At a fraught moment for Jewish-Muslim relations globally, a delegation of Jewish and Muslim faith leaders signed a declaration of shared commitment to dialogue, collaboration and reconciliation in Washington earlier this month, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. The signing ceremony, which took place on Feb. 6 on the sidelines of the International Religious Freedom Summit, was facilitated by Ohr Torah Stone’s Interfaith Center as part of its Jewish-Muslim Religious Fraternity Project. 

The cause and the cure: Another, similar interfaith document was signed last week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, according to Rabbi Aharon Lavi, managing director of the Interfaith Center, and there are plans in place to sign documents with Moroccan and Pakistani organizations in May. To Lavi, resources allocated towards combatting rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing wars could be used more effectively on coalition building between religious communities. “Yes, religion is part of the problem, but it can be part of the solution. And even more than that, without going through the religious aspects, there’s no way to resolve the conflict in the Middle East,” Lavi told eJP. “There’s no way to cultivate allies against antisemitism without having religious leaders on your side.”

Read the full report here.

When Robert Kraft sponsored a Super Bowl ad earlier this month through the nonprofit he founded, Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the commercial was in line with the group’s goal of reaching a non-Jewish audience that isn’t engaged in the day-to-day incidents of antisemitism but would be alarmed by the scourge of racism and hate of all kinds. But the 30-second commercial, called “No Reason to Hate,” sparked criticism from some Jewish activists for not focusing on — or even mentioning — antisemitism. The ad featured rapper Snoop Dogg and NFL great Tom Brady exchanging deliberately vague, absurd-sounding insults. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy — Kraft’s first time speaking publicly about the ad since it aired on Feb. 9 — the billionaire philanthropist and owner of the New England Patriots argued the advertisement achieved its intended goal. 

Keep it simple: “The challenge is that we just can’t explain the complexity of Judaism or antisemitism in a 30-second ad. But what we can do is invite Americans into a conversation about something they do have experience with: hate,” Kraft told eJP. “And as a result, we saw tens of thousands of people who had never engaged with us before coming to our website and following us on social media,” he told JI. “We’re bringing people who had no exposure to our mission into a lasting conversation about the fight against antisemitism.”

Read the full interview here.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt praised President Donald Trump for several actions that he has taken to combat antisemitism in the month since returning to the White House, including an executive order on the subject, a Department of Justice task force and investigations of universities that have seen antisemitic incidents on campus. “They are demonstrating a proactive posture and one that is appropriately aggressive,” he told Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. But Greenblatt readily condemned former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who last week sparked controversy at the CPAC conference with a gesture resembling a Nazi salute. “He’s been open in celebrating a whole spectrum of right-wing extremists we find incredibly problematic,” he said. When Elon Musk made a similar gesture at Trump’s inauguration last month, the ADL defended him, but later condemned his ensuing series of jokes about the Holocaust on social media.

The builders, not the destroyers: Greenblatt spoke with JI ahead of the organization’s annual Never Is Now summit next Monday and Tuesday, in which the ADL will honor philanthropist and former Kind Snacks CEO Daniel Lubetzky for his work countering antisemitism. “We need to be much more focused as a Jewish community on bringing out our universalistic goals to make this a better world within the context of also understanding our goals to fight hate against Jews,” Lubetzky told JI. He said he intends to translate his financial success into combating antisemitism and peacebuilding in the Middle East through multiple avenues, including investing in Israeli start-ups and supporting Gaza reconstruction through a project he developed several years ago called the Builder’s Blueprint. “The methodology is to address how to find a way to rebuild Gaza in a way that the keys are handed to the builders and not the destroyers,” Lubetzky said.

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“I have been in fundraising meetings where some version of the following pitch is made: ‘Help us support this or that Jewish experience for our students because, when interviewed at graduation, our students overwhelmingly express that this was the most impactful part of their time in our school.’ It is more difficult to make the same pitch for that rigorous classroom teacher who transformed the way some students learn and think through Tanach or Talmud,” writes Hillel David Rapp, principal of Bnei Akiva Schools of Toronto, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “It’s not that those teachers and students don’t exist; it’s just that they are not the majority. The return on philanthropic investment in schools is (seemingly) significantly greater in areas that involve informal learning experiences.” 

Explore a different paradigm: “The teacher of today, like the teacher of 30 years ago, earns a wage that fails to provide a comfortable life in the Jewish community. I would argue that this is among the primary reasons that, despite Jewish day schools offering very expensive programs overall, we have not actually improved student learning outcomes… Do we want a Jewish day school system that is designed to push our most talented teachers to become administrators? Are we satisfied with a structure that settles for mediocre formal learning outcomes for most students even as we build them an excellent informal learning experience? Perhaps it is time to experiment with new models — maybe schools that focus almost exclusively on formal learning by investing greatly in teachers and minimally in administrators and programming — and see those results.”

Read the full piece here.

“I was raised in a Conservative synagogue and attended day school. With the exception of summer camp, I checked every box a Jewish child can check: youth group, confirmation, Jewish service awards — all of it,” writes Dana Sheanin, CEO of Jewish LearningWorks, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “From preschool through college, I felt loved and guided by Jewish community. However, I have no memory of ever talking or thinking about God or spirituality in any of those places. God was in the background, understood to be a foundational part of Judaism, but with no discernable presence in my life. I know from conversations with colleagues that I am not alone.”

A ‘resource for renewal’: “[I]n the rush to manage the endless logistics involved in Jewish educational programs, to say nothing of the deep well of content we hope to teach, spirituality often gets lost. To begin to shift this, [Jewish LearningWorks] invited Lisa Miller, author of The Awakened Brain and professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, to give the keynote address an event we called ‘Soul FULL: Unlocking the Neuroprotective Potential in Jewish Education.’ Miller’s groundbreaking research focuses on how connecting to one’s spiritual self is neuroprotective; it actually rewires our brains to become more resilient. She suggests that an awakened brain allows us to perceive that we are on a journey or path, anchoring us and taking some focus off the quest for achievement. It is our spirituality, Miller asserts, that is ‘our greatest resource for renewal, for healing and for hope, all desperately needed by children and teens in 2025.’… From the classroom to the playground to the bima, we are in a moment to recognize that the tradition we so value has much to say about how to combat widely documented epidemics of loneliness, lack of meaning and despair. If we do this, we will increase the chances that we might all thrive — now, and for generations to come. ”

Read the full piece here.