Your Daily Phil: Security group to train Jewish students in self-defense
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on American-Israeli basketball star Tamir Goodman’s camps for Israeli kids affected by the Israel-Hamas war and on the Bay Area JCRC’s unprecedented decision to launch a political advocacy arm. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Sharon Barr Skolnik about persevering in the face of programmatic hiccups. Also in this issue: Hadas Minka-Brand, Bill Lowenstein and Romi Gonen. We’ll start with Community Security Service training Jewish college students in self-defense for the upcoming academic year.
After a spring semester marked by at-times violent campus protests and anti-Israel encampments, Jewish college students nationwide are bracing for an equally hostile fall. But this year, a Jewish community-based security organization will provide students training in hand-to-hand combat — including the Israeli martial art of krav maga — designed to provide tools to counter campus intimidation and harassment, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen has learned.
“We don’t want other groups to force Jewish students to live with their heads down and to be afraid to participate on campus,” Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, the group that will provide self-defense and safety training for Jewish students beginning this fall, told eJP. “This is no longer a hypothetical… I’ve had students come to me saying that they fear for their life,” Priem said. “Complaining, reporting it and filing lawsuits is not all [that students] can do.”
The initiative, which is expected to initially roll out on about 20 campuses nationwide, follows a pilot launched on six campuses last year, including some of the Ivy League universities that have seen some of the highest profile anti-Jewish incidents.
It will be offered in two parts: A multi-class self-defense program based on krav maga will be delivered in partnership with campus organizations — such as Hillel, Chabad on Campus and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity — and conducted by professional trainers. Additionally, students affiliated with Jewish organizations on campus will be offered situational awareness and safety training to protect their institutions.
Priem emphasized that the training is not intended to replace campus security. “Our goal is to make them feel empowered and confident,” he said. “To protect Jewish life and also the Jewish way of life.” He added that the mission of CSS, which has offered security training to more than 10,000 Jewish community members since 2007 to protect synagogues and other Jewish institutions, is to “give them another tool in the tool box to not be intimidated.”
LOVE & BASKETBALL
Hoops and hope: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Tamir Goodman holds free clinics throughout Israel for children affected by war
Five days after the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, former professional basketball player Tamir Goodman realized he had to do something. He typed a message into social media announcing a free basketball clinic, held at a court with a bomb shelter close by in case people needed to take shelter. Within hours, over 100 kids showed up to ball. “People just felt like they needed to experience life again and to communicate and to smile and to live,” Goodman told Jay Deitcher for eJewishPhilanthropy.
An NBA champ in Sderot: Once deemed the “Jewish Jordan” by Sports Illustrated, Goodman has been holding free clinics, first weekly in Jerusalem and recently throughout Israel, for displaced families and children with deployed family members. Last month, NBA champion Eddy Curry, who won a title in 2012 with the Miami Heat, joined to help. “I don’t think there has ever been an NBA champion in Sderot before,” Goodman said about a recent clinic in the southern Israeli town. “[Curry] really was a champion, and [the kids will] always remember that day and that clinic.”
‘It’s about life’: The recent clinics were organized by Goodman, Project Max, Athletes for Israel and Play Hard Pray Hard; the latter two sponsored the Curry visit. “When a seven-foot guy walks into the gym, these kids go crazy,” Robert Simmons, the founder of Play Hard Pray Hard, told eJP, referring to Curry. “Tamir is a mensch. It’s not just about basketball. It’s about life. It’s about teamwork. It’s about working together. It’s about prayer. It’s about connecting to a higher power and reaching your potential.”
GOING POLITICAL
Bay Area JCRC first in the nation to launch affiliated advocacy arm
In a sign of how deeply issues involving Israel and antisemitism have permeated local and state government, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area is launching an affiliated political advocacy arm to support politicians who have stood with the Jewish community — and fight back, politically, against those who have not, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Get in the game: “This is our way of saying we want to be there for those candidates and elected officials that have had our back, and we want those that have betrayed us to know that there are consequences for mistreating the Jewish community and allowing the spread of antisemitism,” Tyler Gregory, CEO of the JCRC, told Jewish Insider on Thursday. He will also serve as executive director of BAJA.
