Your Daily Phil: Weitzman Museum launches $100M campaign as it aims to expand, modernize
Add EJP on GoogleGood Friday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover last night’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History gala, where the institution launched a new $100 million fundraising campaign. We report on Hebrew Union College President Andrew Rehfeld’s response to criticism that his seminary was ordaining anti-Zionist students, and interview Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, about his organization’s upcoming conference. We feature an opinion piece by Rafi Musher and Eylam Leshem focused on funding for Israel’s democracy-building organizations and a piece by Shayna Kreisler and Robin Stein about shifting away from a “parallel lanes” approach to Jewish lay and professional leadership toward something better integrated. Also in this issue: Maayan Aviv, Scooter Braun and Bari Rogoff.
Shabbat shalom!
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
Temple Emanu-El in New York City is kicking off a new multiyear series tonight following Shabbat services, “Shared Histories, Shared Futures: The Arielle Patrick & Aaron Goldstein Initiative on Black-Jewish Relations.” The inaugural session features Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, founder of Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings; Susannah Heschel, chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College and daughter of civil rights leader Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; Rabbi Joshua Davidson, Temple Emanu-El’s senior rabbi; and Arielle Patrick and Aaron Goldstein, the Temple Emanu-El members who are funding the initiative.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York’s annual Israel Parade on Fifth takes place on Sunday in Manhattan. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend the parade, marking the first time in more than six decades that a sitting mayor has not attended; NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch will serve as grand marshal of the parade.
The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum kicks off on Sunday. Read our interview with AJC CEO Ted Deutch below.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is launching a new exhibit on Sunday ahead of this summer’s World Cup, titled “Tell Our Boy That I Played Soccer Again,” about Olympic soccer player and Theresienstadt concentration camp survivor Paul Mahrer. Also on Sunday at the museum, the 28th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival – Festival Sefarad kicks off, running through June 8.
Elsewhere in New York on Sunday, the Republican Jewish Coalition is holding its USA 250 Gala Dinner. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) are slated to speak at the event.
What You Should Know
Floral shoe sculptures topped the tables at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History’s gala in New York City on Thursday night — a whimsical tribute to footwear designer Stuart Weitzman, who was honored by the museum alongside his wife, Jane, for their philanthropic contributions to the institution. The creative centerpieces also served as an apt, if unintended, metaphor for the museum’s next step: the announcement of an $100 million fundraising campaign to transform and expand its mission, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the event.
More than half of the $100 million goal has already been raised. The funds will go toward updating its exhibitions and strengthening day-to-day operations as it expands educational programs and public outreach across the country. Instead of adding new space, the museum plans to rethink its existing galleries and redesign its permanent exhibition with more technology-driven storytelling, Jackie Glodstein, the museum’s chief development officer, told eJP.
“It’s the only museum that tells the American Jewish story in its entirety, geographically, historically, thematically, which is a tall order. It means that we need to excel,” Dan Tadmor, the museum’s president, told eJP, speaking on the sidelines of the event, which was held at the Plaza Hotel. “It’s been a very tumultuous 20 years, and thematic museums, which are museums that tell a story, they evolve, they need to evolve, because our stories change, narratives change, technology changes.”
The campaign also follows congressional discussions about bringing the Weitzman, currently a Smithsonian-affiliated museum, into the Smithsonian Institution as an official museum focused on the American Jewish experience — a move Tadmor said could bolster its work addressing antisemitism.
“Just two weeks ago, we announced with the JCPA, the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, and the American Federation of Teachers, a resource guide offering our materials, the materials from the Weizman Museum curriculum for grades 6-12 to teach children across the country about who Jews are, using our narrative created by Jews,” he said during his speech. “It is hard to reject a curriculum and material from the Weitzman Museum. It is harder still to reject the curriculum and material from the Smithsonian Museum of American Jewish History.”
BACK-AND-FORTH
An ‘attack’ on Reform values: HUC president claps back after getting flak for anti-Zionist students
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion President Andrew Rehfeld hit back against Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s condemnation of the Reform seminary’s ordination of anti-Zionist clergy, calling his comments “an attack on the very Enlightenment principles that founded our movement” and accusing him of “anti-intellectualism,” report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Judah Ari Gross.
No threats: “We need to create environments in which students come to understand, on their own terms, the reasons why we believe the Jewish People has a right to a sovereign nation freely in their own homeland,” Rehfeld said in response to Hirsch’s remarks. “That process of liberal Jewish education cannot be done in a serious way with the threat of expulsion if they arrive at the wrong answer.”
