Discipline Misspent: In The Times of Israel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s professor Daniel Chamovitz urges Israel’s ruling coalition to redirect the discipline it used to swiftly pass five contested bills toward five uncontested measures that would build up the Negev. “The laws that got the coalition’s full attention this session were the ones that served a narrow constituency loudly. The Negev has never been a loud constituency, and it has paid for that in every budget.”

Time to Reciprocate: Also in The Times of Israel, Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics’ Rabbi David Fine contends that Israelis have failed to reciprocate American Jews’ post-Oct. 7 support and announces a mission of Israeli rabbis to the U.S. before the High Holidays to comfort communities rattled by rising antisemitism. “I don’t want to compete in the suffering Olympics… But I would like to play in the caring Olympics. That is a much better use of our time.”

Domestic Threats: In The New York Times, Bret Stephens argues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tolerates rising West Bank settler terrorism to protect his far-right coalition, and warns the violence endangers Israel’s security and the rule of law central to Zionism. “Not only because the terrorism is a menace to Palestinian lives and property, or an affront to Jewish ethics, or a stain on Israel’s reputation — though it’s all those things. It’s also a direct threat to Israel’s security and statehood, and thus to Zionism itself.” 

Eyes on the Prize: Writing for the blog of the progressive group New Jewish Narrative, Kenneth Bob explains why he remains engaged with legacy institutions like the World Zionist Organization and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund. “While I understand the hesitancy –  I am the first one to admit that it can be both frustrating and uncool –  I’ll quote another cultural icon, the outlaw Willie Sutton, who reportedly said ‘I rob banks because that’s where the money is.’”

The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan dedicated an art studio named for Mordecai K. Rosenfeld and Paul J. Omansky after the couple gave $1 million to the JCC’s Center for Diverse Abilities…

Sustainable Israeli-Palestinian Projects, a Boulder, Colo.-based nonprofit, awarded $10,000 in emergency grants to four Israeli-Palestinian groups aiding West Bank communities hit by settler violence…

Kaiser Permanente committed $10 million to expand the Youth Mental Health Corps, joining founders Howard Schultz and Pinterest to place trained young adult peers alongside teens and reach an additional 200,000 youth nationwide…

Keren Tosafos Yom Tov launched a campaign offering a $1 million prize, funded by an unnamed philanthropist, to a synagogue whose members pledge to refrain from talking during prayer…

Valley of the Sun J in Scottsdale, Ariz., named Dina Shuster as its next CEO…

Semafor reports that Bloomberg LP executives held preliminary talks with banks about a possible IPO or other deal, though the company maintains that 84-year-old founder Michael Bloomberg controls the firm and has no plans to sell it…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog named 11 recipients of the 2026 President’s Medal, Israel’s highest civilian honor. They are: actress Yona Elian Keshet, professor Hossam Haick, psychotrauma expert Mooli Lahad, professor Hefziba Lifshitz, professor Yossi Leshem, terror-victims advocate Avi Moses, social activist Ziva Mekonen, former minister Moshe Nissim, Rabbi Haim Sabato, musician Yehuda Eder and Reichman University’s founder, professor Uriel Reichman…

A smartwatch system called You’re Safe, which detects PTSD episodes in real time and alerts a designated contact, won first place at this year’s TechHeal…

The Israeli nonprofit investigative journalism watchdog Shomrim is raising questions about a new project by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry to combat antisemitism as the organization that is meant to run it, Gen Truth Collective, was formed a month ago but already has a two-year contract for NIS 142 million ($46.5 million)…

A hammer-wielding man shoved a child and bit a counselor at a Queens Jewish day camp yesterday before staff tackled him, and police arrested him…

The Jewish Museum of Florida in Boca Raton has spun off into its own independent nonprofit…

In The Forward, Dan Perry profiles LIBRAEL, an Israeli nonprofit led by 32-year-old Rotem Oreg-Kalisky that is betting liberal Zionists can rebuild Democratic trust in Israel…

The New York Times Magazine chronicles the internal upheaval at the Heritage Foundation under President Kevin Roberts after he defended Tucker Carlson for hosting white-nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes — an event that triggered an exodus of the organization’s traditional conservative staff and brought in new hires who have reportedly accelerated Heritage’s turn against its old pro-Israel, free-market consensus…

Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History opened “Colors of Creation,” a 7,000-square-foot immersive family gallery combining concert-style lighting to depict the story of Creation as part of its 250th Independence Day events…

