Your Daily Phil: Remembering Shmuel Harlap, a quiet giant of Israeli philanthropy
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Ilana Kaufman about her 15-city listening tour for the Jews of Color Initiative. We remember the generosity of Israeli businessman, writer and philanthropist Shmuel Harlap, who died last week, we report on the response from Jewish and pro-Israel organizations to actor Mark Ruffalo‘s antisemitic rhetoric on social media and we interview Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib about his new book. We feature an opinion piece by Jennifer Locane about taking an active role at her alma mater in response to the campus’ transformation following the Oct. 7 attacks, and a piece by Galit Cohen highlighting the potential impact of investment in agricultural education in sub-Saharan Africa on global food security. Also in this issue: Rabbi Amitai Fraiman, Meron Guttel and Lowell R. Glazer.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington launches its 2026 election series today with a primer on Israel’s electoral system featuring Adam Odesser, director of the Israel Action Center, and Jewish Agency shlichim (Israeli emissaries) Hila Kedar and Dean Bagdadi.
The Israeli drama “10 Kilos,” which follows Sharon Yitzhaky’s years in a Bolivian prison after she was framed for smuggling cocaine into the country, premieres tonight in Hollywood with a Q&A featuring Yitzhaky, director Doron Eran and stars Daniella Kertesz and Luna Mansour.
What You Should Know
From November through May, as the Jews of Color Initiative neared the end of a three-year strategic plan, CEO Ilana Kaufman traveled across the United States on a listening tour with the goal of convening conversations and gathering insights that would help shape the organization’s future efforts both regionally and nationwide.
Kaufman visited 15 cities, with stops in Seattle, Denver, Detroit, Chicago and Manhattan, and heard from more than 300 grantees, funders, executives, community professionals and leaders, elders and young people.
Kaufman spoke with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher in advance of this afternoon’s JoCI “share-back” webinar about what she learned on the tour and what she hopes others will learn from it as well.
For instance, what’s changed in “in the most beautiful way” in the near-decade since she founded JoCI is “is that this conversation is about all of us,” said Kaufman. “We all are part of a multiracial Jewish community. We all have meaningful connections across the spectrums of diversity. We’re all allies to someone. We all need allies.”
News
BARUCH DAYAN EMET
Shmuel Harlap, who gave Israel’s largest healthcare gift but kept his name off it, dies at 82
Israeli auto magnate, technology investor and writer Shmuel Harlap, whose fortune underwrote the largest gift in the history of Israel’s healthcare system, died Aug. 18, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet reports. He was 82.
A quiet giant: Following Harlap’s financial success, he and his wife, Anat, steered much of that wealth toward science and medicine, giving $180 million to Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center (often referred to as Beilinson Hospital) and $10 million to the Weizmann Institute of Science, and he became a central patron of the Institute for National Security Studies. Following the events of Oct. 7, 2023, he donated 120 cars to assist displaced individuals from the Gaza envelope. Ofer Shelah, who heads the institute’s Israel’s National Security Policy program, said Harlap “neither sought to see his name on a plaque nor limited his involvement to making a donation, but continued to push, encourage, and critique us, always with deep passion and great friendship.”
HOLLYWOOD HEADACHE
Jewish leaders speak out against actor Mark Ruffalo’s ‘antisemitic’ attack against Ellison family
Several leading Jewish and pro-Israel organizations condemned actor Mark Ruffalo for using what they deemed antisemitic rhetoric in his social media commentary targeting the Ellison family amid the pending merger of Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery, Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Bridge too far: Paramount also condemned Ruffalo, saying it was “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
BOOKSHELF
In new book, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib argues Hamas has held Palestinian population hostage for 20 years
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who lived in the Gaza Strip from the age of 10-15, describes himself as an advocate for the Palestinian people. In his latest book, Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, Alkhatib argues that Hamas, not Israel, bears primary responsibility for the suffering and political stagnation of the people of Gaza, Matthew Shea reports for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Matthew Shea: You reflect in the book on your own experiences and those of your family in Gaza. How did these experiences shape the way you approach this book, and how did they shape your understanding of Hamas? Did you find that other Gazans shared your sentiments?
