eJewishPhilanthropy

Chemical supplier Edward Khalily makes ‘landmark’ gift to Sheba hospital for pediatric oncology

Judah Ari Gross — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 12:59:20 +0000

Edward Khalily, chair of the Great Neck, N.Y.-based Wego Chemical Mineral Corp., is making a “landmark” eight-figure donation to Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv to create an eponymous pediatric oncology building that is meant to both improve and expand cancer care for children at Israel’s largest hospital, American Friends of Sheba Medical Center exclusively told eJewishPhilanthropy on Friday. The pediatric oncology building, which is part of the Edmond and Lily Safra Childrens Hospital, is expected to be completed in five to seven years and is estimated to cost $150 million in total, with Khalily providing a significant portion of that. AFSMC declined to provide the full amount, in part because the precise sum is still being determined, but said that it represents the largest-ever gift facilitated through the U.S.-based fundraising organization. “Since [the Oct. 7 terror attacks], I have thought a great deal about what it means to stand with Israel in a lasting way. For me, that means helping build institutions that will serve generations to come,” Khalily told eJP in an email. “Sheba represents the very best of Israel, bringing together world-class medicine, innovation and an extraordinary commitment to patients and their families. If this gift accomplishes anything, I hope it strengthens an institution that will continue saving lives and advancing medical care for decades.” Edward Khalily stands beside a plaque in his honor in Netanya, Israel, after donating funds for a school in the city in 2017. (Courtesy/Netanya Foundation) This represents Khalily’s first donation to Sheba, sometimes referred to as Tel HaShomer, though he has long supported initiatives in Israel, including a school in Netanya that is named for his granddaughter and a program for foster children. Khalily’s donation joins a number of major gifts to Israeli hospitals over the past year, including a $200 million donation by Jan Koum to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center and $68.5 million by the Jusidman Family Foundation for a rehabilitation hospital in Tel Aviv. “This is a really significant gift, thats going to allow us to build a whole new building in the Edmond and Lily Safra Childrens Hospital. That’s going to significantly increase our capacity to treat kids,” Dr. Itai Pessach, director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital and associate director-general of Sheba, told eJP this week. “Sheba Medical Center is one of the leading medical centers in the world. It is rated No. 7 by Newsweek for several years in a row — and was [just] named the No. 6 ‘smartest’ hospital in the world. So the combination of all of that, together with a very generous contribution by Mr. Khalily, is going to allow us to build the most advanced pediatric cancer hospital, I would say, in the world. That still remains to be proven, but this is what were aiming for,” Pessach said. Pessach said the new building will include a number of wards: a new pediatric emergency department, a pediatric imaging division, hematology, inpatient services, a bone marrow transplant unit, outpatient oncology services and a “whole pediatric oncology surgery floor.” He noted that this is “just the first phase” in the construction of the building. “Its full capacity can reach 18 floors. Were not building the whole 18 floors right now. Were just building the first four, but its planned to be expandable,” he said. Some of this will replace and upgrade existing wards, Pessach said, and some will expand services. “Once the whole [first phase] is set, its going to double our capacity,” he said, adding that this may be an underestimate as the adoption of new technologies may allow the hospital to treat even more patients. “Its not just building another building. Its really transforming the way we provide care to children with cancer and to children in general and their families,” Pessach said. “Thats the real impact that this project is going to have.” The children’s hospital director said that, alongside the expansion of physical infrastructure, the hospital is also expanding its staff, recruiting more doctors, nurses and technicians and training existing personnel. While Israel, in general, is suffering from a physician shortage, Pessach said that this has not been an issue for Sheba. He noted that many of the staff members for the pediatric oncology department are new immigrants from the United States or returning Israeli expats, whom he said come to Sheba because the department is highly regarded internationally. “It draws a lot of attention and a lot of clinicians, not just physicians, who want to come and work with us. So we have people that came from all across the U.S., from John Hopkins, from CHOP [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia], from Cedars-Sinai — and those are just the ones who have joined in the past year and a half,” he said. New relationship According to Karen Berman, CEO of AFSMC, Khalily was directed to Sheba after expressing interest in supporting a medical project to a philanthropic advisor. That advisor was a former senior-ranking officer in the military and thus knew Sheba’s executive director, Dr. Yitshak Kreiss, who previously served as the Israel Defense Forces’ chief medical officer. “So he came to Sheba for the first time, I think it was November of last year, and he has a particular interest in supporting children and also in oncology,” Berman said. Khalily, 80, met with both Kreiss and Pessach, who spoke with him about the planned oncology tower, Berman said. “Its kind of a remarkable story, going from zero to [a gift like this] in less than a year,” she said. “Were incredibly grateful.” Berman, who joined AFSMC last June, said that the hospital is working to expand its donor base outside of Israel, stressing its high rankings on international lists and its impact in Israel. “People didnt really know, until recently, the story of Sheba and how… it’s one of Israels most important institutions. I know Im biased, but we have 2 million patients a year, most of whom are Israeli, and so that means were touching about 25% of Israeli families in one way or another,” Berman said. “Were really just starting our partnerships and philanthropic journey outside of Israel,” Berman said. The new donation from Khalily is also helping with that, she added. “Its definitely putting Sheba on the map as a place thats worthy of a significant, eight-figure donation.”

