Your Daily Phil: What a 990 Form change could mean: more transparency, red tape
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the implications of a proposed change to the IRS’ 990 Form for nonprofits. We report on the imminent closure of L.A.’s Kadima Day School and on a $60 million pledge by the Mandel Foundation for Cleveland’s JCC summer camps. We feature an opinion piece by Shelley Kedar sharing insights from a new report from the Jewish Agency for Israel and a piece by Rabbi Seth Farber providing a firsthand account of the controversy surrounding Israeli women sitting for state rabbinical exams for the first time yesterday; plus Erika Bocknek reflects on what she’s learned about her synagogue community since it was attacked in a terror attack last month. Also in this issue: Michael A. Cohen, Adeena Sussman and Mitchell Rales.
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
The Academic Engagement Network’s three-day convening, which started earlier this week, continues today in New York City.
Reichman University’s Aaron Institute for Economic Policy kicked off its two-day annual conference this morning in Herzliya, Israel. Read more here.
Elluminate is hosting its inaugural Global Jewish Women’s Network Summit today and tomorrow in New York City.
The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition kicks off its three-day annual conference today, with speakers including Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, State Department antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun, the Justice Department’s Harmeet Dhillon and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer. The group also plans to honor Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today with the “Pillar of Zion” award.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM EJP’S JAY DEITCHER
Last week, the Treasury Department announced planned changes to IRS tax Form 990 in a move that could lead to better transparency in how nonprofits use funding and expose foreign interference in the nonprofit world. But experts told eJewishPhilanthropy that the change would still allow funders to hide their donations and would add an additional layer of bureaucracy for all nonprofits.
“Public money and tax-exempt status demand public accountability,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the announcement. “We are ending the days of hiding fraud, abuse and extremist activity behind complicated nonprofit arrangements. When bad actors misuse charitable structures, directors and officers should understand that transparency can lead to scrutiny, accountability and liability under the law.”
Much of the change centers around “fiscal sponsorship,” in which nonprofits provide their tax-exempt status to outside projects — an increasingly common practice that is meant to improve the efficiency and speed of new initiatives. While it allows grassroots efforts to get off the ground quickly with less bureaucracy, this method can also be used to obfuscate funding sources and governance structures, making it unclear who stands behind a fiscally sponsored project.
The 990 form change, which would also require greater reporting on government grants, also comes as the White House is elsewhere cracking down on progressive groups, including filing fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly allocating donor funds improperly by using them to pay informants in far-right extremist groups.
The goal of the new 990 form is “to make the financial flows more transparent and to strengthen oversight,” Nancy Chun Feng, professor of accounting at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University, told eJP. She interpreted the announcement as a “shift from entity-level reporting to network-level transparency,” looking at organizations’ nonprofit partners, many of which are not 501(c)(3) organizations.
For many overburdened nonprofits, the changes will add to a pile of paperwork, Rachel Sumekh, the CEO of TEN: Together Ending Need, told eJP. “Many Jewish human service agencies receive large amounts of federal funding to support our community’s healthcare, senior services, disability services, etc.,” she said. “This means more staff time for reporting, rather than case management, for no extra dollars.”
There are legitimate concerns about the overuse of fiscal sponsorship, Brian Mittendorf, the H.P. Wolfe Chair in accounting at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, said, which causes the public to not know what money is being used for. There is also a need for transparency with donor-advised funds, which also allow funders to hide their identities, Mittendorf said. This is not included in the current IRS change, however. There are also ways to improve 990s without much extra record keeping for nonprofits, he added, “but that also doesn’t necessarily sound like what they’re looking to get.”
END OF AN ERA
L.A.’s Kadima Day School to shut down after yearslong funding crisis, hopes to sell campus to Jewish school
Los Angeles’ nondenominational Kadima Day School will shut down at the end of the school year and hopes to sell its campus to another Jewish day school, in light of growing financial struggles and diminishing enrollment, the institution informed parents, staff and other stakeholders this week, reports Ayala Or-El for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Long time coming: The closure comes less than a year after the pre-K-8 school announced that it was in a financial crisis after its primary — and nearly sole — donor, board member Shawn Evenhaim, decided to halt his funding over growing frustration that the school was overly reliant on him and had failed to expand its donor base. “This didn’t start a year ago,” Evenhaim told eJP. “I’ve been warning for years that the school wasn’t financially sustainable. No one should rely on a single donor, and if that donor stops contributing, and you don’t have enough students, you have to shut down.”
MAJOR GIFTS
With summer approaching, Mandel pledges $60 million in 4-to-1 matching grant to Cleveland camps
As the summer camp season approaches, the Cleveland-based Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation has pledged up to $60 million to the city’s Jewish Community Center to overhaul its day and overnight camps and youth programming. The donation is structured as a 4-to-1 match: For every dollar that the community raises for the project, the Mandel Foundation will provide four, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.
Return on investment: The investment in summer camps is specifically geared toward engaging children who aren’t enrolled in Jewish day schools. “Investing in the Jewish camp experience is among the most effective things we can do to ensure Jewish continuity. This partnership creates an opportunity for children to discover that being Jewish is joyful, relevant, and theirs to own for life,” Jehuda Reinharz, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement.
