Your Daily Phil: Wildfires give Israeli civil society its first post-Oct. 7 test
Good Monday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we consider the imminent release of American Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, examine the civil response to the wildfires in central Israel earlier this month and report on the unfreezing of federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds after months of uncertainty. In the latest installment of “The 501(C) Suite,” Rachel Garbow Monroe reflects on the evolving needs of Jewish leadership pipeline and the genesis of Leading Edge. Also in this newsletter: Shuki Taylor and Ben Berger, Mickey Shapiro and Margot Friedlander.
What We’re Watching
The Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem kicked off today its first major conference, “Mental Health in a Reality of War: The Implications of Oct. 7 and Its Aftermath,” which continues through tomorrow.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Germany today, where he is marking 60 years of German-Israeli relations.
This afternoon in Tel Aviv, hostage families will march from Hostages Square to the U.S. Embassy Branch Office to call for a “comprehensive” agreement to free the remaining hostages.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH EJP’S JUDAH ARI GROSS
The news that President Donald Trump had secured the release of American Israeli soldier Edan Alexander through indirect talks with Hamas — and without the involvement of Israel — was met by many in Israel with a combination of surprise, joy, skepticism and frustration.
Surprise — including apparently within the Israeli government — as the agreement had only been hinted at ahead of Trump’s planned visit to the Middle East this week, despite reportedly being in the works for several weeks. Alexander’s family, which lands in Israel today, was “completely surprised to receive the call” about his release, his father, Adi Alexander, told the Ynet news site. “It’s very symbolic and moving to get this news exactly on Mother’s Day.”
Joy at the prospect of a freed hostage, the first in many months and the first male soldier so far, and his reunion with his family.
Skepticism as Alexander’s release appears to be part of a wider effort by Qatar — one of Hamas’ main backers and a supporter of international terrorism more broadly — to ingratiate itself with the American president, along with a planned gift of a $400 million airplane, which critics are calling a bribe. This is also the latest major foreign-policy decision by the White House in which Israel appears to have been sidelined.
And frustration at the otherwise glacial pace of wider hostage-release negotiations, as dozens of Israeli and foreign captives continue to languish in torturous conditions in Gaza for upwards of 582 days, frustration that the Israeli government has explicitly stated that the return of the hostages is not the ongoing war’s ultimate goal, and — among Israelis specifically — frustration that Alexander is being released because of his American citizenship. “My Nimrod doesn’t have another nationality. My Nimrod is 100% Israeli. My Nimrod also deserves to come home,” Vicki Cohen, whose son Nimrod Cohen, is being held captive, wrote on X today.
Ofir Angrest, brother of captive soldier Matan Angrest, told Channel 12 last night, “He [Netanyahu] left him like a rag and now when a soldier is getting out because of his citizenship and not because of the level of injury or hardship, it’s simply a show of contempt for the State of Israel. The Israeli flag that Matan went into battle with — today it’s erased as far as I’m concerned.”
Alexander’s release comes as the Israeli public is increasingly prioritizing the release of hostages over the toppling of Hamas. A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute from late March found that more than two-thirds of Israelis say that bringing home all of the hostages is more important than defeating Hamas, compared to 25% who said the opposite. This is up from 62% who prioritized the release of the hostages in September 2024 and 51% who did so in January 2024. (Though to varying extents, across all political groupings — left, center and right — the majority of respondents put the release of hostages as more important than toppling Hamas, according to the survey.)
In Israel, Alexander’s release has prompted renewed calls for a negotiated deal to secure the release of the remaining 58 hosages, of whom 20 are believed to still be alive, as well as criticism of the Israeli government for seemingly caring less about the hostages than the White House.
“It is very sad that the government is not as determined as Trump. Without the return of the hostages, the country has no future,” Dani Miran, whose son Omri, is being held captive, said at a rally that was organized today in response to the news at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
While “embracing and supporting,” the Alexander family, the Hostages Families Forum released a brief statement: “We must not leave anyone behind! Edan’s return must be the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that brings home all the hostages.”
