Your Daily Phil: One year after foreign aid slashed, Jewish groups still reeling
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the state of Jewish humanitarian aid and international development groups one year after the Trump administration slashed USAID funding. We report on an upcoming PBS documentary series on the history of Black-Jewish relations in America, and on an upcoming meeting between Saudi officials and American Jewish leaders. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Rick Schindelheim marking Tu B’shvat, which begins Sunday night; one by Rabbis Madeline T. Budman and Joshua Mikutis about a fellowship aiming to help rabbinical, cantorial and Jewish education students integrate global Jewish connectedness into their future professional lives; and one by Seth Davis about the mental health crisis facing survivors and families of the victims of the Oct. 7 attack at the Nova music festival. Also in this issue: Emma Bloomberg, Joan and Sanford I. Weill and Aryeh Tuchman.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
Israeli civil groups are organizing a mass rally in Tel Aviv tomorrow in protest of rising violence in the Arab Israeli community.
The Greater Miami Jewish Federation is hosting a gala on Sunday night at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.
The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg is launching a new exhibit on Sunday on the history of the “Borscht Belt.”
Also on Sunday, Prizmah is kicking off its three-day Head of School Retreat in Houston.
What You Should Know
On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term as president and almost immediately issued an executive order freezing foreign aid for 90 days. Six weeks later, he cemented his actions by slashing 83% of U.S. Agency for International Development programs.
One year after the initial freeze, Jewish humanitarian aid and international development organizations are still trembling from the aftershocks, alongside their non-Jewish counterparts. As the number of deaths that researchers have connected to these federal funding cuts rises around the globe, the organizations supporting the world’s most vulnerable populations are adapting, finding new ways to fundraise and planning for a future experts say will never be the same, leaders in the field told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
“The dust has not yet settled,” Dyonna Ginsburg, CEO of OLAM, a network of Jewish organizations and individuals working in international aid, told eJP. Agencies are encountering knock-on effects from the reductions, where alternative funders, including several affiliated with the United Nations, had attempted to make up for the USAID funding but realized they couldn’t. Twelve months after the initial cuts, grants to international aid organizations are now being canceled.
“Private philanthropy can probably not fill those gaps, at least not in the short-term future,” Ginsburg told eJP. “But for the Jewish ecosystem, which is still relatively small, Jewish philanthropy can actually step up to ensure that that ecosystem can continue to exist and can weather this difficult period and then come out stronger on the other end.”
Even before the cuts, the need was devastating, David Weisberg, executive director of World Jewish Relief USA, told eJP. The British organization began operating a U.S. branch in 2023 and continues to be primarily funded through philanthropy from the United Kingdom. “A good part of the reason why World Jewish Relief was launched in the U.S. is because the needs only continue to grow. The needs exceed the capacity of just the U.K. community to be able to support the work… Even though [the USAID cuts did] not [affect] us specifically as an organization, we learned that when the government is not doing that thing that’s of value to you, sometimes you have to do it yourself.”
Ariella Bock, a member of the OLAM network, found out she lost her job working at USAID a week after the freeze. She was told that her benefits would be cut off in 12 hours, and she didn’t receive severance pay. After losing her job, she turned to OLAM, which she had heard of before but never sought out. In the months that followed, Bock founded Aid on the Hill, which advocates for foreign assistance, along with other former USAID employees, some of whom are also connected to OLAM. Recently, her organization lobbied Congress to approve a bill that appropriates $50 billion to the State Department for foreign assistance. “I am hopeful,” she said about the future of the U.S. international aid. “I want to be optimistic. It’s hard. People don’t get into development being pessimists.”
AN INTERWOVEN HISTORY
New PBS docuseries highlights role philanthropy, activism played in Black-Jewish ties
When people talk about the history of Blacks and Jews, many look to the Civil Rights Movement, glorifying bonds created from a shared history of oppression. At the same time, others focus on divisions between the communities, zeroing in on antisemitism in Black communities, examples of bigotry in Jewish communities or the tension surging around Israel and the war in Gaza. A new four-part PBS docuseries, “Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History,” the latest documentary from Harvard professor and “Finding Your Roots” creator Henry Louis Gates Jr., prepares to tackle every angle of a complex history spanning back to America’s birth. Premiering on Tuesday, Feb. 3 on PBS, the docuseries is not only funded by Black and Jewish philanthropists but is a lesson on the impact of philanthropy on American history, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
Famed friendships: The first episode focuses on the friendships between two sets of Black and two Jewish leaders: W.E.B. Du Bois, the Black scholar, writer and civil rights pioneer who co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Jewish activist Joel Spingarn, who served as an early chair of the NAACP and helped expand its activities by bringing in additional Jewish supporters; and Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, an owner of Sears, Roebuck and Co., who together built thousands of schools for Black children in the rural South, called Rosenwald Schools. “The best versions of [these partnerships] were never top-down,” Sara Wolitzky, co-executive producer/director of the docuseries, told eJP, “but a sense that, ‘You guys are still going to be the leaders in this. The allyship is doing what we can to assist you.’”
