Your Daily Phil: Let the Games begin! Maccabiah returns to Israel
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we preview the 22ndMaccabiah Games, which kick off tonight in Jerusalem, and report on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s preparations to provide aid to Venezuela’s Jewish community after the country’s devastating earthquakes. We examine the Jewish Agency’s rebuke of Knesset bills on Western Wall prayer and conversions, and spotlight Bar-Ilan University‘s new diplomatic leadership program. We feature an opinion piece by Hava Leipzig Holzhauer urging American Jewish communities to speak up when political campaigns zero in on Jewish identity and/or Zionist beliefs as disqualifiers for public office.Also in this issue: Jonah Platt, Alex Rif and Ruth Agiv.
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Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
The 22nd Maccabiah Games will kick off this evening with an opening ceremony at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium. More on this below. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross and Nira Dayanim!
What You Should Know
Let the Games begin — finally. Thousands of Jewish athletes from around the world, joined by thousands more screaming fans, will gather together in Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium tonight to kick off this year’s improbable Maccabiah Games — a normally quadrennial event that was canceled last year due to war with Iran and nearly suffered the same fate this year for the same reason.
Coming after nearly three years of war in Israel and rising antisemitism globally, the Games, which run through July 10, offer an increasingly rare opportunity for, well, fun and games, even as the weight of the current period will still be felt, with some events dedicated to athletes who were killed in the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“We decided to postpone the Games last year because of the situation with Iran, and today we are finally celebrating the opening ceremony,” Maccabiah CEO Roy Hessing told eJewishPhilanthropy. “It was the most difficult preparation period for an international event in Israel — flights weren’t coming in, there were travel warnings from different countries. But finally, we are here, and I truly believe we made the right decision.”
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know.’
News
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
As search-and-rescue efforts end, the Joint readies for long-term relief in quake-struck Venezuela
On the first day of this week’s Focal Point conference, the annual gathering in New York of Jewish and Israeli aid and development professionals hosted by the umbrella group Olam, one of the most attended sessions focused on developing alternative funding and financial sustainability models — a sign of the growing financial challenges facing the field. “Since I started coming to Olam, this is the first time that really everyone is having a hard time,” Jacob Sztokman, the founding director of Gabriel Project Mumbai, an India-based holistic development organization, who attended the session, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim at the conference.
Silver lining: “The opportunity that’s there when the bottom falls out of a sector is that you have to innovate and you have to try new things, because the funding isn’t flowing in,” Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, the director of leadership and learning at the Pears Foundation, one of the main funders of Olam, told eJP.
KEEP IT CIVIL
Jewish Agency chides Israeli coalition for bills that ‘undermine Jewish pluralism’
In a rare public rebuke of the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors on Tuesday criticized two coalition-backed bills that strike at the heart of issues central to Diaspora Jews that are being considered by the Knesset. One would effectively criminalize egalitarian and women-led prayer at the Western Wall, and the other would reject non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism for the purpose of immigration to Israel, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Respect our diversity: In anticipation of Israel’s upcoming elections, which are expected to be particularly divisive, the Jewish Agency stressed the importance of maintaining responsible and respectful public discourse. “Only by preserving the unity of the Jewish People, while honoring the differences and diversity within it, can we continue to strengthen the deep bond between Israel and world Jewry,” the group said.
NEXT GENERATION
Bar-Ilan convenes all-star faculty for pilot leadership program on Israel’s strategic challenges
Some of the most prominent figures in U.S.-Israel diplomacy, Israeli national security and the American Jewish community are gathering at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, to help train a new generation of leaders confronting Israel’s evolving strategic challenges, reports Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Top teachers: Among the faculty is former Ambassador Dennis Ross, the veteran Middle East negotiator who advised four U.S. presidents; Howard Kohr, the former longtime executive director of AIPAC; Malcolm Hoenlein, who for decades served as executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Yaakov Amidror, Israel’s former national security advisor; former Knesset member Einat Wilf; and Bar-Ilan President Arie Zaban, among others.
In anticipation of Israel’s upcoming elections, which are expected to be particularly divisive, the Jewish Agency stressed the importance of maintaining responsible and respectful public discourse. “Only by preserving the unity of the Jewish People, while honoring the differences and diversity within it, can we continue to strengthen the deep bond between Israel and world Jewry,” the group said.
