Your Daily Phil: Q&A with incoming CSS chief Dov Ben-Shimon
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Dov Ben-Shimon, the incoming CEO of the Community Security Service, and report on the rising number of protests on college campuses directed against Hillel. We feature an opinion piece by Kalyn Culler Cohen and Rabbi Ariel Stone spotlighting the origin story of the Eastside Jewish Commons in Portland, Ore. Also in this newsletter: Diana Pan, Rabbi Kenneth Brander and Sam D. and Terry Roth. We’ll start with a $2 million pledge to Chabad of the United Arab Emirates in memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was killed there last week.
The families of Jared and Joshua Kushner pledged a total of $2 million to Chabad of the United Arab Emirates on Monday in memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the 28-year-old Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary who was killed last week after being abducted in Dubai, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
The donations come as the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates — and in the Arab world in general — is still reeling from the aftermath of the killing, which has been condemned by Israeli officials as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act,” and by Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, as “an attack on our homeland, on our values and on our vision.”
Jared Kushner’s announcement of the $1 million donation was made within hours of Kogan’s funeral in Kfar Chabad, Israel, on Monday night.
“Let us come together from all faiths to pick up where Rabbi Kogan left off and bring his work, and the work of those building the UAE into a thriving destination of tolerance, bridge building and mutual benefit, to new heights,” he wrote on X.
One of the lead negotiators of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement between the Gulf country and Israel in 2020, Kushner cited the importance of the Accords and interfaith collaboration and called upon others to contribute to the Jewish communities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in his post on X. Joshua Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, then said they were matching the pledge to Chabad UAE.
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, senior religious advisor to the Moses ben Maimon Synagogue at the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, told eJP that the Kushners’ decision to invest in the Emirati Jewish community is especially important in the wake of the attack.
“Josh and Jared are just such special people. They have their priorities straight,” Sarna said. “Their philanthropy in this case really means a lot, it means more than the dollars.”
The Kushners’ donations were also hailed by international figures affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement, as well as young entrepreneurs, such as Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein and Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Investor Daniel Loeb, who changed his profile picture on X to one of Kogan, also applauded the Kushners and encouraged people to join his Torah study-focused “Simchat Torah Challenge” in Kogan’s memory.
On Sunday, the same day Kogan’s body was found in the city of Al Ain, Emirati officials arrested three Uzbek nationals suspected of murdering him.
“The worldwide Chabad community, and the international community at large are shocked, grieving and outraged,” Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the Chabad movement’s educational arm, said in a statement.
According to Marc Sievers, the director of AJC Abu Dhabi’s Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding, though the Jewish community was aware of the threats against it — Emirati officials had already recommended that the community keep a “lower profile” after the onset of the Israel-Hamas war — the killing of Kogan, who among other things managed a local kosher market, still took the tight-knit Jewish population by surprise.
“It was a big shock, because we knew him, because we mourn the loss of a very kind and decent man, because we had no reason to believe that an incident like that would take place here. Everyone’s very careful and watching all of the media reports and so forth,” Sievers told eJP.
ENTRANCE INTERVIEW
Incoming CSS chief Dov Ben-Shimon: ‘We have to take responsibility to a much higher, more strategic level for our own security’
After leading the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, for over a decade, Dov Ben-Shimon announced he was stepping down from the role in September. This month, he entered his new position as CEO of the Community Security Service, a national organization that trains and coordinates security volunteers for synagogues and other Jewish communal institutions.
As he enters the new role, Ben-Shimon spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross about what brought him to the new organization and where it sits in the broader Jewish communal effort to combat antisemitism.
JAG: There’s mounting criticism within the Jewish community about the alphabet soup of organizations out there working to combat antisemitism, that there’s too much overlap, not enough coordination and, ultimately, not enough getting accomplished. So why does there need to be a CSS?
DBS: I am a pluralist. I believe that there is space for a number of Jewish organizations in the security realm… And CSS comes in at a unique value point where we are the largest national training and operational body to protect Jewish institutions and communities on the ground with thousands of volunteers supported by our professional and board teams… What’s clear is that for so many of us, the world has changed since Oct. 7, and this requires from us a higher level of coordination and collaboration.
JAG: For years now, but in particular since the Oct. 7, there has been debate in the Jewish community about where to focus as it relates to antisemitism: Should the focus be more on far-right, white supremacist threats or on the kind of far-left antisemitism that we’ve seen on college campuses over the past year? Where do you and CSS come down on this debate?