No endorsements; empowerment: BAJA does not intend to make endorsements. Instead, according to Gregory, it will empower smaller, grassroots networks in the nine-county Bay Area to get involved in political organizing and to educate friends — and candidates — about the issues that matter to the Jewish community. “We need Jews to get more involved with politics and campaigns and local Democratic parties and labor unions, and we’re not allowed to do that work as a tax deductible 501(c)(3),” he said of the rationale behind BAJA. Instead, as a 501(c)(4) organization, BAJA can engage in advocacy and political activities that ordinary nonprofits are legally not permitted to do. “We need to train people to work on campaigns and to fundraise for elected officials that are aligned with their values,” Gregory said.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD
The power of the pivot
“It was the last morning of our service trip to Pittsburgh when I stood at the front of the bus and addressed my incredible group of Jewish high school juniors and seniors,” writes Rabbi Sharon Barr Skolnik, program director for the Wexner Service Corps in Columbus, Ohio, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “We were about to find out if this crazy idea of mine would come to fruition in the epic way I hoped it would.”
An unexpected problem: “On the final evening of the trip, after all the teens were back in their rooms for curfew, we sat down to look at the next (and final) morning’s schedule. Our plan [was] to volunteer at a local refugee resettlement agency called Hello Neighbor… We wanted to confirm that the supplies we had ordered to make welcome kits for refugees — shampoo, conditioner, shaving kits, toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, etc. — had actually arrived at their office for us to sort and pack the next morning. When we checked, however, we were devastated to find out that the supplies had in fact never arrived.”
Get creative and persevere: “It would have been understandable and an easier option if we just accepted defeat on the last night of the trip — the supplies hadn’t arrived, so the final day’s project wasn’t going to happen. We had already conducted a very successful and meaningful week of service and learning, so leaving first thing in the morning would have theoretically been fine. But that wasn’t the path we chose. Instead, we took the opportunity to lean into a pivot and take a chance that this alternative plan would be successful in ways we could and could not anticipate.”
Worthy Reads
On Notice: In The New York Times, David French sees a message for college students, staff and administrators nationwide in the recent statements from judges presiding over campus antisemitism cases: No excuses this year. “The cases are still in their early stages. Many facts are still contested, and we may face years of litigation before the cases are finally resolved, but the decisions so far teach an important lesson nonetheless. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, a number of universities were taken by surprise by the sheer sustained disruption and by the antisemitic animosity on their campuses. They struggled to respond effectively. As the war continues — and as the conflict with Hezbollah escalates on Israel’s northern border — universities can no longer claim to be surprised. They know what might happen this school year, and this knowledge has legal significance. If they fail to protect the free speech of students or to protect students from antisemitic or Islamophobic harassment, there will be consequences.” [NYTimes]
Slow and Steady Change FTW: In his Substack newsletter “Moneyball Judaism,” Rabbi Joshua Rabin takes issue with the word “transformation” as it is used in the nonprofit sector. “[W]hen one needs some kind of language to describe their highest aspirations, the word transformation seems as good as any. However, when overused, transformation hurts our work in two ways. First, without a measurable goal, transformation can seem like an empty brand position instead of a tactical description of the present or future. Second, given that transformation takes place rarely and always requires a degree of luck, worshiping at the altar of transformation can result in leaders and organizations believing that doing ‘merely’ good to great work every day is never good enough. When fatalism takes over, the work suffers. Since we cannot replace something with nothing, fighting the temptation for empty calorie uses of the word ‘transformation’ requires an alternative description, a more accurate yet no less aspirational version of what we should strive for. You may be wondering, ‘If transformation isn’t a good option, what is?’ In a word: Kaizen.” [MoneyballJudaism]
Cut the Capture: In Inside Philanthropy, climate change activists Robert D. Bullard, Charles F. Harvey and Bakeyah S. Nelson argue against carbon capture and storage (CCS), saying the practice is not as effective as is believed. “Philanthropy is playing ‘catch-up’ on providing the resources necessary to address the climate crisis, as climate funding accounted for less than 2% of global philanthropic giving in 2021. In an effort to speed this investment, some climate philanthropists are choosing to advance the deployment of CCS, delaying our transition away from fossil fuels… It has been unsettling to discover, in conversations with some funders who support CCS, a lack of awareness about the technology’s risks to communities and the inadequacies of current regulation to ensure risks are mitigated and that CO2 is permanently stored… Philanthropic leaders have crucial choices to make about investing in carbon capture. Those choices reflect the power, privilege and possibilities at their disposal for speeding the transition toward a more sustainable and equitable future.” [InsidePhilanthropy]