SCOOP
Jewish leaders invited to meet with Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman in D.C.
Jewish and pro-Israel organizations were invited to a meeting with the Saudi defense minister in Washington on Friday afternoon, four sources familiar with the invitation confirmed to Danielle Cohen-Kanik of eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. Invited groups included the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Republican Jewish Coalition, though as of yesterday it was not clear which invitees would be accepting the invitation.
Send a stern message: The invitation comes as some Jewish organizations have expressed concerns about the recent rise in antisemitic and Islamist rhetoric out of Saudi Arabia, but they’ve been relatively cautious in their language as they seek to maintain their support for the long-sought but elusive goal of bringing Riyadh into the Abraham Accords. “If these Jewish organizations do attend the meeting, they should give a stern message to Saudi leadership that their new strategic alliances and promoting antisemitism and being destructive in the region regarding Israel are not helpful,” one Middle East analyst familiar with the invitation and with the larger Saudi pivot in the region told JI.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Tu B’Shevat: A winter reminder of our roots
“Most people think of Tu B’Shevat as the holiday of the trees. We learn about fruits, we eat dried figs and dates, we talk about ecology and planting. All of that matters. But for me, Tu B’Shevat has always been about something else: belonging,” writes Rabbi Rick Schindelheim, founding director of Ohr Torah Stone’s Nelech Program, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Memories of dissonance: “Growing up in New York and later living in Cleveland, Tu B’Shevat always came in the heart of winter. … Somewhere between the dried fruit and the cold February air outside, I would feel a kind of longing I didn’t yet have words for. Why were we eating fruit in the middle of winter? Why were we marking growth when everything around us was frozen? And the answer, even if I didn’t articulate it at the time, was clear: because somewhere else, it wasn’t really winter. In Israel, Tu B’Shevat arrives as the trees begin to blossom. The land is already warming. Fruits are sprouting. Growth is visible. And sitting there in North America, holding that bag of dried fruit, I felt — long before I could explain it — that I was out of sync. That maybe it shouldn’t be winter for us anymore. That maybe I belonged somewhere else. That feeling has deep roots in Jewish history and Jewish language.”
BUILDING CONNECTIONS
We know the Jewish world is global — but we also need to experience it
“Over a decade ago, JDC board member and leading philanthropist Jane Weitzman had the foresight to pair HUC and JDC so that rising Jewish leaders could understand the complex world that Jews live in and the issues that confront Jews internationally,” write Rabbi Madeline T. Budman of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco and Rabbi Joshua Mikutis, JDC Entwine’s director of design and Jewish learning, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. The result: the Weitzman-JDC Fellowship for Global Jewish Leaders, a program that offers Hebrew Union College rabbinical, cantorial and education students a unique opportunity to travel and explore the global Jewish world.
More relevant than ever: “We have found that the more that students are able to interact with Jews around the world, the more they are able to relate to Jewish Peoplehood — not just as a theoretical discussion, but as one person gazing into the face of the other. Students develop a lasting sense of responsibility toward their fellow Jews across the globe, one that continues to impact their commitments and actions within their home communities. That impact is urgently needed as we stand at a critical crossroads for global Jewish life. … Two core learnings from our decade of this fellowship can serve as guideposts for those seeking to strengthen Jewish life and put into action the ideal that all Jews are responsible for one another.”
NOT OVER FOR THEM
The invisible war Nova survivors are still fighting
“Since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire took shape, a quiet assumption has taken hold. The lives of Israelis have begun to stabilize, and the worst is behind us. But for the survivors of the Nova music festival and the bereaved families who lost loved ones on Oct. 7, 2023, this assumption could not be further from the truth,” writes Seth Davis, CEO of the Tribe of Nova Foundation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
A nonlinear process: “I work every day with survivors and bereaved families from the festival, and what I see is not recovery, but exhaustion. Many are struggling with severe depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and disconnection from the lives they once knew. The foundation supports survivors whose challenges present on a spectrum from acute to debilitating, each requiring tailored care and support. … Trauma does not follow headlines or end when the news cycle shifts. For many survivors, the opposite is actually true: the passage of time can complicate recovery, as support systems fade and the expectation to return to normal intensifies. … A critical part of the solution is scaling the response to meet the size and scope of the challenges.”