DBS: The moment that anti-Jewish or anti-Zionist talk turns into hate speech… the practical effect is a warning sign of danger to the Jewish community. And in that respect, I do believe that there is significant merit to the ‘horseshoe theory of hate.’ At the end of the day, that hate is always focused against Jews and has a similar level of danger and threat to Jewish community life.
CAMPUS BEAT
Anti-Israel activists target Hillel as protester tactics turn more ‘blatantly antisemitic’
When anti-Israel activists at Columbia University disrupted an event last Thursday at the school’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life featuring Axios reporter Barak Ravid — calling out the Hillel’s Jewish benefactor Robert Kraft, for whom the building is named, by name and referring to Ravid, who is Israeli, as a “henchman of genocide” — the personal nature of the attacks caught the attention of antisemitism watchers, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Growing pattern: “We are continuing to see more of Hillel — and even sometimes Chabad on Campus and big Jewish donors — being cited by name,” Shira Goodman, vice president of advocacy and national affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, told JI. Goodman noted that calls for universities to defund or disassociate from Hillel intensified in the spring amid the anti-Israel encampment movement on campuses nationwide. “They try to hide it behind Israel, or the ‘Zionist entity,’ but they really are targeting the center of Jewish life on campus; places where students go to eat, pray and be with other students, not necessarily to engage in activities related to Israel. So it does seem, to us,” Goodman continued, “to be blatantly antisemitic.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
A HOUSE OF GATHERING
Centering collaboration in building Jewish community
“The synagogue as a praying place may not be the center of 21st-century Jewish life… [but] the need for the beit knesset, the communal gathering space, is as strong as ever,” write Kalyn Culler Cohen, a social-purpose business strategy consultant and a former chair of the steering committee at Congregation Shir Tikvah in Portland, Ore., and Rabbi Ariel Stone, a member of the Clergy Leadership Incubator National Mentor Team, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Evolving needs: “The story of Jewish Portland follows the arc of the city’s overall history, flowing out from the central city into the west-side hills, where a JCC, a Jewish day school, multiple synagogues and a Jewish federation were built. In 2011, Congregation Shir Tikvah — composed of 140 member families and renting space in a small church — was the only Jewish organization located on the river’s east side… [N]ot only did we need a permanent location, but Eastside Portland needed a center for Jewish life. In 2011, Portland was also in the middle of a significant population shift east of the river. Westside synagogues were serving increasing numbers of congregants living on the east side, and there was a growing desire for a central Jewish location to serve these families.”
An idea bears fruit: “In the 1990s, Jewish leadership in Portland, Ore., explored the idea of a community building where different Jewish organizations could come together and share infrastructure costs… In 2011, Congregation Shir Tikvah revisited the question of shared space and, this time, the seed took root… The vision of a Jewish commons dedicated to shelter and support many kinds of Jewish life under one roof, offer office space to start up Jewish nonprofits or professionals, provide an eastside satellite location for westside shuls, promote multiple kinds of ritual practice and present affordable space for Jewish music, art and theater is now a 5-year-old thriving entity with its own board and executive director: the Eastside Jewish Commons.”
Worthy Reads
Metrics Mania: “Metrics,” a buzzword and tool in the nonprofit world and beyond, are not an end in and of themselves, writes Rabbi Joshua Rabin in his Substack newsletter “Moneyball Judaism.” “‘When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure’ comes from a 1997 article by anthropologist Marilyn Strathern on British educational policy. For our purposes, Strathern’s analysis is most relevant because she examines how too much focus on metrics can lead to a ‘new morality of attainment.’ Once we assume that ‘human performance could be measured,’ we start to think that what we can measure is what ‘ought to be’ measured. And because some can be measured, that which can be measured becomes ‘enticing tools for improvement,’ leading people to spend more time aiming to maximize the specific metric instead of the greater goal the metric should indicate… Yes, there is value in measuring engagement, interactions, connections, etc., but we need to be careful lest people focus on the metric to the point where the mission suffers. And it happens more than we think.” [MoneyballJudaism]
