Your Daily Phil: Suicide highlights gaps in Israel’s post-Oct. 7 mental health care
Add EJP on GoogleGood Monday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the recent death of Bar Asraf, a close friend of a Nova Music Festival victim. We report on an alleged arson attack on a kosher restaurant in Montreal amid heightened antisemitism in Canada. We feature an opinion piece by Jonah Halper about charting a course for fundraising success and a piece by Steve Freedman reflecting on a lesson for today from 19th-century Zionist thinker Ahad Ha’am. Also in this issue: Elie Klein, Renana Birnbaum, and Lynn Kaufman.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
JCC Maccabi Games kicked off yesterday in Kansas City and Toronto with more than 3,000 Jewish teen athletes competing in the games that run through Friday.
Israel on Campus Coalition’s 2026 National Leadership Summit is underway in Washington.
Additional bids have been put in for summer camps that went up for auction after the Shabsels brothers declared bankruptcy in June.
What You Should Know
Bar Asraf was not at the Nova Music Festival when terrorists burst through the Gaza border fence and massacred those in attendance — along with hundreds more Israelis — on Oct. 7, 2023. And yet, as reports emerged that he had taken his own life on Saturday night at the grave of his close, longtime friend Liron Barda, who was murdered at the festival, Asraf was widely described as a “Nova survivor.”
More than just a mistake or misunderstanding, this confusion speaks to Asraf’s standing as what Efrat Atun, the CEO of Safe Heart — an Israeli nonprofit providing assistance to Nova survivors and their families — calls the “first-and-a-half-degree victims.” Speaking to eJewishPhilanthropy on Monday, Atun said that these are, obviously, not the survivors who were physically present at the attacks. But they are also not a full degree removed from the attacks either, having been in contact with loved ones who were there in real time.
While billions of shekels’ worth of governmental and philanthropic funding have been poured into mental health programs since the Oct. 7 attacks, particularly for survivors and for combat veterans, these more peripheral groups are still struggling to get the help that they need, according to Atun. “This is not the first suicide among these first-and-a-half-degree victims,” she noted.
Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know‘ here.
News
BOILING POINT
Suspected arson at Montreal kosher restaurant is latest alarm amid rising antisemitism in Canada
A popular Montreal kosher restaurant was destroyed in what police are investigating as a possible arson attack early Saturday morning, the latest in a worsening pattern of antisemitic attacks across the city and throughout Jewish communities in Canada, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Heightened tensions: The attack comes amid heightened tensions in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood, a heavily Jewish area of Montreal where earlier this summer a Jewish civilian and a police officer were killed in a shooting; the suspect was also killed. Jewish leaders across Canada have warned that law enforcement and the government have failed to properly address a historic rise in antisemitism in the country.
Opinion
BEHIND THE SCENES
Before you set a destination, know your starting point
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Altruicity founder Jonah Halper highlights the importance of working from a known baseline in fundraising.
“There’s a real difference between a donor who gives because she believes in your work and plans to give again next year, and a donor who gave once because a cousin sent a peer-to-peer link during a crowdfunding push. Both gifts clear the bank. Only one of them tells you anything about your organizational health.”
JEWISH EDUCATION
Who gets to explain the Jews?
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Steve Freedman, head of school at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County (N.J.), notes that Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg, the 19th century journalist and Zionist essayist known by his pen name Ahad Ha’am, saw a “strange advantage” in grotesque accusations of the blood libels of his time.
“Every Jew knew, with total certainty, that it was a lie. No amount of repetition or public outcry could make it true. That gave Jews a kind of shield against that libel. … But Ahad Ha’am’s comfort only went halfway. … As Jews became more integrated into the wider world, he feared they would start absorbing the general accusations made against them, the nondescript ones that weren’t as easy to disprove. He worried they might come to believe they really were, in his words, ‘the worst of the world’s nations.’”
Worthy Reads
Lived Experience: In The Times of Israel, Elie Klein, the North American director of advancement for the Israeli network of rehabilitative care facilities ADI, reflects on what he has learned since being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. “After years of telling the awe-inspiring stories of our heroic ADI family members living with and touched by disability, I finally understand what it means to be vulnerable. It is no longer just a word – it is a learned experience and a badge of honor.”
Protest Interrupted: In the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Cornell law professor Menachem Z. Rosensaft argues that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call to protest Netanyahu’s coming U.N. address has made it impossible for critics like him to join in without appearing aligned with antisemites who reject Israel’s existence. “I have not changed my mind about or my attitude toward Netanyahu, but I will not be drawn by Mamdani into standing alongside or anywhere near antisemites whose declared goal is the destruction of Israel. I suspect I am far from alone in holding these sentiments.”
A Premature Eulogy: In The Jerusalem Post, The Beren-Amiel/Straus-Amiel Emissary Training Institute’s Renana Birnbaum pushes back on Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli’s recent claim that “Diaspora Jewry is dying,” arguing that Jewish life abroad is evolving, not vanishing. “Perhaps the time has come to replace the language of mere ‘concern’ with the language of ‘partnership.’ Israel should view Diaspora Jewry not only as a community in need of our help, but as a full partner in shaping the future of our people.”
The Nice Guy Problem: In his Substack MoneyBall Judaism, Rabbi Joshua Rabin contends that benevolent sexism, the well-meaning attitudes that cast women as needing protection, quietly reinforces inequality even when it looks like kindness. “If I believe I’m acting out of compassion, I’m much less likely to ask whether my compassion is actually limiting someone else’s agency. Good intentions become a blind spot.”
