Your Daily Phil: The state of Jewish DEI programs in 2025
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview the organizers of the Jewish Belonging Summit about the current state of the Jewish diversity, equity and inclusion field and report on this week’s JPro25 conference, which concluded yesterday. We also cover several of the panels yesterday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. We feature an opinion piece by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi with tips to help nonprofits survive financially and politically tumultuous times, and one by Robert Lichtman linking three Jewish practices or rituals with the work of Jewish community foundations. Also in this newsletter: Rabbi Steven Greenberg, Steven Tananbaum and Max Fisher.
What We’re Watching
The SRE Network and Jewish Federations of North America’s Jewish Belonging Summit, which kicked off yesterday, continues today in Baltimore. Read more below.
The Library of Congress is hosting an event today to mark Jewish-American Heritage Month with the New York Andalus Ensemble, which will perform a medley of songs in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and Ladino.
Tel Aviv University hosted a dedication ceremony and lunch today inaugurating the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences today, after Jonathan and Mindy Gray donated $125 million to the school.
What You Should Know
In the 19 months since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, many American Jews have surged towards communal engagement opportunities. That demand has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Jewish life, but also calls for a stronger embrace of those on the community’s margins and fringes to retain this “Surge” of engagement, Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein — the Jewish Federations of North America’s public affairs advisor, and founder of the organization’s Initiative for Jewish Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion — told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
On Wednesday, as the JPro2025 conference came to a close in Baltimore, SRE (Safety, Respect, Equity) Network and JFNA’s Center for Belonging kicked off their own conference — the Jewish Belonging Summit— which both organizations are co-hosting for the first time. The conference, which is replacing SRE Network’s Annual Convening, aims to facilitate dialogue about diversity, equity and belonging (sorry, inclusion) in an increasingly volatile landscape for global Jewry and amid growing tensions over those terms and concepts in the United States more generally.
eJP’s Nira Dayanim spoke with Rothstein and Rachel Gildiner, executive director of SRE Network, about the conference, creating a culture of belonging and the challenges facing the field.
ND: Tell me about the conference. What are some of the core themes and pressing topics at play this year?
RIR: We know that this moment is volatile and divisive in a lot of ways. As we’ve been planning this summit, we recognize that by coming together at this moment particularly, we are trying to make sure that we’re communicating to the broader Jewish community the importance of belonging as a core priority for Jewish life. This is the first national gathering focused on Jewish communal belonging, trying to really think about how we both explore the diverse identity needs for different underrepresented, underserved identity groups, but also how we think about supporting a network in a field of leaders and organizations that engage in this work. And then also, particularly because the field that we’re both involved in has been a lightning rod for a lot of the wedge issues within Jewish life, the importance of saying that we’re not going to limit ourselves to social media or statements, but we need to come together and we need to be in conversation.
ND: As the term DEI has become polarized in recent years, how have your organizations been navigating that, and how does it factor into the work that you are doing?
RG: … [The] beautiful thing about SRE Network is that the values that we stand for are in our name. Before this moment and after this moment, we will continue to work towards workplaces that are safe, respectful and equitable pathways to growth and thriving. … [Neither] of us want to let semantics drive or prevent the ability for us to center and advance these values. And it really is a values-based conversation, and we’re choosing to stay in the work. The language matters secondary to the values, and the impact is what’s most important to the lived experiences of the people we are trying to serve.
THAT’S A WRAP
At JPro25, Jewish professionals meet in the middle of an unprecedented decade
Since Oct. 7, Jewish professionals have been experiencing a grueling tug of war. On one end, the rising scourge of antisemitism and polarization squeezes the field, while on the other, surging demand for Jewish communal spaces is a revitalizing force for Jewish organizations, and those who run them, even as it demands ever more of them. At JPro2025, co-hosted by Leading Edge and the Jewish Federations of North America, which drew 1,300 to Baltimore this week, professionals unpacked that push and pull and sought ways to meet in the middle, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the gathering.
Massages and politics: “Polycrisis. This word, the idea that we’re living in a time of not just one crisis, but many overlapping all at once,” said NJY Camps COO Sam Aboudara, opening the first plenary. “And yet, in the midst of this all, I come to understand that my professional purpose as a Jewish professional is in the pursuit of Jewish joy, not as an escape from reality, but as a direct response to it.” With a combination of massage chairs, a comedy show and professional development opportunities, the conference provided support for professionals amid challenges impacting the field. While some skill-building sessions targeted common workplace struggles, such as communication, procrastination and conflict, other options were more colored by the content of the current political moment, including a deep dive into the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, disrupting anti-Jewish ideas and how to approach communications in divided times.
