Lord Jacob Rothschild, the scion of the famed banking family and a major donor to Jewish causes around the world, died yesterday at 87, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.

A generous hand: Until his death, he served as president of the Israel-based Yad Hanadiv and as chairman of the British-based Rothschild Foundation. Yad Hanadiv CEO Yigal Mersel hailed Rothschild as “a visionary whose generosity of spirit and forward thinking led to the establishment of numerous major institutions and initiatives in Israel… These have strengthened innovation, culture and research, helping to advance Israel as a vibrant democracy for all its citizens. Lord Rothschild’s legacy lives on in Yad Hanadiv’s work, which will continue for generations to come.”

Presidential parting: Israel President Isaac Herzog said in a statement that Rothschild was “a close friend of my family” and described him as a “a great man who carried the historic legacy of his family with pride and humility, working always for the wellbeing of Britain, Israel, and Jewish communities all over the world… While we are especially sad to lose him during such difficult days, his generosity and wise counsel will be remembered with love and gratitude.”

The history of Jewish civilization: Under Rothschild’s leadership, Yad Hanadiv became one of the primary funders of the construction of the new National Library of Israel building in Jerusalem, which opened in October. Though he did not live to visit the completed building, Rothschild did attend the groundbreaking ceremony in 2016, in which he explained his support for the institution. “For 2,000 years our treasured books were scattered, with no geographic center of gravity. Now at long last, these volumes as well as those yet to be written, together with a wide range of other collected materials, are to have a permanent home and one where it should be—in the heart of Jerusalem,” he said at the event. “The library will have the responsibility of nothing less than preserving and illuminating the history of Jewish civilization.”

Read the full report here.

Among the more than 800 North American college students who gathered in Atlanta this week for an Israel-focused conference organized by Hillel International, the mood was lighthearted and joyful, even as the students shared story after story of the antisemitism and demonization they have faced on their campuses since Oct. 7. That students are able to come together to share their pride in being Jewish and caring for Israel at a time when hostility toward Israel has become ingrained at many schools is a point of pride for Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman, who told Gabby Deutch in an interview for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider at the conference that the organization’s “core commitment” to Zionism has never been more important.

Making lemonade: “There’s an enormous pressure on all Jewish organizations, including Hillel, to downgrade commitments to Israel and to step back from core values as it relates to Zionism. Jewish students, like Jewish organizations in the diaspora, are swimming in an ocean of extreme demonization of Israel,” said Lehman. “We have taken that demonization, that external pressure, and actually used it to strengthen our commitments.”

Get it together: “I do think that as a Jewish community, and as Jewish organizations supporting campuses, we’ve woken up post-October 7 to the unfortunate reality that the level of organization, resourcing and synchronicity of groups dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish and democratic state of Israel has surpassed what we as a community have organized to respond and address,” Lehman said. There is a need, he continued, to “better align across many organizations that are addressing pieces of the puzzle but not in a comprehensive enough way.”

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Medical school students attending the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx will have their tuition covered starting in August, following a $1 billion gift from Dr. Ruth Gottesman announced yesterday. The donation is the largest made to any U.S. medical school, according to the announcement, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen.

Deep ties: Gottesman, 93, is the widow of billionaire David “Sandy” Gottesman, an early investor in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, who died in 2022. She chairs the Einstein board of trustees and has been affiliated with the school since 1968, first in its Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center helping develop screening tools to diagnose learning disabilities.

Worthy cause: “Each year, well over 100 students enter Albert Einstein College of Medicine in their quest for degrees in medicine and science,” Gottesman said in a statement. “They leave as superbly trained scientists and compassionate and knowledgeable physicians, with the expertise to find new ways to prevent diseases and provide the finest health care to communities here in the Bronx and all over the world. I am very thankful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care, and l feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause.”

Read the full report here.

“[W]hen an executive at Birthright invited me to join a weeklong mission to Israel to help the organization reimagine its postwar educational vision, I opted in without much hesitation… There was, however, an unexpected subplot to the trip, one which unfolded organically and proved to me nearly as significant as what we witnessed traveling the country,” writes Rabbi Ari Koretzky, executive director of MEOR at University of Maryland, College Park, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

A mixed group: “The Birthright forum I joined was unique not only in its stated objectives but in its composition as well. Our group of 20, mostly campus-based professionals included a multiplicity of Hillel directors and rabbi/educators, Chabad shlichim (emissaries), kiruv (outreach) operatives like myself, federation executives and an advocacy specialist from Stand With Us. Religious orientations ranged from Hasidic and ‘ultra-Orthodox’ (generalized and imprecise descriptors, but indicative of something nonetheless) to Modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reform, and likely some other identities I didn’t capture. We were also joined by five veteran Israeli tour guides — ‘tour educators’ in Birthright parlance — themselves representing a broad spectrum of religious and political persuasions.”

Promising paradigm: “Sadly, university campuses, where a small constellation of organizations may ‘compete’ for the affections of a finite number of Jewish students in a discrete geographical area, often become fertile ground for interorganizational strife… Though it may exist, I am not aware of a similar experiment in the Jewish organizational world in which putative competitors in a particular demographic have united for a week of shared learning, bearing witness and processing our nation’s latest cataclysm. The experience prompted me to consider how the values it represented might be amplified. It also helped me formulate how, as Jewish professionals, we might convert ‘Jewish unity’ from a platitude, or even a punch line, to an operative principle.”

Read the full piece here.