Your Daily Phil: President Isaac Herzog’s alternative antisemitism confab
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s alternative antisemitism conference that was held last night in Jerusalem and spotlight a fund providing no-interest loans to help trans individuals and families relocate to other states. We report on the leadership shake-up at the Community Security Service and on new congressional probes into federal funding for groups that protested the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul plans in 2023. We feature an opinion piece by David Brog looking at the victories, and battles ahead, in the post-Oct. 7 campus wars, and one by Avi D. Gordon encouraging university alumni to help their alma maters course-correct. As part of Diaspora Week, we are publishing essays from the upcoming edition of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education’s The Peoplehood Papers series, with today’s from Barak Sella.
What We’re Watching
Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli’s antisemitism conference begins this afternoon in Jerusalem. Chikli, Australian journalist Erin Molan and activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali are slated to give the event’s keynotes. This evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the gathering. (Lahav Harkov from eJewishPhilanthropy‘s sister publication Jewish Insider is attending the conference — say hi!)
Enter: The Jewish Peoplehood Alliance is hosting an event on “The resilience of Jewish peoplehood in a post-Oct. 7 world” tonight at The George Washington University.
The Florida Holocaust Museum is hosting an event tonight featuring Pastor Kai Höss, grandson of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, and Mike Igel, interim CEO and chair emeritus of the museum and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, about “personal and collective responsibility in shaping a more just future.”
The Hadar Institute in Israel is hosting its first-ever “National Shabbaton” starting today and running through the weekend at the Nir Etzion Resort Hotel in northern Israel, as the pluralist Jewish learning organization looks to expand its activities in Israel. eJP’s managing editor, Judah Ari Gross, will be there.
What You Should Know
If it had happened under different circumstances, it would have barely registered as a newsworthy event: Jewish leaders from around the world holding yet another discussion about the terrible rise in antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Yet the gathering yesterday evening at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem served as a subtle rebuke of Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and the Israeli government after their decision to invite far-right European leaders to address today’s “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism.”
Their inclusion, along with the fact that Israel invited them without first consulting the Jewish communities from the countries they represent, prompted most of the Jewish leaders scheduled to speak and attend to drop out in protest, reports eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross.
In their remarks, many of the speakers at the gathering organized by Israeli President Isaac Herzog highlighted the need to combat antisemitism from both the left and the right — a nod to the fact that Chikli’s conference focuses solely on progressive and Islamist antisemitism and anti-Zionism, which the minister in his speech described as the “essence of antisemitism today.”
Former minister and Jewish Agency Chair Natan Sharansky, who had initially said he would still participate in the government conference before dropping out to speak at Herzog’s gathering, stressed the need not only to combat both left-wing and right-wing antisemitism but for each of those camps to take responsibility for ridding antisemitism from its midst.
“We are seeing again and again, how very strong voices of our friends on the right are attacking — correctly — progressive, ‘woke’ antisemites. And we can see how many people, liberals… are attacking antisemitism on the right… which has also raised its head,” Sharansky said. “Please, please, dear friends on the right, fight antisemitism on the right, and our friends on the left, please fight this awful anti-Zionism, which is happening now on the left. And that is the only way that we can defeat it.”
In his speech, William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, stressed the risks of polarization and partisan politics in addressing both antisemitism and the current turmoil in Israel over the government’s advancement of its judicial overhaul plans.
“The moment we politicize the issue [of antisemitism], it becomes infinitely harder to address,” Daroff said. “The same fact is true here in Israel. When we draw lines between one another or disregard the concerns of our brothers and sisters, we deepen the divisions and make it harder to confront those common challenges. But by prioritizing unity over division and dialogue over politicization, we can work together towards a more cohesive and resilient campaign to combat antisemitism, as well as to create a stronger and more cohesive world.”
As Chikli did as well, Herzog stressed the antisemitic nature of anti-Zionism. “To invalidate the existence of the singular Jewish national home, is to declare the world has no place for Jews,” he said.