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Israeli president hails JFNA post-Oct. 7 loan fund as highest form of giving

Judah Ari Gross — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 12:21:04 +0000

On Maimonides’ famed eight-tiered ranking of charity, the highest level is taking action to prevent someone from needing to ask for charity. “The highest level beyond which there is none is a person who supports a Jew who has fallen into poverty [by] giving him a present or a loan, entering into partnership with him, or finding him work so that his hand will be fortified so that he will not have to ask others [for alms],” the medieval scholar wrote in his seminal 12th-century work, the Mishneh Torah. On Thursday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog cited Maimonides in applauding the Jewish Federations of North America and its partners for precisely this highest form of giving, hosting an event at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem in recognition of a loan fund created in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks to support small Israeli businesses. “In the reality forced upon Israel since Oct. 7, many businesses have faced tremendous obstacles, including those small- and medium-sized businesses that represent a third of the economic activity of the [Israeli] market,” Herzog said, noting that they did not face these challenges “because of poor business decisions or a lack of demand for their products” but because of displacement and enlistment into the reserves. “There are people here who really understand that behind every drop in income or every disruption in business activities, there is a person. There are suppliers, employees, workers and managers,” Herzog said. “And here entered the Jewish People in all its glory,” the president said. “The Jewish Federations of North America understood the ultimate consequences and succeeded in coming to our side and offering assistance, as it did in so many areas and with so many issues throughout the country. … Through this effort, the [loan] fund preserved economic activity, saved sources of income, strengthened communities and returned hope and growth to important regions of the country.” JFNA’s loan fund was launched in the initial months after the Oct. 7 attack, as hundreds of thousands of reservists were drafted into the military and large swaths of the country were evacuated. Nearly $100 million was raised for the JFNA loan fund, which was distributed to five partner organizations —Bizi, KIEDF, Ogen, SparkIL and Daroma Tzafona —that provided no- and low-interest loans to small-business owners affected by the war. That donated money was then leveraged to get even more funds from commercial banks, enabling some $350 million to be loaned to small businesses. Of this, $82.3 million has already been repaid and loaned out again, according to JFNA. “Every business owner who returns a loan is directly supporting another business and is taking part in a circle of giving,” said Sara Gottlieb, a Toronto-based former investment banker and member of JFNA’s board of trustees, who serves on its Israel and Overseas Committee. JFNA added that in addition to its loan fund, an additional $33 million has been “committed by local federations and other donors directly to the same [five] platforms.” In his speech, Herzog singled out several figures for their involvement in the fund, including Rebecca Caspi, the head of JFNA’s Israel office; Sanford Antignas, chair of the board of directors of the United Israel Appeal; Lonnie Nasatir, president of Chicago’s Jewish United Fund; and Gottlieb. (Jeffrey Schoenfeld, who helped found the loan fund when he was on JFNA’s emergency allocation committee, was unable to attend the event.) Many of those in attendance had attended the Jewish Agency’s board of governors’ meeting earlier in the week, staying in the country for the election. Reflecting on the election held two days prior, ending with no clear path to a stable ruling coalition, Herzog, who will soon choose which Israeli political party leader is tasked with forming a government, called on politicians to be open-minded going forward. “Open your heads, open your hearts and widen your vision, Herzog said, and focus on what is for the good of the country. JFNA estimated that its loan fund has supported 28,000 jobs and 25,000 families over the past three years. Speaking at the event, one such small-business owner, Atar Lavi, who runs a landscaping business in Kibbutz Sufa, which was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, noted that while he was displaced and no longer able to run his business —he also served some 800 days of reserve duty over the past three years —he was legally required to continue paying the salaries of his displaced employees. “The business was completely halted, and it is only because of a loan that I can say that today we’ve grown by more than 50%,” he said. Similar stories were shared by other small-business owners at the event, including a jewelry maker, whose husband served long stretches in the reserves, and the head of a tutoring company in the northern Arab Israeli town of Shefaram. “A small business is more than just a source of income,” Gottlieb said, speaking in Hebrew. “It’s the market that opens its shutters in the morning… the studio that supports an entire family. When a business like this closes, the whole community feels it. And when it rises again, it brings back with it stability and hope.”

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Investing in the good people who build resilience

Contributing Author — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:10:00 +0000

As leaders in the Jewish community, we know firsthand the importance of resilience. We are deeply inspired by individuals who continue to adapt, rebuild and keep moving forward when the rubber hits the road. But resilience is not something leaders build all on our own. We view resilience as a skill that is strengthened through relationships — through the people who remind us what is possible, who share what they have learned and who help us imagine new realities when our own vision feels limited. We see this kind of resilience every day in the social visionaries we work with in Israel and the United States who put tzedakah into action. They address needs ranging from food insecurity and disability rights to trauma recovery, education and social isolation. Their organizations may be small, but their work strengthens the fabric of their communities. We have also learned that bringing these leaders together can strengthen their work and help Israelis and American Jews understand one another more fully. In November 2024, more than 100 people, including over 65 Good People Fund grantees, gathered in New York for our first conference. Social visionaries who serve communities of all backgrounds came from across Israel and the United States. We expected them to learn new skills, exchange ideas and receive professional development. They did all of that. What was remarkable and unexpected was the energy and connection that grew between them. Over meals and between sessions, Israeli and American leaders traded ideas, compared challenges and talked about the realities of doing difficult, life-affirming work day after day. People who often felt alone in their work found others who understood them. Relationships began to form through shared experiences and shared purpose, without a formal conversation about “Israel-Diaspora relations” on the agenda. Individual changemakers began to see themselves as part of a wider community. The momentum continued after the conference. Since then, we have offered more than 20 virtual workshops, created two communities of practice and connected grantees with dozens of mentoring and expert guidance sessions. These opportunities have given leaders ways to keep learning from one another and to turn the connections made in New York into ongoing support. That experience matters to us in a moment when Israelis and American Jews so often encounter one another from a distance. Headlines, social media and political debates can flatten complicated lives into positions and generalizations. Sitting with someone who is trying to make life better in their community makes room for a different kind of understanding. We hear about the work, and we come to know the person doing it. Those encounters also create opportunities to strengthen the work itself. An Israeli social entrepreneur may have found a creative response to a challenge an American leader recognizes at home. An American nonprofit professional may have experience in fundraising, governance or communications that helps an Israeli organization grow stronger. Both may learn how the other sustains a team, earns trust or keeps going through uncertainty. Ideas and practical knowledge can travel home with them, reaching the people their organizations serve. This is how resilience spreads: through people who are rooted in their own communities and willing to share what they have learned. A good idea travels. A relationship offers support when the work becomes hard. Leaders return home with new ways to serve the people who count on them. That is why we are preparing to gather again. In April 2027, Good People Fund grantees from Israel and the United States will come together in New York City for Good People Gather NYC. Our community now includes over 60 current grantee organizations, as well as dozens of alumni whose work remains part of our story. The gathering will offer opportunities to build skills and learn from experts. We are also making room for peer learning, informal conversation, reflection, inspiration and unstructured time together. We want leaders to leave with practical ideas and with relationships they can turn to long after the conference ends. We are inviting supporters, lay leaders and thought partners from the American Jewish community into this space, too. We want them to meet the people behind the work, hear how they respond to needs in their communities and see what becomes possible when grassroots leaders are supported and trusted to act. We know the relationships formed in New York will travel home with everyone who attends. They will help Israelis and American Jews understand one another more fully. They will also help the people serving their communities feel less alone and make their organizations stronger. The leaders we know are weaving resilience into their communities — one relationship, one thoughtful response and one act of care at a time. Each action may be small on its own. Together, their effects can reach far beyond the people in the room. As we at the Good People Fund say, “Small actions. Huge impacts.” Julie Fisher is the executive director of the Good People Fund and Beth Gansky is the chair of its board.

