Your Daily Phil: Simon Wiesenthal Center is full of surprises at Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago on Wednesday, which included the debut of its newest Mobile Museum of Tolerance, and report on a new study by the Israel Educational Travel Alliance breaking down the financial impact of six-plus years of challenges on the sector. We feature an abridged version of Sara Crown Star’s speech from the SWC gala, where she was honored as this year’s Humanitarian Award recipient, and an opinion piece by Hadas Naveh and Lane Miller about their experience participating in the American Zionist Youth Council. Also in this issue: Erica Wertheim Zohar, Steve Ballmer and Jeffrey Stern.
Shabbat shalom!
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
Chabad of San Antonio is hosting a Shabbat dinner tonight for basketball fans in town for the weekend as the New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs’ two-day National Summit kicks off on Sunday in New York City.
What You Should Know
A violent summer storm typical of the Windy City gave way to clear skies on Wednesday evening just in time for the start of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner, held at Theater on the Lake overlooking Lake Michigan. This year’s honorees were Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, who was awarded the Simon Wiesenthal Center Medal of Valor for her lifetime commitment to combating antisemitism, and Chicago philanthropist, civic leader and venture partner Sara Crown Star, who received the event’s eponymous Humanitarian Award.
The other star of the evening was not a person but a vehicle, parked on the venue’s terrace and visited over the course of the evening by many of the 350 attendees who gathered to celebrate the honorees and support the organization’s educational and advocacy work.
While the debut of the organization’s newest Mobile Museum of Tolerance was not a surprise, the evening included multiple unanticipated reveals as well: the announcement of a new summit on combating antisemitism, planned for November; the first Chicago cohort of the organization’s NextGen Leaders Program; and a first look at “Lost Paradise,” a TV series being produced by Morah Media, SWC’s storytelling arm.
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.
News
CUMULATIVE IMPACT
Conflict flare-ups, shifting shekel are putting Israel education travel programs at risk
Organizations running educational trips to Israel have been hammered in recent years — first from the COVID-19 pandemic, then from the wars with Hamas and Iran (and Iran again), and recently from the sudden strengthening of the shekel against the dollar. Now, a new study by the Israel Educational Travel Alliance brings the financial strain on the educational travel sector into sharper view, revealing that organizations running educational trips to Israel have absorbed cumulative cost increases averaging around 75% since 2019, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.
Out of pocket: When the regional conflict escalates, providers absorb costs related to evacuation logistics, rerouted programming, additional security and staff pulled into military reserve duty — expenses insurance rarely covers. During a recent flare-up in the war with Iran, Young Judaea had to relocate gap-year participants and create unplanned programming on the fly, CEO Adina Frydman, who is also an IETA advisory committee member, told eJP. “Our head of operations was in [the] reserves for hundreds of days,” she said. “It all adds up.”
Opinion
ICYMI
Don’t be neutral. Not even once.
“Years ago, I visited Auschwitz with about 20 Jewish lay leaders, Jewish professionals and Israeli government officials,” writes investor and philanthropist Sara Crown Star in an abridged version of her acceptance speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner on Wednesday, shared exclusively with eJewishPhilanthropy. “What I remember most were the Auschwitz blueprints. The Nazis had multiple engineering drawings prepared: How thick should the pipes be to gas the Jews? Should the dead bodies drop to a basement level? What was the most efficient way to maximize the killings? They industrialized death. They turned hate into a system.”
Fast forward to today: “Everyone can see what algorithms can do when they are weaponized to spread misinformation. A lie about Jews travels faster than the truth because the platforms have learned that outrage is profitable — and outrage about Jews has become one of the most profitable products on earth. The blueprints may look different, but the purpose is the same. … So, here is the one thing I am asking you. I’m framing it as a dare, and the dare changes by age.”
NEXT-GEN VOICES
American Zionism’s future depends on bringing diverse young voices together
“As Jewish teenagers growing up in different parts of the United States, we might never have crossed paths,” write high school seniors Hadas Naveh and Lane Miller in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Tent of meeting: “One of us comes from New Jersey and represents Hashomer Hatzair, a movement rooted in progressive Zionism and social justice. The other comes from Texas and represents NCSY, where a commitment to religious Zionism is central to Jewish identity. We come from different communities, different educational environments and different Jewish experiences. Yet through the American Zionist Youth Council of the American Zionist Movement, we discovered that our differences are the foundation of Jewish unity, not barriers to it.”
