Your Daily Phil: Progressive Jews gear up for a 2nd Trump White House
Good Friday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on volunteering in Israel since the Oct. 7 terror attacks. We look at how progressive Jewish groups are preparing for the second Trump administration and spotlight the Louisville Orchestra’s upcoming performance of an opera written by an Austrian Jewish composer in a concentration camp. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein about a case of successful “design by committee.” Also in this newsletter: Keshet Starr, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Dr. Miriam Adelson.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
Neve Schechter, the Center for Contemporary Jewish Culture in Tel Aviv’s tony Neve Tzedek neighborhood, is hosting an exhibition on Sunday featuring Israeli-North American artists exploring their identities in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
What You Should Know
Roughly one out of every two Israelis volunteered regularly in the weeks following the Oct. 7 terror attacks, mainly in ad hoc groups focused on basic logistics as hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens were displaced and many more were called into the reserves, leaving their families behind, according to a recent study. Over the past year, that number has steadily declined — down to 15% of the population — as people returned to work and felt their help was less needed, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
The authors of the study — conducted by the Israeli Volunteering Council and the Hebrew University’s Center for the Study of Civil Society and Philanthropy, along with the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry — said they hoped that these grassroots efforts would return, seeing a profound need for them during the reconstruction process and potential benefits for Israeli society.
The study, which was based on nine in-depth surveys, found that in the first month and a half of war, 45.2% of the population volunteered regularly, with 10% saying they did so daily. “This was at a time when some 300,000 people were called to the reserves, the education system wasn’t functioning and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes — this testifies to the resilience and social solidarity of the citizens,” the authors wrote. The study, which was presented to Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month, estimates the economic value of the volunteering effort in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Most of the volunteers were “spontaneous,” not affiliated with any existing organizations or movements. Many cited a feeling that there was “no choice” but to help in light of the severity of the situation and the lack of official government response as their reason for volunteers. Some said that volunteering helped them deal with feelings of powerlessness. Most of the volunteering efforts were logistical in nature, with roughly half — 49.2% — being collecting, packing and distributing food and equipment and 22.5% consisting of transporting people, equipment and food where they needed to go.
After the initial spike in volunteering in the six weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, the percentage of consistent volunteers in the population dropped to 28.7%, and today it stands at 15%, according to the study.
Ronit Bar, the head of the Israeli Volunteering Council, said she hoped to see that trend reverse. “During the war, many populations were hurt and communities destroyed, and a protracted and complicated period stands before us of reconstructing those communities — and volunteering has a central role to play in the process,” she said.
Professor Michal Almog-Bar, who runs the Center for the Study of Civil Society and Philanthropy, said the volunteering itself — not just the assistance that it can offer — can be a powerful component of that effort. “With the incorporation of advanced technology, focusing on communal resilience and social entrepreneurship and addressing the social rifts and post-trauma [in Israel], volunteering can become a central element in creating a unified, accepting, flexible society that is ready for the future,” Almog-Bar said in a statement. “The policies and efforts that we take now will determine the success of making volunteering a social and economic anchor in the recuperating Israeli society.”
THIS TIME AROUND
With new Trump White House, Jewish progressives seek non-Jewish partners — but find it tricky amid rising antisemitism
Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, many progressive leaders and organizations have accused Israel of apartheid and genocide and expect their partners to denounce Zionism — a belief held by the vast majority of Jews — while ignoring antisemitism and downplaying or justifying the Oct. 7 massacres and other attacks by terror groups against Israelis. As President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration approaches, Jewish progressive nonprofits are looking to bolster their efforts through partnerships with non-Jewish peers in the field, but in the current atmosphere, some are finding that some previous allies are no longer as welcoming, reports Jay Deitcher for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Keeping focus: The National Council of Jewish Women is used to working with other organizations that may share its goal of gender equity while also holding views that are anathema to it, Jody Rabhan, the group’s chief policy officer, told eJP. “We often sit around the table with folks in which we don’t agree on every issue, but we agree on that particular issue in that particular moment on that particular day,” Rabhan said. If an organization makes a statement that they feel is antisemitic or otherwise inappropriate, they are ready to have tough conversations. “We have stayed in the conversations, and we’ve done the hard work to talk about when things are uncomfortable or when another organization or coalition may have done something that has hurt or pained us.”
THE ART OF REMEMBRANCE
Louisville Orchestra to mark Holocaust Memorial Day with opera written in a concentration camp
On Jan. 25, to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day, the Louisville, Ky., Orchestra — which has a direct and emotional tie to Theresienstadt — will perform “Der Kaiser,” an anti-Nazi, anti-fascist opera written by Austrian Jewish composer Viktor Ullmann while he was in the concentration camp, which features a character named Death, personified as an overworked soldier who resents a power-hungry dictator, The Emperor, reports Julia Gergely for eJewishPhilanthropy.
