Your Daily Phil: The curious case of the Zionist leader’s anti-Zionist poster campaign
Good Friday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on Israel’s funding for an Orthodox interfaith initiative and on an influence campaign by the Masorti movement aimed at driving a wedge between Haredi Israelis and Haredi officials in Zionist institutions. We examine the growing dilemmas that Jewish groups face over their investments in fossil fuel companies, and spotlight an effort to honor fallen Jewish soldiers. We feature an opinion piece by Pam Cohen and Noam Neusner in which they share anecdotes from Jewish college students encountering antisemitic and anti-Israel bias and harassment; and one by David Bernstein about the importance of acknowledging when inclusion efforts result in Jewish exclusion. Also in this issue: Maxim D. Shrayer, Menachem Rosensaft and Rabbi Dan Gordon.
Shabbat shalom!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Dan Senor: Jewish day schools, summer camps key to thriving U.S. Jewry; At annual gala, Elluminate announces Global Women’s Leadership Network, to launch in the fall; and Matthew Solomson blazes trail as first Orthodox Jewish chief judge. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
Freed Israeli American hostage Keith Siegel is in New York City today, where he is hosting a pancake pop-up at 12 Chairs Cafe’s Soho location. All proceeds from the pop-up will go to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The Eurovision finals are taking place tomorrow in Basel, Switzerland. Israeli singer Yuval Raphael advanced out of Thursday’s semifinals and will perform her “New Day Will Rise” on Saturday night.
The World Jewish Congress’ 17th plenary kicks off on Sunday evening with a gala in Jerusalem and continues through Wednesday.
The Center for Jewish History is hosting “The End of an Era? Jews and Elite Universities” on Sunday. The symposium will feature speakers including Rabbi David Wolpe, Jamie Kirchick, Eli Lake, Steven Pinker, Bill Ackman and Deborah Lipstadt.
The National Council of Jewish Women’s two-day Washington Institute begins on Sunday.
And in New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council-NY is hosting its annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Sunday.
What You Should Know
The Israeli government signed a three-year, NIS 2 million ($563,000) matching grant this week with the Modern Orthodox Ohr Torah Interfaith Center to support and expand the group’s Jewish-Muslim diplomacy and partnership programs that are aimed at countering Islamic extremism, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky.
The funding agreement comes amid shake-ups in the Muslim world, with the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, the growing international influence of Qatar and the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran. All of these developments were on display this week during President Donald Trump’s visit to the region, which included a stop at the multi-faith Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, this morning.
Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi, managing director of OTIC, told eJP that his group takes a hard-nosed, no-nonsense approach to this interfaith diplomacy.
“We don’t do fluff. Our business is not kumbaya, peace and love, let’s get rabbis and imams, sing songs together. We don’t do that; that’s ineffective. That’s actually counterproductive in many ways,” he said. “We do interface diplomacy, which ties into strategy. We know to identify the ideas in Islamic theology that are promoting radicalism and hindering any kind of stability, and we know how to deconstruct them, how to interpret them in different ways and how to explain them.”
The OTIC project is meant to promote people-to-people and faith-based diplomacy and connections in the region, said Lavi.
“Organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood present themselves as… the representatives of the entire Muslim population,” said Lavi. “You can say, ‘OK, so let’s have this full-fledged war,’ or you can say, ‘No, let’s try and cut, to the extent possible, the connection between radical Islam — Shiite and Sunni alike — and as many parts as possible from the rest of the Muslim world.’”
Increasing numbers of moderate Muslim religious leaders from different countries who hear about OTIC by word of mouth are reaching out to them to take part in the programs since the project began in January, he said.
“They’re not doing us a favor. Nobody’s doing anyone a favor in this business. We need them, and they need us — 95% of the people murdered by radical Islamists are Muslims, not Christians and not Jews,” Lavi said.
Lavi emphasized the importance for OTIC in tying into governmental strategies as it works not only with the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation, but also with the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and the Ministry for Strategic Affairs, to make sure its efforts are aligned with Israel’s diplomatic efforts.
The long-term goal, said Lavi, is to create a paradigm shift among Muslim and Jewish religious leaders together with various partners.
“If you don’t understand the religious convictions and religious motivations behind different actors in the region, how they operate, how they see the world…how they read the Quran…then you’re simply not in the game,” he said. “You’re playing one game, and they’re playing a different game, and those two games are not in the same field. It’s a different conversation. So we want to also educate diplomats, educate the professionals who are in this field that you need to really understand religion. You can’t fix this by the stroke of a pen on a piece of paper.”
INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN
Masorti leader confirms responsibility for anti-Zionist posters in Haredi areas in Israel
Members of the Israeli branch of the Masorti/Conservative movement’s Mercaz Olami paid to publish and distribute posters in Haredi neighborhoods in Israel that equated Zionism with idolatry and heresy as part of an influence campaign aimed at driving a wedge between the Israeli Haredi public and the Haredi officials involved in the World Zionist Organization, specifically those connected to the Eretz Hakodeh slate, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
‘Below the belt’: The efforts by the Zionist arm of the Masorti movement were first reported by the Israeli Haredi outlet Kikar HaShabbat, and have now been confirmed to eJewishPhilanthropy by WZO Vice Chair Yizhar Hess, who serves as the head of Mercaz Olami and was behind the campaign, as well as a WZO spokesperson. Though the posters were put up during the World Zionist Congress elections in the United States — and explicitly say that people should not participate in them — a WZO spokesperson told eJP that Hess’ intention was not to impact the vote in the U.S. but as part of an internal dispute between Israeli factions within the WZO and KKL. The posters also could not have a direct impact on the elections as they were put up in Haredi neighborhoods in Israel, whose residents could not vote in the American World Zionist Congress elections, which ended earlier this month. “It’s not illegal and it’s not fraudulent, [but] it’s below the belt,” David Yaari, the vice chairman of Keren Kayemet Le’Yisrael-Jewish National Fund and chair of the Kol Israel slate, told eJP.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Weighing options for Jewish organizations invested in fossil fuels: divest or engage
Climate change is one of the top concerns for American Jews, and fossil fuels are the main culprit behind accelerating it. Still, according to a 2022 report by climate change nonprofit Dayenu, many Jewish institutions that have pledged to combat climate change have invested over $3.3 billion in fossil fuels, raising questions about the best way to cultivate change: divestment or pushing for change from the inside, reports Jay Deitcher for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Should I stay or should I go?: For the Jewish climate action group Dayenu, divestment is the only moral option for Jewish organizations, shifting investments to clean energy such as wind and solar power. “Jewish values compel us to confront the climate crisis with bold action,” Rabbi Jacob Siegel, Dayenu’s climate finance advisor and policy associate, told eJP. While divestment — also known as the run strategy — “might have a moral component… as an economic strategy [it] is not an effective strategy,” Paul Ferraro, Bloomberg distinguished professor of human behavior and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, told eJP. Instead, greater change can be made from the inside, through pressing the boards of companies to make changes or investing in environmental organizations.
SAVING PRIVATE RILEY
Decades after his death, a Jewish WWII hero is honored in Italy, with family of comrade
Privates First Class Del Riley and Frank Kurzinger were fast friends. They met in 1943, training for the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colo. In 1945, they took part in a mission to seize Monte Belvedere, in northern Italy, from the Germans. Riley hit a tripwire and was critically wounded on the way up the mountain. Kurzinger, a combat medic, rushed to Riley’s aid. He stepped on a land mine and was immediately killed. He was 22 years old. Del Riley died seven years ago, but on his 100th birthday this week, 15 of his descendants were reunited with Frank Kurzinger’s relatives in Italy, following the efforts of Operation Benjamin, reports Lahav Harkov for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider from Rome.
Life mission: “Frank Kurzinger laid down his life for my father,” Del’s son, Marc Riley, said on Wednesday. “Since Feb. 20, 1945, my father spent his life trying to find the Kurzinger family to tell them … the kind of man Frank Kurzinger was. My father spent his life looking for Frank.” Operation Benjamin honored Kurzinger at a ceremony on Wednesday in the Florence American Cemetery, surrounded by sycamore and cypress trees on a Tuscan hillside.
Read the full story here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
CAMPUS SCENE
What Jewish students actually want
“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the focus of fighting antisemitism on campus has tended to be centered on preventing and punishing specific events – people blocking campus access, trespassing and vandalizing campus property and holding up signs that call for the destruction of the Jewish state. These are troubling incidents, but even if they go away tomorrow, the problem of antisemitism on campus would remain. How do we know? The students are telling us,” write Pam Cohen, founder of Read the Room Advisors, and Noam Neusner, a partner with 30 Point Strategies, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Troubling accounts: “Far from the tumult of campus encampments and building takeovers, there are more persistent and corrosive threats to the well-being of Jewish students. They report social ostracization, classroom demonization and casual indifference to the threats they face — many of which come from both their fellow students and even their professors… What Jewish students want, overwhelmingly, isn’t special treatment or safe spaces. They just want what every other student gets: the right to their individual personhood, without apology.”