In a Jerusalem Post opinion piece, Pesach Lerner, the founder and chairman of the Haredi Eretz HaKodesh faction in the World Zionist Congress, pushes back against the Jewish Agency’s efforts to advance religious pluralism in Israel, arguing that this isn’t the cornerstone of Zionism that the organization claims… 

Mark Cuban has filed a pre-suit petition in Texas court seeking discovery from Patrick Dumont, alleging he was frozen out of a lucrative arena-district real estate venture he believed his retained 27% Mavericks stake entitled him to when he sold majority control of the team to Dumont and his mother-in-law, Miriam Adelson, in 2023…

Casey Wasserman is selling his remaining stake in talent agency The Team to majority owner Providence Equity Partners, ending a monthslong auction triggered after more than 20 clients dropped the firm over his appearance in Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell…

FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveiled plans Tuesday for a $20 billion World Cup company whose backers include Joshua Kushner…

David Stanley Silverberg, a longtime Sioux City, Iowa, financial advisor who served on the boards of many local Jewish organizations, died July 28 at 90…

Martin I. Goldstein, an Atlanta dermatologist, Jewish lay leader and supporter of many Jewish organizations, including his local Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and Ramah Darom, died July 27 at 93…

Yaakov Hagoel, chair of the World Zionist Organization (left), Yizhar Hess, vice chair of the WZO (center), and Zvi Hasid, CEO of the ZAKA emergency response group, exhume the remains of Shimon Leib and Rivka Herzl — the grandparents of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl — today in Belgrade, Serbia, ahead of their reinternment next Wednesday in Jerusalem on Mt. Herzl. The reinternment, which is being performed in accordance with Jewish law, follows years of discussions with Serbian authorities, WZO said. 

“He bequeathed a state to us, but for himself and his family he made one modest request: that they be buried in the Land of Israel if and when the Jewish state was established,” Hagoel said in a statement. “Today, we have been privileged to fulfill his final request and bring this chapter to a close. Grandfather Shimon Leib and Grandmother Rivka will join the Herzl family plot on Mount Herzl. They played a significant role in Herzl’s childhood and in shaping his Zionist thought. Next week, they will finally be laid to rest in peace in Jerusalem.”

Richard J. Schnall, co-president of private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and co-chairman and governor of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, turns 57

Stuart A. Weitzman, shoe designer, entrepreneur and founder of an eponymous shoe company, turns 85

George Bruce Kaiser, chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Okla., turns 84

Kenneth Eichner, Denver-based attorney, film producer and author of both fiction and nonfiction, turns 72

Dov Moran, Israeli electrical engineer and inventor, he is best known as the inventor of the USB memory stick, turns 71

Carol Eisenberg, freelance writer and editor

Avichai Mandelblit, attorney general of Israel from 2016 to 2022, turns 63

Peter S. Goodman, global economics reporter for The New York Times, turns 60

Richard Steven Horvitz, actor and comedian, best known for his voice work in animation and video games, turns 60

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem

Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz and Yisroel Zev Rechnitz, twin brothers, Los Angeles-based philanthropists and businessmen

Rabbi Yair Silverman, co-founder and rabbi of the Moed community in Zichron Yaakov, Israel

Joshua Radnor, actor, filmmaker and musician, he is best known for his role in the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,”, turns 52

Peter Alexander, MS NOW anchor, turns 50

Jayme David, VP of community engagement at BBYO

Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center at Yeshiva University, he is also the rabbi of NYC’s Congregation Shearith Israel (The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue), turns 49

Aaron Kessler, data and investigative journalist at the Associated Press

David de Burgh Graham, former member of the Canadian Parliament, turns 45

Itamar Sharon, a news editor at The Times of Israel

Allison Jaslow, Iraq war veteran, political and communications strategist, she is now a visiting fellow at George Mason University’s National Security Institute

Rabbi Levi Welton, rabbi, writer, educator and physician assistant

Herbie Ziskend, White House principal deputy communications director during the Biden administration

Jason Levin, EVP in the Los Angeles office of Edelman

Maya Wertheimer, Israeli actor, model and television presenter, turns 36

Daniel Ryan Vinik, policy advisor to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)

Ari’el Stachel, Tony Award-winning actor, turns 35

Uriel Wassner

Sam Brief, broadcaster for the Windy City Bulls

Sam Hartman, quarterback for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, turns 27