But contrasting with the Diaspora affairs minister, the president also highlighted the concerns of Diaspora Jewry. “To my Jewish brothers and sisters I say: I understand your concern for the safety of your communities, and for the future of your children. I understand your pain and outrage,” he said. “I understand your concern for Jewish life, period. I also understand- and I share your worries in this urgent battle. The State of Israel is your full partner, and we are all in this battle.”
In addition to offering a forum for the Jewish leaders who were already scheduled to attend this week’s conference —including Israel’s antisemitism envoy Michal Cotler-Wunsh and Rabbi? Menachem Margolin, the head of the European Jewish Association, in addition to Daroff and Sharansky — to still discuss antisemitism without sharing a stage with problematic figures on Europe’s far right, Herzog’s gathering drew additional global Jewish figures who were not initially on the conference guest list. They included Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Board of Jewish Deputies; Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia; and Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, the head of France’s Organisation Juive Européenne, who participated in an onstage panel, as well as Conference of European Rabbis’ Pinchas Goldschmidt and Phil Rosenberg, president of the British Board of Deputies, among others.
‘MOVE TO THRIVE’
How a nonprofit, loan society and donors launched a fund to help trans people relocate
For the past 30 years, the staff at Keshet, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting LGBTQ Jews, has gotten used to receiving emergency calls from LGBTQ people around the country asking for assistance. But about a year ago, however, families began calling about one topic in particular, the calls increasingly becoming more frequent and more frantic. “We at Keshet started hearing cases of families with trans kids that were seeking to relocate,” Idit Klein, Keshet’s president and CEO, told Julia Gergely for eJewishPhilanthropy. Klein reached out to David Rosenn, a friend and the president of the Hebrew Free Loan Society in New York, to see if he would be interested in collaborating on a no-interest loan program to help families move. On March 12, Keshet and HFLS officially announced “Move to Thrive,” an interest-free loan program of loans of up to $10,000 for a trans person or a family with trans kids anywhere in the country that needs to relocate due to discrimination or lack of health-care access.
Donor network: To make the loan fund possible, Keshet and HFLS reached out to Jeff Schoenfeld to see if he could help raise seed capital for the program. Schoenfeld, a federation lay leader with decades of experience on the fundraising side of the Jewish nonprofit world, had also co-founded a group called the “Jewish LGBTQ Donor Network” in 2021. “It really validated why this concept of a donor network of folks who are specifically interested in that intersection of Jewish and LGBTQ needs to exist,” said Schoenfeld. In less than a month, the network raised $60,000 for the seed capital for the initiative. The money will be used to help five initial applicants move and it will be used to demonstrate to other funders that the program is viable, Schoenfeld said. Rosenn added that they have a goal of raising another $250,000-$450,000 in loan capital, allowing the program to offer 30-50 loans of $10,000 each.
TRANSITIONS
Richard Priem to lead Community Security Service as Dov Ben-Shimon steps down
There is a saying in Israel that if you turn off all the lights in the country except for those of the kibbutzim, you will see the outline of the borders of the country. “It’s not by accident that 100 of the [259] kibbutzim in Israel are located on the borders, because that is the Zionist way, to [protect] the borders. We are Zionists and we believe in the Zionist state,” Neri Shotan, CEO of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky. The day after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah joined the fray, firing rockets and artillery at northern Israel for more than a year until a cease-fire deal was reached late last year. The rehabilitation of the kibbutzim in northern Israel — not only through their physical reconstruction but by restoring their inhabitants’ faith in their security — presents significant challenges and costs, according to Shotan, and the only way to face the bumpy road ahead is to take a “leap of faith,” he said, referring to the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name.
Needing a hand: “We found out that the Jewish communities around the world and also the Israeli society — unlike the government — was with us,” said Shotan, noting that philanthropy had never before been a part of the Kibbutz Movement’s budget, and the need for it created a “crisis of belief” for the movement, which long prided itself on independence and self-reliance. “Jewish communities around the world, especially in North America, were with us hand in hand.” However, as the crisis has extended to nearly 18 months and major federations have begun working on strategic planning for the future, the funding has started slowing down as the challenges facing the kibbutzim remain daunting, Shotan said.
