Your Daily Phil: What an Israeli comedian can teach us about PTSD
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we reflect on a viral Israeli stand-up comedian’s performance about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. We report on Jewish communal organizations calling for nonprofits to apply for federal security grants despite requirements regarding immigration and diversity programs that they may oppose. We spotlight an Australian initiative looking to convince Jewish households to make their homes more environmentally friendly, and report on the newly announced recipients of the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor. We feature opinion pieces responding to last week’s “The 501(C) Suite” column by Barry Finestone calling for organizational and funder action to address burnout among Jewish communal professionals. Also in this issue: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Dan Tatar and Michael Hoffman.
What We’re Watching
We’re keeping an eye on high tensions in Israel as the IDF prepares for a fresh ground campaign in Gaza City, calling up tens of thousands of reservists. Over the past week, the Yemeni Houthi terror group has also fired many missiles and drones at Israel after a dozen of its top officials were killed last week in an Israeli airstrike.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
In the week since it went online, Israeli comedian Udi Kagan’s latest stand-up performance has been watched more than 3.2 million times on Facebook. Add to that more than 350,000 views on YouTube and an untold number more on Instagram and TikTok. In Israeli terms, this is about as viral as a video can get, and unlike typically speedy “vertical videos,” this one is nearly 22 minutes long.
Best known for playing the mullet-haired failed singer Moshiah (Messiah) in a hit Israeli comedy series of the same name and lampooning politicians and other famous figures on the popular Israeli sketch comedy show “Eretz Nehederet,” Kagan’s new act — while still humorous — deals with a far more serious topic: post-traumatic stress disorder. Specifically, his post-traumatic stress disorder.
Israeli mental health experts have been warning of an impending “tsunami” of psychological illness following the Oct. 7 terror attacks and ensuing wars. Some initial forecasts have indicated that hundreds of thousands of Israelis may develop PTSD and other mental health conditions — depression, anxiety, addiction — as a result of them, which experts say will strain an Israeli health care system that is simply not prepared to handle them. And yet, Kagan’s personal, funny monologue about his own struggles with PTSD and addiction has done what those dire, macro warnings have so frequently failed to do: get people to care.
Accompanying himself on the piano, Kagan describes his realization that he was struggling with PTSD following his military service during the height of the Second Intifada, while on a “trek” in South America after he was discharged with a fellow veteran. While huddling together with his friend for warmth during a cold hike — like Kagan used to do in the army under similar circumstances — he suddenly had a panic attack, which he then started to have every night.
“I came back from the trip, and the attacks didn’t stop, and suddenly they weren’t just at night. Suddenly, they were during the day, too,” Kagan recalled, adding that he quickly discovered the “cure” for his problem: “the combination of alcohol and very hard drugs.”
After years of severe addiction and attempting suicide, Kagan said that he asked for — and received — the help that he needed.
“I recovered,” he said. “And then came Oct. 7.” His PTSD came roaring back. He describes hiding knives in all of the rooms of his house in case terrorists broke in, buying baseball bats, not being able to sleep. “I stopped being able to function, as a father, as a husband, at all,” he said. Eventually, his wife helped him recover.
“I’m sure you’re wondering, ‘Why am I talking about this in a stand-up show?’” he said. “Because it’s important to me, so important to me. Because this thing [PTSD], guys, it’s not just mine. There won’t be a household [in Israel] that doesn’t have this. People who were there, people who rescued, people who heard, people who lost people. But I don’t want to stress you out. The opposite, I want to say something good. This thing grows in darkness, in shame, in silence, when we don’t speak about it. … But it dies quickly in the light.”
FUNDING FEARS
Jewish orgs urge institutions to apply for NSGP grants, regardless of questions about new conditions
A series of Jewish community groups, in a joint statement released on Tuesday, urged Jewish organizations to apply for Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding, in spite of ongoing concerns from some in the community about potential new immigration and DEI-related conditions on the funding, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.