Worthy Reads
I Knew Him When: In The Jewish Chronicle, Gaby Koppel shares childhood memories of the youth group chair who grew up to be billionaire philanthropist Michael Moritz. “We both belonged to families of refugees from Nazism who had rebuilt their lives in south Wales. His German father Alfred taught classics at Cardiff University, while his mother, Doris, also from Germany — who I remember as a severe and rather scary figure — was a primary schoolteacher. Though our parents were of very different outlooks, they mixed together in the social circle of the reform New Synagogue, which was a hub for European emigrés. Its offer for young people was the youth club Ner Tamid, where I met Michael.” [JewishChronicle]
Fund Cooperation: In Inside Philanthropy, Emma Bloomberg, founder and CEO of civic change organization Murmuration, calls for funding infrastructure that makes organizational cooperation “the default experience.” “Throughout history, people have fought for change in diverse, creative and resilient ways, and their greatest successes have often stemmed from collective action. Movements are built through relationships, coordination, and a shared sense of purpose. … Yet, our funding practices rarely reflect this lived reality. We rarely, if ever, fund the cooperation and collaboration that lead to being committed accomplices in each others’ work. Instead, we are more likely to fund individual organizations to work on individual issues within an issue portfolio, often in parallel, sometimes in collision or competition, and usually without the time or resources to deeply coordinate with others.” [InsidePhilanthropy]
A Holistic Model: In The Atlantic, Annie Lowrey spotlights the long-term impacts of Communities in Schools, a program focused on improving academic outcomes among disadvantaged youth — by providing supportive scaffolding for their family life outside of school. “Benjamin Goldman, an assistant professor of economics at Cornell, and Jamie Gracie, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, evaluated data on more than 16 million Texas students over two decades, examining data from the Census Bureau and IRS, as well as state records on academic outcomes. They found that the introduction of CIS led to higher test scores, lower truancy rates, and fewer suspensions in Texas schools. The program bumped up high-school graduation rates by 5.2% and matriculation rates at two-year colleges by 9.1%. At age 27, students who had attended a CIS school earned $1,140 more a year than students who had not.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The 36-year-old man who repeatedly rammed his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn will face multiple hate crimes charges for the attack, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports…
The largest-yet randomized trial assessing the efficacy of artificial intelligence for medicine found that a doctor using AI tools was significantly more effective at detecting breast cancer in women, had a lighter workload and had better long-term effects than teams of two doctors…
The European Union designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports; the move was hailed by Jewish advocacy groups, including the American Jewish Committee and World Jewish Congress…
Rabin Medical Center outside Tel Aviv marked its 1,000th lung transplant this week…
Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $20 million to a growing political effort by California-based billionaires to oppose a ballot measure that would impose a 5% tax on their assets…
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the launch of a bipartisan task force to combat antisemitism; the body will be led by Councilmembers Eric Dinowitz and Inna Vernikov…
A group of Jewish artists is spearheading an effort to keep the government’s Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which contains frescos and other works by Jewish artists, from sale and potential demolition…
The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is laying off some 70 employees as the organization pares down and refocuses on artificial intelligence-driven biomedical research…
Major Gifts
The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and Jewish Federation Los Angeles announced $2 million in grants for 24 young adult initiatives focused on Israel’s north, which will be matched by an additional $2 million that was donated by Jewish Funders Network members…
Joan and Sanford I. Weill, through their family foundation, donated $120 million to University of California, Davis’ veterinary school, which will be renamed in their honor; the gift is one of the largest in the university’s history…
The Minneapolis Foundation is distributing $3.5 million in grants to local small businesses to assist them during the ongoing immigration raids in the city…
Transitions
Aryeh Tuchman, who has monitored antisemitism at the Anti-Defamation League for nearly 20 years, is moving to the Nexus Project, where he will serve as the inaugural director of its Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research…
Pic of the Day
Roy Hessing, CEO of Maccabi World Union (left), and Gidi Grinstein, founder of Tikkun Olam Makers, which creates open-source solutions for people with disabilities, sign a memorandum of understanding last week to develop and showcase new products to help people with disabilities participate in sports, particularly wounded IDF veterans, ahead of this summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel, reports Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy.
