Your Daily Phil: Using virtual reality to tell the story of Oct. 7 to Haredim
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the donation of the famed Moss Haggadah to the National Library of Israel and on the vandalism of AIPAC’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. We feature an opinion piece by Ethan Zadoff about tackling tough but important topics in the coming school year. Also in this newsletter: Amit Elor, Samantha Woll and Sandy Muskovitz Danto. We’ll start with a new virtual reality documentary about Oct. 7 that caters to the Haredi community.
As shoppers mill about the cobble-stoned street of Jerusalem’s Mamilla Mall, below ground — on the basement floor of the popular arcade — some 20 Haredi women teachers are noisily taking up their seats to watch a film that will expose them to the horrors of Oct. 7, the grim details of which have not fully reached Israel’s Haredi community, reports Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Seated individually and kitted out with a pair of slick virtual reality (VR) goggles, each woman is set to watch a 45-minute, 360-degree film that will give them a close-up look at some of the events that took place on Oct. 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists from the Gaza Strip invaded southern Israel, murdering, maiming and raping some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping some 250 more. Generally eschewing the internet and mainstream media, many Haredi Israelis have not learned about the full extent of the massacres, the repercussions of which continue to shape Israeli society and discourse more than 10 months later.
The film’s visuals are striking. From the sky, drone footage captures the overwhelming size and scope of the devastation wreaked by the terrorists on what’s become known as the “Black Shabbat,” while on-ground camerawork takes the viewer on a personal journey deep inside some of the worst-hit communities: Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as the site of the Nova Music Festival in Re’im.
And while the film, shot by production company Triumph of the Spirit, best known for its 360-degree video tour of Auschwitz of the same name, has already been seen by thousands of people in Israel and around the world, its main audience now, according to the film’s director, Miriam Cohen, is the Haredi community.
“In the beginning, we shot some short films in English with the goal of reaching audiences outside of Israel; we wanted to scream the story to the world of what happened to us,” Cohen, who created the film with producers Chani Kopilowitz and Avi Halfon, told eJP in a recent interview.
But then Cohen, who grew up in the Haredi community in the Hashmona’im settlement between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, began to take note of voices within her own community and realized she had a duty to show the film to Haredi audiences too.
“I remember hearing comments that showed me how very disconnected they were from this story,” Cohen recalled to eJP. “They were out of the story completely, they just didn’t know anything about what had happened — and not because they don’t want to know what happened but because they don’t have internet, they don’t hear the radio and they don’t have access to the news.”
After returning to the massacre sites multiple times, including with survivors and relatives of those taken hostage or murdered, Cohen convinced Kopilowitz that they had to make an alternative version of the film for their own community.
“I told Chani, ‘Remember what you told me on Oct. 8? Now we have to do something for our community,’” she said, describing how in the Haredi-friendly version Rabbi Yisrael Goldwasser, from the Ger Hasidic community, guides viewers through the destruction, describing what happened with references that speak to a more observant crowd and with less graphic images.
“The rabbi talks in a language they are used to, with religious and historical references to help them better understand what happened that day,” Cohen explained, adding, “People can’t stop crying after they see it — it is the first time they really understand how big this thing was.”
With reports that the army could be facing a manpower shortage as the war drags on, many Israelis increasingly struggle to understand why some Haredi sects remain fiercely opposed to having their young men join the army or take up some type of national service. Cohen said she believes that her film can influence that debate. “How big that change will be, I don’t know — but I do know that it does make some kind of an impact,” she said.
GATHERING MOSS
National Library of Israel gifted famed Moss Haggadah, recently sold for $480,000
Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman donated the original version of the renowned Moss Haggadah to the National Library of Israel yesterday, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. “We are beyond delighted to have received this important work,” Raquel Ukeles, the head of collections at the library, said in a statement. “The Moss Haggadah represents a high point for contemporary Judaic artwork and the 20th century revival of Hebrew calligraphic arts, in which David Moss played – and continues to play – a pivotal role.”
One of the best: Moss spent upwards of three years from 1980 to 1984 researching, planning and crafting the Haggadah, which has been called “possibly the most beautiful haggadah of all times,” for its calligraphy, micrography, paintings and designs using a variety of techniques and materials, from acrylic paints to paper-cutting and gold leaf. In 1992, Moss was awarded the Israel Museum’s Jesselson Prize for Contemporary Judaica, in part because of his Haggadah. In June, the Moss Haggadah headlined Sotheby’s Important Judaica collection. Appraised at $400,000-$600,000, the Haggadah was sold for $480,000.
Coming home: Moss was in attendance as the Gottesmans presented his Haggadah to the library. He lauded the decision by the Gottesmans — longtime donors to the library — to present the volume to its archives. “I began my Haggadah manuscript in 1980 with months of research in Jerusalem’s rich libraries,” Moss said in a statement. “On completion, it was delivered abroad and reproduced in several beautifully printed editions. I’m exceptionally grateful the original is finally ‘coming home’ to Jerusalem, and its rightful place at the National Library where it will be reunited with its sources, preserved, studied and, I hope, enjoyed for generations.”