Opinion
SPEAK UP
This is not politics as usual
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Hava Leipzig Holzhauer, president and CEO of Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona and founder of the Center for Jewish Resilience, calls attention to a local primary campaign in Tucson that has placed state Rep. Alma Hernandez’s Jewish identity — and particularly her Zionism — at the center of the political conversation
“If the campaign rhetoric were about differences over taxes, education, healthcare or any other policy issue, the Center for Jewish Resilience would remain on the sidelines. But when political rhetoric reduces a candidate to their Jewish identity — when it implies that being Jewish, including believing in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, makes someone inherently suspect or less deserving of full participation in civic life — it ceases to be an ordinary political disagreement and becomes a challenge to the equal standing of Jews in the public square, one the Jewish community has a responsibility to confront.”
Worthy Reads
Cosgrove’s Prophecy: In the Daily News, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove criticizes New York congressional candidate Brad Lander for allying with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America coalition and predicts it will abandon him in the 2028 election cycle as insufficiently radical while the Jewish community welcomes him back. “When your new friends went silent as you were ripped apart by someone even purer than you, you finally understood what abandonment feels like.”
Philanthropy Recommitted: In Inside Philanthropy, the Raikes Foundation’s Jeff Raikes marks America’s 250th anniversary by arguing philanthropy has grown too distant from communities and must publicly recommit to defending democracy and embattled nonprofits. “Where professional civil society has lost touch with the communities it hopes to serve, we must do more than explain ourselves better. We actually have to change.”
Pink Pony Theory: In an X post, podcaster Jonah Platt argues young anti-Israel Jews aren’t self-hating but disconnected and under-educated after drifting into progressive circles where such views are the norm. “If all we teach them is holidays, songs, and tikkun olam, we can’t be surprised when the only things they know about being Jewish are holidays, songs, and tikkun olam.”
Major Gifts
Philanthropist Herbert Wertheim gave a record $100 million to Baptist Health South Florida to expand cancer research and treatment, prompting the Miami Cancer Institute to be renamed in his honor…
U.K. charity Migdal Ohr, which supports around 10,000 at-risk children in Israel each year, raised over £1.2 million ($1.59 million) to fund foster care and essential services for more than 300 vulnerable children…
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft sponsored 100 Israeli children who lost a parent in the war to attend a World Cup match at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass…
Transitions
Rochester, N.Y.-based Pam Sherman has been named chair of the board of trustees of Jewish Women International…
Doug Berman has been appointed chair of Hillel International’s board of directors…
Alex Rif, CEO of One Million Lobby — an advocacy organization for Russian-speaking Israelis — joined Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party list ahead of the upcoming election…
Davey Rosen has concluded his 10-year tenure as CEO at Michigan Hillel…
Word on the Street
Several Jewish groups celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to uphold birthright citizenship and strike down a Trump administration executive order that aimed to eliminate citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and those in the U.S. on temporary visas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
At the same time, progressive Jewish groups are speaking out against a Supreme Court ruling giving states the authority to bar transgender athletes from school sports…
Warren Buffett is holding off on his usual multibillion-dollar annual donation to the Gates Foundation while a review examines the foundation’s links to Jeffrey Epstein…
Despite years of declining enrollment, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College are welcoming their biggest incoming rabbinical classes in roughly 15 years with 25 and 41 new rabbinical students, respectively…
Newly surfaced filings show the Kennedy Center citing a barely months-old Trump Kennedy Center Foundation to argue that removing Trump’s name would cost the institution major donations…
Israel’s Ministry of Finance unveiled a roughly NIS 1.6 billion ($540 million) support package aimed at helping startups and exporters absorb the financial strain caused by the shekel’s rapid appreciation against the dollar…
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, warned of the “tremendous danger and fear” for American Jews as they are being “dehumanized” and antisemitism is “becoming normalized”…
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jewish man from Ohio who was barred from holding Shabbat prayer meetings in his home without a “special use permit” and later faced harassment from city officials who encouraged neighbors to watch his home for signs of religious activity…
The Israeli female religious academy Matan identified the first woman to pass Israel’s state rabbinic exams last week as Ruth Agiv, a student in its Morot L’Halakha Program…
Jewish Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev, his wife and their 13-year-old child were injured when a targeted explosion hit their Monaco apartment building Monday evening…