Also at the conference: A week after describing J Street as “a cancer within the Jewish community” for calling for the United States to restrict aid to Israel, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s envoy to Washington, doubled down on his critique of the organization, stating that the liberal advocacy group’s recent actions are “decidedly not pro-Israel,” reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim for Jewish Insider.
TED TALK
Antisemitism has been ‘instrumentalized,’ ‘institutionalized’ in politics, Deutch says
Ahead of the American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum conference, which begins on Sunday in Washington, the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, is reflecting on a significantly transformed landscape — in which, he said, antisemitism has become mainstream in alarming ways that seemed to leave the longtime former congressman stunned. But he also said, in an interview with Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider, that AJC has been working on a comprehensive new plan to address the changing manifestations of antisemitism in the current social environment, which it plans to unveil at next week’s conference.
Observing and adapting: “Antisemitism is unfortunately no longer just on the fringes, but it’s become instrumentalized, it’s become institutionalized in so many ways and amplified in mainstream politics and media and online and at international institutions,” Deutch told JI at AJC’s Washington offices on Thursday. “The threat of antisemitism has evolved, and I think our response has to evolve as well.”
Read the full interview here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
BY THE NUMBERS
Israel’s democracy gets talked about. It doesn’t get funded.
“There is no shortage of passionate debate about the state of Israeli democracy. In the streets of Tel Aviv, in the halls of the Knesset, in op-ed pages from Jerusalem to New York, the conversation is loud, urgent and constant,” write Rafi Musher, a business and social impact entrepreneur, and Eylam Leshem, author of a new independent study mapping the ecosystem of Israeli organizations focused on strengthening democracy in the country, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Beyond partisan politics: “The sector raises approximately $282 million annually — a figure that sounds substantial until you consider that it represents just 6.5% of the roughly $4.5 billion donated each year to Israeli nonprofits. For a country whose democratic institutions are under sustained pressure, and whose citizens’ trust in government has fallen below 20%, that share of philanthropic attention is striking.”
JEWISH LEADERSHIP PIPELINE
From stewardship to shared responsibility: How Jewish leadership is changing
“For decades, Jewish Federations of North America have anchored communal life by bringing lay leaders and professionals together to respond to crises and build enduring institutions,” write Shayna Kreisler and Robin Stein, vice president of lay leadership and chair of lay leadership development for JFNA, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
The right time to evolve: “But they have often worked in parallel: lay leaders brought time, treasure and commitment, while professionals brought expertise and continuity. That model worked well in the past, but today’s environment demands more.”
Worthy Reads
Think Long Term: In The Jewish Standard, Maayan Aviv explains why the “72-hour crisis campaign” model is not the sustainable way forward for Jewish philanthropy. “Data from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows that just over 1 in 5 micro-donors ($1-$100) are retained year-over-year. That’s the lowest retention rate across gift amounts. As an example, only 14% of new donors from the first half of 2024 had been retained year-over-year. We know that a crisis, more often than not, will trigger a successful wave of emotional, one-time donations. … It’s imperative that we recognize that while 72-hour emergency funding campaigns are urgent and important, it actually takes a seven-year commitment to ensure programs stay funded and meet an ever-growing need.” [TheJewishStandard]
Sticker Shock: In The Times of Israel, Zev Stub explores the financial burdens involved in maintaining an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle in America today, particularly because of Jewish day school tuition costs. “‘People complain about the price of college tuition,’ Rachel [not her real name] said, ‘but we’ve been paying that for years, and that’s before college even starts.’ Factor in the costs of living in a relatively upscale Jewish community, and it’s hard to make ends meet even on a respectable salary, Rachel said. ‘How does the community afford to keep doing this?’ she wondered. ‘I’m not sure.’” [TOI]
Seek and You Shall Find: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Rasheeda Childress shares advice for fundraising professionals interested in securing contributions from donor-advised funds. “To get ahead of the new tax law, donors poured billions into their donor-advised funds at the end of last year. That’s good news for charities — but only if the money actually moves out of the DAFs and into their hands. If history is an indicator, the odds are good, says Genevieve Shaker, a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy who researches DAFs. … Shaker and others who spoke to the Chronicle say nonprofits can find and engage with DAF donors in multiple ways to help them find the right place to deploy the funds they’ve set aside for charity.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