What they’re saying: “While we are aware that questions have arisen on the part of certain religious institutions regarding the current year’s program criteria, our organizations strongly urge all eligible institutions to apply for this critical resource,” the Jewish Federations of North America, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Anti-Defamation League, Secure Community Network, Community Security Initiative and Community Security Service said in a joint statement. The groups said they have been “in regular contact with government officials who have affirmed their continued commitment to protecting the safety of all faith-based institutions and the values they hold.”
LESSONS FROM DOWN UNDER
Australian ‘It’s Time’ initiative encourages Jewish households to ‘electrify’ and make greener choices
While there is a global push to shift from dependence on coal, oil and gas for power to renewable energy such as wind and solar power, if the heating systems, water pumps and appliances throughout houses run on fossil fuels, they will continue to drive global warming, Joel Lazar, CEO of Australia-based Jewish Climate Network, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. That’s why, in May, JCN launched “It’s Time,” a campaign aiming to get 100 Jewish households in Melbourne and Sydney to replace their gas appliances with electric alternatives, with the hope that they will be an example to other cultural and religious communities in Australia as well as to Jews around the world.
Knowledge is power: Through “It’s Time,” JCN offers workshops, similar to Tupperware, Pampered Chef or LuLaRoe parties, where households invite 10 to 15 friends to which JCN staff presents. Presentations are purposefully kept simple so attendees aren’t overwhelmed with options and information. “The electrification process can be a very kind of nerdy, detail-oriented process,” Lazar said. “You don’t have to tell people everything right up front. Just tell them the essential things that they need to make good decisions for their life. If they need more information, then you can follow up afterwards.”
NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Israeli President Isaac Herzog to present medal of honor to Miriam Adelson, 8 others
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will present the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor to philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson, tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, German publisher Mathias Döpfner and five other recipients, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
‘Exceptional contribution’: The Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, which was created in 2012 by then-President Shimon Peres, is presented annually to recipients “who, by virtue of their skills, service or in any other way, have made an exceptional contribution to the State of Israel or to humanity.” The other five recipients are: George Costa Karra, one of Israel’s first Arab Supreme Court judges; Moti Malka, founder of the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra; Dr. Avi Ohry, an expert in rehabilitation; Dina Porat, chief historian of Yad Vashem; and Galila Ron-Feder Amit, an Israeli author and journalist. The medals will be presented later this year at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
READERS RESPOND
Barry Finestone’s call to support communal professionals ‘running on fumes’ elicits outpouring of responses
Based on the volume and variety of responses on social media to last week’s installment of “The 501(C) Suite” in eJewishPhilanthropy, it appears that Barry Finestone, the Jim Joseph Foundation’s CEO and president, tapped into a widespread and deeply felt concern when he spotlighted the issue of burnout among Jewish communal professionals. Some readers responded to eJP directly, agreeing with Finestone’s proposed solutions, offering critiques and/or introducing novel approaches of their own.
