Your Daily Phil: With $50M gift, Samuelis double down on Israeli cancer research
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In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine a new Bridgespan Group report on the growing phenomenon of philanthropic collaboratives. We cover this week’s Elluminate conference and the launch of its Global Jewish Women’s Leadership Network, and report on a $50 million donation by Henry and Susan Samueli to central Israel’s Beilinson Medical Center for cancer treatment. We feature an opinion piece by Gidi Grinstein calling out American Jewish leaders for their silence in response to allegations that U.S. Jewry is traitorous for not making aliyah; Rabbi Benjamin Barer encourages the establishment of more community batei midrash geared toward non-Orthodox learners; and Sir Mick Davis reflects on last week’s double Torah portion. Also in this issue: Adam Wagner, Rabbi Mike Uram and Shelly Medved.
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 Combat Antisemitism Movement is holding an event today in Savannah, Ga., with nearly 50 mayors from across the U.S. celebrating the start of Jewish American Heritage Month, which begins tomorrow…
The annual Jewish pilgrimage to Djerba, Tunisia, begins today, ahead of next week’s Lag B’Omer holiday.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM EJP’S JAY DEITCHER
A “new era” of philanthropy is taking hold, one where donors are no longer creating large foundations staffed by many employees but instead joining collaboratives, according to the Bridgespan Group.
Today, there are over 500 collaboratives, the majority created over the past decade, and last week, Bridgespan, a global consulting group advising nonprofits, released its report, “Collaboratives as a Philanthropic Asset Class,” guiding donors through the questions they need to ask before joining one.
“Collaboratives are a way for folks to pool assets like you would in a mutual fund, to hedge risks, to leverage the expertise of expert advisors and not rely on their own knowledge,” Alison Powell, one of the report’s co-authors and a Bridgespan partner, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Right now, we have so many challenges we’re facing as a global community that there’s really not time for everybody to build their own individual work.”
While more donors are getting involved in collaboratives, the field has not reached its full potential, Powell said. “If you imagine, in 10 to 15 years, there’s so much potential for more money to be flowing through these collaboratives, but there’s a lot of field building and infrastructure that’s needed.”
Collaboratives can be essential resources for nonprofits, Powell said, because “for recipients, in a perfect world, [collaboratives are] aggregating more capital than they could access individually, and they are opening up their donor set to new donors. In a perfect world, they are also streamlining grantmaking procedures, making [nonprofits’] lives easier… Many collaboratives are providing support beyond the grant. They’re doing [Technical Assistance] provision. They’re doing fundraising support.”
There’s a collaborative for every donor, Powell said, whether they are interested in partnering with others to support the city they grew up in, their home country, the community they love or a cause they are passionate about. There’s even a collaborative for shark lovers.
FEMINIST PHILANTHROPY
Elluminate marks 30 years, launches Global Jewish Women’s Leadership Network
Surrounded by walls plastered with ideas — networking plans, collaborative visions, strategic goals — Elluminate convened Jewish women leaders from nonprofits, philanthropy and social advocacy on Tuesday in New York City to kick off its Global Jewish Women’s Leadership Network, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the event.
Girl power: First announced last May at the organization’s annual luncheon, the launch of the network marks a milestone for the group, which has steadily expanded its scope over three decades. The goal is to bring women working at the forefront of social issues impacting women, Melanie Roth Gorelick, Elluminate’s CEO, told eJP, “from stillbirth, malnutrition, economic violence against women, to women running for office, ensuring women are in decision making and working for reproductive rights” into a network to serve as a support system and “force multiplier” for each other’s work.
MAJOR GIFTS
Samuelis double down on Israeli cancer treatment with $50M to Beilinson Hospital
Susan and Henry Samueli announced a $50 million grant on Thursday to the Samueli Integrative Cancer Pioneering Institute at Clalit’s Beilinson Medical Center in central Israel, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet. The gift doubles down on the couple’s initial $25 million gift to Beilinson in 2023.
Proof in the pudding: Dr. Gal Markel, director of the Davidoff Cancer Center and chair of the institute, said the new, larger donation follows three years of trust-building between the hospital and the foundation. “It is a follow-up; it is different from the first gift. Actually, this is harder than the first gift because the second is based on achievements, and more importantly, it is based on trust,” he told eJP, following the hospital’s announcement.
READER RESPONDS
American Jewish leaders, where were you?