Major Gifts
UJA-Federation of New York purchased 20,000 bags of Bamba directly from the Israeli food company Osem in response to Park Slope Food Coop’s vote to boycott Israeli products; the snacks will be distributed at the Israel Day on Fifth parade on Sunday…
Transitions
Rabbi Jill Levy, the director of the Ramah Day Camp of Greater Washington, is moving to Mem Global to serve as its senior director of Jewish immersive experiences…
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was named the first chair of the J50 Forum, made up of leaders from 50 Jewish communities from around the world that was created last year by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar…
Bari Rogoff has been hired as the first-ever CEO of Living Links, an organization representing descendants of Holocaust survivors…
Samuel Konig was named chief development officer of American Friends of Magen David Adom…
Word on the Street
The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has become the most valuable AI startup, following a $900 billion valuation, overtaking OpenAI’s latest $730 billion valuation…
Jewish Silicon Valley (Calif.) has launched a new Community Safety Fund dedicated to supporting safety and security initiatives for the local Jewish community…
Appearing on The Free Press’ “Second Thought” podcast, Scooter Braun reflects on the importance of tzedaka for keeping celebrities grounded, saying, “thank God for my mother; she always said, ‘tzedaka — you have to have giving in everything that you do, and I think that’s where we kept a lot of our sanity. … Giving feeds the soul, and deep down we all know that… because when you’re being worshiped, [really] God is meant to be worshipped. We’re meant to serve.”…
Jerusalem-born chef Raz Shabtai’s North Miami restaurant Mutra was awarded a Michelin star, becoming the only current kosher restaurant with the honor…
Boardroom profiles Phillip Schermer, a former executive at BlackRock who launched a nonprofit, Project Healthy Minds, that aims to make mental healthcare services more accessible…
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that abortion, Israel, homosexuality and immigration are the top political issues discussed in religious services in the United States…
Third Point founder and CEO Daniel Loeb made his first podcast appearance, appearing on Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s “Invest Like the Best” to discuss AI, corporate governance and investing in the current climate…
Organizers of Rome’s upcoming Pride parade denied a request from the country’s only Jewish LGBTQ group to march with a float, saying that the Keshet Italia, which is unaffiliated with Israel, had refused to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”…
Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution soccer team, was spotted in Budapest, Hungary, attending the UEFA Champions League celebrations…
Former journalist and actor Marvin Chatinover died on Wednesday at 99…
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee gives the commencement address yesterday at Yeshiva University’s graduation ceremony in New York City.
“In a time of confusion and division, this institution continues to produce graduates whose education is both broad and rigorous, anchored in moral clarity and a commitment to eternal values. The students leaving here today are ready to bring wisdom, integrity and devotion into every arena they enter,” Huckabee said in his speech.
Read Jewish Insider’s interview with Huckabee ahead of the ceremony here.
Birthdays
Medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Ethiopia spine and heart project, Dr. Richard “Rick” Hodes turns 73…
FRIDAY: Montreal-based businessman and philanthropist, Marvin Birnbom turns 96… Professor emerita of marine biology at Rutgers University, Judith Shulman Weis turns 85… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party and then Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Eli Cohen turns 77… Winner of three Emmy Awards and a Grammy, actor, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer, Danny Elfman turns 73… U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) turns 72… Retired senior diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was previously a brigadier general in the IDF, Ruth Yaron turns 69… Television writer, producer and actor, best known as the creator of the sitcom “Arrested Development” as well as the co-creator of “The Ellen Show,” Mitchell Hurwitz turns 63… Past president of Ahavath Achim Congregation in Wichita, Kan., she is a trustee-at-large on the board of JFNA, Ellen Ginsburg Beren… Professor at the University of Chicago, co-author of the best-selling books in the Freakonomics series, Steven Levitt turns 59… CEO and executive editor of 70 Faces Media, the parent company of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Amiram “Ami” Eden… Policy analyst at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Yaakov Feinstein… Founding partner of Blandford Capital, Nathaniel Jerome Meyohas turns 52… Founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss turns 51… Chief communications officer and global spokesperson at Aish, she is also a cookbook author, Jamie Geller turns 48… Film producer and former corporate lawyer at Skadden Arps, Edward Frank “Teddy” Schwarzman turns 47… Senior political reporter at The Forward, Jacob Kornbluh… Swedish-born pro-Israel activist, commentator and reporter, Annika Hernroth-Rothstein turns 45… Managing director at Hudson Bay Capital Management and Jewish communal activist, Alexander Berger… Assistant secretary for constituency affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, he was formerly her Jewish liaison, Jacob “Jake” Adler… Israeli-born assistant pitching coach for the Colorado Rockies, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Alon Leichman turns 37… English actor, his bar mitzvah was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Gregg Sulkin turns 34…