READER RESPONDS
When ‘inclusion’ is not inclusive
“I appreciate the efforts of Rachel Gildiner and Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein to remind us that fighting antisemitism should not come at the expense of fostering inclusion within the Jewish community (‘Belonging cannot wait,’ eJewishPhilanthropy, May 13). They rightly caution against a false binary — the idea that we must choose between opposing antisemitism and promoting inclusion,” writes David Bernstein, founder and CEO of the North American Values Institute, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “In warning against one false binary, however, the authors risk falling into another.”
We’ve learned the hard way: “In their call for urgency around inclusion, the authors ought to draw a critical distinction between sincere, pluralistic inclusion and radical ideological conformity disguised as equity. If we do not make this distinction, we risk undermining both Jewish safety and the broader project of democratic coexistence. We paid a heavy price for suppressing criticism in the name of not alienating allies. As antisemitism surged in environments shaped by illiberal DEI ideologies, we were caught flat-footed. We cannot afford that mistake again. We should absolutely strive to make Jewish spaces more inclusive — particularly for Jews from historically marginalized communities. But this effort must not come at the cost of intellectual honesty or moral clarity. True inclusion cannot be built on ideological conformity or silence in the face of bigotry, no matter how well-intentioned the framing.”
Worthy Reads
Baby with the Bathwater: Menachem Rosensaft, a former member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, warns against trivializing the Holocaust by invoking it willy-nilly in an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I have watched with interest and concern the controversy over President Donald Trump’s firing of a number of recent Biden appointees to the council… Kevin Abel, whom Biden named to the council in 2023, upped the ante by circulating a letter in which he in effect equated the fact that the museum — a federal institution — had not publicly spoken out against the dismissal of the Biden appointees from the council to the widespread global silence and inaction in the face of Nazi German persecution and murder of European Jews before and during World War II… I was taken aback by this statement, both as a council veteran and as the son of two survivors of the Nazi death and concentration camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. I believe the rhetoric surrounding the firings has gotten out of control and betrays an insensitivity to if not disturbing ignorance of the enormity and significance of the Holocaust.” [JTA]
History Lesson: In SAPIR, Maxim D. Shrayer addresses what he sees as a “common misconception” about what it meant to be a refusenik in the days of the Soviet Union. “It would have been more accurate to call us refusees, ‘the refused ones,’ since it was not we refuseniks but the Soviet regime who did the refusing, by repeatedly rejecting our petitions to emigrate and thus denying our ability to practice our Jewish identity freely and openly. But there was something all refuseniks actively did refuse to do: remain Soviet. As a political and cultural movement of Jewish national self-liberation, the refuseniks were a response to the postwar plight of Soviet Jewry, a condition that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. characterized in December 1966 as auguring “a possibility of a complete spiritual and cultural destruction.” In fighting the Soviet regime, refuseniks were tried for “anti-Soviet” activity and experienced career erasure and ostracism, arrests and physical violence. Heroic refusenik men and women such as Yosef Begun or Ida Nudel served prison sentences and endured years of exile. But for all refuseniks, the official punishment was in stolen years.” [SAPIR]
The Gates Effect: In David Wallace-Wells’ newsletter for The New York Times, he expresses concern that the spending down of the Gates Foundation marks the end of the boom years of global charity. “I spoke with Gates about the decision over two days last month outside Palm Springs, Calif., and to me it felt like a trip in a time machine to a throwback era not so distant in years but disorientingly foreign in mood. Sometimes called the end of history, sometimes the time of globalization and sometimes the age of neoliberalism, that era was defined by new levels of extreme wealth, technocratic confidence in the human capacity to transform the world and a somewhat miraculous — and often underappreciated — wave of improvements in the lives of the least well off. One benefit of truly extreme wealth is that it allows one to sail into the future somewhat unperturbed by the choppiness of the cultural waters. But for someone tallying the achievements of a generation of global giving, it is hard not to worry about the direction of change and the way the winds are blowing.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations voted unanimously to admit the Iranian American Jewish Federation, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
Jewish Insider covers a debate held last night between President Donald Trump’s former Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, on Trump’s record regarding antisemitism and Israel…