“Sports provide enormous advantages both for mental well-being and for rehabilitation,” Dana Gur Gelbard, who manages TOM’s office in Tel Aviv and leads its community-based solution development and who is also a former Olympic-level rower, told eJP. “Many of our wounded soldiers and war victims do not have the ability to return to the sport they practiced before — at least not in a way that’s intuitive and accessible. What’s simple for people without disabilities requires overcoming many obstacles. That’s the gap we’re bridging.”
Birthdays
CEO of the Jewish National Fund-USA, Russell F. Robinson turns 70…
FRIDAY: Chairman of The Cordish Companies, David S. Cordish turns 86… Artist, she paints brightly colored biblical narratives based upon her Torah study, Barbara “Willy” Mendes turns 78… Professor at the school of pharmacy of The Hebrew University, Meir Bialer turns 78… Teacher and communal leader, Judith Friedman Rosen turns 74… Broadcaster for MLB’s Oakland Athletics and author, Kenneth Louis Korach turns 74… Upton, Wyo., resident, Heather Graf… Former vice president of corporate engagement at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, N.Y., Lina Scacco… Member of the California state Senate from 2014-2019, now a member of the Nevada state Senate, Jeffrey Earle Stone turns 70… Philadelphia-area psychologist, Dr. Rachel Ginzberg… Managing partner of lobbying and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Richard B. Benenson… Director of public relations for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Zalman Shmotkin turns 57… Associate professor in the electrical engineering department at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Guy Gilboa turns 55… Publicist, manager and socialite, she runs an eponymous New York City PR and management firm, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Grubman turns 55… Special projects editor at The Week Junior, Bari Nan Cohen Rothchild… At-large member of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council, Evan M. Glass turns 49… Dallas resident, Gisele Marie Rogers… Managing director at Westbrook Global Advisory, Joshua M. Kram… Administrator of the EPA in the Trump 47 administration, Lee Zeldin turns 46… National correspondent for ABC News Radio, Steven Portnoy turns 45… Israeli actor, director and author, he is known for starring in “Shtisel” and as the host of the popular reality TV show, “The Voice Israel,” Michael Aloni turns 42… CEO at Harvesting Media and host of the “Kosher Money” podcast, Eli Langer… Media professional and communications strategist, Alyona Minkovski turns 40… Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives since 2019, he is the eldest son of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Matthew S. Blumenthal turns 40… Partner in Avalanche VC and strategic advisor at Array Education, Eric Scott Lavin… Deputy national security advisor to then VPOTUS Kamala Harris for her last three years in office, Rebecca Friedman Lissner turns 39… Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Kate Lynne Bock Love turns 38… Senior principal at Publicis Sapient, Max Delahanty… Professional ice hockey defenseman, he played on Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics and recently left EHC Red Bull München, Jonathon Blum turns 37… Principal at Blue Wolf Capital Partners, Jared Isenstein… Ice hockey forward for four seasons at Northeastern University, she is now playing in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, Chelsey Goldberg turns 33… Digital marketing manager in South Florida, Alexa Smith…
SATURDAY: Israeli nuclear physicist and professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Igal Talmi turns 101… Scion of a leading rabbinic family in pre-World War II Poland, former assistant U.S. solicitor general, now a private attorney with an active Supreme Court practice focused on religious liberty issues, Nathan Lewin turns 90… Classical music composer as well as acclaimed movie score composer, Philip Glass turns 89… Associate professor emeritus of Talmud and rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary, Mayer Elya Rabinowitz turns 87… Senior partner at Trombly & Singer, PLLC and an advisory board member of Tzedek DC, Kenneth M. Trombly turns 76… Chair emeritus of global management consultancy Bain & Company, Orit Gadiesh turns 75… Chief rabbi of Norway while also serving as a member of Knesset from 1999-2009, Michael Melchior turns 72… Founder and CEO of MikeWorldWide, a PR firm headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., Michael W. Kempner turns 68… Former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for 20 years, Matt Kisber turns 66… Founder and CEO of Oneg, Jeanie Milbauer… CEO at Gracie Capital, Daniel L. Nir… Dermatologist who served as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland from 2019-2021, he