Employees of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles and three affiliated nonprofits picketed the federation’s building accusing management of reneging on a verbally agreed 5% first-year salary increase and offering 4% instead during contract negotiations…
Federal authorities arrested Catherine Beth Washburn, a 37-year-old Rochester, N.Y.-area leader of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, who allegedly sent over $30,000 in cryptocurrency to a Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter in Gaza…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $106 million in grants for 37 childcare projects statewide expected to add or preserve about 5,000 childcare seats as part of a larger push toward universal childcare in New York…
A former Birthright Israel staffer reviews an off-Broadway production of Jonathan Spector’s play “Birthright,” which follows six American Jewish friends across three decades as their views on Israel diverge…
Judah Gribetz, key negotiator as counsel to Gov. Hugh Carey during New York City’s 1970s fiscal crisis and architect of the plan that distributed roughly $1.25 billion in Holocaust restitution to more than 458,000 claimants, died Friday at 97…
Pic of the Day
The National Library of Israel displays one of the pens used by then-President Harry S. Truman to sign the announcement of de jure recognition of the State of Israel, as part of a new exhibit opening on Sunday to mark the United States’ 250th Independence Day the day before. The pen was gifted by Truman to his Jewish political advisor, David Niles.
Birthdays
Benjamin Brown, professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, turns 60
Herman Chernoff, applied mathematician, statistician and physicist, professor emeritus at both MIT and Harvard, turns 103
Diane Silvers Ravitch, former U.S. assistant secretary of education and former research professor at NYU, turns 88
Myron Scholes, Nobel laureate in economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, turns 85
Michael Burstein, television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, turns 81
Victoria Marion Miro, noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous London art gallery, turns 81
Rosalie Silberman Abella, born in a DP camp to her Holocaust survivor parents and the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, turns 80
Shalva Chigirinsky, Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, turns 77
Douglas E. Mirell, partner in the Encino, Calif.-based law firm of Nolan Heimann
Robert Kaplan, campaign, communications and fundraising consultant, turns 69
Nancy Lieberman, Hall of Fame player and coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association and now an NBA broadcaster, turns 68
Steven D. Irwin, attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, turns 67
Rob Eshman, senior columnist at The Forward and former CEO of the A-Mark Foundation
Mark “Moishe” Bane, president emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray
Victoria Jane Nuland, under secretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, turns 65
Shraga Simmons, journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish.com, turns 65
Marcus Bertram Simon, member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, turns 56
Joni Ernst, U.S. senator (R-IA), turns 56
Marc Silverstein, screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, turns 55
Adam B. Siegel, Los Angeles resident
Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, turns 49
Elyse Steinberg, co-founder of Edgeline Films
Shneur Hasofer, Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, turns 44
Diane Silvers Ravitch, former U.S. assistant secretary of education and former research professor at NYU, turns 88
Myron Scholes, Nobel laureate in Economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, turns 85
Michael Burstein, television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, turns 81
Victoria Marion Miro, noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous London art gallery, turns 81
Rosalie Silberman Abella, born in a DP Camp to her Holocaust survivor parents, she was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, turns 80
Shalva Chigirinsky, Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, turns 77
Douglas E. Mirell, partner in the Encino-based law firm of Nolan Heimann
Robert Kaplan, campaign, communications and fundraising consultant, turns 69
Nancy Lieberman, Hall of Fame player and coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association and now an NBA broadcaster, turns 68
Steven D. Irwin, attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, turns 67
Rob Eshman, senior columnist at The Forward and former CEO of the A-Mark Foundation
Mark “Moishe” Bane, president emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray
Victoria Jane Nuland, under secretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, turns 65
Shraga Simmons, journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish.com, turns 65
Benjamin Brown, professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, turns 60
Marcus Bertram Simon, member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, turns 56
Joni Ernst, U.S. Senator (R-IA), turns 56
Marc Silverstein, screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, turns 55
Adam B. Siegel, Los Angeles resident
Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, turns 49
Elyse Steinberg, co-founder of Edgeline Films
Shneur Hasofer, Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, turns 44