‘A direct link’: “It has these essential themes of the idea of dictatorship and power, and how unchecked power can go out of control and ruin lives,” Graham Parker, the executive director of the orchestra, told eJP. “We feel it’s a very powerful story for today.” The orchestra also has a “direct link” to the opera through Paul Kling, a Czech violinist who was one of the only ensemble members in Theresienstadt to survive the Holocaust and went on to become the concertmaster at the Louisville Orchestra for two decades, from 1957 to 1977. “He still has students who play in the orchestra — there is an absolute, direct link,” said Parker.
SIDDUR BY COMMITTEE
A communal process for writing a new prayer book
When a few years ago members of City Shul in Toronto began asking for a prayerbook that would reflect the community’s traditions and character, “I was faced with a dilemma,” writes Rabbi Emerita Elyse Goldstein in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “As the rabbi, I could surely take the task on myself: I could evaluate the many prayer books on the market and then make a suggestion to the leadership on which one to buy; or I could take a stab at creating a siddur myself. But my more aspirational hope was to generate some true ownership of the siddur by the full community, and the only way to do that was by ensuring that its users — the synagogue members — had a voice in the creative process.”
A defining experience: “I learned three important lessons from this process. First, do not dismiss the holy work of committees. When tasked properly and driven by a vision, a committee with a limited time frame and a clear objective can mutually invigorate all of its members. Second, do not underestimate the value of laypeople having a voice in the vehicles used for their own spiritual and prayer lives. Creating our own lovingly crafted and somewhat idiosyncratic siddur has led to increased attendance and increased participation at our services. And third, do not assume that standard siddurim will work for all congregations. They have been written by others, for others. Taking the time to research and choose our own prayer book gave us the impetus to define ourselves as a congregation in a deeper way than we imagined it would.”
Worthy Reads
Robo-Rabbi: In The New York Times, Eli Tan looks at how religious leaders are using artificial intelligence tools in their work. “To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler’s. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself. ‘The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words,’ he said. ‘But they weren’t.’ The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called ‘Rabbi Bot,’ an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons… Rabbi Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders experimenting with A.I. in their work, spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer A.I. tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons… But the ethical questions around using generative A.I. for religious tasks have become more complicated as the technology has improved, religious leaders say. While most agree that using A.I. for tasks like research or marketing is acceptable, other uses for the technology, like sermon writing, are seen by some as a step too far.” [NYTimes]
It’s Our Responsibility: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Kevin Starr, director of the Mulago Foundation and the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program, calls on fellow funders to demonstrate more accountability for the impact of their money. “In the for-profit world, firms are accountable to their customers. If customers don’t value their products, the firm doesn’t make a profit. If the firm doesn’t do better, it goes out of business and investors lose their money. Both firms and investors are accountable to the customer. Provide value or die. The nonprofit world doesn’t work like that. The customers — we presume to call them ‘beneficiaries’ — pretty much have to take what they’re given. There’s no meaningful way for them to signal whether the ‘product’ has value for them or not. There are no direct consequences for a failure to benefit the beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the investors — funders of all stripes — are even more insulated from consequences. We can fund whatever ineffective crap we want. Blindly funding stuff that doesn’t work won’t sully your image as a generous champion of the poor (or the environment, or whatever)… Ineffective nonprofits survive, even thrive. Great ones have little [to] no fundraising advantage. People like me never get fired for lack of impact. Money doesn’t flow efficiently toward those best able to create change… Only funders can fix this. Our fundamental job is to hold nonprofits accountable for impact on behalf of those who don’t have a voice. Because the customers can’t, we have to ensure the value of the product.” [SSIR]
Winds of Change: Liberal politics were the predominant force in the Jewish community in the late 20th and early 21st century, but Jewish conservativism’s star is on the rise, writes Steven Windmueller in The Times of Israel. “As a result of the growing connections between conservative Jewish groups and the incoming administration, we are likely to see during the second Trump presidency the following political outcomes: A heightened level of public support for Israel, and a corresponding increase in efforts to isolate anti-Israel actors and organizations within the United States and a concerted effort to target American-based ‘radical’ Islamic institutions and leaders; [a] more aggressive governmental response to antisemitic behaviors, especially in connection with universities, social media, and other public avenues of possible anti-Jewish expression; [and] federal support for religious-based educational programs and services, as the Trump administration will seek to undo the wall of separation between church and state. Aligned with the growth of Jewish Republican electoral support and the growing strength of Orthodox Judaism in America, we can expect the continued expansion of this sector’s impact on political ideas and policy, communal influence and electoral power.” [TOI]