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Americans know antisemitism is rising — they just don’t always recognize it

Contributing Author — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 06:55:03 +0000

Antisemitism has a peculiar ability to be condemned in principle and excused in practice. That is the paradox at the heart of American attitudes toward Jews in our latest national survey at Boundless. Three years after the Oct. 7 attacks, we found that 64% of Americans say antisemitism has increased, and 38% attribute it to antisemitism becoming more socially acceptable. At the same time, one in five Americans believes antisemitic acts can be a legitimate form of protest in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Among young adults, that rises to more than one in three. In short, Americans recognize antisemitism as a problem, but struggle to recognize it in practice, particularly when it is expressed in the language of political protest. Part of the explanation lies in changing attitudes toward Israel. According to the Pew Research Center, unfavorable views of Israel have climbed from 42% in 2022 to 60% in 2026. Americans are increasingly critical of Israel, its leaders, and its military actions. The consequences of that growing disapproval are not confined to debates about Israeli policy. Our polling finds that Americans who view Israel unfavorably are more than twice as likely to hold unfavorable views of Jewish people overall. Worryingly, 15% of the country believes American Jews are complicit in genocide. These findings reveal how easily political judgments can become an indictment of an entire people. Antisemitism need not announce itself through explicit declarations of hatred. It can appear in assumptions that American Jews support war, are complicit in war crimes, or are unquestioningly loyal to Israels leaders. When such assumptions are wrapped in the language of foreign policy and human rights, prejudice becomes easier to rationalize and harder to recognize. So how do we close the gap between recognizing antisemitism as a problem and addressing it in practice? First, we need to teach recognition, not merely awareness. Understanding that antisemitism is rising is important, but knowing how to identify it is essential. We need to help people see how longstanding anti-Jewish prejudices are repackaged in contemporary political arguments and social media narratives, often in language that bears little resemblance to traditional expressions of antisemitism. Second, we need to understand the misconceptions that shape public attitudes. Our research found that nearly two-thirds of Americans have either never heard of Zionism or have heard the term without knowing what it means. Yet Zionism has become one of the most contentious words in American political discourse. What do Americans understand when they encounter the term? Which objections concern Israeli government policies, and which reflect misconceptions about Jewish identity, history, or self-determination? These distinctions matter. We cannot develop effective educational, policy, or legal responses without first understanding what people believe, where those beliefs come from, and how misconceptions shape their attitudes. Third, we need to build resistance to manipulation. Conspiracy theories offer deceptively simple explanations for complicated events. They identify hidden forces, assign collective blame, and turn uncertainty into suspicion. Rather than simply rebutting falsehoods after they spread, we should teach people to recognize the techniques behind them: selective evidence, invented conspiracies, and the leap from individual conduct to collective guilt. The goal is not merely to correct what people believe today, but to make them less susceptible to the next falsehood they encounter. Fourth, we need to address the gaps in Americans’ understanding of Israel itself. Fewer than half of Americans know that Israel is a democracy that holds elections. Just 27% know that Arab citizens vote in those elections, and only 21% know that Arab citizens serve in Israels parliament. These are basic facts about a country that occupies an extraordinary amount of space in American political debate. Given the relationship between attitudes toward Israel and attitudes toward Jews, improving public understanding of Israeli society and its democratic institutions isn’t merely an academic exercise. It is an important part of addressing the misconceptions that shape those attitudes. Antisemitism has survived for centuries by reinventing itself. It absorbs the grievances of the moment, borrows the language of prevailing political movements, and finds new ways to make old prejudices seem reasonable. Today, it has the added advantage of an information ecosystem that rewards outrage, amplifies conspiracy theories, and discourages reflection. There is no silver bullet against a hatred this adaptable. But condemning antisemitism in principle will accomplish little if we cannot identify it in practice. The challenge is not simply to persuade Americans that antisemitism is wrong. Most already believe that. It is to help them recognize when the prejudices they condemn are hiding in arguments they otherwise find persuasive. Aviva Klompas is the co-founder and CEO of Boundless, a nonprofit working to combat antisemitism through research, education, and evidence-based interventions. She is also the host of the Boundless Insights podcast.

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Your Daily Phil: Israel trips see less-than-expected boost after Iran wars