SCOOP
House committees investigating ties between federal funding and Israeli judicial protests
The House Judiciary Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee are jointly investigating six organizations that received federal funding during the Biden administration to determine if those grants were intended to target Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political standing during the 2023 judicial reform protests, report Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Who’s involved: The letters announcing the probes, obtained by JI, were sent by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Brian Mast (R-FL), who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, to the Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Dialogue Network, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Blue and White Future on Wednesday evening. Each of the groups received federal funding and was reportedly directly or indirectly involved in supporting the judicial reform protests.
Read the full story here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
‘SAVE YOUR CHAMPAGNE’
Winning battles, losing minds: The real fight for Israel on campus
“What a difference a year makes,” writes David Brog, executive director of the Maccabee Task Force, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “A powerful trio of actors — pro-Israel donors, lawyers and the Trump administration — have shown college administrators that there is a price to pay for their failure to protect Jewish students. They will lose donations. They will suffer lawsuits. They will even lose federal funding. The antisemites are no longer the only ones who frighten college presidents.”
The challenge ahead: “All of these recent victories are limited to forcing administrators to restrict the ways anti-Israel students can express their hatred of Israel. These victories do absolutely nothing to change the fact that so many students hate Israel in the first place. What cannot be said on campus today will be said in the public square and the halls of Congress tomorrow. We are merely postponing the day of reckoning. The most serious challenge we face on our college campuses has nothing to do with the administrators. As anyone who’s been watching polls for the last decade knows, support for Israel among college students has been steadily declining… Given the stakes, we have no alternative but to go beyond administrators to fight for the hearts and minds of the students themselves. We must challenge the anti-Israel narrative that dominates our campuses before these sentiments harden into lifelong convictions.”
ALUMNI AFFAIRS
Jewish alums can help fix universities that flunked their post-10/7 test
“American universities had an obligation to confront the grotesque and alarming surge of antisemitism that followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Too many failed, with these supposed guarantors of peaceful multiculturalism becoming pro-terrorist hotbeds actively hostile to their own Jewish populations,” writes Avi D. Gordon, executive director of Alums for Campus Fairness, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Your voice (and money) matters: “Alumni have a significant role to play in the fight to reform them. As the most credible public champions of their alma maters — and, frequently, a critical source of their funding — graduates can exert significant leverage to force necessary changes. Alums for Campus Fairness was founded on this premise. We organize graduates to counter the antisemitism and demonization of Israel that have taken root on college campuses. To achieve this mission, we are urging donors to adopt a deliberate strategy to hold these schools accountable.”
THE PEOPLEHOOD PAPERS
The ‘new’ Jewish problem, and how to solve it
In his 1915 work The Jewish Problem, How to Solve It, Louis D. Brandeis “argued that Zionism was not only compatible with American patriotism but an essential expression of it,” writes Barak Sella in an essay featured in eJewishPhilanthropy from the upcoming volume of The Peoplehood Papers, which will be published next month by the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education. “Brandeis’ formula was brilliant: It framed American Jews’ connection to the Jewish homeland not as a divided loyalty but as an expression of American pluralism. America was a tapestry of nationalities sharing a common civic identity while maintaining cultural connections to ancestral homelands. Through this lens, supporting Jewish national aspirations strengthened rather than compromised American citizenship.”
Practical application today: “If we accept Zionism as an essential part of American citizenship, we must not only strengthen connections to Israel but also focus on rebuilding the American Jewish identity and revolutionize American Jewish education. It is absurd that American Jews can quote Ben-Gurion and Rabin but not Brandeis and Kaplan. American Jews know plenty about Israel’s 77 years but very little of the over 370 years of the history of American Jews in North America. To sustain a meaningful connection to Israel while maintaining their place in American society, Jews must return to Brandeis’ original conception: approaching Zionism through Americanism.”