Worthy Reads
Selective Memory: In the Los Angeles Times, Erica Wertheim Zohar argues that philanthropy systematically sidelines women by deferring to their male partners or ex-husbands, and that institutions must treat women as equal, independent donors in their own right. “My mother spent more than 50 years building a philanthropic legacy. On the occasion of her death, the institutions that benefited were not asked to take sides in a private family dispute; they were asked simply to honor what was already written on their own walls. Instead, they defaulted to a version of power that should be a relic of the past. That is the quiet architecture of institutional infidelity: keeping the woman’s name on the plaques while stripping away her humanity. Legacy is not discretionary, and a woman who spent her life building it should never need permission to be remembered.” [LosAngelesTimes]
Resilience Deficit: In Sapir, Bret Stephens contends that Israel’s collective resilience and willingness to sacrifice for a greater purpose offers a model for an America that has grown soft and lost its sense of national purpose. “Most important, how do we fail to see in Israel a model of what a democratic people, which for 78 years has been battling for survival while still managing to thrive, can be capable of achieving through self-belief and the ability to recover its strength after taking blow after blow? Americans cannot hope to regain our old resilience unless we know what resilient looks like. The sooner we learn from the Israelis, the faster we might save ourselves from what, increasingly, we risk becoming.” [Sapir]
A Mixed Bag: In the report “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology,” the Pew Research Center uses 2025 survey data to identify nine distinct groups of Americans based on political and cultural values rather than party affiliation. “Four groups are highly ideological, politically engaged and overwhelmingly back one party over the other — two on the right and two on the left. … Americans in the other five groups are more mixed in their political values — and in some cases, much less attentive to politics. Together, these five groups make up a majority of the public.” [PewResearchCenter]
Major Gifts
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is committing up to $1.5 billion in forgivable loans to fund 10,000 affordable rental units in Washington state…
Transitions
Calle Schueler was announced as the new executive director of Ithaca College Hillel, beginning July 1…
Jacob Reses, Vice President JD Vance’s chief of staff and a strong pro-Israel Jewish voice in the Trump administration, will be stepping down from his role…
Correction: Sammy Kanter is leaving the Mayerson JCC in Cincinnati, not the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan as was reported yesterday.
Word on the Street
The IDF Widows and Orphans Organization distributed a record NIS 2 million ($685,000) in scholarships and grants to 478 bereaved families at its annual ceremony…
The Forward reports that Jewish Women International has laid off staff and taken on debt after the Trump administration stalled over $200 million in congressionally approved domestic violence prevention grants…
Ynet reports that unless the U.S. military moves its cargo planes from Ben Gurion Airport within days, approximately 2.4 million summer and holiday flight tickets could be canceled…
The Jewish Federation of British Columbia, in partnership with JewBelong, launched a soccer-themed billboard campaign urging bystanders to call out antisemitism as Vancouver prepares to host games for the FIFA World Cup later this summer…
A study in the peer-reviewed journal American Psychologist finds AI systems are replicating age-old antisemitic tropes absorbed from the human texts they were trained on…
Efforts to make daylight saving time permanent — a proposal long opposed by Orthodox Jewish groups — are picking up momentum in Congress, with strong backing from President Donald Trump…
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir withdrew a request to take a family vacation to the U.S. funded by a Miami businessman Yaakov Elharar after the state comptroller’s permits committee raised concerns…
A federal judge acquitted New York congressional candidate Brad Lander of misdemeanor obstruction charges stemming from a 2025 immigration court protest…
Pic of the Day
Participants in the Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2026 celebrate its return today after the last official parade took place in June 2023. This year’s parade is especially joyful following uncertainty at the beginning of the week over whether a restart of the war with Iran would cancel the celebration, a longtime staple of the Tel Aviv social calendar.