MONEY MATTERS
Financial experts say Israeli market is flourishing despite year and a half of war
Financial experts and regulators touted the strength of the Israeli economy, tech sector and stock exchange after a year and a half of war during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday, saying that “resilience” is a “very core characteristic of the Israeli market,” reports Danielle Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. The panel, titled “Time to Build: Accelerating and De-risking Israel’s Economic Growth and Recovery,” featured Seffy Zinger, chairman of the Israel Securities Authority; Eugene Kandel, chairman of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange; Tilli Kalisky-Bannett, managing partner at Pinegrove Venture Partners; and Michael Kashani, head of sustainable credit and platforms at Apollo Global Management.
We will survive: Kalisky-Bannett addressed the success of the tech sector in Israel, which, despite being “the size of New Jersey” is the “third largest tech hub after Silicon Valley and New York,” accounts for 10% of global unicorns and makes up 20% of Israel’s GDP and 70% of its exports. She referenced a story told earlier in the conference by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang who was asked what makes him and his company successful, “and he believes it’s a history of suffering. … For the Jewish nation and for the Israelis, I believe that we have also had our fair share of suffering, which has, on the positive side, spawned a nation of very resilient, creative individuals who have to survive at all costs.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
Bonus: Former hostage Noa Argamani and author Noa Tishby spoke about anti-Israel activism and antisemitism at the Milken Institute Global Conference yesterday, with Argamani saying that an anti-Israel performance at the Coachella music festival “broke her heart” and Tishby arguing that antisemitism “is nothing short of a cultural conflict,”Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports…
ADAPTIVE MINDSET
10 tips for nonprofit survival during a crisis
“Between weakening government support, growing culture wars and surging public need, many nonprofit leaders today are operating under enormous strain. For Jewish nonprofits in particular, this is piling on top of the trauma of Oct. 7, the ongoing war and hostage crisis, and a variety of other challenges facing Israeli society, including the recent wildfire. For nonprofit leaders, it’s like trying to win a poker game while holding a weak hand against players with aces up their sleeves, but we can’t afford to fold,” writes Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, co-founder of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Ready, set — change: “Now is the time to revisit your mission, strategy, theory of change, staffing model and budget. Consider whether your team needs to shift focus — perhaps placing more emphasis on volunteer management, fundraising or digital mobilization. Engage your stakeholders, especially those you serve and those who fund you. Use online surveys, focus groups and town halls to learn their most pressing concerns and best ideas for the road ahead… This is a time of disruption and opportunity. The strongest organizations will be those that are proactive, flexible and inclusive. Plan your work and work your plan. Involve your donors, partners, board and staff now — not after a crisis hits.”
DOR L’DOR
Fixing guideposts from Judaism’s 3 ‘forevers’
“A core value of the Iroquois Confederacy that endures to this day is the ‘Seventh Generation Principle,’ which calls upon people to look ahead seven generations and imagine how the decisions they make today will affect their progeny so far into the future. This practice cultivates a discipline to be deliberate and show care — to consider variables before taking an action that may seem right today but may also be terribly wrong in the long term,” writes longtime Jewish communal professional Robert Lichtman in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
How we secure our future: “There are other organizations that were created, funded and are expected to deal with the ‘now,’ but Jewish community foundations, by design, are empowered to look beyond the now to… well, forever. And they are endowed with unique powers to take us there: I am referring to their power of publicity to project issues and to attract investment in them; their power of persuasion in advising fund-holders and their legal and financial counselors in guiding their investments; and their power of planning when they design their own initiatives.”
