Your Daily Phil: Marathon with no end: Jewish groups press on in Ukraine
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on Jewish nonprofits’ continuing work in Ukraine as the war enters its fourth year and on the launch of a first-of-its-kind Jewish therapeutic school for children with mental health disorders in New York. We feature an opinion piece by Miriam Mark about securing federal funding for special needs resources at Jewish day schools, and one by Julie Fisher with takeaways for nonprofit leaders from The Good People Fund’s inaugural “(un)conference.” Also in this newsletter: Natan Sharansky, Susan and Henry Samueli and Daniel Lurie.
What We’re Watching
eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross will speak tonight with Dyonna Ginsburg, the CEO of Olam, about Jewish international development work post-Oct. 7 and the recent cuts to USAID’s effects on the field for the latest episode of “Get Your Phil.”
The Icar Collective, an Israeli mental health-focused think-and-do tank that launched in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, is hosting its first-ever conference in Tel Aviv today and tomorrow. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross.
In New York today, Israel’s mission at the U.N. will hold a ceremony for former hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas and Oded Lipshitz, whose bodies were repatriated last week.
What You Should Know
Three years ago today, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, sparking the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II and its largest refugee crisis, and irreparably reshaping international geopolitics and economics, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
For Jewish groups, which were still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, the war drove a mass mobilization effort, with organizations working to assist those interested in immigrating to Israel, support the refugees who arrived in neighboring countries and provide necessary services to those who remained in Ukraine.
While the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the resulting 16 months of war in Israel have pushed the Ukrainian war out of the Jewish world’s consciousness, the conflict is still raging, with regular attacks on Ukrainian cities and the accompanying consequences — water shortages, power outages and more.
The initial wave of patriotism and national resolve to fight the Russian invasion appears to be fading as years of punishing, relentless war and the constant possibility of men being drafted into the military take their toll on the population. “Nowadays men who don’t want to be mobilized sometimes just stay inside their houses, and some people just go out only to go to the synagogue,” Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, a leader of Ukraine’s Masorti community, told eJP this summer. “So communities really provide this huge support.”
Keeping these Jewish communities going is expensive. Since the start of the war, Jewish Federations of North America has raised more than $100 million toward emergency operational costs, temporary housing and transportation for evacuations, security, humanitarian support, trauma and medical relief and immigration and absorption in Israel.
Ariel Zwang, CEO of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, one of the main distributors of aid to Jewish communities in Ukraine, told eJP’s Judith Sudilovsky that the group has the funding that it expects to need through the end of this year, but next year is far from certain. “What we have is emergency, continuing, crisis-level needs without emergency fundraising response, campaign response,” she said. Read more about this below.
In Israel, the rapid immigration of tens of thousands of people from Ukraine but even more so from Russia — fleeing the country as it fell under increasingly harsh international sanctions, draconian domestic crackdowns and a military draft for men — continues to present a challenge for the country.
“These are educated individuals, most of them professionals in high-demand fields such as doctors, engineers, and tech specialists – the exact workforce that Israel desperately needs, especially after a war erupted here as well,” Alex Rif, the CEO of the One Million Lobby, which advocates for Israelis from the former Soviet Union, wrote in an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post yesterday. “Yet, instead of viewing them as an engine for growth and integrating them efficiently into the labor market, the state has failed to establish rapid and high-quality absorption mechanisms to facilitate their employment and societal integration. Immigration absorption has been sluggish, lacking strategic planning and financial investment to ease their transition.”
Indeed, some recent demographic studies have indicated that a significant percentage of those who made aliyah in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine may have returned home. (These studies are hampered by the fact that they cannot easily differentiate between those who are out of the country temporarily and those who have permanently left.)
While the White House is pushing to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, even this would not mean the end of its Jewish communities’ needs for support as they look to rebuild after many of their strongest members have left the country. And this comes as the Jewish communal world’s eyes are predominantly elsewhere: aiding Israeli reconstruction and combating rising global antisemitism.
WAR STORIES
A marathon with no end: Jewish groups operating in Ukraine feel the strain after 3 years of constant war
Everything that has happened in Israel over the past 16 months — except for the initial Hamas attack — has been happening in Ukraine for the past three years: displacement, loss of home and jobs, loved ones fighting in the front for an undetermined amount of time, loved ones dying in the war, overnight attacks — except in Ukraine they have no safe place to take shelter and are suffering from regular interruptions of the power grid, according to Ariel Zwang, CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). “I really want the world to understand that even though our attention is on many other things, and of course especially on Israel, three years after the beginning of this conflict, the fact is that the misery [in Ukraine] has only increased,” Zwang told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky ahead of the third anniversary of the war.
New challenges: Shachar May, a spokesperson for the Israeli humanitarian relief group IsraAid, said that while her organization — like the JDC — do not depend on U.S. government funding for its work in Ukraine, some of the partner NGOs they have been working with were told from one day to another that their projects had to be put on hold because of the Trump administration’s freeze on USAID. “So it just means there are more unmet needs, and organizations like ours who are lucky enough to have funding, are doing our best to work together and do a quick pivot and find ways to meet those immediate needs so that a community who had access to a program one day doesn’t find themselves without it the next and that of course is an effort,” said May.