“‘Traitors. You are traitors. You betray us and betray yourselves.’ This is what Haggai Segal, one of Israel’s leading columnists, wrote about American Jews in Makor Rishon, one of Israel’s leading journals, on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day. He later retracted the word traitor, but stood by the crux of his argument. And what was the response of the leaders of American Jewry? Silence!” writes Gidi Grinstein, who leads AJ2054, an initiative focused on the renewal of American Jewry, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Diaspora isn’t a dirty word: “For millennia, the Jewish People has been a multicentered civilization. … Indeed, 2,600 years of continued Jewish life in the Diaspora and 372 years of American Judaism prove that American Jewry is a continuation of Jewish history and a long-lasting expression of our civilization. Furthermore, like Bavel and Jerusalem, Israel and American Jewry are a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts… In other words, a vibrant Diaspora is not an affront but an imperative to Zionism.”
JEWISH LEARNING FOR ALL
Building a new pillar of Jewish life: The community beit midrash
“According to Pirkei Avot 1:2, the world stands on three things: Torah, avodah (prayer) and gemillut chasadim (acts of loving-kindness). Two of these three foundations are thriving in non-Orthodox communities across North America,” writes Rabbi Benjamin Barer, founder of the Happy Valley Beit Midrash in Northampton, Mass., in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
An absence worth addressing: “Where is the institutional home for those in the non-Orthodox world who want not only to ground their lives but to learn week in and week out in the paradigmatic Jewish spiritual practice of talmud Torah? If there is a synagogue or minyan in every Jewish community, why is there not also a beit midrash?”
JEWISH VALUES
Holiness, the land and the resilience of the nation
““Some years ago, during a period of great personal difficulty, I sat with an old mining engineer at the company I had built, Xstrata,” writes businessman, philanthropist and former politician Sir Mick Davis in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “He had spent 40 years underground, and we had just lost men in a catastrophic roof failure in South Africa. They had trusted me that their health and safety were my paramount concern, and we had failed them. I was looking for answers, and this man gave them to me.”
Spotting the signals: “‘The rock looked strong,’ he said. ‘It always looks strong. The day before a collapse, it looks exactly as it did a year before. But when the pressures change, and the structure has not been maintained because we did not pick up the signals of pending failure, brittle rock fails suddenly. It does not warn you. It just goes.’ … I begin with that memory because I believe it stands close to the heart of last week’s double parsha, Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. In the middle of an extended discourse on what it means to be a holy people, the Torah says something that ought to arrest any serious reader.”
Worthy Reads
Moral Compass Needed: In Quillette, historian Benny Morris offers a critique of fellow scholar Avi Shlaim, documenting Shlaim’s shift from a self-professed Zionist to what Morris characterizes as a “Hamas apologist.” “Avi Shlaim has been an exception to the rule. Once a professed Zionist, Shlaim has now completed a perverse trajectory in the course of which he seems to have lost his moral compass. And Shlaim is not some ignorant, fashionably keffiyeh-draped American or European sophomore who chants ‘from the River to the Sea’ without knowing which river and which sea. Shlaim is a respected Oxford University historian who is supposed to know something about the Middle East, who knows that Hamas slaughtered some 850 Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 and that it frankly espouses antisemitic, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Western, and anti-democratic values and policies.” [Quillette]
Emergency in London: In his Substack, Adam Wagner, a lawyer in London, argues that following a double stabbing in Golders Green, the unchecked normalization of extremist rhetoric has created “a national emergency” for British Jews. “It worries me greatly that the usual civil society groups which you would expect to stand up for a vulnerable community facing great danger will not stand up for Jews. It seems to me that they are more likely to be marching alongside those calling for intifada, and for death to Zionists… I will end by agreeing with those, Kemi Badenoch and Jonathan Hall K.C. included, who have said today that this is nothing less than a national emergency. The government needs to act as if this is an emergency, start taking some risks and acting with speed….Where is that urgency now? [Substack]
No Direction Home: The New York Times’ Jennifer Medina talks to Jewish Democratic officials who feel increasingly isolated by their party’s increasing tolerance for antisemitism. “They have faced antisemitic slurs and menacing voice mail messages, including threats of assassination. Protesters have called members of Congress ‘dirty Jews’ during town hall events and thrown red liquid — meant to look like blood — on their front lawns. For Jewish elected officials trying to navigate this shift, the atmosphere has felt alienating. ‘It is very isolating,’ said Representative Josh Gottheimer, who represents northern New Jersey in Congress. ‘It’s like you’re losing your home in the Democratic Party and in the country.’” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
British authorities are investigating Iranian ties to the recent string of attacks on Jewish targets, including yesterday’s double stabbing in the heavily Jewish Golders Green area of northern London…
The U.K. government has pledged an additional £25 million ($34 million) and fast-tracked new legislation to bolster Jewish community security following a stabbing attack in Golders Green…
In an Inside Philanthropy opinion piece, Mike Kubzansky, the outgoing CEO of the Omidyar Network, warns that the philanthropic sector is lagging dangerously behind on artificial intelligence…