Worthy Reads
Her Full Response: In The Times of Israel, Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes Against Women and Children, shares what she would have said during her address this week to the UN Human Rights Council if she’d been allocated more than 90 seconds to speak. “History will judge this moment. When truth is blurred, the first to suffer are women — on both sides. But justice demands truth, not politics. I stand here today, as a feminist, as a scholar, and as an advocate for all victims of sexual violence, to warn of the false moral equivalence we have seen since Oct. 7. We are deeply concerned that the stories of those who were murdered, raped, and tortured are being manipulated, not to bring justice, but to serve an agenda. If our concerns are confirmed, it is another form of violence — another rape of the victims. It exploits their suffering to serve injustice. It robs them of dignity in death, just as they were stripped of it in life. No institution that claims to stand for human rights should engage in such moral violence. We deserve better. Humanity deserves better.” [TOI]
Wartime Journalism: In Tablet, Efim Marmer paints a vivid picture of life as a local newspaper editor in war-torn Ukraine and offers his thoughts on his government’s restrictions on the media, how Ukrainians feel about their president’s recent reception in the White House and more. “One day, when peace comes, I’ll write a book and call it How Provincial Newspapers Survive the War. There, I will describe what it is like to write editorials for three years straight, amid blackouts and air raid sirens; how to edit texts under the dim light of a lamp powered by a mini-generator while hearing explosions; how to do layout while using a power bank; or how to pass drafts through the phone. I will share the experience of conducting interviews while cooking or crouching in a bomb shelter, and how to run the newsroom around the clock despite nightly curfews and halted public transportation. I will recount working for months without salaries, splitting equally any funds that eventually come in. I will tell everyone how my journalists brought groceries and supplies from home and how, right in the newsroom, we shipped them to the front lines or handed them over to local refugees.” [Tablet]
From Non-Jewish to Now Jewish: On his personal website, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg recounts the conversion journey of Adriana Fernandez, who created a social media following about her time working as a “non-Jewish nanny” for observant families. “Online, people saw her following and influence grow. What they didn’t see was that offline, the influence of the families she was working for was growing on her… Adriana approached a rabbi and rebbetzin in the neighborhood where she was working and they agreed to sponsor her in the geirus [conversion] process. She took it seriously from the start, learning, reading, reviewing, studying the curriculum, attending davening and classes, and integrating among observant Jewish friends. [Every detail here is published with her permission.] When the Beis Din became involved, being an ‘influencer’ didn’t accelerate her process; if anything, it made it go slowly, methodically and in a way that would build confidence this interest was genuine and not a way to grow her following or any other motivation… And finally, after a lot of work and patience, the day came. She immersed as Adriana and emerged as Adina Shoshana. A few days after the birth of her new identity came the transformation of her online profile. The ‘Non-Jewish Nanny’ became the ‘Now Jewish Nanny.’” [RabbiEfremGoldberg]
Word on the Street
A new Pew Research Center survey on “religion switching” found that three-quarters of American adults who were raised in the Jewish faith still identify as Jewish; in Israel, nearly 100% of respondents who were raised Jewish said they still identify as such…
Jim Hirshorn has been named co-chair of itrek’s board of directors, joining founding Board Chair Rafi Musher…
Joseph and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer are among the five winners of this year’s Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for their work in education, public safety and the arts; the other winners are: Carol Colburn Grigor and Barbara and Amos Hostetter…
The Israeli Knesset passed a contentious bill to change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, which will increase political influence in judicial appointments; the law is set to go into effect in the next Knesset…
Jewish Family Service LA received a $250,000 grant from the FireAid benefit concert, which raised $100 million for wildfire relief efforts in Los Angeles County….