Word on the Street
Two Israeli men remain hospitalized in serious and critical condition in New Orleans following the New Year’s terrorist attack…
Keshet Starr is stepping down as CEO of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, taking on the position of CEO with the Shalom Task Force…
Vandals in the Bay Area spray-painted antisemitic graffiti next to a menorah erected by Chabad of Oakland; the menorah had been destroyed last year and thrown into a nearby river before its pieces were recovered and restored…
Rutgers University will implement new measures to address campus antisemitism following a Title VI complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint, lodged by both Jewish and Muslim students, cited nearly 300 antisemitic incidents and 150 anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks…
Philanthropists David and Meredith Kaplan have donated $10 million to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to support healthcare leadership goals, establishing a presidential chair in their name with Cedars-Sinai President and CEO Peter L. Slavin holding the inaugural chair…
New York City’s Touro University, in partnership with the National Jewish Advocacy Center, has launched a legal clinic to train future lawyers in strategies to combat antisemitism. The program aims to expand to other colleges…
The Israel Defense Forces reported a rise in suicides among soldiers amid the ongoing war and mass reservist call-ups, with 28 such deaths recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, compared to some 25 in all of 2021-2022. The overall death toll, including casualties from Gaza and Lebanon, is the highest in decades with 891 soldiers killed since the start of the war…
Josh Stein, North Carolina’s first Jewish governor, was sworn into office on Wednesday using an 1891 edition of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible…
ABC 45 News highlights the work of Nechama Jewish Response to Disaster in Western North Carolina since October following Hurricane Helene…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated 268,000 Tesla shares, worth approximately $108.2 million, to unnamed charities just before the New Year, as part of his year-end tax planning, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. This follows similar donations in previous years, including $1.95 billion in 2022 and $5.74 billion in 2021 to the Musk Foundation, his nonprofit…
The New Yorker looks at the long-stalled effort to erect a Holocaust memorial in London…
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh gears up to host the Maccabi Campus Games, a new project by the JCC Association of North America that is scheduled to be held in seven months…
Longtime GOP operative and former George W. Bush administration official Joel Kaplan, who has held senior roles at Facebook/Meta since 2011, will replace Nick Clegg as Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Foreign Policy spotlights Palestinian-American activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a former Gaza resident who has risen to prominence for his critiques of and commentary on Israel and Hamas over the course of the 15-month-long war…
Denver Jewish leader and activist Ralph Stern has died at 87…
Seymour Lachman, the former head of New York City’s Board of Education and the first Orthodox Jew to serve in New York’s state Senate, died at 91…
Pic of the Day
GOP megadonor and Jewish philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson (left) poses with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, at a New Year’s Eve party at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night.
The friendly photograph assuaged the concerns of pro-Israel Republicans who had expressed concerns about Vance’s previous anti-interventionist remarks, which they saw as a potential issue for U.S.-Israel relations, reports Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.
Birthdays
Israeli basketball player now on the Portland Trail Blazers, he was a first-round pick of the Wizards in the 2020 NBA draft, Deni Avdija, celebrates his birthday today…
FRIDAY: Treasury secretary under President Carter, CEO of Burroughs Corporation and Unisys, followed by 17 years as director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, W. Michael Blumenthal… Computer scientist and computational theorist, he is a professor emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, Richard Manning Karp… Professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, Kenneth Prager, M.D…. CNN legal analyst, he was formerly a Watergate prosecutor and later a member of the 9/11 Commission, Richard Ben-Veniste… Former legal affairs reporter at The New York Times and contributing editor at Vanity Fair, David Margolick… Tax attorney and scion of the eponymous vacuum cleaner company, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Finland during the Obama administration, Bruce James Oreck… Professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, Ralph R. Isberg… Justice of the Ontario Superior Court and former