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: I remember the hope and optimism of the tail end of the Oslo [Accords] years in the ’90s — flying into Gaza’s airport, these shiny new Palestinian passports, the Palestinian airlines, the cell phones, the industrial zone, the kind of renaissance and the sense of hope and optimism and the march toward statehood. In the midst of all of that, Hamas’ counter-narrative was, “Oh no, the Palestinian Authority and the [Palestine Liberation Organization] sold out, they gave up 78% of historic Palestine, and we are going to bring you something better.”
Opinion
ALUM IN ACTION
Why this two-time GW alum never hesitated to stand up for the university’s Jewish students
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Jennifer Locane, a member of the George Washington University chapter of Alums for Campus Fairness and the recipient of ACF’s inaugural Outstanding Chapter Leadership Award, writes about her journey to activism on behalf of Jewish students at her alma mater and illustrates the impact alumni can have on campuses across the U.S.
“Everywhere I go, I meet alumni who feel what I felt after Oct. 7, 2023: the pull to do something, and the uncertainty about what. My answer to them is the same answer ACF gave me. Your voice matters more than you know, and there is a chapter waiting for it.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Worried about the future of global food production? Invest in the next generation of African agriculture.
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Galit Cohen, founder and executive director of Ripples for Change, highlights the potential role of sub-Saharan Africa’s growing under-25 population in the resilience and security of not only the continent’s food systems but the global food system as well.
“For donors, development agencies and policymakers in the Global North, this should matter, too. … The stronger thesis is not that Africa will automatically become an agricultural powerhouse because it has land and young people. Investing in education, skills, technology, infrastructure, climate adaptation, finance and market access can help determine whether demographic growth becomes an asset or an additional vulnerability.”
Worthy Reads
Islands of Sovereignty: In his Substack “Jewish Priorities,” Z3’s founding director Rabbi Amitai Fraiman argues that North American Jewish institutions have turned communal life into a marketplace of consumable experiences and calls for building “islands of sovereignty” — civic spaces such as JCCs where Jews govern shared life and take responsibility for one another. “Jews do not become sovereign by being consulted. They become sovereign by being responsible.”
Boards Built Wrong: In Forbes, contributor Aparna Rae warns that nonprofits pick board members for wealth and connections rather than the ability to govern, a mismatch she blames for the sector’s mounting crisis of drift. “We can no longer afford to let unmeasured, misaligned volunteer boards sink the vital work of the social sector. To be clear, this is not a debate around good intentions. This is a call to all nonprofit stakeholders to measure the governance function in the same way we unquestioningly tally fundraising totals, review expense reports, and quantify programmatic impact.”
Loaded Hyphen: In Interfaith America, Becky Voorwinde explores the anxiety around Jewish American (or American Jewish) identity and what each identity has to offer the other. “I am both an American-Jew and a Jewish-American; these identities shape me and my values. These identities also shape my understanding of what it means to be an American and what it means to be Jewish. For me, this is the gift of American pluralism.”