Several dozen people participated in an annual pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, for the Lag B’Omer holiday, amid security concerns; two years ago, five people were killed in a terror attack targeting pilgrims, who previously numbered in the thousands…
President Donald Trump has named several rabbis to his new Religious Liberty Commission, including Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Rabbi Eitan Webb, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel and Alyza Lewin as a legal advisor…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency profiles Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee for the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism…
Los Angeles Jewish Health has been awarded $28 million by the California Department of Health Care Services to support the expansion of inpatient mental health service for seniors in need…
The City of San Francisco has secured $37.5 million from local philanthropists to fund Breaking the Cycle, a public-private initiative backed in part by Mayor Daniel Lurie aimed at tackling homelessness and behavioral health issues…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy examines how philanthropy should prepare for the possible disappearance of federal public health funding by coordinating fast, local action…
The Jewish Chronicle considers what a proposed merger between the U.K.’s Reform and Liberal movements would entail, as the two movements prepare to vote on Sunday to approve unification as Progressive Judaism…
Rabbi Dan Gordon of Houston was elected president of OHALAH – the Association of Rabbis, Cantors and Rabbinic Pastors for Jewish Renewal last month…
The New York Times reports on Hamas’ celebrations over the killing earlier this week of a pregnant Israeli woman in the West Bank…
Former Harvard Divinity School student Shabbos Kestenbaum settled his ongoing lawsuit against Harvard; the settlement comes days before a deadline for Kestenbaum to produce a range of documents that included his communications with President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and messages from WhatsApp groups…
The Justice Department told Harvard it is looking into whether the school is complying with a Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions processes…
A Pittsburgh woman pleaded guilty for her role in the vandalism of two Jewish institutions in the Pennsylvania city; Talya Lubit, who is Jewish, was ordered to pay nearly $11,000 in restitution to Chabad of Squirrel Hill, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the City of Pittsburgh and will face a parole board’s recommendation at her June sentencing…
Officials in southern Nevada are investigating a string of threatening letters sent to Jewish organizations in the Las Vegas area…
Pic of the Day
Members of the Jewish Student Union at Tenafly High School in New Jersey celebrate the release of Edan Alexander, who grew up in the town, from Hamas captivity on Tuesday.
Birthdays
Chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a former IDF major general and leading activist for the disability community, Doron Almog, celebrates his birthday on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Scholar, author and rabbi, he is the founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Irving “Yitz” Greenberg… Retired judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, she has served as president and chair of The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Ellen Moses Heller… Senior official in the Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama administrations Bernard W. Aronson… Member of the New York State Assembly for 52 years (longest tenure ever), his term ended in 2022, Richard N. Gottfried… Chairman of NBC News and MSNBC from 2015 until 2020, Andrew Lack… Member of the House of Representatives since 2013 (D-FL), she was previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel… Harvard history professor, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England, Emma Georgina Rothschild… Proto-punk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jonathan Richman… Radio voice of the Texas Rangers baseball organization since 1979, Eric Nadel… Rochester, N.Y., resident and advisor to New York City-based Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance service, Michael E. Pollock… Real estate developer and mechutan of President Trump, his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to France is pending in the Senate, Charles Kushner… Film and stage actress, noted for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Terms of Endearment,” Debra Winger… Managing partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm, he is also executive chairman of Fubo TV, Edgar Bronfman Jr.… President of Tribe Media and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, David Suissa… Real estate mogul and collector of modern and contemporary art, Aby J. Rosen… Executive assistant at Los Angeles-based FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Esther Bushey… U.S. ambassador to the European Union in the Obama administration, he had a bar mitzvah-like ceremony in Venice in 2017, Anthony Luzzatto Gardner… Social entrepreneur and co-founder of nonprofit Jumpstart, Jonathan Shawn Landres… Actress, television personality and author, Victoria Davey (Tori) Spelling… Host of programs on the Travel Channel and the History Channel, Adam Richman… Vice president and associate general counsel at CNN, Drew Shenkman… Managing director at FTI Consulting, Jeff Bechdel… Chef and food blogger, Jamie Neistat Lavarnway… Composer, conductor and music producer known for his film and television scores, Daniel Alexander Slatkin…