national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Edward M. Morgan… Italian actor and comedian, known professionally as Gioele Dix, David Ottolenghi… Russian oligarch with holdings in the construction and banking sectors, Boris Rotenberg… Director of the Year-in-Israel program at HUC-JIR, Reuven Greenvald… Assistant district attorney in Manhattan, she prosecuted the Daniel Penny subway chokehold case six weeks ago, Dafna M. Yoran… International businessman and former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, S. Fitzgerald Haney… Managing director and senior partner in the NYC office of the Boston Consulting Group, Neal Zuckerman… Senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News after 17 years at the Los Angeles Times, Noam Naftali Levey… Attorney in Minneapolis and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Jeremy N. Kalin… President at Kiosite, LLC, Michael Novack… Founder and president of Golden Strategies, Jenna Golden… Founder and principal at D.C.-based Volsky Ventures, Igor Volsky… Former child actor who starred in “Home Alone 3,” he is now a planning assistant for the City of Los Angeles, Alexander David Linz… Head of research and analytics at VineSight, Alana Aliza Herbst…
SATURDAY: English celebrity chef, restaurateur and television star, Rick Stein… Founder and president emeritus of the Alliance for Justice, Nan Aron… Retired major general in the IDF and a former member of the Knesset for Likud, he is a nephew of Moshe Dayan, Uzi Dayan… Television producer for CBS and co-author of three novels, Karen Mack Goldsmith… CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, the advocacy organization for investor-owned hospitals, Charles N. (“Chip”) Kahn III… Former member of the Knesset for 17 years, she was born in Vilna, Lithuania, as Zehava Schnipitzky, Zehava Gal-On… Author of The New Yorker‘s satirical “Borowitz Report,” he is a comedian, actor and New York Times best-selling author, known for creating “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Andy Borowitz… Author of 35 best-selling mystery novels and thrillers with over 80 million copies in print, Harlan Coben… Senior health-care editor at Axios, Adriel Bettelheim… Professor of Jewish history at both the University of Munich and the American University in D.C., Michael Brenner… Founder of AnyDate, ShareSomeFriends and Upstart Ideas, Michael Eglash… Television and film actor, Josh Stamberg… Professor of management at UCSD, Yuval Rottenstreich… Strategic initiatives director at the Austin-based Cicero Institute, he was the first Jewish liaison in the Bush 43 administration, Adam Blair Goldman… American living in Uzbekistan where he promotes business development among the five Central Asian countries, Daniel Zaretsky… White House senior aide for energy and investment, Amos J. Hochstein… Historian and NYT best-selling author, he is a contributing editor at Politico Magazine, Joshua Michael Zeitz… Film and television actor, Aaron Schwartz… Founder of Darshan Yeshiva and spiritual leader of Kehillah, a Jewish community in Richmond, Va., Patrick Beaulier… Senior broadcast producer at “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” Ben Mayer… Early childhood director at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, Alex Band… Bookkeeper at her family-owned The Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., Shawnee Tannenbaum… Partner at D.C.-based public affairs firm The Herald Group, Marc Brumer… Chief of staff for Stacey Abrams, Samantha Slosberg… Centerfielder for nine MLB teams, he played for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic in 2023, Kevin Pillar… Head of non-scripted development at Wavelength Productions, Emily Tess Katz… National political reporter for Time magazine, Eric James Cortellessa… Associate in the NYC office of Steptoe, Alexander Abraham Langer… Program coordinator at the Norton and Elaine Sarnoff Center for Jewish Genetics, Judah Gavant… The youngest member of Maryland House of Delegates, Joseph Vogel… D.C. correspondent at The Nevada Independent, Gabby Birenbaum…
SUNDAY: Author of four novels including Mitzvah Man and five collections of short fiction including Minyan: Ten Interwoven Stories, John Jacob Clayton… Sports journalist, author and former ombudsman for ESPN, Robert Lipsyte… NBA superfan who attends over 100 basketball games nationally each season, James F. Goldstein… Former member of the Knesset for the National Religious party, Eliyahu Gabai… Former Philadelphia mayor for eight years, and then another eight years as Pennsylvania’s governor, currently a special counsel at Ballard Spahr, Ed Rendell… Retired attorney from Latham & Watkins, Paul Israel Meyer… San Diego-based attorney, she served as a member of Congress and as chief of staff for California Gov. Gray Davis, Lynn Alice Schenk… Former attorney general of the U.K, now London co-managing partner and chair of the European and Asian litigation practice at Debevoise & Plimpton, Lord Peter Goldsmith… CEO of Legacy Interactive / Legacy Games, Ariella Lehrer, Ph.D…. Founder and principal of DC-based Mager & Associates, Mimi Mager… Retired chairman of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael), Daniel “Danny” Atar… Journalist, John F. Solomon… Actress and television personality, Heather Paige Kent Dubrow… Partner of both the law firm Galper & Goldberg PLLC and the PR firm Trident DMG, Joshua P. Galper… Professional poker player who won the 2010, 2012 and 2018 World Series of Poker Players Championship, Michael Mizrachi… Founder and creative director of Alsall Studio, Alexandra Lauren Sall… Tennis player ranked #1 in Israel for most of 2022, Yshai Oliel…