HELP ON THE WAY
With Oct. 7 experience, Israeli civil society stepped up during wildfires, but expert says government still too reliant on improvisation
Within one hour of putting out their call for volunteers as the wildfire in the foothills of Jerusaleam began to spread earlier this month, the Brothers and Sisters in Arms protest movement had a list of 1,500 volunteers ready to lend a hand. Within three hours, they had to close the list because they already had more volunteers than would be needed. “We have gained a lot of experience — unfortunate experience, but still experience — since Oct. 7 [, 2023,] in helping the population in scaling up from zero to whatever, so [coordination of the volunteers] was relatively easy,” board member Liat Weiss told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky.
The good and the bad: Brothers and Sisters in Arms was among many civilian groups that had developed or improved their volunteer network in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks that mobilized quickly to assist as the fire continued to spread. This included the Bnei Akiva youth movement, Yad Sarah, Yedidim, the Or Movement, the Israel Volunteer Council and the Israel Association of Community Centers — to name a few. Yet the significant volunteer effort that sprang to action shines a light on what critics decry as the “limitations in governmental support and planning” that exposed “vulnerabilities in crisis management practices” and still leaves the country reliant on nonprofits and ad hoc civil efforts, rather than organized and official responses, according to Shay Attias, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
SECURE FUNDING
FEMA lifts freeze on Nonprofit Security Grant Program reimbursements
A federal program that provides funding to help vulnerable nonprofits meet their security needs has again begun reimbursing recipients, after a funding freeze at the Federal Emergency Management Agency left the fate of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in limbo, report Gabby Deutch and Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Pressing play: The Jewish Federations of North America notified its membership of the change in an email sent to member organizations on Friday and obtained by JI. “Following significant engagement with Congress and the administration, we have learned that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security are restarting the process for reimbursing Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) funds,” Karen Paikin Barall, JFNA vice president for government relations, said in the email. “This means that State Administrative Agencies (SAAs) can now move forward with payment requests from nonprofits — something many states had paused for a while.” A spokesperson for FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
THE 501(C) SUITE
A decade of progress: Strengthening leadership and the Jewish nonprofit sector
“One of the most important markers of any effective organization is its CEO and senior leadership,” writes Rachel Garbow Monroe, president and CEO of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, in the latest installment of eJewishPhilanthropy’s exclusive opinion column “The 501(C) Suite.” “If they are superb, the organization is effective; if they are mediocre, the organization will be, too. Effective organizations are able to attract and retain staff at all levels who strengthen their work and culture — and may perhaps someday be in line to become the next CEO.”
A meaningful milestone: “Ten years ago, I found myself in a room of roughly two dozen Jewish funders and leaders, lamenting a problem we all knew Jewish nonprofits had struggled with for some time: finding and keeping talent, especially at the most senior levels… Instead of continuing to complain, we set out to answer why this was happening — and to do something about it. Last week, more than 1,300 Jewish leaders and professionals gathered in my hometown of Baltimore for JPro25. The conference, presented by Leading Edge and Jewish Federations of North America, served as the perfect opportunity to reflect on not only our success in answering that question but also the lessons learned and meaningful strides taken over the past decade to solve the problem and strengthen the Jewish nonprofit sector as a whole.”