What Jewish professionals really want: “Barry Finestone suggests some remedies worth exploring, including supplementing staff when needed, protecting rest, educating about political minefields and building cross-institutional lifelines. But his recommendation that showing gratitude might be achieved by offering wellness or spa days, frankly, stopped me in my tracks. As lovely as an occasional massage might be, I have never heard a Jewish professional express a yearning for that kind of pampering. What I do hear from the vast majority of the ones I coach is for their organizations to demonstrate their commitment to sustaining them at their jobs by adopting overall HR practices that constitute the very best practices in the nonprofit world.” — Nahma Nadich, leadership consultant and professional coach
Fund the talent, or forget the cause: “Spend more, now. Endowments have grown to record highs over the last two years. It is time for a spend-down — larger draws of 10%, 20% and more. We encourage philanthropists to stop waiting for a rainy day. Funders have the power to be a key driver of an ecosystem that prioritizes talent. Not doing this essentially means that whatever goals a funder has for their investments are being severely undercut by sending a conflicting message that they believe in the mission, but not the people who power it.” — Josh Feldman and Rachel Zieleniec, R&R: The Rest of Our Lives
Building systems of care: “I want to add another solution to [Finestone’s] list, one that might feel less intuitive at first glance but is no less essential if we want our people to thrive: organizational systems, processes and tools that leverage technology and automation. … If philanthropy wants to make a transformative difference, it must fund not only wellness initiatives but also systems initiatives. That means supporting nonprofits in building the technological and process infrastructure that takes the weight of inefficiency off people’s shoulders.” — Elisheva Thompson, culture/shift
Jewish learning as cure for communal burnout: “The leaders who teach our children, guide our ritual lives, plan our programs, keep our institutions safe and care for our most vulnerable often lack access to the very sources of meaning that have sustained and empowered our people for thousands of years. For many, their last serious engagement with Jewish knowledge was in Hebrew school, summer camp or a Hillel program. Since then, the near-constant stream of emergencies has left little space for the nourishment of learning. But Jewish learning is not a luxury — it is fuel. And the people entrusted with building our shared future deserve its restorative power.” — Rabbi Ana Bonnheim, Jewish Learning Collaborative
Worthy Reads
It Starts at Home: In the Jewish News, David Graham shares insights about Jewish development from the Jewish Institute for Policy Research’s 2022 National Jewish Identity Survey. “The home environment explains more of the differences in adult Jewish identity than any Jewish school, youth movement or Israel programme… Home practices are not quaint traditions but foundational experiences with measurable long-term effects. Investing in parental training, support networks and resources to enrich Friday nights, kashrut and family rituals may yield deeper dividends than another curriculum overhaul.” [JewishNews]
Hope is a Thing With Feathers: In The New York Times, Margaret Renkl takes inspiration from the purple martins making their annual migration through downtown Nashville, Tenn. “It’s possible to see the birds’ choice of roost sites as an irony: Human beings, who are responsible for the purple martins’ loss of habitat, are also responsible for their survival. I prefer to think of it instead as a parable. These birds are proof of what is yet possible when many people seek a way to compensate for the wide-scale environmental destruction that our species is responsible for.” [NYTimes]
The Good Book, Revisited: In Jewish Insider, Lahav Harkov spotlights a new Chumash with commentary from the late British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, which was put together by scholars based on his writings and speeches. “‘The scholars beautifully weaved his ideas from each parasha [Torah portion] into detailed commentary,’ [Joanna] Benarroch, [president of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy,] said. ‘It’s his words, very carefully crafted to give a whole picture of each parasha. The ideas are woven together in a way they had never before been [presented].’ … Sacks’ commentary combines both [close readings and overarching principles], in some places referring to specific words and phrases, and in others sharing insights on broader stories and ideas, which gives, Benarroch said, ‘an overview of what you can learn from the parasha. You’re coming out with a clear understanding of what it is about, with relevant ideas for today.’” [JewishInsider]
Word on the Street
The Boulder chapter of “Run for Their Lives,” an organization that arranges weekly marches to advocate for the hostages held in Gaza, will no longer publicly advertise its walking route, the group announced on Wednesday, saying the decision was made “following weeks of escalating harassment and threats,” less than three months after a Molotov cocktail attack on the group left a participant dead and injured 15 others, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Israel recovered the bodies of hostages Idan Shtivi and Ilan Weiss, both of whom were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and their bodies taken to Gaza…
The superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District struck down a school board vote to display the Israeli flag in schools and administrative buildings in the district for one month every year; Superintendent Alex Cherniss said that only the U.S. and California flags would be flown on school properties, citing “heightened safety concerns”…
The Forward spotlights the New Orleans Jewish community 20 years after Hurricane Katrina…
Police in Ontario, Canada, are investigating the stabbing of a Jewish woman at a kosher supermarket as a hate crime…
A Holocaust memorial in Lyon, France, was vandalized with graffiti reading “Free Gaza”…
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were killed in a terror attack two years ago, remarried on Sunday to Aliza Teplitsky…
Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog, a former head of the IDF Southern Command, canceled a planned trip to South Africa over concerns that he would be arrested by local authorities upon landing…
Dozens of Jewish New York City educators announced that they were leaving the local teachers’ union due to antisemitism…
Haaretz spotlights a new campaign by the Israeli nonprofit One in Nine based on the recent “great jeans” American Eagle advertisements featuring Sydney Sweeney to raise awareness about the BRCA genes carried by many Jewish women that makes them more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer…
JewishColumbus announced that it raised $12.2 million in its annual community campaign, which closed on June 30, twice the amount raised the previous year…
Jerry Lippman, the publisher of several Jewish communal newspapers, died yesterday…
Susanne Jalnos, reportedly the last living Holocaust survivor in San Antonio, Texas, died on Saturday at 98…
Transitions
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation appointed Michael Hoffman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County (Fla.), to its board of directors as a trustee…
Dan Tatar was selected to serve as interim CEO of the iCenter as the organization searches for a permanent successor for its founder, Anne Lanski…
Laura E. Adkins, the former senior director of communications at Jewish Women International, has been hired as the director of content and editorial strategy at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism…
Elad Strohmayer has entered the position of Israel’s consul general to the Midwest…
Wendy Aronson was hired as director of development at Camp Young Judaea in Texas…
Pic of the Day
Leaders from the Hampton Synagogue cut the ribbon on Sunday to unveil a new Holocaust memorial dedicated to the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust, outside the Westhampton Beach, N.Y., congregation. The glass structure was created by artist Dale Chihuly. Alex Witkoff, a presidential appointee to United States Holocaust Memorial Council, served as chair of the dedication ceremony.
Birthdays
Trustee of the eponymous foundation started by her husband, Harold Grinspoon, she is on the PJ Library Book Selection Committee, Diane Leshefsky Troderman…
Attorney who was part of the “Dream Team” that successfully defended O.J. Simpson in 1995, he is a co-founder of three businesses, LegalZoom, Shoedazzle and RightCounsel, Robert Shapiro… Rabbi of Baltimore’s Shearith Israel Congregation since 1987 and president of the Baltimore Vaad HaRabonim, Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer… Lincolnwood, Ill., resident, Tobi Rebecca Kelmer… Tech entrepreneur and consultant at Xynetics Group, Richard Mandelbaum… Member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party from 1999 until 2022, Yaakov Litzman… One of Israel’s earliest high-tech entrepreneurs, Yossi Vardi… Senior vice president at Southern Bank & Trust, he is an honorary director of Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk, Va., Steven Kocen… Television producer, attorney, legal analyst and celebrity reporter, he is the founder of TMZ, Harvey Levin … CEO of Lionsgate Entertainment, the leading Canadian independent film studio, Jon Feltheimer… Retired president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston from 1987 to 2017, Lee Wunsch… Author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer… Investigative producer for CBS News, Daniel Klaidman… Chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax, James Rosen… Founder of Israeli media organization TheMarker and a deputy publisher of the Haaretz daily newspaper, he is also a clinical professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Guy Rolnik… Serial entrepreneur, co-founder and chairman of Groupon, he is also the founder and CEO of Tempus AI, Eric Lefkofsky… Executive producer at PBS’s Frontline, Raney Aronson-Rath… Chair of Sight Diagnostics, he was previously director general of the Israeli prime minister’s office, Eliyahu David (Eli) Groner… Contemporary Jewish religious music vocalist, known by the mononym “Ohad,” Ohad Moskowitz… Chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jess Fassler… D.C.-based U.S. tax policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Richard Rubin… Actor, comedian and impressionist, Jonathan Kite… Executive editor of news for Bloomberg, the co-anchor of “What’d You Miss” on Bloomberg Television and co-host of the “Odd Lots” podcast on Bloomberg Podcasts, Joseph Weisenthal… Partner at Axiom Strategies, Ethan Zorfas… Co-lead of the U.S. tech practice at Edelman, Margot Edelman… Chief of staff at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Seth Zweifler… Former MLB baseball pitcher, he was a first-round pick in the 2013 MLB draft, now playing for the Staten Island FerryHawks, Rob Kaminsky…
