Good Friday morning!

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJP stories, including: Ahead of a month focused on Jews with disabilities, advocates say the pandemic has brought changes; $1 million in a FedEx envelope leads Mazon to a surprise donor; Education Dept. regulations addressing campus antisemitism have been delayed more than two years; Federal complaint alleges hostility toward Jewish students in Brooklyn College graduate program; The agenda for new L.A. federation CEO Noah Farkas: Building trust and diversity; and Israeli company hopes tech, and $10 million, will keep U.S. Jews safe. Print the latest edition here.

In the wake of a car accident in Colorado on Wednesday that claimed a woman’s life and left her husband seriously injured, their home community in Los Angeles has responded with an outpouring of financial support for their family. The couple, Leora (Alyeshmerayni) Ezoory, 33, and Joel Ezoory, are parents to five children, ages 7 months to 11.

As of Friday morning, a crowdfunding campaign hosted by The Chesed Fund at Beit Chesed LA, a charitable organization founded by Orthodox Jews, had raised more than $1.2 million from more than 8,300 people. The campaign has a goal of $2.5 million.

Leora Ezoory was known to be a generous person and a good friend, her colleague, Joel Bess, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “I am not surprised at all because Leora lived her life for other people,” Bess said. “She prayed for other people’s success every day and helped anyone and everyone in any situation, good or bad.”

Bess, the CEO of media and advertising company Optimal Fusion, first met Ezoory when she babysat for his children 18 years ago. According to her LinkedIn profile, she most recently served as a marketing and advertising manager. “I absolutely loved her energy and drive so I asked — practically begged — her to work for me when I started my company 14 years ago. She was my first employee ever and has been with me since,” he said.

Regarding the stream of donations, Bess said he had “never seen anything like it and most likely never will again.”

SYNAGOGUE SECURITY

Israeli company hopes tech, and $10 million, will keep U.S. Jews safe

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

An Israeli company that develops security technology is now setting a goal of raising $10 million to spread its product across Jewish institutions in the United States in the wake of last month’s attack on a congregation in Colleyville, Texas, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Tamara Zieve.

Detect and respond: Gabriel Network, the security firm, provides a variety of tools for synagogues, schools and the like to detect and respond to attacks. Gabriel’s system includes a smart panic button, gunshot detection, live video and audio, an interactive floor map of the building and the ability to control access points. 

Securing every building: An initial $1 million came from an anonymous donor who connected with Gabriel CEO Yoni Sherizen last week. It will pay for 500 synagogues and schools to install and use the technology for a year. Now, Gabriel hopes to recruit another nine philanthropists to each match the $1 million donation, for $10 million that it hopes will secure every Jewish communal building in the U.S. for a year.

Growing demand: The technology is currently being used by 20 institutions, including Jewish schools, a college campus and a Christian community in the U.S., and orders are out for 60 more, Sherizen told eJP. Using $100,000 from the initial donation, paired with matching funds from local donors, The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit told eJP it will be equipping all synagogues in the city’s metro area with Gabriel’s tech. 

See and hear: “Our system provides instant visibility and communication into a situation. So you would be able to see and hear exactly what’s going on throughout the building,” Sherizen told eJP. “And that can often lead to a much faster response.”

Read the full story here.

SEEKING RELIEF

Michigan congregant eyes Supreme Court in battle with antisemitic picketers

Eliott Sorkin

In the latest move in a long-simmering conflict between an Ann Arbor, Mich., synagogue and a group of demonstrators who have picketed its Shabbat services for nearly two decades, one congregant is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene, while facing a recent ruling that he and a co-plaintiff must pay more than $150,000 in court costs for the demonstrators, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: For 18 years, demonstrators affiliated with a group calling itself Witness for Peace (WFP) — formerly Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends — have displayed dozens of provocative signs on both sides of the road outside Beth Israel Congregation each week on Saturday morning as congregants arrive for Shabbat services. Signs include messages such as “Resist Jewish power” and “End Jewish Supremacism in Palestine.” The Anti-Defamation League describes WFP as “anti-Semitic” and its leader, Henry Herskovitz, as a Holocaust denier.

See you in court: In 2019, Beth Israel congregant Marvin Gerber and Miriam Brysk — who attends another congregation that holds services at the synagogue — filed suit against Herskovitz and his associates in federal district court, arguing that WFP violates their First Amendment right to freely practice their religion. WFP, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, counters that the demonstrators are exercising constitutionally protected free speech rights. Thus far, the congregants’ argument has not been successful, with federal district and circuit courts siding against them.