Worthy Reads
Better Together: In an opinion piece for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Shuki Taylor and Ben Berger write about the value of peer learning for nonprofit leaders. “Job shadowing is typically seen as a tool for those early in their careers, an opportunity for emerging professionals to observe and absorb knowledge from those above them. But what happens when two senior leaders step into each other’s worlds to learn, not as mentors and mentees but as peers? … Rooted in the Jewish tradition of havruta, a centuries-old model of paired learning that values both challenge and support, our experience revealed some critical insights that challenge many of the dominant assumptions about how professionals at the highest levels should grow… When senior leaders embrace learning as a dynamic, reciprocal experience rather than a fixed destination, they don’t just become better at what they do — they cultivate a professional culture of curiosity, generosity, and continuous evolution.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]
A Primary Directive: In The Times of Israel, Mijal Biton explores a question asked by commentators over hundreds of years about the most recent weekly Torah portion: How should we understand the injunction “Kedoshim tihiyu”? “The anthropologist Richard Shweder describes the ‘ethic of divinity’ as a framework in which human beings are seen not just as autonomous individuals, but as vessels of the sacred. In much of the West, this ethic has faded. In its place is the ethic of autonomy: be yourself, and do no harm. In such a framework, holiness is almost unintelligible. Yet, in the heart of Leviticus — at the beginning of this week’s second Torah portion, Kedoshim — the Torah delivers one of its most radical commands: ‘You shall be holy.’ Not as a dream or as an ideal, but as a duty. For years, I searched Leviticus for echoes of modern sensibilities — the social justice of caring for the vulnerable, loving your neighbor, building a just society. But lately, I’ve been drawn to the ways Leviticus doesn’t fit our categories — the demands it makes that feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable. I’ve begun to ask more seriously: What does it mean to be holy? And why does the Torah demand it?” [TOI]
‘Wow! Please? Thank you.’: In The New York Times, Jodi Rudoren writes about learning how to pray while reciting Kaddish for her father. “I was many weeks into reciting kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer of mourning, for my father when I realized I did not know how to pray… What I was clueless about was God. How to talk to God, how to think about God, whether I believed in God, what he — my father — had believed. I knew what the words of the ancient texts meant in English, but not what they meant to me… Until, as part of, I went on a walk in the woods with Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek… When we got to the central prayer, 19 blessings known as the Amidah, Rabbi Spodek summed it up as ‘Wow! Please? Thank you.’ And that’s where it happened. I learned how to pray on my own terms… For the rest of my 11 months, whenever my mind wandered, I’d close my prayer book and close my eyes and try a little wow-please-thank you. It did not instantly transform me into a believer. I still struggle, especially on the ‘wow’ part, sometimes finding myself wow-ing God for making humans who figured out some technological, athletic or artistic miracle. There are always plenty of pleases. And thanks, especially, for the nine other Jews who showed up so I could say kaddish for Dad, whatever he believed.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Film producer Mickey Shapiro has donated $30 million to the USC Shoah Foundation. In a show of appreciation, the organization’s headquarters will be named in honor of Shapiro, who is a member of the foundation’s board of councilors and its executive committee…
The umbrella groups for Western Europe’s three largest Jewish communities — the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (Le Crif) and the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland — are launching a new alliance, JE3, which they say will allow them to better coordinate on common issues…
Board members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum clashed via email after board member Kevin Abel sharply criticized the museum’s silence on Trump’s “campaign of retribution” and firing of Biden appointees, including Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, a move widely seen as politicizing the institution. The museum instead emphasized cooperation with the Trump administration…
Actress Natalie Portman is slated to star in Tom Hooper’s “Photograph 51,” a biopic about British scientist Rosalind Franklin…
The Associated Press looks at a Dutch-led effort to digitize roughly 100,000 records from the Jewish community of Suriname, dating back to the 18th century…
The Washington Post recounts the story of the little-known Japanese-American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, which freed Jews from the Nazi Dachau concentration camp death march, as a dedication ceremony of a memorial plaque for the battalion took place on May 2 in Waakirchen, Germany…
A new Pew Research Center study shows that Israeli Jews’ views on God and religion have remained largely stable over the past decade, despite a common belief that people have grown more connected to Judaism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, with 71% of respondents saying they believed in God in 2024 compared to 73% in 2016. The importance of religion in their lives has also changed little, with 56% in 2024 calling it very or somewhat important, similar to 2016 levels…