EJP — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:10:49 +0000

Good Thursday morning! In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine an Israel Education Travel Alliance survey showing a less-than-expected bump in enrollment in Israel trips this year compared to 2025, and report on a new $45 million Foundation for Jewish Camp investment in New England camps. We feature two opinion pieces calling for a communal response from the American Jewish community: one by Noa Peri-Jensch about the wide release of the film “NAZA,” and one by Aaron Dorfman drawing attention to the end of the public comment period for a U.S. Treasury Department proposaltargeting private schools’ tax-exempt status. Also in this issue: David Zalik, DanielLubetzky and Rhoda Smolow. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching American Friends of ELEM, which supports Israeli at-risk youth, is hosting its annual Ray of Hope gala this evening in New York City. What You Should Know After a precipitous drop in participation in Israel trips in 2025 due to the 12-day June Iran war, enrollment is expected to bounce back somewhat this year, albeit significantly less than initially projected, according to a new survey from the Israel Educational Travel Alliance released today, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Participation is expected to increase by 14% this year compared to 2025, according to the poll by IETA, an umbrella group representing the largest Israel trip providers. While the average program saw a 20% decrease from original participation projections, attendance among less-engaged Jews is expected to land 40% below original forecasts, and non-Jewish and interfaith programs 50% below. This lackluster enrollment comes as costs for Israel trips have increased significantly, putting further stress on the field, the survey found. Still, with an increase expected for the coming year, the field has remained optimistic and relatively resilient, Rabbi David Levy, IETA’s executive director, said, relaying a line from one provider that he said captured the field’s attitude. “We’ve had seven years of famine,” he told eJP. “God willing, we’re going to have seven years of plenty.” Read the full report here. News CRITICAL MASS Foundation for Jewish Camp invests $45 million in New England camping access and excellence With enrollment in Jewish summer camps surging in recent years, Foundation for Jewish Camp is pouring $45 million over five years into Jewish overnight camps in New England — the bulk of it going toward tuition assistance for financially strapped families, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. Titled “Access Excellence,” the pilot program, which the foundation announced on Thursday, will run from 2027 to 2031 at 11 New England camps with the goal of expanding to other states in future years. Make it worth it: “If we’re going to drive enrollment to these camps through these great affordability programs, we want to make sure that they’re the best camps,” Jamie Simon, CEO of FJC, told eJP. Read the full report here. Share Opinion SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT A lie only needs enough people to believe it In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Noa Peri-Jensch, chief communities officer of the Israeli-American Council, argues that American Jews should respond to the wide release of the film “NAZA” with a sustained campaign of civic action. “For too long, we have comforted ourselves by saying it doesn’t matter what people think, because we know the truth. But it does matter. It matters what teachers teach, what students learn and what elected officials believe. It matters whether our children feel proud of who they are or afraid to show it. Knowing the truth ourselves does not relieve us of the responsibility to explain it to others.” Read the full piece here. Share SPEAK UP As Jews focus on Israel and America, a consequential rule is taking shape in Washington In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Aaron Dorfman, founder and executive director of A More Perfect Union, makes the case for why a Treasury Department proposed rule impacting the tax-exempt status of private schools could put Jewish schools and communal organizations at risk, regardless of which party is in power. “[T]he rule rests on a dangerous premise: that the Treasury Department may decide for itself what counts as ‘fundamental public policy.’ Jewish institutions, other faith communities and the nonprofit sector as a whole, should oppose it before the comment period closes on Nov. 3.” Read the full piece here. Share Worthy Reads Impactful Terms: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Matt Watkins recommends that nonprofits stop using ambiguous terminology about donations and instead describe gifts in terms of impact. “People already know that $1 billion is a lot of money. Funders should tell them how much will actually leave the institution, who will receive it, who decided where it will go, and what will change for people with far less money and power.” Pivoting to Purpose: In his Substack “If Not Us,” philanthropist David Zalik introduces a podcast and newsletter on American Jewish life, rooted in his boyhood as one of three Jewish students in Auburn, Ala., and his wife’s push to turn his fortune toward the Jewish future. “Knowing that somebody hates you does not tell you who you are. Knowing what you’re against is not the same as understanding what you’re fighting for. And worrying about the Jewish future is not the same as building one.” Success After Landing: In the Jewish Journal, RootOne senior managing director Jonathan Fass writes that Jewish teen trips to Israel should be judged by how teens carry the experience home. “This is not simply an argument for better programming. It is an argument for a different measure of success.”ause I trust.’ Those six words crystallized everything I had come to believe about philanthropy.” Major Gifts Nancy and Stephen Grand donated $25 million to Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for advanced research into aging… The U.K. arm of the New Israel Fund raised a record £6.7 million ($8.9 million) in 2025, nearly double the previous year Airbnb is committing $500 million over five years to its nonprofit arm, Airbnb.org, to provide 1 million nights of emergency lodging a year… Accenture is giving the Global Opportunity Youth Network $5.9 million over three years to boost job prospects for disadvantaged young people in 18 communities across Brazil, Colombia, India, Mexico and South Africa… Transitions Eric Schuster joined the Union for Reform Judaism as its assistant vice president of camps immersives… European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde announced today that she is stepping down on Feb. 7…st-ever Jewish president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America… Word on the Street Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND Snacks, accused the global news publication Semafor of compromising its journalistic independence through its financial ties to Qatar, alleging that the outlet was receiving outsized resources from the Qatari government for programs that did not require that level of funding, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… The Dallas Jewish Community Foundation has topped $500 million in assets, halfway to its $1 billion goal… JewishAkron, the Jewish federation serving the Akron, Ohio, area, has put its Schultz Campus, home to the Shaw JCC and Lippman School, on the market for $2.5 million and is weighing a sale-leaseback, which would let it sell the building and rent it back, because the campus costs more to run than it brings in… The Hollywood Reporter reports that Modi Rosenfeld, who sold out Radio City Music Hall this year, is the subject of a new documentary executive-produced by Mayim Bialik… The New York Times reports that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democratic megadonor, has taken a liking to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as donors begin to line up behind potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates… More than 70% of Jewish employees surveyed by U.K. consultancy Pearn Kandola say they have stayed quiet about antisemitism at work, even at employers with diversity programs… A new Anti-Defamation League and Boundless study found that younger Americans often fail to spot antisemitic posts online, especially ones aimed at Israel and Zionism, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen… Fortune magazine reports that only 8% of nonprofits have a formal AI plan even though most see real opportunity in the technology, as groups such as the American Cancer Society and City Year begin tying AI to their missions… Washington Post executives met earlier this week with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter to voice concern over the recent extremist settler attack on Post photojournalist Heidi Levine in the West Bank… Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who recently oversaw the government’s case against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, died yesterday at 92; in his New York Times obituary, it was noted that he “was known to hold sentencings on Fridays so he could reflect on his decisions over the Sabbath”… Pic of the Day Screenshot Rhoda Smolow (right), Hadassah immediate past national president, and other members of the organization cut the ribbon yesterday on the Rhoda Smolow Building for Educational Excellence at the Hadassah-supported Meir Shfeya Youth Village in northern Israel. “As a reading teacher, I knew that teaching a child to read was about so much more than reading words on a page. It was about opening doors, building confidence and giving the children the tools to discover a world of opportunities,” Smolow said at the event. “To think that this building will continue this work for generations to come is deeply meaningful to me.” Birthdays Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and longtime leader of the German Jewish community, turns 94 Ralph Bakshi, Haifa-born director and screenwriter of animated and live-action films including “The Lord of the Rings,” turns 88 Jeffrey E. Garten, dean emeritus of the Yale School of Management, he has served in the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations, turns 80 Richard Dreyfuss, Academy Award-winning actor, who played Yoni Netanyahu in the 1976 film “Victory at Entebbe,” turns 79 Dimitri Simes, retired CEO of the Center for the National Interest and publisher of its namesake foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, turns 79 Rabbi Mordechai E. Liebling, former director of the social justice organizing program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, turns 78 David Remnick, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor of The New Yorker since 1998, turns 68 Bernard Greenberg Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan, rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Sun City, Ariz., turns 66 Evan Sayet, author, satirist and public speaker, turns 66 Susan Merdinger, classical pianist, turns 64 Drew Rosenhaus, sports agent who has negotiated billions of dollars of player contracts, turns 60 Grayson McCouch, actor who starred in the daytime soap opera “As the World Turns,” turns 58 Andrea Dorfman, screenwriter and film director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, turns 58 Daniel Bernstein, mathematician, cryptologist and computer scientist, turns 55 Michael Schur, Emmy Award-winning television producer, writer and actor, best known for NBC’s “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” turns 51 Moses Hacmon, Israeli collaborative artist, designer and photographer, turns 49 Rachel Barinbaum, VP for strategic communications and business development at Anchorage, Alaska-based Northern Compass Group David Cohen, jockey inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, turns 42 Leigh Shirvan Helfenbein, marketing director for Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group Samantha Zeldin, director of product management at Audible, an Amazon company Seth Schuster, former national spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, now an AVP for public affairs at the NYC Economic Development Corporation Leora Eisenberg, Ph.D. candidate in Russian and Eastern European history at Harvard David Siegel, booking producer at NBC Universal