AIPAC ATTACK
Anti-Israel extremists vandalize AIPAC headquarters in Washington
The Washington, D.C., headquarters of AIPAC was vandalized early Monday morning with red spray paint and the words “F*** Israel” scrawled onto the front and side of the building. “We will not be deterred by the illegal actions of fringe, anti-Israel extremists in our efforts to strengthen the US-Israel relationship,” Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen for Jewish Insider.
‘Pure antisemitism’: Palestine Action, a global network of groups that destroys property that has ties to Israel, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the vandalism. “AIPAC is a corrupt foreign organization that plugs and play the morally bankrupt American politician like a game of monopoly while American taxpayers pay for the weapons that are being dropped in Gaza.” The Anti-Defamation League in a statement called “these actions & accusations of dual loyalty pure antisemitism” and called on the DCPD to “fully investigate” the crime.
Latest in a series: The incident is the latest in a string of anti-Israel crimes that have rocked the D.C. Jewish community since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. Last month, thousands of demonstrators vandalized Columbus Circle, outside of Union Station, with pro-Hamas messages, replaced American flags with Palestinian flags and set American flags on fire during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
BACK TO SCHOOL
Challenges and opportunities await in the new school year
“In just a few weeks, teachers will return to classrooms across the United States, stepping back into learning environments marked by an underlying sense of uncertainty and more questions than answers about Israel, Jews and Judaism across the world,” writes Ethan Zadoff, principal of DRS Yeshiva High School in Woodmere, N.Y., in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Into the fog: “At the beginning of summer, there was a collective hope that by the time the new school year arrived, positive changes would be on the horizon. Unfortunately, that hope feels like it is fading into the recesses of our memories. We now find ourselves over 300 days into a conflict with no clear resolution in sight… [a]nd this is all happening as a deeply partisan presidential election approaches in the U.S., riling up a nation already divided. The disturbing rise of antisemitism on college campuses, in urban centers and on social media only adds to the fog of uncertainty and uneasiness that teachers must navigate. Of course, these challenges are different than those our brothers and sisters in Israel are experiencing, where existential threats directly impact daily life. Still, as the new academic year approaches, teachers and school administrators in the United States are grappling with their particular set of challenges and striving to create a meaningful and secure educational environment in a time of turmoil.”
Have the conversations: “Our teachers cannot be expected to educate under this weight without support and direction. School administrators have a crucial role in guiding discussions and learning, working collaboratively with teachers to address relevant topics. Our approach ought not to avoid or gloss over difficult conversations, but to open them up for meaningful dialogue and learning, confronting the issues of the day with courage and empathy. By doing so, we can build stronger students, a more resilient Jewish community, and a deeper understanding of the world today. But what are those areas of learning? I would suggest six possible areas.”
Worthy Reads
Different Ways to Contribute: Jewish communities undervalue people without children, argue Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi and Sarah Zager for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance recently drew widespread outrage when he doubled down on earlier comments bemoaning the political authority of ‘childless cat ladies’ and argued that people, especially political leaders, who do not have children do not have an “investment in the future of our country.” The blowback stood out to us because Vance’s sentiments didn’t sound as extreme as many people said they found them… As scholars of Jewish ethics who focus on sexual divergence (Rebecca Epstein-Levi) and infertility (Sarah Zager), and as Jewish women whose reproductive lives diverge from Vance’s and other pronatalists’ visions, we have encountered this narrative in professional and communal settings. Yet, in our academic work, we’ve found that the story is much more complex. Jewish texts actually highlight how communities are held together not only by parents, but by a wide range of other relationships. Obscuring these kinds of ‘investments’ in our shared future hurts all of us… These texts show us, if we care to look below their surfaces, that investment in a community’s future — not to mention its present — requires a wide range of contributions, of which procreation is only one.” [JTA]
Teach More Than Tolerance: In The Wall Street Journal, Edward Rothstein critiques the present approach of Holocaust museums in the U.S. for engaging and educating visitors. “Holocaust museums also need to provide a deeper understanding of antisemitism, which is quite different from garden-variety racial hatred. Traditional antisemitism grows out of the conviction that Judaism is supplanted by Christianity or Islam. The believer sees this as divine revelation, not ‘intolerance.’ Similar is modern antisemitism’s worldview that Jews have secretly colonized the world’s media and money supplies. Here too, antisemitism is felt as a sophisticated metaphysical insight… Holocaust museums do nothing to dismantle these blindly ardent convictions… [Additionally,] the Holocaust museum, while linked to an identity, isn’t really concerned with it. In fact, the emphasis is less on a coherent Jewish identity than on Jews’ identity as victims. There is no triumph of a people, just individual survivors who are presented less as Jews than as Americans. The Holocaust is thus cut off not only from a people’s past but also from that people’s future as it unfolded… But exploring such themes would require taking a more comprehensive view and forgoing the desire to generalize into platitude. Incorporating this material into Holocaust museums wouldn’t bring hatred to an end. But at least it wouldn’t cloud our understanding with feel-good affirmations about ‘tolerance’ and being an ‘upstander.’” [WSJ]
