, will join forces with Jewish Federations of North America’s community relations team, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy, from the JFNA’s General Assembly where the merger was announced yesterday.
New urgency: According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, there were 1,162 incidents in K-12 schools, a 135% increase from the prior year. Be the Narrative looks to combat antisemitism in schools with its “Student to Student” program, which brings Jewish high school juniors and seniors to schools whose students otherwise have little-to-no contact with Jews. “Our work took on a new urgency after Oct. 7 in being a positive force for Jewish kids in high school as well as to affirm and build strong Jewish identities in a difficult time,” Rabbi Andrew Terkel, executive director of Be the Narrative, said during a panel at the GA.
What we’re looking for: Eric Fingerhut, JFNA CEO and president, said in a statement that his organization had been “looking for a program that will help Jewish teenagers gain confidence and offer them the skills to talk about being Jewish, and to engage them with non-Jews in the community, especially when there is so much negative information in the rise of antisemitism.”
BUILDING BRIDGES
To best support Jewish students, actively engage all students
“In 1990, the director of the African American center at Penn State invited Kwame Ture, born Stokely Carmichael, to address the student community. During his talk, Ture allegedly said: ‘The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist’… But that day at Penn State, a Jewish student stood up and declared, “I’m proud to be a Zionist.” He was then hit in the face… The National Coalition Building Institute was then invited to campus. When I arrived, I started with the premise that no matter how painful or divisive things got, we could still change hearts,” writes Cherie Brown, founder and CEO of NCBI, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Breaking the cycle: “In the post-Oct. 7 world on college campuses, violence and mistrust is sadly all too common. The end of that story — of students coming together — is far too rare. Campus administrators, faculty and students continue to seem stuck in a cycle of response, counter response and ‘cancel culture’ rather than one of deescalation and community building.”
A non-Jewish problem: “In particular, we must ensure we aren’t tackling antisemitism in a room with only other Jews. To do that, we need to broaden our work to include other communities currently under threat. Rather than fighting to exist, we must do the hard work to coexist.”
Worthy Reads
The Next Generation: In J. The Jewish News of Northern California, David Hazony presents the views of young American Jews and his disappointment in Jewish organizations’ failure to prevent the antisemitism against them. “This nightmare wasn’t supposed to happen. For a century, Jewish philanthropy in America spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year on an entire system of ‘defense organizations’ and other bodies aimed at protecting the Jewish community. Yet none of them, it seems, did their jobs. Consistently, major Jewish institutions failed to warn, to foresee and certainly to prevent or prepare for the avalanche of hatred Jews now face. Nobody has resigned. No commissions of inquiry were launched… Those who have paid the greatest price for this failure are young American Jews, especially students… They are angry, they are proud, and they are committed to serving the Jewish future with both love and wisdom. How do I know this? Since my first visit back to the U.S. from Israel last October, I’ve been collecting their writings, published in a new book called Young Zionist Voices: A New Generation Speaks Out. Its 31 essays express the authors’ disillusionment and anger, but also their vision, passion and creative commitment. It is a remarkable document… Israel’s wars will come to an end, with the Jewish state hopefully emerging victorious. The diaspora’s wars, however, have only begun. Will we listen to those who can lead us to victory?” [J.]