Around the Web
Jewish Family Service of San Diego is testing four different guaranteed income programs…
IDF Brig. Gen. (Res.) Hadas Minka-Brand has been named the next executive director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Israel office; Minka-Brand previously served as head of the Israeli military’s Behavioral Science Center…
The New York Times interviews Palantir CEO Alex Karp, including about his support for Israel and his penchant for making donations in intervals of 18 because “it’s mystical”…
Approximately a fifth of secular Jewish Israelis said the Oct. 7 terror attacks and resulting war have brought them closer to Diaspora Jewry, according to a new poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute…
Israel’s Ynet news outlet reports on an initiative funded by UJA-Federation of New York that provides mental health and resilience support to the Jewish and Bedouin Israeli workers at the agricultural factory in Kibbutz Magen near the Gaza border…
The National Library of Israel is hosting the Docu.Text documentary film festival this week, which will include — among other things — the premiere of “We Will Dance Again,” which chronicles the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival…
The Times of Israel spotlights First Contractions, an Israeli volunteer group — sponsored by Magen David Adom, the Israel Midwives Organization and the Jewish Federations of North America — that is matching expectant mothers in northern Israel with midwives to prepare the pregnant women for the possibility of a large-scale war…
Rabbi Aharon Feldman, rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore and a member of Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah in America, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog last week; during the meeting, Feldman noted that his wife, Leah, was saved during the Holocaust by Herzog’s grandfather…
The Jewish Journal profiles Jack Segil, a high schooler who established a nonprofit that sent dozens of underprivileged children from Los Angeles to computer coding camps…
The nonprofit Jewish Silicon Valley, with funding from Chai House Inc., conducted a study of the Jewish community of Santa Clara County, Calif., mapping its makeup, activities and the challenges facing it…
Inside Philanthropy highlights the work of Daniel Heimpel to ensure foster youth aging out of the system in Los Angeles have a place to live…
New York Times reporter Natasha Frost was the source for the personal details of hundreds of Australian Jews from a WhatsApp group, which were then spread by anti-Israel activists and led to cases of harassment and threats; the newspaper said it was taking “appropriate action” against Frost, who apologized and said she did not know the information would be shared widely…
Bill Lowenstein, a prominent leader and philanthropist from the Kansas City, Mo., Jewish community, died last month at 97…
Pic of the Day
Noa Cochva, the 2021 Miss Israel Champion, is hugged by a fellow demonstrator during the Bring Them Home rally in Central Park in New York City on Sunday. The rally also marked the birthday of Romi Gonen, one of the hostages kidnapped from the Nova music festival, who turned 24 on Sunday. Cochva was one of many demonstrators wearing leopard print fabrics and stickers — Gonen’s favorite pattern — at the request of the Gonen family.
Birthdays
Retired as president of Ono Academic College in Israel, she was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2008 to 2010, Gabriela Shalev…
Early Silicon Valley investor with positions in Intel and Apple, Arthur Rock… Ventura County, Calif., resident, Jerry Epstein… Past member of both houses of the South Dakota legislature, Stanford “Stan” M. Adelstein… Professor emeritus of religion and philosophy at the University of Toronto, he is the author of 19 books, David Novak… 42nd president of the United States, William “Bill” Jefferson Clinton… Retired reading teacher for the New York City Department of Education, Miriam Baum Benkoe… Actor and director, Adam Arkin… Gavriel Benavraham… Managing partner at Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, Mark C. Rifkin… Co-founder of Apollo Global Management, he is the board chairman of the UJA-Federation of New York, Marc J. Rowan… Chairman of the FCC in the Obama administration, he is now a senior advisor at the Carlyle Group, Julius Genachowski… Executive editor of The New York Times, Joseph Kahn… Managing partner and talent agent at William Morris Endeavor, he is very active in the contemporary art world as a collector, Dan Aloni… Former member of Knesset, he is the son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Omri Sharon… Executive administrator of Ventura, Calif., accounting firm, Morgan, Daggett & Wotman, Carolynn Wotman… Actress and producer, known for her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in the 109 episodes of the TNT crime drama “The Closer,” Kyra Sedgwick… District attorney of Queens, Melinda R. Katz… CEO of The Friedlander Group, Ezra Friedlander… Private equity financier and a founding partner of Searchlight Capital Partners, Eric Louis Zinterhofer… Chair of the Orthodox Union and immediate past chair of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, Yehuda L. Neuberger… Contributing editor for The Daily Beast and the author of three books, Molly Jong-Fast… Businessman and investor, Brett Icahn… Managing partner of Handmade Capital, Ross Hinkle… Laser radial sailor, she represented Israel at the 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London) Olympics, Nufar Edelman… Rapper, singer and songwriter, known by his stage name Hoodie Allen, Steven Adam Markowitz… Digital marketing and PR consultant, Cassandra Federbusz…