was a candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada in the 2024 election, Jeffrey Ross Gunter turns 65… Co-founder and senior chairman of Meridian Capital Group, Ralph Herzka turns 64… Organization of American States commissioner to monitor and combat antisemitism, Fernando Lottenberg turns 64… Neurosurgeon and chairman of the Rockland County (NY) Board of Health, Jeffrey Sable Oppenheim turns 64… Fourth-generation real estate developer, he is a founding partner of Redbrick LMD, Louis Myerberg Dubin turns 63… Classical cellist, her debut in Carnegie Hall was at 17, Ofra Harnoy turns 61… Host of NPR’s news quiz “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” his older brother is a rabbi, Peter Sagal turns 61… Canadian-born businessman, best known for founding American Apparel, Dov Charney turns 57… CEO of Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum of the Jewish People and former mayor of Efrat, Oded Revivi turns 57… CEO of City Cast, he was previously CEO of Atlas Obscura and Slate, David Plotz turns 56… Actress best known for her role in the Showcase series “Lost Girl,” Anna Silk turns 52… CEO at Affiliated Monitoring, Daniel J. Oppenheim… Senior advisor at Orchestra, Michael Rabinowitz-Gold… SVP of insights and measurement at NBC Universal Media, Matthew Gottlieb… Film producer and founder of Annapurna Pictures, Megan Ellison turns 40… Singer, who won Israel’s “Kokhav Nolad” (A Star is Born) song contest in 2008, Israel Bar-On turns 37… General partner at NYC’s 25madison, Grant Silow… Israeli singer, songwriter and television actor, Eliad Nachum turns 36… Director of programs and strategy at the Kraft Group and affiliates, Clara Scheinmann… Associate at Covington & Burling, Eli Nachmany…
SUNDAY: Retired Israeli educator, she is the only sibling of Yitzhak Rabin, Rachel Rabin turns 101… Executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm I. Hoenlein turns 82… Mediator and arbitrator, he is a past president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Howard S. Fredman turns 82… Academy Award-winning producer and motion picture executive, Zvi Howard Rosenman turns 81… Midtown Manhattan physician, affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital, specializing in nephrology and internal medicine, Mark H. Gardenswartz, MD… Laureate conductor of Orchestra 914 from 2002-2018, and author in 1994 of The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time, Michael Jeffrey Shapiro turns 75… Far Rockaway, N.Y., resident, Maurice Lazar… President and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was previously president of the Atlanta Braves and then the Washington Nationals, Stan Kasten turns 74… Publisher of Baltimore Jewish Life, Jeff Cohn… Recently retired after 18 years as the CEO of the Charleston (S.C.) Jewish Federation, Judi Corsaro… Born in Derbent in southern Russia, now living in Albany, N.Y., he is an artist whose oil on canvas paintings have many Jewish themes, Israel Tsvaygenbaum turns 65… Director for policy and government affairs at AIPAC, David Gillette… 25-year veteran of the Israeli foreign service, now a scholar-in-residence at American University in Washington, Dan Arbell… EVP and chief program officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Becky Sobelman-Stern… One of Israel’s top soccer players of all time, successful on both Israeli and European teams, Eli Ohana turns 62… Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty), Carolyn Bellinson… Actor, comedian, director, writer and producer, Pauly Shore turns 58… Voting rights and election law attorney Marc E. Elias turns 57… CEO of Momentum, Tara Brown… Managing director of Pickwick Capital Partners, Ari Raskas… Canadian actress, her stepfather is a rabbi, Rachelle Lefevre turns 47… Experimental jazz guitarist, bassist, oud player and composer, Yoshie Fruchter turns 44… Venezuelan journalist, writer and TV and radio presenter, Shirley Varnagy Bronfenmajer turns 44… Libertarian political activist, radio host and author, Adam Charles Kokesh turns 44… Comedian, writer, actress and illustrator, best known for co-creating and co-starring in the Comedy Central series “Broad City,” Abbi Jacobson turns 42… General manager and head of public affairs at Semafor, Andrew Friedman… Sportscaster and sports reporter who covers the New York Mets for SNY, Steven N. Gelbs turns 39… VP of government and industry relations at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Stephanie Beth Cohen… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA-51) since 2021, Sara Josephine Jacobs turns 37… Ob-Gyn physician in Atlanta, she is married to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alisha Sara Kramer turns 36… Israel-based director of growth marketing at SchoolStatus, David Aryeh Leshaw… Television and movie actress and model, Julia Garner turns 32…
