Your Daily Phil: JNF-Canada gets ‘Friends of’ after losing tax exemption
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the creation of a new nonprofit to support JNF-Canada as it fights the revocation of its tax-exempt status, break down the results of the World Zionist Congress elections, which were certified yesterday, and interview Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter about the state of the Israel-U.S. alliance. We feature an opinion piece by Carol Schiller about the use of AI tools in the nonprofit workplace, and one by Rachel Gildiner challenging the idea that addressing gender pay gap should take a back seat while the Jewish nonprofit sector deals with “more urgent” issues. Also in this issue: Nadav Eyal, Linda Frum and Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee.
What We’re Watching
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is at the Vatican today where he met with Pope Leo XIV.
What You Should Know
Supporters of the Jewish National Fund-Canada have founded a “Friends of” organization to support the group’s work as it fights to restore its charitable status, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Last summer, Canada’s tax authority revoked the charitable status of JNF Canada, the Ne’eman Foundation and other Israel-focused fundraising nonprofits, following complaints by anti-Israel activists. The Canadian Jewish News reported that JNF Canada’s issues with the tax agency spanned years, with the Canadian Revenue Agency citing JNF Canada’s decision to keep its accounting operations in Israel, rather than Canada, and the organization’s funding of improvements on Israeli military bases and projects in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The new organization, “Friends of JNF Canada,” will launch on Sept. 8, Nathan Disenhouse and Lance Davis — JNF Canada’s president and CEO — announced on Tuesday.
Lacking charitable status has hindered JNF Canada’s ability to “operate effectively,” particularly being able to provide charitable receipts to donors, according to Disenhouse and Davis. “We also know this is not a sustainable path forward,” they wrote. “The absence of our charitable status has limited our ability to operate effectively, and our supporters have told us they want their donations to have the full impact, including the ability to receive charitable receipts.”
By founding Friends of JNF Canada, the organization hopes to alleviate that issue for donors, while funding projects aligned with JNF Canada’s mission including supporting environmental sustainability initiatives and supporting mental and physical health care in Israel, the statement said.
VOTES ARE IN
After court rules on fraud appeals, American Zionist Movement certifies election results
The American Zionist Movement certified the votes for this year’s World Zionist Congress election on Wednesday after the Zionist Supreme Court ruled last week on the remaining irregularities that have been holding up the process. With the certification, AZM has also allocated the 155 U.S. delegate seats based on the 224,969 valid votes for the upcoming World Zionist Congress, which will be held next month in Jerusalem. Overall, right-wing and religious slates received the plurality of the votes, edging out the centrist and progressive slates, which won the plurality of seats in the 2020 election, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.Topline results: The largest American party in the congress will be the Reform movement, which received 47,648 votes, earning it 33 seats. This represents a slight drop compared to the 2020 election, when the slate received 39 seats. The Haredi-linked Am Yisrael Chai and Eretz HaKodesh earned 21 and 19 seats, respectively, giving Haredim an unprecedented level of influence in the Zionist movement. The Conservative movement’s Mercaz USA also earned 19 seats, making it the only existing progressive slate to see an increase in voter share.
ENVOY INTERVIEW
Israeli ambassador warns of challenges posed by ‘conspiratorial right’ and ‘woke left’
Scranton, Pa.-born Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter warned that the “conspiratorial, isolationist” right, together with the “woke left,” presents “dramatic and very intense challenges” to the Israeli-American relationship, in an interview with Lahav Harkov of eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. “We put Israel first, America puts America first. … I think it’s obvious and elemental. With the isolationist and conspiratorial right, Israel is always wrong and the Jews are always behind everything that’s wrong,” he said. Both sides of the aisle: Leiter spoke to JI before a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, in which he planned to meet with Democrats and Republicans. “I will always divide my day [between the parties],” he said. “Not only for tactical political reasons — the Democrats can take control of Congress in a year and a half, and if we haven’t paid them the proper respect and attention, we’re going to pay a very serious price — but beyond the tactical political plane, I believe that Israel is a bipartisan issue and should remain so.”