Haaretz looks at how members of Gaza-border kibbutzim are returning to their communities that were destroyed in the Oct. 7 attacks…
The Israel Defense Forces has partnered with a nonprofit, Magen Yehuda, to launch the Magen 48 program to train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communities following the failures of Oct. 7 in which 48 first responders were killed…
Stephen Heintz, president and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2001, will step down in 2026. During his tenure, he positioned the $1.4 billion foundation as a leader in climate action, global peace and U.S. democracy, and notably championed fossil fuel divestment despite the fund’s roots in oil wealth…
New York lawmakers approved a budget deal that weakens oversight of yeshiva education, marking a major win for Hasidic leaders who have long opposed state efforts to enforce secular education standards in all-boys religious schools. Backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and some Democrats eyeing Hasidic bloc votes ahead of the 2026 election, the legislation delays compliance with education standards until the 2032-33 school year and eases enforcement requirements…
The Red Tent Fund, a national abortion fund that says it is guided by Jewish values, is marking its first anniversary after providing over $230,000 in unrestricted abortion care support for essential reproductive health care since its May 2024 launch. The fund, which was created last year in response to anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric among other abortion activists, now seeks to surpass $500,000 in aid for 2025…
In his first Sunday address since being selected as pontiff, Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the distribution of aid to Gaza and “all hostages be freed”…
Heavy metal band Disturbed frontman David Draiman is engaged following his proposal to model Sarah Uli at a show in Sacramento, Calif., over the weekend…
The IDF and Mossad recovered the remains of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, who went missing along with two other soldiers during a battle in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley during the First Lebanon War in 1982; a joint IDF-Mossad statement said that Feldman’s remains were recovered “from the heart of Syria” in a “complex and covert operation” that used “precise intelligence”…
Margot Friedlander, prominent Holocaust survivor, philanthropist and outspoken advocate of combating antisemitism and promoting democracy who returned to Germany decades after surviving the Holocaust, died at 103…
Pic of the Day
Hundreds of people attend a gala event last Monday in support of the Beit Ruth Village in northern Israel, which supports at-risk girls and young women, at Cipriani’s in New York City.
At the event, the American Friends of Beit Ruth marked $9.2 million raised for the organization, of which it said $5.2 million had been earmarked for an expansion of the youth village and $4 million to “expand Beit Ruth’s care and support” in Israel and globally.
Birthdays
Italian politician, she is the first-ever Jewish mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro…
Israeli agribusiness entrepreneur and real estate investor, he was chairman and owner of Carmel Agrexco, Gideon Bickel… World renowned architect and master planner for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, he also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, Daniel Libeskind… Former member of the California State Senate for eight years, following six years as a member of the California State Assembly, Lois Wolk,.. Investigative reporter who worked for NBC News and then Yahoo News, Michael Isikoff… Chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee, he served for four years as a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Moshe “Mutz” Matalon… Former Washington correspondent for McClatchy and then the Miami Herald covering the Pentagon, James Martin Rosen… Senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Delta Air Lines until 2024, now chief legal officer at private aviation firm Wheels Up, Matthew Knopf… Professor at Emory University School of Law, he has published over 200 articles on law, religion and Jewish law, Michael Jay Broyde… Actress known for her role as Lexi Sterling on “Melrose Place,” she also had the lead role in many Lifetime movies, Jamie Michelle Luner… Founder of strategic communications and consulting firm Hiltzik Strategies, Matthew Hiltzik… Communications officer in the D.C. office of Open Society Foundations until earlier this month, Jonathan E. Kaplan… First-ever Jewish governor of Colorado, he was a successful serial entrepreneur before entering politics, Jared Polis… Professor of mathematics at Bar-Ilan University and a scientific advisor at the Y-Data school of data science in Israel, Elena Bunina… Israeli pastry chef and parenting counselor, she is married to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Gilat Ethel Bennett… Author, blogger and public speaker, Michael Ellsberg… Senior advisor at Accelerator for America Action, Joshua Cohen… Technology and social media reporter at Bloomberg, Alexandra Sophie Levine… Senior director of government affairs at BridgeBio, Amanda Schechter Malakoff… Civics outreach manager at Google, Erica Arbetter… Haifa-born actress and model, she is known for her lead roles in seven films since 2014, Odeya Rush…