Axel Springer board member Martín Varsavsky, who earlier this month voiced concern over editorial decisions by subsidiary Politico related to coverage of Israel, departed the board, part of a planned corporate restructuring that included downsizing the board…
Hebrew Academy of Cleveland raised $2.5 million at its 82nd Scholarship Tribute Dinner at the Cleveland Museum of Art earlier this week…
The Baltimore Jewish Times profiles philanthropist and Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein ahead of the MLB team’s Opening Day game today against the Toronto Blue Jays…
A federal judge partially blocked the Trump administration’s plans to cut funding to refugee settlement organizations, ordering the federal government to honor existing agreements with them; the ruling was issued in response to the Jewish immigration group HIAS…
Moment magazine organized a “debate” between Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz and William A. Galston about whether Jews have a special obligation to hide migrants or refugees who are in danger of deportation, with Yanklowitz arguing they do and Galston arguing they don’t…
Jonah Platt, the son of “Snow White” producer Marc Platt, criticized actress Rachel Zegler’s “for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie”; Zegler has posted pro-Palestine comments while promoting the film…
Zegler’s co-star, Israeli actress Gal Gadot, had to be provided with security in response to death threats the actress received following Zegler’s comments…
Paramount+ acquired the film “The Children of October 7,” which features influencer Montana Tucker in conversation with Israeli children personally affected by the Hamas terror attacks; the film will premiere on April 23 and will also run on MTV…
British Jewish businessman and philanthropist Jeremy Coller donated $5.2 million to create an eponymous Centre for Animal Sentience at the London School of Economics and Political Science…
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said he was “deeply disturbed by news reports” that the Trump administration is considering withdrawing its support for the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization, which he said could lead to “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of preventable deaths”…
Pic of the Day
Rabbinical emissaries from across Europe and Israel hold a prayer service in the Great Synagogue of Paris on Monday as part of a conference organized by the Modern Orthodox Ohr Torah Stone network. Some 100 rabbis attended the gathering, including Rabbi Michel Gugenheim, chief rabbi of Paris, and Rabbi Michael Shudrich, chief rabbi of Poland, as well as Rabbi Kalman Ber, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, and representatives from World Mizrachi and the World Zionist Organization.
“As we gather with our emissaries in Paris, just days after an antisemitic arson attack outside the same kosher store where four Jews were murdered in 2015, their energy and personal commitment are a testament to the resilience of Jewish life,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, president and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone. “They are not only supporting one another but actively revitalizing Judaism across Europe, ensuring a secure future for Jews everywhere.”
Birthdays
President of NYC’s Tenement Museum, Annie Polland…
Composer and violinist, Malcolm Goldstein… President for 28 years at the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, he is now its executive vice chairman, Dr. Steven B. Nasatir… Dean of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, he is a rabbinic leader of Tunisian Jews in Israel, Rabbi Meir Mazuz… Principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal until 2013, then the executive editor of The Verge and editor-at-large of Recode, he is now retired, Walter S. Mossberg… Hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, he played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the 2020 Olympics, Blake Shane Gailen… Executive director at mental health center Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Club, Rachel Forman… Chairman and CEO of First International Resources in Fort Lee, N.J., Zev Furst… Sports agent who has represented the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft eight times, he is the real-life inspiration of the sports agent in the film “Jerry Maguire,” Leigh Steinberg… Retired host of the “Matty in the Morning Show” which ran for 41 years in Massachusetts on KISS 108, Matt Siegel… Deputy director of leadership giving at Baruch College, Linda Altshuler… Member of the Knesset since 2011 representing the United Torah Judaism party, Yisrael Eichler… Moral philosopher, she is the director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany, Susan Neiman… Former NFL linebacker, now president of Performance Coaching (training real estate agents), he was a captain of the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII, Steven Mark Shull… Economist and banker in Latvia, Valerijs Kargins… Smooth jazz saxophonist, he has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Dave Koz… Actress and producer, now serving as senior vice president at Youth Renewal Fund, Sabrina Wachtel Kurzman… Managing director of the Maimonides Fund, Daniel Gamulka… CEO of BBYO, Matthew Grossman… Founder and CEO of the Movement Vision Lab, Sally Kohn… Associate professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, she is the author of six full-length collections of poetry, Dorothea Lasky… Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, Jacob Hirsch Soboroff… Former professional ice hockey player, he played on Israel’s national team and in the U.S., Canada and Japan, now a partner at McKinsey & Company, Oren Eizenman… Assistant principal at Snowden Farm Elementary School in Clarksburg, Md., Kayla Gross… GTM consultant, Adam B. Engel… Former producer at ABC’s The View, Daniella Greenbaum Davis…