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A lie only needs enough people to believe it

Contributing Author — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:58:48 +0000

We grow up conditioned to expect lies to reveal themselves. Pinocchios nose grows. A lie detector exposes what someone is hiding. But the truth is that a lie can arrive with confident testimony, compelling images and the approval of people we trust. The blood libel never had evidence behind it, and its very scale worked in its favor: People who might question a small embellishment in a story did not question an enormous one, assuming no one would invent something so monstrous. It was repeated until familiarity passed for proof and the accused were left to prove their innocence. Jews were persecuted and killed because of it. NAZA, a film written and directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and expected to reach tens of millions of viewers when it becomes available online in early November, is a test of whether we have learned how such accusations take hold. I recently heard Ariel Averbuch describe what it was like to watch “NAZA,” the title of which derives from a military acronym for nezek agavi, collateral damage, and his words stayed with me. Averbuch is an IDF reservist and one of the co-creators of “NAZA: The Real Story,” which brings firsthand testimony and raw footage from Gaza documenting how Hamas operates within civilian areas and how the IDF itself acts to avoid harming civilians. I sat and watched it, and I can tell you honestly: If I had not known the truth, I would have left that screening 100% convinced that the Jews, the Israelis and the IDF are Nazis in the fullest sense of the word, he said. Coming from a reservist who lived this war, that is a sobering admission of how persuasive a well-built lie can be, especially when the audience cannot see what was left out. What takes hold in a theater can travel into a classroom, a newsroom or a city council. The viewer becomes a messenger. There is a dangerous moment in the life of a lie: the moment people stop asking whether it is true. For too long, we have comforted ourselves by saying it doesnt matter what people think, because we know the truth. But it does matter. It matters what teachers teach, what students learn and what elected officials believe. It matters whether our children feel proud of who they are, or afraid to show it. Knowing the truth ourselves does not relieve us of the responsibility to explain it to others, and silence is exactly where a lie moves in. So when NAZA had its North American premiere at Lincoln Center, the Israeli-American Council answered on the street outside, with mobile LED screens on trucks showing footage from the Oct. 7 attacks alongside facts that the film leaves out. Since then, Israeli-American and Jewish communities from the Hamptons to San Francisco and Los Angeles to Newton, Mass., have asked for the same response in their own cities. We are not trying to stop anyone from seeing NAZA. We want every viewer to ask what is missing, because every disputed claim deserves a specific answer that names the allegation, cites the evidence, and provides the context. That standard applies to us, too. Israels conduct, like that of any democracy at war, should be open to examination, and our credibility depends on the discipline we ask of others: checking sources, acknowledging what we cannot establish and correcting mistakes. Many of us have been trained to defend Israel, some in uniform and others through advocacy and community leadership. Now we must bring that same commitment to American civic life. That work has to be organized and sustained: forming relationships with local officials, joining school boards and parent-teacher associations, and confronting antisemitism wherever it shows up in our own communities. “NAZA” will not be the last film, and this will not be the last lie. The real test isnt how we respond to one documentary; its whether weve built the civic muscle to respond to the next one, and the one after that. Every one of us must be civically trained and engaged. Vote. Meet your representatives. Show up at school board meetings. Build relationships with your neighbors. Speak when something is wrong. And teach our children their history, along with the courage to defend it and the discipline to examine evidence, even when it challenges their assumptions. A lie only needs enough people to believe it. The truth needs much more. It needs people willing to stand behind it and speak it out loud. For every lie, we will bring evidence. For every distortion, we will bring context. For every attempt to silence us, we will raise our voices. For our children, for Israel and for America. Noa Peri-Jensch is chief communities officer of the Israeli-American Council. The IAC led the protest outside the North American premiere of NAZA at Lincoln Center and organized the first U.S. screening of NAZA: The Real Story.