SATURDAY: President of the Philadelphia-based Honickman Foundation, Lynne Korman Honickman… Annapolis, Md., attorney, Robert M. Pollock… News anchor for 45 years at WPVI-TV (ABC Channel 6) in Philadelphia until he retired in 2022, known professionally as Jim Gardner, James Goldman… Canadian philanthropist and the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Ava Freeman… Corporate and securities attorney at NYC’s Eilenberg & Krause, he serves as counsel for Israeli technology companies doing business in the U.S., Sheldon Krause… Comedian, puppeteer and actor, Marc Weiner… Founder and president of ENS Resources, a D.C.-based consulting and lobbying firm focused on natural resources and sustainable energy, Eric Sapirstein… Host of “Marketplace Morning Report” on public radio, David Brancaccio… Author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and a 2017 book about Jewish holidays, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Abigail Pogrebin… and her identical twin sister, Robin Pogrebin, reporter on the culture desk for The New York Times… Former general manager for corporate strategy at Microsoft, she was also an executive vice president at Hillel, Kinney Zalesne… CPA and founder of the Baltimore Hunger Project, it provides food packs for the weekend that are discretely slipped into over 2,200 poverty-stricken public-school children’s backpacks each Friday, Lynne Berkowitz Kahn… Israeli author and playwright, Sarah Blau… Reporter for The New York Times covering politics, campaigns and elections, Reid J. Epstein… Former member of Knesset, when elected in 2013 she became the youngest female Knesset member in Israel’s history, Stav Shaffir… Executive director of Informing Democracy and digital strategy adviser to Democratic organizations and candidates, Jenna Ruth Lowenstein… Digital and social media strategist at AARP, Sarah Sonies… Senior writer at Microsoft’s Future of Work group, Rebecca Rose Nelson Kay… Israeli judoka, he was the 2019 World Champion and won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, Sagi Aharon Muki… Director of congregational engagement at Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation in St. Paul, Minn., Heather Renetzky… Senior media relations manager at Rystad Energy, Katherine (Katie) Keenan…
SUNDAY: Leader and rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger since 1996, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter… Chairman and co-founder of K2 Intelligence and Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Jules B. Kroll… Best-selling author of nine spy thriller novels, Andrew Gary Kaplan… Ruth Madoff… Retired New York Times columnist and editorial writer, he was The New York Times’ Jerusalem correspondent for four years in the early 1990s, Clyde Haberman… President of Everest Management and trustee of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Gary Kopff… Los Angeles-based attorney and board member of American Friends of Nishmat, Linda Goldenberg Mayman… Longtime Washington correspondent for Newsweek, now writing for SpyTalk, Jonathan Broder… Longest-serving member of the Maryland House of Delegates, starting in 1983, Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg… Senior advisor at Moelis & Company, a former IDF major general, then CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Shlomo Yanai… Director of nutrition and hospitality at Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital, Nancy Baumann… Attorney in Atlanta, he was the director of congregational engagement at the Union for Reform Judaism for nine years, Alan Kitey… Film producer, he is the CEO of Miramax since one year ago, Jonathan Glickman… Venture capitalist and author of a book on business principles derived from the Book of Genesis, Michael A. Eisenberg… CEO at Waze from 2013 to 2021, Noam Bardin… Vice president for communications strategy at Strategic Marketing Innovations (SMI), Bryan Bender… Head of development until earlier this year at NYC charter school system, Uncommon Schools, Sarah Danzig… Author of Substack-based newsletter and blog, “Slow Boring,” he was a co-founder of Vox, Matthew Yglesias… Founder of London-based Tech With Intention, Eliza Krigman… Senior director for the Middle East and North Africa on the White House’s National Security Council, Eric Trager… Founder of Satori Global Media, Joshua Lederman… Former acting under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, then a member of the National Archives Public Interest Declassification Board, Ezra Asa Cohen… Tech entrepreneur in the AI and gaming space, Dan Garon… Co-founder of Rebel (formerly known as Rebelmail) then acquired by Salesforce, Joe Teplow… Managing associate in the D.C. office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Lauren DePinto Bomberger… Executive producer of the Net Zero Life Podcast, Netanel (Tani) Levitt… Director of communications at Anduril Industries, Sofia Rose Gross Haft… Five-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Gymnastics Team, now a business manager in the office of the CIO at Citadel, Samantha “Sami” Shapiro… Chief development officer at TAMID Group, Rachel Philipson Marsh…