A ‘STRONG’ EDUCATION
Sinai Schools to open 1st Jewish therapeutic school for kids with mental health struggles
The Adir Academy, the United States’ first therapeutic Jewish day school for students with mental health challenges, will open in Manhattan in September 2026, Sinai Schools announced at its annual dinner last night, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Year-round support: The Adir Academy, whose name comes from the Hebrew word for strong or mighty, will provide year-round support for children with anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, a history of suicidal ideation and other significant mental health needs that require an integrative educational approach. Sinai Schools, which aims to raise $10 million from the initiative, will provide students with individual, group and family therapy through the school, and teachers and staff members will be trained to provide therapeutic support alongside a trained mental health team.
WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Demanding equality for every child who doesn’t fit the mold
“California has long blocked federal special needs funding from reaching sectarian nonpublic schools, creating a barrier for these schools to provide the services a child with special needs requires and forcing families like ours to make the impossible choice between utilizing services they so desperately need or educating their child in a Jewish day school or yeshiva,” writes Miriam Marks, executive director of Teach CA and the mother of a young man with special needs, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “However, a recent California court decision promises to change that.”
Key court ruling: “In October 2024, a federal appeals court made a historic ruling, finding 3-0 that California is violating the law by discriminating against religious parents and schools in its special education programs… This verdict is proof that we have the power to demand and effect change. It did not happen in a vacuum: Hundreds of Jewish community members showed up to rally, filling the courtroom on two separate occasions, to fight on behalf of these families and schools. It was a show of solidarity and sent a clear message that we would not back down — and that message was received. We are now in the middle of Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month, a time dedicated to recognizing and advocating for those who, like my son, who don’t necessarily fit the mold. My hope, not only as a mother of a child with special needs but as a proud American Jew, is that this month and this verdict serve as a call to arms for our community to push the boundaries and explore what’s possible when we exercise our voices in this country.”
BETTER TOGETHER
Five timeless lessons about building community in the nonprofit world
“We are living in a time of global upheaval and transition. For all of us on the nonprofit spectrum — whether we work in small neighborhoods or across global networks — the need for strong, connected communities has never been more urgent,” writes Julie Fisher, associate executive director of The Good People Fund, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Choose collaboration: “While our grantees represent a broad spectrum of critical work — from providing food security and medical access to fighting antisemitism to empowering women and girls — they have a few things in common: They each punch above their weight, their impact in their communities and beyond disproportionate to the minimal staff and resources with which they make due every day; and they occupy a remote corner of our philanthropic and nonprofit communities, one where their voices are not often heard… In a world where nonprofit organizations are often pressured to compete for scarce resources, we’ve seen that true success lies in working together. This is a paradigm shift: Helping one another is not a weakness — it’s a strength. When we collaborate, everyone thrives.”
Worthy Reads
A Leader’s Words Matter: In The Free Press, Natan Sharansky writes about the influence of an American president’s rhetoric on the country’s embattled allies or people suffering under oppression from authoritarian regimes. “When I first heard President Donald Trump’s words on the tarmac — when he blamed Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for starting the war that Russia launched against Ukraine — I was absolutely shocked… To say that Zelensky is a comedian is tantamount to saying President Ronald Reagan was nothing more than a Hollywood actor. Reagan was a Hollywood actor, but he became the leader of the free world and defeated communism. Similarly, Zelensky was a comedian, but he became a hero of historic proportions in the fight for Ukraine and the free world. When the free world was paralyzed by Putin and his threats of nuclear war, and Putin invaded Ukraine in order to conquer it in one week, Zelensky united the country and stopped the invasion. Today, Ukraine’s struggle against Russia’s imperial ambitions protects the future of the free world… Only a year ago Alexei Navalny was killed by Putin in one of his prisons. Before he died, Navalny wrote me a few letters in which he said that what he saw in Russia’s prisons was the same world that I once experienced as a prisoner in the Soviet Union. But I think that in some ways it is worse for the political prisoners in Russia today. We had the advantage of knowing that President Reagan was on our side. But what should the hundreds sent to Russian prisons for many years for daring to call out Putin’s aggression feel today?” [FreePress]
Direct Your Concerns Here: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Alex Daniels predicts that efforts to lobby conservative lawmakers will be key to securing nonprofits’ futures during the Trump administration. “Trump’s series of orders threw many nonprofits for a loop, said Pat Cave, senior vice president of policy at Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that works to increase the housing supply. But tax and spending policies generally belong to the legislative branch of government. ‘The White House is important, but so is the Congress,’ he said… To have any sway, nonprofits must increase their efforts to educate conservative lawmakers, said [Steve Taylor, a principal at Integer, an advocacy firm in Washington, D.C.,] who served as United Way Worldwide’s top D.C. lobbyist for more than a decade and previously worked as general counsel to Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. ‘Being at the table means having influence and dialogue with Republicans,’ he said. ‘If the nonprofit sector links arms with their Democratic allies in Congress, and if fighting is their only approach, then they aren’t at the table.’… An alternative to intense lobbying is for nonprofits is to rely on decisions from the courts. Taylor doesn’t have much faith in that approach. ‘The sector is not going to be able to litigate its way to success over the next two years,’ he said.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