Major Gifts
Lynn Kaufman, a Kansas City clinical social worker who spent 25 years treating children at Camber Mental Health, has given the youth psychiatric campus $1 million alongside her family to expand residential crisis care…
Transitions
Zach Benjamin is resigning as the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg, stepping down amid a financial crisis that has forced the federation to close several facilities and put its $8.3 million Alexander Grass Campus up for sale…
Word on the Street
The Wall Street Journal looks at how close to 200 private colleges have tapped into restricted endowment funds in 2025, up from 131 in 2021, diverting funds donors set aside for scholarships and other purposes to everyday bills as falling enrollment threatens hundreds of small schools…
The New York Times examines whether Larry Ellison‘s debt-heavy Oracle bet has made him a possible face of an AI bubble as shares fall and its credit rating slips dramatically…
Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz, a former Israel Police assistant commissioner, is reportedly considering taking the No. 2 slot on the Ra’am list, the first Jewish Israeli to run with the once-Islamic party…
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) are preparing to introduce federal legislation that would establish a 100-foot buffer zone around religious institutions, within which conduct that disrupts religious services or interrupts access to the place of worship would be banned during religious services, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report…
Every congregational rabbi in Maine signed a statement pressing the state’s political leaders to stop referring to the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” after several Democratic Senate primary candidates embraced the term…
After Georgia barred a donor-advised fund for misusing donor money, the fund, which had swelled to more than $10 billion in crypto donations, appears to have quietly reincorporated in Wyoming, where lax charity rules let its operators stay anonymous…
Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh sued the Trump administration over six abused, trafficked or abandoned immigrant children, mostly from Allegheny County…
The city of Longview, Texas, will demolish Temple Emanu-El after the congregation donated the historic building, which the synagogue said it could not maintain; the Emanu-El Park will be created on the 5.8-acre site…
Priscilla Chan‘s tuition-free primary school in East Palo Alto closed in June, ending a decade-long experiment backed by upward of $125 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which in recent years has shifted its giving toward scientific research…
The New York Times reports on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision to feature an exhibition on designer John Galliano and honor him at its annual Met Gala despite a 2011 outburst in which he proclaimed, “I love Hitler”; the Times notes that Galliano participated in a May meeting with Vogue’s Anna Wintour and New York City Jewish leaders over the decisions…
The people’s choice award of the Archibald Prize, Australia’s top portraiture honor, was given to artist Michael Zavros for his portrait of Australian Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin following the December 2025 terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach…
Sheldon “Shash” Berney, a Winnipeg, Canada, businessman and philanthropist who chaired the Asper Jewish Community Campus and built Reliance Products into a global plastics manufacturer, died last Tuesday at his Palm Beach, Fla., home at 89…
George D. Gould, who founded Philadelphia’s Community Legal Services housing unit and became a leading national advocate for low-income tenants and homeowners, died in June at 83…
Birthdays
Children play in a water fountain on a hot summer day near the Tower of David, outside Jerusalem’s Old City, on Aug. 2, 2026.
Birthdays
Adina Poupko, executive director of The Natan Fund
Marv Levy, retired head coach of both the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, the oldest-ever living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, turns 101
Steven Berkoff, English actor, author, playwright and theatre director, known for his roles as the villain in both “James Bond” and “Rambo” films, turns 89
John S. Ruskay, EVP emeritus of the UJA-Federation of New York, turns 80
Anita Gray, retired regional director in the Cleveland office of the ADL, she serves on the board of trustees of the Cleveland Federation
Mitchell S. Steir, former chairman and CEO of the North America office of commercial real estate brokerage firm Savills, he is a past member of AIPAC’s Real Estate Division Executive Council, turns 71
Corey Gregg Weinberg, voice actor in dozens of Disney films, video games and television programs, known professionally as Corey Burton, turns 71
Orna Amir Wolens, former chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and board member of JFNA
Thomas Z. Freedman, CEO and co-founder of D.C.-based Freedman Consulting, LLC, turns 63
Jacob Weisberg, co-founder of Pushkin Industries, a podcast company
Ilan Moskovitch, Israeli filmmaker, producer and director, turns 60
Alexander Shnaider, Canadian entrepreneur and former commodities trader, turns 58
Evan Goldman, executive director of public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Broward County (Fla.)
Suzy Shuster, Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, she sometimes serves as a fill-in for her husband, Rich Eisen, turns 54
Josh Greenman, managing editor of Vital City
Joshua Cherwin, chief advancement and communications officer at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Brian Morgenstern, senior vice president of public policy at Riot Platforms
Seth A. Mandel, senior editor of Commentary magazine, turns 44
Jeffrey A. Dressler, managing partner and head of global government affairs at SoftBank Group International, turns 42
Erica Greenblatt, director of strategic partnerships and senior development officer at JDC (the “Joint”)
Liliya Maskovcevs, director of member engagement at Christians United for Israel, she was born in Lutsk, Ukraine and raised in Sacramento, Calif.
Brian Kateman, executive director of the Reducetarian Foundation (a nonprofit dedicated to reducing meat consumption)
Karlie Kloss, fashion model and entrepreneur, founder of the “Kode with Klossy” nonprofit and co-founder and CEO of Bedford Media, turns 34
Emily Goldberg, U.S. news editor at the Financial Times
Jared Shuster, first-round pick of MLB’s Atlanta Braves in the 2020 draft, he made his MLB debut in 2023, now in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, turns 28
Leslie Rosen Stern, founder-director of Meeting Your Mission
Matthew Foldi, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Washington Reporter