Birthdays
One of the wealthiest people in the U.K., he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for services to philanthropy, Sir Leonard “Len” Blavatnik turns 69 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Senior of counsel at Paul Hastings LLP, Martin Edelman turns 85… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 85… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg turns 80… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe turns 79… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin turns 78… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament until 2024, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant turns 76… Professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, his 2022 book is The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, Walter Russell Mead turns 74… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman turns 71… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and instructor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka turns 63… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins turns 60… EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), from his base in Washington he serves as the worldwide governmental and diplomatic point person for the entire Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, best known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman turns 56… EVP at Politico Europe, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. “Eli” Zupnick… Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner turns 41… Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist, Michele Romanow turns 41… Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross turns 41… Counsel of government relations at Kaiser Permanente, Zachary Louis Baron… VP at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County, Md., Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Associate in the financial institutions group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Jay Rappaport… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny turns 26… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…
SATURDAY: Existential psychiatrist, he is a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University, Irvin David Yalom turns 95… Professor emeritus at UCLA, he played an influential role in the development of the ARPANET, the precursor to the internet, Leonard Kleinrock turns 92… London-born, now living in Gstaad, Switzerland, billionaire founder of Graff Diamonds, Laurence Graff turns 88… Former official in the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Obama administrations, winner of a 1985 MacArthur genius fellowship, Morton Halperin turns 88… Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co., then chancellor of Brown University and founder of Source of Hope Foundation, Stephen Robert turns 86… Member of Congress (D-NY) since 1992, Jerrold Lewis “Jerry” Nadler turns 79… Retired justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, he was previously attorney general of Israel, Elyakim Rubinstein turns 79… Assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of retina surgery at Franklin Square Hospital, Michael J. Elman, MD… Chief Jewish education officer of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., Rabbi Arnie Samlan turns 71… Senior national political correspondent for NPR and a contributor at the Fox News Channel, Mara Liasson turns 71… Tech entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner along with Marc Andreessen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Benjamin Abraham “Ben” Horowitz turns 60… Internet entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Overtime, a digital sports platform, Daniel Porter turns 60… Yoga instructor, Jenny Eisen Verdery… Founder of Peninsula Group, a publicly traded Israeli commercial finance institution, Micah Lakin Avni turns 57… Family court judge in New York City, serving in Brooklyn, Judge Erik S. Pitchal turns 54… Principal of Invariant, Eli Stokols… Founder and CEO of NYC-based JDS Development Group, a high-rise residential development firm active in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami, Michael Stern turns 47… Chief external affairs officer at BSE Global, Marissa Shorenstein… Policy advocate at Protect Democracy, Ariela Rosenberg… Actor, the son of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving, Max Samuel Spielberg turns 41… Actor, known professionally as Kat Dennings, she starred in the CBS sitcom “Two Broke Girls,” Katherine Litwack turns 40… Fashion blogger and creator of Something Navy apparel stores, Arielle Noa Nachmani Charnas turns 39… Contributor at Real Clear Investigations, Benjamin H. Weingarten… Retired NFL football player after four seasons, he is the CEO at Mary Jones Cannabis, Gabe Carimi turns 38… Speed skater who represented the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026, Emery Lehman turns 30…
SUNDAY: Retired Soviet nuclear scientist, now writing from Skokie, Ill., on Jewish intellectual spirituality, Vladimir Minkov, Ph.D. turns 93… Retired U.S. district judge for the District of Maryland, Marvin Joseph Garbis turns 90… Former vice chair of the board of the Jewish Federation-Council of Greater Los Angeles, Dr. Beryl A. Geber… 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump turns 80… Former French diplomat and advisor to former French Presidents Chirac and Sarkozy, Jean-David Levitte turns 80… Television sportscaster and journalist, Len Berman turns 79… Writer, critic, philosopher and magazine editor, Leon Wieseltier turns 74… Chairman and chief investment officer of Duquesne Family Office, Stanley Druckenmiller turns 73… Co-founder of Virunga Mountain Spirits, a distillery in Rwanda, William Benjamin “Bill” Wasserman… President of Blue Diamond HR LLC, Michelle “Shel” Grossman… President of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., Maud S. Mandel turns 59… Former head of global media partnerships at Facebook / Meta, now a senior advisor to Tollbit, Campbell Brown… Singer-songwriter with ten studio albums, Joshua Radin turns 52… Co-founder of Kelp, now executive fellow at Harvard Business School, Daniel M. Gaynor… Australian fashion model, author, philanthropist and businesswoman, Kathryn Eisman turns 45… NYC-based businessman, living in the U.S. since 2003, he is the son of Russian businessman and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Pavel Khodorkovsky turns 41… Deputy assistant secretary at HUD and then senior advisor at OMB (both during the Trump 45 administration), Paige Esterkin Bronitsky… Director of public affairs at San Francisco’s District Attorney’s office, Lilly Rapson… Actor, with a variety of television and film appearances, Daryl Sabara… Communications and membership manager at Society for the Rule of Law, Julia Cohen… Associate attorney at Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester, Jacob Ellenhorn… Vienna-based Europe correspondent for Haaretz, Liam Hoare…