Reinforcements: Gerber is now petitioning the Supreme Court to take up the case. He has until April 1 to file a formal petition. Nathan Lewin, who has argued before the Supreme Court nearly 30 times, recently agreed to represent Gerber pro bono. “The Jewish community in the United States should view [the lower-court ruling] as a clear and present danger,” Lewin toldJI. “Not only because it combines what [the lower-court judge] viewed as simply being anti-Israel propaganda with what is sheer antisemitism. But I think what is most important is that it really hinders, intimidates, harasses people going to the synagogue, the right to worship.”

Read the full story here.

IT’S THE LAW

Salary transparency will soon be mandatory in New York City

iStock

“Mandated salary transparency on job descriptions is coming to New York City. With as many as 4,000 Jewish organizations, synagogues and schools in the NYC area, this represents a significant shift in culture for tens of thousands of employees,” writes Jessica Rothbart, an advisory board member for the Gender Equity in Hiring Project, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Tipping point: “Salary transparency has been done in earnest in the Jewish community since 2018. That’s when I entered the Gender Equity in Hiring Project‘s first cohort of Gender Equity advocates in summer 2018. We cautiously discussed the pros and cons of why a salary range closes the gender salary gap and how to get leadership invested at the dozen Jewish organizations represented around the table. With nine cohorts now completed, many organizations shifted their practice. Salary transparency on job postings started appearing in different forms – hourly wage amounts, annual salary ranges, exact numbers – along with explanations of benefits that added to an employee’s overall package. The shift was in motion, but the tipping point for all organizations will be [when the city’s mandate goes into effect on] May 15, 2022.”

Small window remains: “The 108 organizations that have gone through GEiHP’s program have started to do the work to ensure that salary transparency is part of their culture. Fueled by research around how salary transparency narrows the gender pay gap and helps keep employees more satisfied in their role, 135 trainees returned to their organization to raise the bar in their hiring practices… That leaves many organizations – including some of the largest in our community – reactive to the upcoming law with a small window to make the change. Although transparency will be mandated, there is still time and updates your organization can make to help ready your staff and improve your culture.”

Read the full piece here.

Worthy Reads

Stepping In: In the wake of Whoopi Goldberg’s comments about the Holocaust during a taping of “The View,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel talks to Jewish thought leaders about what Jewish representation among the show’s leads might look like, with respondents suggesting a range of potential new co-hosts, including Bari Weiss, Sarah Silverman and Batya Ungar-Sargon. “Appearing on the show a day after Goldberg had made her remarks, for which she has apologized, [ADL CEO Jonathan] Greenblatt took the opportunity at the end of a long and emotional discussion to suggest that the panelists consider enlisting a Jewish co-host… Out of 22 co-hosts who have worked for ‘The View’ since 1997, when the show was created, only two have been Jewish, the last of whom, comedian Michelle Collins, departed in 2016 after just a year in the role. The broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, who helped launch the show 25 years ago, retired from her seat in 2014.” [JI]

Gates’ Gifting: Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates donated over $3 billion to philanthropic causes through their foundation; now French Gates is preparing to take her giving in a different direction, Lucas Manfredi writes in Fox Business News. French Gates is planning to “commit the majority of her time, energy and efforts to fighting poverty and advancing equality for women, girls and marginalized groups around the globe.” In her most recent Giving Pledge letter, French Gates wrote: “I recognize the absurdity of so much wealth being concentrated in the hands of one person, and I believe the only responsible thing to do with a fortune this size is give it away — as thoughtfully and impactfully as possible[ …] My approach to philanthropy has always been data-driven, and I think it’s important for philanthropists to set ambitious goals and measure our progress against those goals. I’ve learned, however, that it’s equally important to place trust in the people and organizations we partner with and let them define success on their own terms. Philanthropists are generally more helpful to the world when we’re standing behind a movement rather than trying to lead our own.” [FoxBusinessNews]

Restricted Gifts Rising: While the pandemic may have prompted an increase in unrestricted giving to some organizations, restricted donations aren’t going away, write Heather DeBlanc, Casey Williams and Victoria M. Gómez Philips in NonProfitPro, suggesting that “by fully understanding the legalities of restricted donations, nonprofits can help reduce the risks associated with accepting restricted gifts and learn to use them to their fullest potential.” The authors provide an outline of actions nonprofits can take, including understanding endowments and how they differ from other types of restricted donations; how to alter restrictions under special circumstances; and what kinds of questions donors and nonprofits should ask about unrestricted donations and their impact. [NonProfitPro]

Pic of the Day

Portuguese Jewish News

Campo da Igualdade Isaac Aboab, or the Isaac Aboab Field of Equality, a new Jewish cemetery, has been developed outside the city of Oporto, Portugal, with about 300 individual graves as well as family vaults. To avoid acts of vandalism, the Jewish community of Oporto has not publicly revealed its location. The cemetery is surrounded by a high wall, is under armed guard and is equipped with surveillance cameras.