GLOBAL VIEW
Hope can’t be just a feeling. It must be a strategy.
“Spend enough time in Jewish spaces, and you will hear both narratives repeated as fact: Liberal Jews are distancing themselves from Israel, and Reform Jews are uncomfortable with Zionism,” writes Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz, director of Amplify Israel at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “There is truth here, but only partial truth — and partial truths, when left unexamined, harden into assumptions that distort our decision-making and weaken our communal future.”
Ready and willing: “What liberal Jews want is honest engagement. They want moral seriousness, complexity and relationship — not slogans or litmus tests. They want to encounter an Israel that reflects their values as well as their questions. And when that Israel is made visible, they show up. … Over time, the movement’s absence [as a Birthright trip provider] reinforced a false binary: that one must choose between being pro-Israel or progressive, committed or critical, engaged or ethical. But in the intervening years, we at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue believed that there was still a hunger for Israel experiences among liberal Jews. So, we decided to test our theory.”
BREAKING BARRIERS
A day of reckoning and renewal at the Rabbinate
“Yesterday, a group of extraordinary women stood at the gates of the Israeli religious establishment, not with hammers to break them down, but with the profound scholarship of years of intensive Torah study. They arrived at the Ministry of Religious Affairs to take the Chief Rabbinate’s exams,” writes Rabbi Seth Farber, founder and director of ITIM, which spearheaded the legal effort to allow the women to take the exams, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “They were met not with the dignity their learning deserves, but with what appears to have been a calculated, four-hour campaign of bureaucratic cruelty and bald-faced deception.”
The path forward: “In five years, we will look back at today’s drama at the ministry as a strange, desperate footnote. I believe that by then, we will see hundreds of women passing these tests. … Today, the women showed us the path of scholarship and endurance. They proved that while you can delay the truth, you cannot defeat it.”
COMMUNITY TIES
The opposite of helplessness
“Terrorism, at its core, is about power. Whether it’s a mass shooting, a targeted attack or violence against a single person, the intention is the same: to dominate, to control, to instill fear,” writes therapist Erika Bocknek, a congregant at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The natural consequence of that kind of violence is a profound sense of helplessness.”
A strong nest: “I am moved to tell this story, though, because of how struck I am that the people most directly impacted by our community crisis are also mostly the people who have always been holding our community together. We speak of miracles that managed to keep the very worst possible tragedies from occurring, but we do not really illuminate the human bonds that were woven together to make that possible before war even arrived at our door. Those people, their bonds, are the miracle of which we speak.”
Worthy Reads
Alma Mater Mattes: In The Willliams (College) Record, alumnus Nate Lebowitz decries the school’s growing antisemitism problems after receiving a request for a donation.“For me, Williams was never just a college. It was a formative home. I arrived there in 1982, and I have carried my love for the institution ever since. That is precisely why the request landed not as a routine appeal, but as a knife plunged into my heart. … In the 1980s, many of us fought — proudly and sometimes stubbornly — to create a visible Jewish presence on campus. We wanted something more than a club or a borrowed room in someone else’s building. We advocated for a real Jewish home… And now, decades later, some students tell a very different story. The Jewish home we fought to build — something earlier generations could have only dreamed of — has been described to me by some students as a place where open expressions of Jewish peoplehood can feel constrained.” [WilliamsRecord]
Reckless Driver: In The Atlantic, Michael A. Cohen argues that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the U.S.-Israel relationship has put both that relationship’s future and American Jews in danger. “For most of the country’s history, Israel’s leaders strove to ensure that no matter who controlled Congress or the White House, the U.S. would remain a staunch and dependable ally. Indeed, bipartisan American support for Israel was arguably the country’s most crucial strategic asset. But Netanyahu has repeatedly imperiled that bipartisan consensus. … As is usually the case with Netanyahu, who is legendary for his short-term approach to politics, the long-term damage to the American Jewish community and to Israel’s standing in the United States is a problem for another day. … For American Jews, however, the problem is in the here and now.” [TheAtlantic]
Fast Food: In Jewish Insider, Melissa Weiss interviews American Israeli chef Adeena Sussman about her newly published cookbook. “Adeena Sussman’s Tel Aviv kitchen is a chef’s dream. The long marble countertop next to the stove extends out from the gas range, perfect for preparing ingredients, pouring drinks and entertaining. A set of sharp knives is held in place by a magnetic holder affixed to the wall, while another set sits in a block on the counter. A bright red juicer stands next to the window. Hebrew and English cookbooks neatly line a shelf under the coffee presses and dried pasta, as well as additional shelves around the kitchen. ‘This is my safe room,’ Sussman half-jokingly tells Jewish Insider. Her actual safe room — called a mamad in Hebrew — is a floor below, used frequently during the war with Iran, in the midst of which JI visited the cookbook author last month, weeks before the release of her third book, Zariz: 100 Easy, Breezy, Tel Aviv-y Recipes, which was released on Tuesday.” [JewishInsider]
Word on the Street