Jewish organizations in Canada are decrying what they describe as a “malicious” campaign by anti-Israel groups to strip 10 Jewish schools in Toronto and Montreal of their charitable tax status because of their alleged ties to the Israeli military…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency spotlights the connection between Beth El Synagogue in Durham, N.C., and Dr. David Hasan, who is leading efforts to assist Palestinian children who have been orphaned by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza…
The Jewish Theological Seminary announced that Israeli President Isaac Herzog will deliver the school’s 2026 commencement address, and will receive an honorary degree alongside Rabbi Edward Feld, former Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus, actress Debra Messing and rabbinic Judaism scholar Peter Schäfer…
Haaretz reports that Israeli hotel occupancy has plummeted amid the ongoing war, marking an 88% drop in foreign tourism this March compared to prewar figures…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy follows fundraisers at this week’s Association of Fundraising Professionals conference who are bracing for a challenging landscape fueled by inflation, tax law changes and sharp cuts in federal funding…
With Australian arts funding at a record low, philanthropist Rupert Myer is pushing for a 10-year national policy and joint council to end inefficient state-vs-state bidding wars…
Authorities in Los Angeles are investigating as a hate crime the assault of a Jewish man outside of a synagogue earlier this week in the city’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood that was recorded on security footage…
Nicole Wertheim, a South Florida philanthropist who donated with her husband $10 million to name Florida International University’s nursing college, died last Monday at 82…
Transitions
Rabbi Mike Uram, the chief Jewish learning officer at the Jewish Federations of North America and former director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Hillel, has been named the next chancellor of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary…
Shelly Medved has been hired for the newly created role of integrated chief operating officer and chief financial officer at American Friends of Tel Aviv University; Medved represents the first appointment by AFTAU’s CEO Ben Pery since he took over the organization last year…
Netanel Levi started a new role at the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism as deputy director general for strategy…
Avidan Halivni was hired by the Jewish Learning Collaborative as its new director of learning…
Adi Bichman joined the Israeli Olympic Committee as its CEO…
Rachel Berger is leaving her role as vice president of Nefesh B’Nefesh…
Pic of the Day
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) meets first responders from the Jewish security group Shomrim North West London today during a visit to the heavily Jewish suburb of Golders Green after yesterday’s terror stabbing in the area in which two Jewish men were injured.
Birthdays
Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot turns 41…
Rabbi, scholar and professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva University, Saul J. Berman turns 87… Founder and CEO of Kansas City-based American Public Square, he was the U.S. ambassador to Portugal during the Obama administration, Allan J. Katz turns 79… Brooklyn-based clinical social worker, Marsha S. Rimler… Psychologist, author of several children’s books and president of the Saban Family Foundation, Cheryl Saban turns 75… Israeli Supreme Court justice until 2021, he was previously attorney general of Israel, Menachem “Meni” Mazuz turns 71… Partner in the communications and ad agency GMMB, he served as an advisor to President Obama in both his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, James David “Jim” Margolis turns 71… London-based international real estate investor and developer, Zachariasz “Zak” Gertler turns 70… Cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his over one hundred magazine covers appearing on The New Yorker and other publications, Barry Blitt turns 68… Former commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, Chai R. Feldblum turns 67… Professor of sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, she served as president of Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Eva Illouz turns 65… Senior fellow at Misgav: the Institute for Zionist Strategy and National Security, he is a diplomatic columnist for The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom newspapers, David M. Weinberg… New York city comptroller, Mark D. Levine turns 57… CEO of Newton, Mass.-based Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, focused on children with special educational needs, Tamar Davis… Senior director for U.S. Jewish grantmaking at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, David Rittberg… Executive director of federal affairs at General Motors, Eric Feldman… Senior advisor for policy and communications for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Omri Ceren… Chief operating officer of Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy, Ali Kaufman Yares… Screen, stage and television actress and singer, Dianna Agron turns 40… Senior policy advisor at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C., Jonathan Jagoda… Chief communications officer at Business Insider, Ari Isaacman D’Angelo turns 41… Founder of Lubin Strategies, he is also an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, Nathaniel “Nate” Lubin… Communications director for Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Rachel S. Cohen… Associate in the D.C. office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Daniel E. Wolman… Elementary schoolteacher at Broward County Public Schools, Jenna Luks… Economics reporter at The Wall Street Journal, Rachel B. Wolfe… Director of WJC Elevate at the World Jewish Congress, Yonatan “Yoni” Hammerman… Co-founder of Impact Nation and Tech4Cancer, Idan Megidish… Global account sales manager for Isotopia Molecular Imaging, Noam Aricha…