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As Jews focus on Israel and America, a consequential rule is taking shape in Washington

Contributing Author — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:47:50 +0000

With so much attention focused on Israel and the political future of the United States, another consequential question is taking shape in Washington: Who decides which beliefs and practices are acceptable for our community institutions? On September 3, the Treasury Department and the IRS proposed a rule that would strip 501(c)(3) status from any private school that “adopts, maintains, or enforces any policy or practice that discriminates on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin” in any program, “for any purpose.” Treasury estimates that about 18,000 schools would be affected. A school that loses its exemption would owe taxes, and its donors could no longer deduct their gifts. No one should defend racial discrimination in schools, and we certainly don’t. But the rule rests on a dangerous premise: that the Treasury Department may decide for itself what counts as “fundamental public policy.” Jewish institutions, other faith communities, and the nonprofit sector as a whole, should oppose it before the comment period closes on November 3. The rule relies on Bob Jones University v. United States (1983), in which the Supreme Court upheld the denial of tax exemption to a school that banned interracial dating, because racial discrimination in education violated “a most fundamental national public policy” embraced across all three branches of government for decades. The majority itself denied that its ruling gave the IRS “authority to decide which public policies are sufficiently ‘fundamental.’” This rule would lower the bar. To show what counts as public policy, its preamble cites Eisenhower’s order sending troops to Little Rock, and alongside it two 2025 executive orders on DEI and school discipline: contested directives of one administration, not settled national consensus. President Biden’s first-day executive order called advancing equity and racial justice the responsibility of the whole government; four years later, President Trump ordered an end to DEI. As the law professor Roger Colinvaux has written, that is “public-policy whiplash, not a sign of the fundamental agreement necessary to invoke Bob Jones.” If an executive order can define “fundamental public policy,” every new president can rewrite the terms of tax exemption, and every school – and potentially every nonprofit – will have to guess what comes next. This is not an isolated move. The administration has publicly threatened Harvard’s tax exemption, and in August, reporting described a Treasury Department plan to revoke the exemptions of disfavored advocacy groups. Walter Olson of the libertarian Cato Institute, which has long criticized such targeting from both the left and the right, called that plan “dangerous and constitutionally suspect.” Even some conservatives who share the rule’s goal see the danger. Writing this month for the right-leaning Capital Research Center, Kali Fontanilla warned that a future administration could turn the same reasoning against a Christian college’s policies on LGBTQ staff. “A boomerang,” she wrote, “does not care who throws it.” The temptation to grant the government this kind of power reaches the Jewish community as well. At least one Jewish organization has urged the Treasury Department to go further: to treat participation in boycotts of Israel, which it calls “discriminatory,” as relevant to a school’s tax exemption, and to build a portal for submitting allegations against schools. At a time when antisemitism is a serious concern and debates over Israel are increasingly contentious, I understand the impulse to use government authority to protect Jewish communities.. But a power that can be aimed at causes we oppose can also be aimed at causes we cherish. In 1896, a New York judge refused to approve the incorporation of Agudath Hakehiloth, a Jewish communal organization, because it planned to hold its annual meeting on a Sunday. That, he wrote, would be “an aggression upon the Christian Sabbath” and “contrary to the public policy of the state.” In 1974, the Ohio Supreme Court allowed the secretary of state to refuse a nonprofit charter to the Greater Cincinnati Gay Society, agreeing that promoting homosexuality “as a valid life style is contrary to the public policy of the state.” In both cases, “public policy” meant the majority’s discomfort with a minority. Nor is the risk confined to one side of politics. In 2022, a Cornell Law Review article by Alex Zhang urged the Biden Administration to extend Bob Jones to discrimination on the basis of every protected trait as part of its expanded civil rights enforcement. Consider what that logic could mean for Jews. Many Orthodox schools educate boys and girls separately. Jewish schools serve Israeli families, students from the former Soviet Union, Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews, and Jews of Color through programs designed to help students find community and belonging. Many Jewish institutions hold traditional teachings on marriage and gender. Nearly all teach a love of Israel, at a moment when Zionism is described in some quarters as racism. A Treasury Department empowered to define public policy on its own could, in a different political season, treat any of these as disqualifying. The party in power changes; the tool stays the same. Two justices in Bob Jones pointed to a better way. Justice William Rehnquist, dissenting, argued that “Congress itself intended to decide what § 501(c)(3) requires,” leaving no room for the IRS to add conditions of its own. Justice Lewis Powell, concurring only in part, rejected the idea that tax-exempt organizations exist to carry out “governmentally approved policies.” That view, he wrote, “ignores the important role played by tax exemptions in encouraging diverse, indeed often sharply conflicting, activities and viewpoints.” “The contours of public policy,” he concluded, “should be determined by Congress, not by judges or the IRS.” That does not mean the 1983 Court was wrong for its time. Then, opposition to segregated schooling was a rare principle that Congress, the courts, and presidents of both parties had affirmed for a generation, and the IRS could fairly claim to be enforcing a national consensus rather than picking a side. We no longer live in that world. In today’s polarized politics, the tools of government are increasingly turned against the other side’s institutions, and a power to decide which nonprofits offend “public policy” will not stay confined to questions of genuine consensus. Treasury cannot overrule the Supreme Court. But it can stop building on this doctrine. It should withdraw this rule and leave any new conditions on tax exemption to Congress. That would protect yeshivas and progressive synagogues, Catholic schools and Black churches alike. The public comment period for this proposed rule closes on November 3. Anyone with a stake in education should submit comments describing real programs, students, and funds, and explaining what a standard that shifts with each administration would put at risk. They should urge Treasury to withdraw the rule and leave the definition of public policy to Congress. Comments can be filed at regulations.gov, in docket IRS-2026-1189. Then they should recruit others to do the same: the day school across town, the Greek Orthodox or Korean church school down the street, the foundation that funds scholarships at all of them. Rules like this advance when affected institutions assume someone else will object. At a moment when Jewish attention is understandably focused on Israel and the future of American democracy, we should not overlook the rules that shape the freedom of our own institutions at home. The judge who balked at a Sunday meeting in 1896 believed he was defending public policy. The surest protection for every minority community is to make sure no official, of any party, gets to make that call again.