Read the full interview here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
Word to Wise
What every Jewish nonprofit leader needs to know about AI
“[A]ccording to a 2024 report, only 2% of nonprofit leaders say that AI is fully integrated in their organization. Meanwhile, 40% say they are not engaged at all, and 92% report feeling unprepared,” writes Carol Schiller, founder of Rumble Marketing, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “But while leaders are focused on other things, many staffers are experimenting with AI tools on their own. If you think this is a universal good, think again.”
For instance: “Has a staffer ever used the free version of ChatGPT to write a thank-you email to a donor? Bad news: Now that donor’s name and gift amount belongs to ChatGPT. … If your team is really sharp, they might produce a research report using Deep Research. But unless you check, some part of it may be completely made up. … This does not mean you should give up on AI. It does mean that in order to realize the full promise of AI, leaders need to invest in clear policies, standardized training and at least some oversight.”
READER RESPONDS
The gender pay gap is not inevitable
“Pay inequity is not just about salaries. It is about who and what we value. It is about which leadership we reward, and whose contributions we overlook,” writes Rachel Gildiner, SRE Network’s executive director, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Now is the time: “[It] is at this exact moment, while the Jewish community is bombarded with urgent, external challenges from all sides, that closing the pay gap and advancing gender equity must be addressed. … Leading Edge’s data found that beyond the C-suite, 68% of our Jewish nonprofit workforce is female. … We must act now to make the changes that have shown can lessen the pay gap and support the women driving our organizations, our institutions and our communities.”
Worthy Reads
A Bad Feeling: In Ynet, Nadav Eyal gives a lengthy rundown of antisemitic incidents worldwide and internal flash points in Israel from the past week or two alone. “Jewish existence is under mounting and severe threat everywhere. In the Diaspora and in Israel alike, the threat is both external and internal. The nature of these threats differs from country to country, but in every case — whether in Paris, Tel Aviv, or New York — the Jewish sense is one of existential peril. The war in Gaza did not create these processes, but it accelerated and worsened them. Other developments — technological and social, like social media, artificial intelligence, and the rise of populism and nationalism — all feed into this reality. The catastrophe is not here yet, but disaster lurks close by.” [Ynet]
A Time to Grow: In The Times of Israel, Erica Brown encourages students who were leadership-minded high achievers in high school to maintain that momentum during gap years and into college. “In many gap year programs, there are few opportunities to exercise leadership, and certainly not to the extent that students did in high school. Israelis in these programs will go on to lead in the army or in national service. But in the United States and elsewhere, some of the very same outstanding students who gave so much in high school take a hiatus in Israel that sadly leads to a hiatus in college.” [TOI]
Who You Gonna Call?: In The Atlantic, Zoë Schlanger explores the implications of the shifting the responsibility for disaster response in the U.S. from FEMA to private contractors. “This strategy is an inversion of what led President Jimmy Carter to create the agency in 1979: Governors, frustrated by the lack of a coordinating agency for disasters, requested it. Having 50 state agencies ready to respond to relatively rare catastrophes is inefficient; a federal disaster agency would have the advantages of standardized protocols, experience, and staff who can be deployed where needed. Now they may be largely on their own again. And most states, lacking their own cadre of expertise or manpower, will need support to fill in the gaps left by the federal government. States might lean on each other more than they already do, but they will surely also turn more to private contractors, many of which will now be staffed by former federal employees.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The Bay Area’s Jewish Federation Endowment and Community Fund is changing its name to Jewish Federation Bay Area, which it said is meant to strengthen “its identity as the center for Jewish philanthropy in Northern California”…
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Trump administration violated Harvard University’s free speech and due process rights when it suspended $2 billion in research funding in April, paving the way for the money to be released…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency spotlights the Stanley I. Chera Sephardic Academy of Manhattan, whose student body has grown considerably in recent years…
Activists joined the International Association of Genocide Scholars days after a minority of the group passed a controversial resolution accusing Israel of genocide to demonstrate that the association could be joined by anyone willing to pay the modest registration fee, including those using pseudonyms like “Adolf Hitler” and “Cookie Monster”…