Around the Web
The Athletic profiles Israeli American Amit Elor, who won the gold medal in women’s wrestling for Team USA at the Paris Olympics — the pinnacle of an international winning streak that has continued for the athlete since 2019. Writing in Hebrew, Jewish Agency Chairman Doron Almog praised Elor for her victory: “We love you and have immense pride in you. You have demonstrated tremendous spirit”…
Detroit’s Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue’s building, which is under construction, will be named for its former president, Samantha Woll, who was murdered last year…
Supporters of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro criticized the campaign against him by anti-Israel activists during the selection process for the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was ultimately tapped for the position…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on how a Jewish-run nonprofit, Wellstone Action, helped give Walz his start in politics with a grassroots organizing and voter outreach bootcamp…
A U.S. district judge denied Harvard University’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by six Jewish students alleging that the university failed to address “severe and pervasive” campus antisemitism…
The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies appointed Sandy Muskovitz Danto as its next board chair; David Colman, Jennifer Fink, Todd Schenk and Stacey Shor were also added to the board…
The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix and Northern Arizona spotlights a partnership between Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona and MyZuzah to provide kosher and fair-trade mezuzahs to survivors of abuse…
UNRWA fired nine employees after an internal investigation determined they “might have been involved” in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the U.N. secretary-general’s office announced…
Inside Philanthropy spotlights funders and nonprofit organizations supporting rural education in the U.S.…
After more than a decade spent working in kosher catering since immigrating from Oaxaca, Mexico, to Teaneck, N.J., Elmer Jimenez has opened a spot of his own: a kosher Mexican restaurant in Hackensack called Blue Star Cafe…
A third-party investigation determined that the purported $237 million donation to Florida A&M University, which fell apart under scrutiny, was “fraudulent” and the would-be donor’s valuation of the gift was “baseless”…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy considers the potential impact of private-equity investor and philanthropist Jim Kohlberg’s recent $30 million donation to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice to create a center focused on Supreme Court reform…
Sheila Kussner, a Montreal-focused philanthropist and founder of the Hope & Cope cancer support program, died yesterday just shy of her 92nd birthday…
Pic of the Day
Ready to shop, shmooze and support UJA-Federation of New York, 750 people attended the organization’s annual Hamptons Trunk Show on Thursday outside the Bridgehampton Historical Society Museum. The trunk show featured 49 vendors selling an array of clothing, jewelry and other accessories. A percentage of the proceeds goes toward supporting UJA and its work. (A representative from UJA said the organization does not release information about the amount of money raised from this event.)
Pictured from left, with UJA Women tote bags in hand: Sharon Shane, Staci Barber, Vicki Warner, Wendy Shenfeld, Heidi Lurensky, Natalie Barth, Judy Goodman, Shelly Kivell and Robin Kaplan.
Birthdays
CEO at Capital Camps & Retreat Center, Havi Arbeter Goldscher…
Brooklyn resident, Esther Holler… Former U.S. trade representative and then U.S. secretary of commerce, Michael (“Mickey”) Kantor… Co-founder of the world-wide chain of Hard Rock Café, his father founded the Morton’s Steakhouse chain, Peter Morton… Retired lieutenant general in the Israeli Air Force, he also served as chief of staff of the IDF, Dan Halutz… Former PR director for the New York Yankees and author of more than 20 books, Marty Appel… President of private equity firm Palisades Associates, former CEO of Empire Kosher Poultry, Greg Rosenbaum… Former U.S. intelligence analyst, he pled guilty to espionage in 1987 and was released from prison in 2015 and moved to Israel in 2020, Jonathan Pollard… Spiritual leader of Agudas Israel of St. Louis since 1986, Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt… Television cook, YouTuber, restaurateur and cookbook author, known as Sam the Cooking Guy, Samuel D. Zien… Founder of the Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica, Esther Netter… Professor of computational biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Liran Carmel… U.S. representative (D-VA-7) since 2019, she is running to become governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger… Financial news anchor for CNBC, Sara Aliza Eisen… Emmy Award-winning political reporter for The New York Times, Jonathan Swan… Public address announcer for both MLB’s Oakland Athletics and AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, Amelia Schimmel… Former MLB catcher, he batted .350 with two home runs for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics, Ryan Lavarnway… Director of research at Metiv: Israel Psychotrauma Center and clinical psychologist, Anna Harwood-Gross… Podcast host and head of product at Thesis, Estee Goldschmidt… Professional Super Smash Bros. player, known as Dabuz, Samuel Robert Buzby… Goalkeeper for Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer, he played for the U.S. in the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Zac MacMath… Founder of Love For Our Elders, a global nonprofit organization with 60,000 volunteers, Jacob Cramer… Scott Harrison…