The New York Times looks at how Google co-founder Sergey Brin has begun to move to the right, citing the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on a variety of core issues, including Israel; Brin told the Times, “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place”…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the cancellation of large Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron in northern Israel on May 4-5 due to safety risks from persistent Hezbollah attacks despite a fragile ceasefire…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency highlights the Trump administration’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center on bank and wire fraud charges, a move criticized by leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism and Jewish Council for Public Affairs as a political attack…
The “Nova Festival Exhibition” will arrive in East London on May 20 for a six-week run, the first in the U.K.…
The New York Post reports that an elite California private school canceled its long-standing middle school retreat at Camp Tawonga, citing “identity safety” concerns after the Jewish camp refused to issue a political statement on the Gaza war…
B’nai Brith Canada reports that antisemitic incidents reached a record high of 6,800 in 2025, a significant increase from the 6,219 incidents recorded in 2024…
All five of Pennsylvania’s living former governors, both Republicans and Democrats, released a statement on Monday calling on state officials to prioritize the safety and security of Gov. Josh Shapiro; the letter comes days after Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s leading Republican opponent in this year’s gubernatorial race — said the state would not pay for security upgrades at Shapiro’s private home, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
David Ellison’s Paramount filed a request for approval from the FCC for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co. to collectively take a nearly 50% stake in Paramount’s equity interests…
Israel’s Health Ministry approved LIV, an AI-powered psychiatric triage tool that helps assess mental health cases amid a critical shortage of practitioners…
Edith Eger, a San Diego-based psychologist and Holocaust survivor who used her experience surviving Auschwitz on the way to becoming a global authority on trauma recovery and resilience, died yesterday at 98…
Major Gifts
Mitchell Rales donated $116 million to the National Gallery of Art to permanently fund a program that circulates the museum’s masterpieces to local institutions throughout all 50 states…
Transitions
Simon Amiel has been named the next executive vice president, North America, of the Birthright Israel; Amiel, who will be stepping down as executive director of RootOne, succeeds Elizabeth “Liz” Sokolsky, who has served in the role for some 26 years…
Uriel Heilman was hired as director of global Jewish programs at the National Library of Israel…
Adam Safran, former legislative director for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), has joined AIPAC as a director for policy and government affairs…
Lori Rubin has been appointed executive director of Golden Slipper Camp in the Poconos…
Aviv Kurnas has joined American Friends of Tel Aviv University as its new development relationship manager…
Eugene Kontorovich is joining Advancing American Freedom as a senior legal fellow…
Pic of the Day
Israeli philanthropists Idan and Batia Ofer unveil the BIO-VITAL longevity program earlier this month at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, which was funded by their family foundation to accelerate research into aging and life extension.
Led by Israeli geneticist and longevity researcher Dr. Nir Barzilai, the initiative focuses on interventions to increase healthy lifespan and foster high-level scientific collaboration between the U.S. and Israel.
Birthdays
Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Elena Kagan turns 66…
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., he also served four terms in the Knesset, Zalman Shoval turns 96… Retired judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals (now known as the Supreme Court of Maryland), Judge Irma Steinberg Raker turns 88… Retired four-star United States Marine Corps general, Robert Magnus turns 79… Retired SVP and COO of IPRO and former president of the Bronx/Riverdale YM-YWHA and the Riverdale Jewish Center, Harry M. Feder… Cantor who has served in Galveston, Texas, Houston and Buffalo, N.Y., Sharon Eve Colbert… Criminal defense attorney, his clients have included Hunter Biden and Jared Kushner, Abbe David Lowell turns 74… Author of 28 books, lecturer, podcaster, tour guide in Jerusalem and film producer, Rabbi Hanoch Teller turns 70… Director of congregational engagement at Temple Beth Sholom of Miami Beach, Fla., Mark Baranek… American-born Israeli writer and translator, director and senior fellow at Z3, David Hazony turns 57… Director of criminal justice innovation, development and engagement at USDOJ during the Biden administration, Karen “Chaya” Friedman… Comedy writer, television producer and showrunner, Daniel Joshua Goor turns 51… Retired soccer player, she played for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team from 1997 to 2000, Sara Whalen Hess turns 50… Founder of GlobeTrotScott Strategies, Scott Mayerowitz… Actress and film critic, she is the writer and star of the CBC comedy series “Workin’ Moms,” Catherine Reitman turns 45… Model, actress and TV host, known for her role in the soap opera “Fashion House,” Donna Feldman turns 44… CEO and founder of The Branch, Ravi Gupta… Freelance journalist, formerly at ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Jason Schwartz… Senior editor at Politico Magazine, Benjamin Isaac Weyl… President of Saratoga Strategies, a strategic communications and crisis management firm, Joshua Schwerin… Head coach of the women’s soccer team at Yeshiva University, Ryan Alexander Hezekiah Adeleye turns 39… Israeli artist and photographer, Neta Cones turns 38… Marketing director at College Golf Experience, Jeffrey Hensiek… Associate in the finance department of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Robert S. Murstein… Senior reporter for Cybersecurity Dive, Eric J. Geller… Founder and CEO of Diamond Travel Services, Ahron Fragin… Midfielder for Major League Soccer’s St. Louis City, Daniel Ethan Edelman turns 23…