SATURDAY: Santa Monica, Calif.-based historian of Sephardic and Crypto-Jewish studies, Dolores Sloan turns 96… Real estate developer, landlord of the World Trade Center until 9/11, former chair of UJA-Federation of NY, Larry A. Silverstein turns 95… Partner in the NYC law firm of Mintz & Gold, he is also a leading supporter of Hebrew University, Ira Lee “Ike” Sorkin turns 83… Cape Town, South Africa, native, she is the owner and chef at Los Angeles-based Catering by Brenda, Brenda Walt turns 75… Former professional tennis player, he competed in nine Wimbledons and 13 U.S. Opens, Steve “Lightning” Krulevitz turns 75… Former chief rabbi of France, Gilles Uriel Bernheim turns 74… Encino, Calif.-based business attorney, Andrew W. Hyman… Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Miriam Merkin turns 72… Israeli physicist and philosopher, Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur turns 69… Former member of Congress from Long Island for 16 years, since leaving Congress he has opened a bookstore and written three novels, Steve Israel turns 68… Former science editor for BBC News and author of several books, David Shukman turns 68… Founder of Krav Maga Global with 1,500 instructors in 60 countries, Eyal Yanilov turns 67… Member of the editorial board at The New York Times, Michelle Cottle… Film, stage and television actor, singer and songwriter, Idina Menzel turns 55… Writer, filmmaker, playwright and DJ, known by his pen name Ithamar Ben-Canaan, Itamar Handelman Smith turns 50… Member of Knesset who previously served as Israel’s minister of agriculture, Oded Forer turns 49… Director of marketing at NYC’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Scott Hertz… Deputy assistant to President Biden until 2023, the first Palestinian-American White House senior staffer, now the chief of staff for Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Reema Dodin turns 46… Communication and marketing coordinator for the San Francisco office of AIPAC, Alina T. Katz… Israeli author, her debut novel has been published in dozens of countries, Shani Boianjiu turns 39… Rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionally as Hebro, Raphael Ohr Chaim Fulcher turns 39… Senior counsel at Gilead Sciences, Ashley Bender Spirn… Ice hockey head coach of the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, David Matthew Warsofsky turns 36… Deputy chief of staff for Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Miryam Esther Lipper… Senior reporter for CNN, Eric Levenson… Challah baker and manager of San Francisco’s Howard Properties, Jason Friend…
SUNDAY: Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 93… Owner of one of the nation’s largest privately held industrial empires, Ira Leon Rennert turns 92… Professor emeritus at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 85… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1997 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 84… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 83… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” he has won fourteen Emmy Awards during his career, Bernie Goldberg turns 81… Comedian, actor and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 71… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies with operations in the sports (including the Edmonton Oilers), entertainment and real estate sectors, Daryl Katz turns 65… Reality television personality, best known for starring in and producing her own matchmaking reality series, “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” Patti Stanger turns 65… Jerusalem-born inventor, serial entrepreneur and novelist; founder, chairman and CEO of CyberArk Software, one of Israel’s leading software companies, Alon Nisim Cohen turns 58… Entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, an online casino software firm, Andrew Rivkin turns 57… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now VP of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 53… Senior director of volunteerism & advocacy at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Melissa York… Israeli actor, singer and dancer, she played a Mossad agent in the espionage TV series “Tehran,” Liraz Charhi turns 48… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew Stone Levine turns 48… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Former attorney and NYT-bestselling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin turns 44… Senior counsel for autonomy & robotics at DoorDash, formerly a senior advisor at the Department of Commerce, Bert Eli Kaufman… Senior product manager at Tel Aviv-based Forter, Zoe Goldfarb… Stephanie Oreck Weiss… Chief revenue officer at NOTUS, Brad E. Bosserman… Senior rabbi and executive director of Jewish life at D.C.’s Sixth & I, Aaron Potek… Managing editor at NOTUS, Matt Berman… Medical student in the class of 2027 at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Amital Isaac… Brad Goldstein… Basketball player in Israel’s Premier League until recent years, while at Princeton he won the Ivy League Player of the Year award (2017), Spencer Weisz turns 31… Professional golfer on the PGA Tour, Max Alexander Greyserman turns 31… Tech product leader and rapper known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 28…