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Foundation for Jewish Camp invests $45 million in New England camping access and excellence

Jay Deitcher — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:34:41 +0000

With enrollment in Jewish summer camps surging in recent years, Foundation for Jewish Camp is pouring $45 million over five years into Jewish overnight camps in New England — the bulk of it going toward tuition assistance for financially strapped families. Titled “Access Excellence,” the pilot program, which the foundation announced on Thursday, will run from 2027 to 2031 at 11 New England camps with the goal of expanding to other states in future years. The initiative —backed by an array of funders —will devote $27 million towards tuition support and $5.5 million towards capital grants to ensure that the camps can accommodate an increase in campers; the remainder of funding will go toward coaching, consulting and professional development tailored to each camp’s needs, including to improve leadership, staffing, technology and facilities planning. “If were going to drive enrollment to these camps through these great affordability programs, we want to make sure that theyre the best camps,” Jamie Simon, CEO of FJC, told eJewishPhilanthropy. Through the scholarship portion of the initiative — titled “Road to Camp” — FJC will provide 6,000 tuition assistance grants to Massachusetts campers over the five years, with grants available to both new and returning campers. Households earning less than $200,000 annually will receive 40% off camp tuition and families earning between $200,000 and $300,000 will receive 30% off. Campers are eligible to receive assistance year after year for as long as they qualify. Grants will be offered based on trust, which is “the best practice,” Simon said. “We believe that if families really need it, theyll ask for it, and if families dont need it, they wont. We want to make this as accessible and easy to apply for as possible.” In addition, the grants can be layered on top of other financial incentives, including individual camp’s financial assistance and FJC’s One Happy Camper grants, which has provided grants to over 150,000 first-time campers. A recent FJC study of One Happy Camper showed that 86% of first-time campers who received an OHC grant returned the following summer, but in subsequent years, return rates varied depending on household income. By offering this new incentive, FJC hopes to support families for as long as they need it. The 11 camps involved in the initiative are Camp Avoda, Camp Bauercrest, Camp JORI, Camp Pembroke, Camp Ramah in New England, Camp Tel Noar, Camp Tevya, Camp Yavneh, Camp YJ, URJ Crane Lake Camp and URJ Eisner Camp. Massachusetts was chosen as the pilot state — with a few camps falling into the greater New England region — because it has a strong camping culture, with options serving multiple denominations, Simon said. FJC also has a New England Regional Center located in Boston and has established partners throughout the region. In all, the camps served over 4,500 campers last year, making up 80% of families who send their children to Jewish camps in the state. The state is also a prime launching pad because it’s suffering an affordability crisis, Debby Shriber, executive director of URJ Eisner and Crane Lake Camps, told eJP. An August Smart Asset study showed that in Massachusetts a family of four requires a yearly income of $329,555 to live comfortably, compared to the majority of other states where they require $200,000. “Thats a huge pinch for Jewish families,” Shriber said. “Often families can earn too much to qualify for assistance and still struggle to afford camp alongside housing and childcare and saving for the future and day school if they choose to go there.” Every year, URJ Eisner Camp and URJ Crane Lake Camp disperse over $500,000 in scholarships. “The price of camp sometimes stands in the way for people coming to camp, and we know that it can not only affect getting into camp but it can affect their ability to return to camp,” Shriber said. Road to Camp won’t “reduce our scholarship spend[ing],” she said. “This is to widen the scholarship pipeline.” Both camps aim to add more beds to accommodate an increase in campers who can now attend because of the additional funding, Shriber. “Were going to take part in every training because we know that theres always something new to learn,” Shriber said. FJC will perform a study on the initiative after the program’s third year with the goal of launching similar programs in other states. “We’re excited for what we can learn,” Shriber said. “Were excited for what we can share, and were excited for how we can grow.” Because of the scholarships, camps will fill up quickly, Simon said. Directors can use capital grants to improve camper bunks, staff housing, dining halls and program spaces. The program aims to increase camps’ physical capacity so that they can serve over 200 additional campers each year. The initiative is supported by The Endowment for an American Jewish Future, the Michael Susan Dell Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. FJC is one of Jim Joseph Foundation’s longest-term grantees, Barry Finestone, the foundation’s president and CEO, told eJP, “and certainly one of the highest in dollars.” The initiative was attractive to the foundation because it will lead to research that can support the entire field, he said. Some donors fall in love with solutions to problems and then double down on them even if they don’t work, Finestone said, but the Jim Joseph Foundation fell “in love with the problem” of making quality Jewish camp accessible to everyone, which is why its continuously looking for new ways of targeting the problem. The Jim Joseph Foundation was also attracted to the initiative because it is funded through a donor collective, Finestone said. “We are working with three or four other partners on this, each bringing their own skills to the table, each bringing their own idiosyncrasies to the table, but we are all in [for] the greater good for Jewish summer camping.” Investing in camp “is a little bit of a twofer,” Finestone said because donations impact more than just the campers. “Theres the kids themselves that go to summer camp, and then theres the madrich, the counselor, who works at the summer camp, and so youre getting a little bit of a two-for-one.”