Around the Web
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation announced the launch of the Grinspoon Amber Awards at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly yesterday; the award, which will be first awarded next year, will honor five Jewish communal professionals…
President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to serve as the United States’ next ambassador to Israel…
JPro announced its next conference, JPro25, which will take place May 5-7 in Baltimore, Md.…
Rachel Sharansky Danziger interviewed Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was one of the six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas in August, and Rachel Goldberg, whose husband, Rabbi Avi Goldberg, was killed in battle in Lebanon two weeks ago and whose father, Rabbi Zvi Wolff, was Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s teacher, about loss, pain, hope and rising from the ashes…
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, discussed what the incoming Trump administration portends for the American Jewish community at an OU event moderated by Jewish Insider editor-in-chief Josh Kraushaar…
The House voted 256-145, with 52 Democrats supporting, in favor of a bill that would have allowed the Treasury secretary to revoke the nonprofit status of organizations supporting terrorism. But the legislation required a 2/3rds margin of support, and therefore failed. A previous version of the bill passed the House by an overwhelming 382-11 vote, but the legislation has since become a target of liberal groups warning that it could empower government overreach…
The “Be The Witness” virtual reality educational tool that aims to address the denial of the Oct. 7 atrocities is being launched this month in Los Angeles in a series of private and public events…
In Moment magazine, Sharon S. Nazarian discusses the “cognitive dissonance” she feels as a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, while coming from the Persian Jewish community, which largely backed President-elect Donald Trump…
The Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs held a session yesterday to consider requiring the Israeli Education Ministry to provide the same financial support — roughly NIS 18,000 ($4,800) — for Israeli youths who perform a year of service abroad, such as through the Jewish Agency’s shinshinim program, as those who perform national service in Israel…
Sherri Goldberg, director of Community and Family Services at the Jewish Renaissance Foundation, was appointed to the advisory board of the New Jersey Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson…
An Oregon man pleaded guilty to three federal hate crimes charges for defacing a Eugene, Ore., synagogue on two separate occasions in 2023 and 2024…
The University of Rochester is conducting an investigation after hundreds of “Wanted” posters featuring the names and images of faculty, mainly Jewish ones, including the school’s Hillel director, were posted on campus…
An opinion piece in J. the Jewish News of Northern California highlights the involvement of the San Francisco Bay Area philanthropic community, spearheaded by Taube Philanthropies, in the establishment of the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews 10 years ago…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office yesterday.
During the meeting, Herzog stressed the threat posed by Iran and the need to return the hostages being held captive in Gaza. “But most importantly, I’m here on behalf of the people of Israel, the nation of Israel and the State of Israel to say to you, Mr. President, thank you very much. As we say in Hebrew, Toda Raba,” Herzog said. “You’ve been an incredible friend of Israel and the Jewish people for decades, and we will never forget, ever, in history how you stood up with us in our darkest hour, which became our finest hour, how you came to Israel a few days after the barbaric attack of Oct. 7, how you helped us and supported us with words and deeds.”
Birthdays
Chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Shmuel Riccardo Di Segni…
Israeli industrialist, Gad Zeevi… Publisher of the independent “Political Junkie” blog and podcast, Kenneth Rudin… U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland… Once the controlling stockholder of a large Israeli conglomerate, Nochi Dankner… Managing director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, Sharon Freundel… Former member of the D.C. Board of Education for eight years, Ruth Wattenberg… Former editor-in-chief of British Vogue for 25 years, she is a strategic advisor to Atterley, Alexandra Shulman… U.S. senator (R-Alaska), Dan Sullivan… Producer and writer, he has written for ten television shows, Matt Weitzman… San Jose, Calif., resident, Katherine (Katya) Palkin… Somali-born activist who has served in the Dutch parliament, she is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Ayaan Hirsi Ali… Former Israeli government minister for the Shas party, he has served as minister of communications and then minister of housing, Ariel Atias… Founder of Pailet Financial Services, a predecessor agency of what is now the Dallas office of Marsh & McLennan, Kevin Pailet… Conservative rabbi, wife of former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica S. Fitzgerald Haney, Andrea Dobrick Haney… President and CEO at the U.S. Travel Association, Geoffrey Freeman… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Meirav Ben-Ari… Television journalist employed by Hearst Television, Jeff Rossen… President of baseball operations for MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, Andrew Friedman… Israeli rapper and record producer, generally known by his stage name “Subliminal,” Yaakov (Kobi) Shimoni… Judoka who won three national titles (2000, 2002 and 2004), she competed for the U.S. at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Charlee Minkin… Senior director of policy and communications at Christians United For Israel, Ari Morgenstern… Political communications consultant, Jared Goldberg-Leopold… PR and communications consultant, Mark Botnick… Professional soccer player, then a soccer coach and now a sales account executive at Les Friedland Associates, Jarryd Goldberg… Michael Schwab… Member of the House of Representatives (R-OH), one of two (soon to be three) Jewish Republican congressmen, Max Leonard Miller… Staff attorney for the ACLU’s voting rights project, Jonathan Topaz… Former relief pitcher in the Colorado Rockies organization, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, now an EMT in Los Angeles, Troy Neiman… Israeli film, television and stage actor and model, Bar Brimer… J.D. candidate at University of Houston Law Center, Cole Deutch… VP of Israel and global philanthropy and director of Christian Friends of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Danielle Mor…