Philanthropy On the High Seas: In Inside Philanthropy, Paul Karon explores why 11 funders committed $51 million earlier this fall to facilitate the rapid adoption and ratification of the High Seas Treaty, a major international agreement that aims to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by the year 2030. “Already, some marine sanctuaries and other protected areas have been designated — especially within near-shore exclusive economic zones. But currently, only 1% to 2% of the high seas beyond those exclusive coastal areas are protected with truly effective enforcement, said Melissa Wright, who leads the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative at Bloomberg Philanthropies. But scientists estimate that we must protect at least 30% of the oceans to maintain basic ecosystem function in the ocean. That’s crucial not just in and of itself, but also because much of the world’s human population depends upon the oceans, including on seafood for nutrition. The oceans are also a major buffer against climate change — they produce about half or more of the planet’s oxygen, sequester an enormous portion of the planet’s carbon, and regulate temperature. That same 30% is the minimum needed to maintain the carbon and climate cycle necessary for stable life support.” [InsidePhilanthropy]
Around the Web
Diana Pan has been named chief digital officer of UJA-Federation of New York starting her new role on Nov. 11…
Eight Jewish women’s groups, joined by 57 other Jewish organizations, have written a letter to U.N. representatives, including Secretary-General António Guterres, urging them to take action against the global crisis of rising gender-based and sexual violence against women, including the sexual violence perpetuated by Hamas on Oct. 7…
The Times of Israel spotlights an initiative by the Michal Sela Foundation — named for a woman murdered by her husband in 2020 — giving guard dogs to women who have been abused by their partners, which the group said has reduced threats to the participants by an average of 70%…
In an opinion piece in Newsweek, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the president of the Ohr Torah Stone network, which has 19 alumni that have been killed in battle over the past 13 months, makes a religious argument for Haredi Israelis to serve in the military, saying it is a halachic mandate…
Warren Buffett is donating stock valued at nearly $1.2 billion to his family foundation and to the foundations run by his children…
Jewish Insider interviews Catherine Lhamon, the Department of Education’s assistant secretary for civil rights, about the Biden administration’s legacy on campus antisemitism…
Sam D. and Terry Roth of Youngstown, Ohio, have donated $500,000 for building renovations to Ohio University Hillel in Athens, Ohio…
Inside Philanthropy profiles philanthropy’s 40 most powerful families…
Citing “external pressures,” the British Exeter Dance International Film Festival canceled the participation of Israeli choreographer Dor Eldar’s piece “RAVE,” which depicts the Nova dance party of Oct. 7, despite including it in the official lineup…
Haaretz examines the slate of American parties running in the next World Zionist Congress elections…
Arnie Weiner, a longtime leader of the B’nai Brith Youth Organization’s Michigan region, died on Nov. 23 at 79…
Harris Rosen, an Orlando, Fla.-based hotelier and philanthropist, died yesterday at 85…
Pic of the Day
Volunteers from the Jewish Family Service LA pass out groceries last Friday ahead of the holiday season as part of the organization’s annual Thanksgiving drive-through food distribution program.
Birthdays
Diplomat and author, he worked under Presidents Bush (41), Clinton and Obama on Middle East and Persian Gulf matters, in 2002 he co-founded a synagogue in Rockville, Md., Dennis B. Ross…
Holocaust refugee from Budapest, he founded a generic drug company in 1965 that he sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals 35 years later, University of Toronto’s pharmacy school bears his name, Leslie Dan… San Francisco-based venture capitalist, he is a founding partner of CMEA Capital, Formation 8 and Baruch Future Ventures, Thomas R. Baruch… Former national executive director of the Zionist Organization of America, Gary P. Ratner… Former member of the Illinois House of Representatives for 32 years, now a lobbyist, Louis I. Lang… U.S. senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito… Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nonfiction books based on his biological observations, he is a professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, Jonathan Weiner… Israel bureau chief and a senior editor for the Middle East at Bloomberg News, Ethan Samuel Bronner… Editor, journalist and publisher of Hebrew media for U.S.-based Israeli readers, he is the author of several books and award-winning screenplays, Meir Doron… Staff cartoonist for The New Yorker where she has published more than 1,000 cartoons, Roz Chast… First Jewish governor of Delaware (2009-2017), now serving as U.S. ambassador to Italy, Jack Alan Markell… Mayor of Miami Beach from 2017 to 2023, prior to that he served in both houses of the Florida Legislature, Daniel Saul Gelber… District attorney-elect of Los Angeles County, he is taking office next week after defeating the incumbent George Gascón, Nathan Joseph Hochman… Former professional tennis player, Jay Berger… CEO and founder of Dansdeals, a credit card and travel blog, he is a fifth generation Clevelander, Daniel Eleff… Editor-in-Chief of W Magazine, Sara Anne Moonves… Software engineer at Regard, Benjamin Huebscher… Executive director of Agudath Israel of Ohio, Rabbi Eric “Yitz” Frank… Senior counselor at Palantir Technologies, Jordan Chandler Hirsch… Television and film actress, Anjelica Bette Fellini…