Cornell University told Jewish Insider it was rescheduling the start of the housing lottery for rising juniors and seniors to begin at 8 p.m. on Oct. 2 after initially causing controversy for scheduling the lottery to begin earlier in the day, during the last few hours of Yom Kippur…
Columbia and New York University launched investigations into student conduct violations days into the start of the new academic year; at Columbia, a student protested with a sign accusing classmates of being “IOF [Israeli occupation forces] criminals committing genocide in Palestine,” while at NYU, a mezuzah was ripped off the doorpost of a student dorm…
Israeli artist Ilana Goor listed her home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $19 million; the carriage house home was previously listed last year for $37.75 million…
Larry Ellison’s Oracle is laying off an unknown number of employees in a handful of states, weeks after laying off hundreds of staffers…
Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who frequently stirs controversy for using antisemitic rhetoric in his commentary on Israel and Jewish issues, will join a roundtable discussion next month hosted by The New Yorker Festival. His scheduled appearance was denounced by the Anti-Defamation League, which called it “the latest example of mainstream media normalizing his brand of antisemitism and anti-Zionism,’ Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Record executive Scooter Braun and actress Sydney Sweeney are reportedly dating after meeting at the Venice wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez over the summer…
Jillian Segal, Australia’s antisemitism envoy, suggested that Canberra cut funding to organizations that fail to address antisemitism, making a comparison to the Australian government’s threat to end funding to childcare facilities that do not prevent child abuse…
Transitions
Linda Frum was elected as the new board chair of UN Watch…
Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee has been appointed the inaugural director of rabbinic talent development for both 18Doors and Honeymoon Israel…
Pic of the Day
Visual arts teacher Ariel Bassano speaks in front of a painting believed to be “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi yesterday at the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The painting was allegedly stolen by the Nazis from a Dutch Jewish art collector and was believed lost until it was spotted in an advertisement for the sale of a property in the Parque Luro neighborhood of Mar del Plata.
Birthdays
Television and film actor, he has also written four children’s books, Max Greenfield turns 45…
Award-winning computer scientist and philosopher who is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, he is the father of slain Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, Judea Pearl turns 89… Israeli architect renowned for designing public buildings across Israel and internationally over six decades, Meir Nir turns 86… Emeritus professor of law and former acting dean at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Lester Brickman turns 85… Retired professor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Edmundo N. Kraiselburd, Ph.D. turns 82… Saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator, in 2010 he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dave Liebman turns 79… Attorney and political consultant who has served as board president of Louisville, Ky.’s, Jewish Family & Career Services, Mark Steven Ament… Israeli singer-songwriter, his music mixes modern pop with Spanish music, David Broza turns 70… Celebrity doctor, he is a board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist and media personality, known as “Dr. Drew,” David Drew Pinsky, M.D. turns 67… Musician, music producer, audio engineer and corporate speaker, Mark Schulman turns 64… Former member of the House of Representatives (D-NY), Anthony Weiner turns 61… Real estate strategic advisor, political strategist and commentator, E. O’Brien (“Obi”) Murray… Screenwriter best known as the writer of the 2008 film “Vantage Point,” Barry Louis Levy turns 53… Former member of Knesset for the Labor / Zionist Union party, he was the secretary general of Israel’s Labor party until early 2017, Yehiel “Hilik” Bar turns 50… Painter, sculptor, filmmaker, actor, writer, producer, photographer and restaurateur, Andrew Levitas turns 48… Executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Marni Kottle turns 47… Former special assistant and personal aide to President George W. Bush, later at Thrive Capital, Jared Weinstein… Israeli former professional basketball player and coach, currently serving as an assistant coach for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Guy Pnini turns 42… Development officer at Atlanta’s Jewish Home Life Communities, Melissa Horen Kaplan… Javelin thrower, she won the Israeli national championship seven times, Marharyta Dorozhon turns 38… Television and film actor, Carter Mark Jenkins turns 34…