Through their foundation, Susan and Henry Samueli donated $1.85 million to Chapman University to improve “civil discourse” on campus…
A new lawsuit filed by three released hostages against a U.S.-based nonprofit, the People Media Project, alleges that one of the organization’s employees held them captive and that he provided illegal material support to Hamas through the group…
A National Labor Relations Board ruled that teachers at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus (Ohio) cannot unionize on the grounds that it qualifies as a “bona fide religious institution,” exempting it from normal labor laws…
The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay in Berkeley, Calif., is selling its building, where it has been located for 43 years, and will move to a new location in nearby Oakland…
In an opinion piece in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Analucía Lopezrevoredo, the founder and executive director of Jewtina y Co., calls for the Jewish community to support immigrants as the federal government threatens mass deportations…
The New York State Department of Education will end funding to two New York City yeshivas that were determined to not be teaching a “compulsory education” to its students; the department is forcing the re-enrollment of the schools’ students in other schools…
A new book by Michael Wolff about President Donald Trump, All or Nothing, features the president’s candid, at times critical, descriptions of several of his donors, including Dr. Miriam Adelson and Jeffrey Yass…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights real-estate magnate Stephen Ross’ efforts to transform West Palm Beach, Fla., into one of the United States’ top cities…
Politico looks at San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s approach to city governance, describing the political neophyte to a “Michael Bloomberg-style technocrat but without the business background”…
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a group of Holocaust survivors who had attempted to sue Hungary for payment over property taken by the state-owned railway during World War II…
Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, canceled his planned appearance at CPAC over the weekend over Steve Bannon’s use of a hand gesture that Bardella described as “referring to Nazi ideology”…
Germany’s Christian Democrats party, led by Friedrich Merz, won the country’s federal elections, and will attempt to form a party with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats; Alice Weidel’s Alternative for Germany party came in second place with 20.8% of the vote, the German far-right’s best showing in an election since World War II…
In The Wall Street Journal, Lorenzo Vidino, who heads the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University, considers how a new task force created by the Trump administration to address the crimes of Oct. 7, 2023, could target supporters of Hamas domestically and abroad…
IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser was named the new head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security…
The Boston Herald spotlights Alex Bregman, who hit a two-run home run in his spring training debut with the Boston Red Sox over the weekend…
Ken Rosenthal, whose St. Louis Bread Company went nationwide as Panera Bread, died on Feb. 14 at 81…
Bruce Selya, the first Jewish federal judge in Rhode Island, died over the weekend at 90…
Pic of the Day
Thousands of female Chabad emissaries, or shluchos, stand yesterday in front of Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn as part of their annual conference, which was held over the weekend.
“This year’s conference comes at a time when Jewish people worldwide are experiencing unprecedented challenges. As the global Jewish support system, Shluchos have been on the frontlines, addressing the needs of their communities nonstop,” Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, director of the International Conference of Shluchos, said in a statement. “The conference serves as a source of energy infusing them with new strength to continue their critical mission.”
Birthdays
Professor of history at the Hebrew University, his books have been translated into 65 languages and have sold over 45 million copies, Yuval Noah Harari…
Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros until 2001, later chairman and CEO of Yahoo, Terence Steven “Terry” Semel… Moscow-born professor of mathematics at Yale University since 1991, Grigory Margulis… Encino, Calif., resident, Faye Gail Waldman… Rabbi and author of a book about chocolate and Judaism, Deborah R. Prinz… President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Clifford D. May… Member of the New Jersey Senate (R-21) since 2022 following 18 years in the NJ General Assembly, Jon M. Bramnick… Head basketball coach in a Puerto Rican league, he coached in the Israeli Premier League and has been on NBA and college basketball staffs in the U.S., Brad Greenberg… Film critic for Entertainment Weekly and then for Variety magazine, Owen Gleiberman… Founder of the Baltimore Center of Advanced Dentistry, Gary H. Bauman, DDS… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, Nurit Koren… Managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, Karen Olick… Former Israeli minister of health and leader of the Meretz party, Nitzan Horowitz… Professor of piano and artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Yakov Kasman… Author, survival expert, anthropologist and TV host, Josh Bernstein… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as minister of science, technology and space, Gila Gamliel… Founder of WhatsApp in 2009, Jan Koum… NYC-based independent filmmaker, who, together with his older brother Joshua, directed and wrote the 2019 film “Uncut Gems” starring Adam Sandler, Benjamin Safdie… Partner at MizMaa Ventures Limited, Aaron Applbaum… Israeli actress and model, Dar Zuzovsky… YouTube beauty guru known as RCLBeauty101, Rachel Claire Levin… Mitchell Brown…