Worthy Reads
Failure of Empathy: In The Times of Israel, Rabbi Steven Greenberg, founding director of Orthodox LGBTQ group Eshel, expresses disappointment in the negative public statements by key rabbinic leaders of Yeshiva University after the school’s recent settlement over the status of a club for LGBTQ students. “For [these students], the club is a resource for remaining Orthodox, not unraveling it. These young people are not culture war rebels trying to undermine the creation; they are responding to it. They simply reflect our generation’s recognition of human complexity. The Talmudic sages addressed categories of gender complexity not mentioned in the Torah as a response to their own lived experience. More to the point, these young people are not activists. They do not want to overthrow thousands of years of tradition. They just want a context for support, friendship, and learning… Why, among the tradition’s many tensions with modern values, methods, and sensibilities, should a gay club be a hill to die on? Why are so many other modern conflicts tolerable, and this one not? I wonder how these learned men, involved for so long in education, could be so terribly unempathetic to the realities of their students. When their students bring to them challenges in areas of medical ethics, family dynamics, and mental health, they are open-hearted and thoughtful. Why then can they not respond to their LGBTQ students with the same empathy and respect?” [TOI]
Long, Strange Trip: In Inside Philanthropy, Paul Karon writes about a funding collaborative supporting research on the use of psychedelics for treating mental health conditions. “Over the years, IP has reported on some of the individual grants and organizations that have funded psychedelic research… While all knowledge and research can be valuable, these commitments have mostly been piecemeal; if ever there was a field that could benefit from a solid landscaping of the complex web of science, legality and accessibility factors, it’s psychedelics… Understanding this scientific, legal and social landscape is the wheelhouse of the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative, which describes itself as ‘a community of philanthropists dedicated to enabling access to psychedelic healing.’ Its founders established the organization as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2017, recognizing that while psychedelic research and clinical exploration had begun to expand, concerted philanthropy would be needed to advance the field… The PSFC’s recently released “Strategic Roadmap for Collective Philanthropy” incorporates the perspectives of more than 150 researchers, for-profit and nonprofit professionals, advocates, journalists, philanthropists and others with expertise in the psychedelic field. The PSFC hopes the report will help unlock new funding for the field, increase collaboration among donors, and help donors and participants support strategies that advance the entire ecosystem.” [InsidePhilanthropy]
Word on the Street
A new Anti-Defamation League report shows that Jewish members of Congress have experienced a fivefold increase in antisemitic harassment on Facebook this year since Meta loosened its content moderation guidelines and dialed back enforcement…
In an interview with philanthropist and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein for Bloomberg, Steven Tananbaum, the founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management, talks about how he got his start in finance by investing his “bar mitzvah money”…
The Detroit Jewish News examines the long-term consequences of an unprecedented (at the time) loan of $50 million that Max Fisher made to the Jewish Agency for Israel in 1965…
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced the launch of a strategic partnership with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to create a new healthcare accelerator in the state…
Israel’s National Security Council warned Israelis attending the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, next week against wearing Israeli or Jewish symbols in public, talking about their military service or posting their location on social media…
U.K. officials said that five Iranian nationals arrested earlier this week in London had been plotting an attack on Israel’s embassy in the country…
A Jewish student dorm at the University of Birmingham is seeking approval to install a 6-foot-high fence and security gates around it in light of “the recent huge surge in antisemitism” on campus and the need to “provide additional security to the students”…
In an appearance on conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s talk show earlier this month, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen addressed a question from Carlson about his faith, saying, “I was born a Jew. I love Jesus Christ. I think the words that he said are wonderful, are amazing. And, you know, I’m kind of distressed that a lot of organized Christian religions are not really, I don’t know, abiding by the words of Jesus Christ”…
Pic of the Day
William Daroff, Betsy Berns Korn and Stephanie Hausner — the CEO, chair-elect and COO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, respectively — lay a wreath yesterday at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial outside of Berlin ahead of today’s 80th Victory in Europe Day.
The visit was part of the J7 Global Task Force on Antisemitism meetings taking place this week.
Birthdays
International chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, he is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Irwin Cotler…
Retired senior British judge, Baron Leonard Hubert “Lennie” Hoffmann… Former chairman of the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Stanley A. Rabin… International chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, he is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Irwin Cotler… MIT biologist and 2002 Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine, H. Robert Horvitz… Former MLB pitcher who played for the Angels, Rangers and White Sox, Lloyd Allen… Rabbi in Dusseldorf until moving to Israel in 2021, Rabbi Raphael Evers… CFO for The Manischewitz Company for 13 years until 2024, Thomas E. Keogh… Retired USDOJ official, for many years he was the director of the Office of Special Investigations focused on deporting Nazi war criminals, Eli M. Rosenbaum… Past president of Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs, Ga., Janice Perils Telling… Third generation furniture retailer in Springfield, Ill., Barry Saidman… President of Clayton, Missouri-based JurisTemps, Andrew J. Koshner, J.D., Ph.D…. CEO and founder of NSG/SWAT, a high-profile boutique branding agency launched in 2011, Richard Kirshenbaum… Novelist, author of If I Could Tell You and movie critic for The Jerusalem Post since 2001, Hannah Brown… Co-founder and director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund and a Maryland climate commissioner, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi… Israeli journalist, anchorwoman and attorney, she is best known as host of the investigative program “Uvda” (“Fact”) on Israeli television, Ilana Dayan-Orbach… Long-time litigator and political fundraiser in Florida, now serving as a mediator and arbitrator, Benjamin W. Newman… Canadian social activist and documentary filmmaker, Naomi Klein… Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2015 to 2020 and again since last August, Ambassador Danny Danon… Stand-up comedian, writer, actress and author, Jodi Miller… Novelist and memoirist, Joanna Rakoff… Senior advisor at West End Strategy Team, Ari Geller… Director of strategic initiatives at J Street, Josh Lockman… Ice hockey player, now the assistant coach of the New Hampshire Wildcats women’s ice hockey program, Samantha Faber… Canadian beach volleyball player, he competed in the 2016 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Sam Schachter… Founder and CEO at Axion Ray, Daniel First… Former White House senior policy advisor, now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Amiel Fields-Meyer…