Major Gifts
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and his wife, Judith, donated $12 million through their family foundation to 12 historically Black colleges and universities, including Tuskegee University, Dillard University, Shaw University, Johnson C. Smith University and Benedict College…
Transitions
Word on the Street
The Forward explores how American Jewish institutions, now spending between $765 million and $1 billion a year on security, are weighing the budget strain and other considerations as the High Holy Days approach…
Assailants smashed a window at Ramat Hasharon‘s Darchei Noam on Sunday night, the second Reform congregation in Israel vandalized in under 10 days…
Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion will close public hearings two days early, drawing criticism from the opposition and Jewish advocates who say key witnesses went unheard…
The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation honored six people at its annual Moral Courage Awards on Sunday at Yankee Stadium for standing against antisemitism and hate; the honorees were: Rachel Amar of the Moroccan Organization for Development of Africa; AJCF board member Gil Cygler; Jewish Link co-publisher Moshe Kinderlehrer; family-law attorney Rebecca Sassouni; and Oceanview Manor administrator Lisa “Malkie” Vider, along with Harlem legislative director Ousmane Diallo, who died last month…
NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief, an Israeli humanitarian group, opened a pediatric clinic at the Gaza Children’s Village in Al-Mawasi that will provide primary care, vaccinations and rehabilitation to as many as 10,000 children…
Chabad Loft in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village is facing potential eviction amid a court fight over an unsigned lease extension…
Prompted by one observant family’s difficult stay, Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital created a 24-page guidebook to help staff serve Sabbath-observant Jewish patients…
The Maple is reporting that B’nai Brith Canada, whose government-funded Toronto apartment buildings have drawn more than $30 million in public money, rejects non-Jewish rental applicants…
The U.K.’s Leeds Jewish Housing Association opened 28 affordable family homes on the Queenshill estate, completing a Homes England-backed project that now totals 113 properties…
Call Your Mother, the Washington mainstay bagel shop known for reinventing Jewish deli classics, will open its first Florida location in Coral Gables later this year…
Russ & Daughters and West Elm launched a Holiday 2026 tableware line featuring dinnerware, serving trays and a ceramic menorah…
Lowell R. Glazer, a Baltimore real estate developer and philanthropist who held many roles at The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and Sinai Hospital, where he donated the Lowell and Harriet Glazer Atrium, died on Aug. 22 at 95…
Pic of the Day
Rabbi Yosef Mishulovin, a longtime Los Angeles Chabad figure and owner of Chabad Atara’s bookstore, stands with six of his children beneath the city sign in Samarkand, Uzbekistan — once part of the Soviet Union — marking his 70th birthday with a return to his native city for the first time in nearly 60 years. Born there in 1956, Mishulovin grew up practicing Judaism in secret under Soviet rule. His family left for Israel in 1969 and settled in Kfar Chabad.
Birthdays
Jackie Rotman, founder and CEO of the Center for Intimacy Justice
Howard Jacobson, British novelist known for writing comic novels that revolve around the dilemmas of Jewish characters, turns 84
Gene Simmons, bass guitarist and co-lead singer of Kiss, his birth name is Chaim Witz, known professionally as “The Demon,” turns 77
Deborah “Debbie” Matz, former chair of the National Credit Union Administration, she now serves on the board of directors of Stewart Title Co., turns 76
Lorin Fife, former chair of the board at the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles
William Seth Hochman, president of The Joel Paul Group, a division of Merraine Group, specializing in executive recruitment for the nonprofit sector, turns 71
Elazar Stern, former head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, he resigned from the Yesh Atid party earlier this month to join the Yashar party, turns 70
Manfred “Fred” Haeusler, former program director at the St. Paul, Minn., Jewish community center
Noam David Elkies, professor of mathematics at Harvard University (tenured at age 26, the youngest ever), pianist and chess national master, turns 60
Jeffrey Scot Tweedy, musician, singer-songwriter, author and record producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Wilco, turns 59
Richard Marceau, former Canadian MP, now senior vice president for strategic initiatives and general counsel at Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, turns 56
Ronn D. Torossian, author and founder of NYC-based 5W Public Relations, turns 52
Suzanne Schneider, regional marketing director at UJA-Federation of New York
Alicia Post, executive director at the Religious Zionists of America
Jaclyn Tohn, actor and musician best known for playing Melanie “MelRose” Rosen on the Netflix series “Glow,” turns 46
Sarah Schreiber, director of development for South Florida’s JVAC – Jewish Volunteer Ambulance Corps
Nate Loewentheil, founder and managing partner at Commonweal Ventures
Evan Hoffman, director of state and local government relations at multinational conglomerate Philips
Daniel Barash, managing director in the D.C. office of SKDK
Stacey Farber, Canadian actor, turns 39
Samuel Michelman, director of product marketing at LinkedIn
Ryan Kuhel, founder and CEO of DLP Labs
Neal Rothschild, senior director of editorial strategy and operations at Axios
Jane Wasserman
Jenna Lifhits, investigative counsel for the House Education and the Workforce Committee
Adam Friedman, Talmudic scholar, he is an operations and accounting specialist at HealthSource Distributors
Eden Hason, Israeli singer-songwriter, turns 32
Carina Grossmann
Robert Cohen