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Israel trips on track for 14% growth after years of war, as costs rise and less-engaged Jews lag

Nira Dayanim — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:31:02 +0000

After a precipitous drop in participation in Israel trips in 2025 due to the 12-day June Iran war, enrollment is expected to bounce back somewhat this year, albeit significantly less than initially projected, according to a new survey from the Israel Educational Travel Alliance released on Thursday. This lackluster enrollment comes as costs for Israel trips have increased significantly, putting further stress on the field, the survey found. Participation is expected to increase by 14% this year compared to 2025, according to the poll by IETA, an umbrella group representing the largest Israel trip providers. While the average program saw a 20% decrease from original participation projections, attendance among less-engaged Jews is expected to land 40% below original forecasts, and non-Jewish and interfaith programs 50% below, according to the survey’s findings. Across the 32 organizations that participated in the survey, IETA now projects 52,000 participants for 2026, a 20% drop from projections prior to this year’s war with Iran. As of early October, 37,000 of those 52,000 participants had already gone on their trips, with the rest expected to go by the year’s end. Providers had projected “close to 70,000” participants for 2026 before this year’s war, Rabbi David Levy, IETA’s executive director, told eJewishPhilanthropy, but now expect participation to bounce back in 2027 to a level that “meets or exceeds” what providers had expected for this year. Levy cited several reasons for the decreased engagement, including safety concerns and logistical complications. For the audience that saw the biggest decrease, he also pointed to the U.S. political climate around Israel as a factor. “Unfortunately, the situation in the United States is not necessarily favorable towards travel to Israel. So for some of them, they’re feeling like this isn’t necessarily the most celebratory thing,” said Levy. “It’s not borne out in the data. This is in conversations with trip providers…the mood in the United States is a factor in peoples decisions to come on a trip like this, and that impacts the ability to recruit those participants, which is a larger circle.” He added that the effect is “more pronounced” among less-engaged and non-Jewish audiences, “but it’s true across the board.” The demographic shifts come paired with a median 15% increase in the cost of a participant’s participation in an Israel educational travel experience, which Levy attributed to a variety of factors, including increased insurance costs, limited airfare options and the increase in the shekel’s strength against the dollar. Interruptions to Israel travel since the COVID-19 pandemic have also compounded, said Levy, leading to a smaller pool of alumni who are able to recruit new participants. “Pre-2020, there were thousands of alum of Israel trips on campus. Today, it’s so much smaller. We’ve seen such a massive decrease in terms of the number of alumni who can recruit other alum. And that was one of the biggest drivers for getting people who were less engaged there.” The survey did not break down cost drivers, said Levy, adding that among the trip providers he has spoken to, the biggest unexpected increase came from Israeli vendors that had quoted prices in dollars and then switched to shekels. He added that group airfares are also much harder to find, with Delta and United not yet having group desks open after the Iran war, though more airlines are returning to the route. Because most trips are subsidized, higher costs mainly limit how many participants providers can bring, Levy said. How organizations absorb them varies: “Some will have fewer participants, some will increase their fundraising, some will cut staff.” Providers are shifting their focus from handling the immediate fallout of the war to making trips more affordable, the survey found. When asked where they most need help, providers named financial incentives for participants first, followed by partnerships with local communities and better ways to measure the impact of trips Still, with an increase expected for the coming year, the field has remained optimistic and relatively resilient, Levy said, relaying a line from one provider that he said captured the field’s attitude. “We’ve had seven years of famine,” he told eJP. “God willing, we’re going to have seven years of plenty.”

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Your Daily Phil: With uncertain Israeli election results, Jewish groups hail high turnout

EJP — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:07:03 +0000

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the Jewish world’s reactions to yesterday’s elections in Israel. We cover CNN commentator Van Jones’ warnings about antisemitism in the Black community at last night’s American Friends of Magen David Adom gala in New York, and spotlight a Jewish and Israeli aid worker delegation’s attendance at a recent international humanitarian-aid conference. We feature an opinion piece by Ruben Arquilevich about expanding the way immersive Jewish programs measure success and a piece by Todd Polikoff about some of his takeaways from Kivunim, a leadership seminar for JCC executives and their counterparts at community centers in Israel. Also in this issue: Judy Karofsky, J. David Heller and Noah Wyle. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching We are keeping an eye on the results of yesterday’s elections in Israel as poll workers continue to tally the ballots. More on this below. OneFamily is hosting a gala event in New York City this evening. The Milken Global Investors Symposium kicks off today in Mexico City. Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman is slated to speak this morning about financial markets in a sit-down with Milken Institute CEO Richard Ditizio. The Jewish Federations of North America’s small business loan fund that was launched in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks will be honored tomorrow at an event at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross. What You Should Know A QUICK WORD FROM eJPS JUDAH ARI GROSS For the first time since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Israelis headed to the polls in droves yesterday, with the highest turnout rate so far this century. While these elections are perceived by many to be of enormous consequence not only to the country but to Jewry writ large, the initial indications —showing no bloc with a clear path to a majority without breaking a campaign promise or two —have left much of the Jewish world, well, speechless, or at least reduced to banal statements. Even as workers continue to hand-count the millions of paper ballots cast yesterday —4,421,561, as of the most recent count at 12:32 p.m. local time, with 84% of the votes counted —two results are already clear: barring truly unforeseen developments, the next Israeli government will not look like its current one; and Arab Israelis, who turned out in unprecedented numbers, have become a more potent political force in the country than ever. Without a clear vision for what the next government will look like, most Diaspora Jewish groups are primarily hailing the country for its impassioned electorate. “Israel’s vibrant democracy is on full display in today’s election. Israeli elections are always consequential, but this one carries particular significance for the country and its relationships with the United States, American Jewry, and the broader Middle East,” Betsy Berns Korn and William Daroff, the chair and CEO, respectively, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a statement. “We wish Israel well as its leaders work to form a new government and unite the country around a shared path forward.” Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here. News AID ALLIANCE Pushing back on quiet boycotts, delegation highlights Jewish, Israeli aid workers at global confab In the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, many Israeli and Jewish humanitarian-aid professionals have felt isolated, often subjected to boycotts. Israeli aid initiatives have struggled to attain funding from foreign sources, and aid workers have reported being exposed to discrimination and hostility at work and international conferences. To ensure a Jewish and Israeli presence and to have a seat at the table at AidEx, one of the largest gatherings of humanitarian-aid professionals in the world, Olam, the Society of International Development Israel and Nura Global Innovation Lab partnered to bring a 22-person delegation representing eight countries to Geneva for the conference, which was held on Oct. 21-22, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports. Absent in Geneva: Given the treatment that Jewish and Israeli aid workers have faced, it was perhaps no surprise that the State of Israel had no official representation at last week’s AidEx conference, despite the country regularly taking part in international relief operations following natural and man-made disasters. Read the full report here. Share COMMON CAUSE At MDA gala, Van Jones calls antisemitism ‘poison that is being put in’ the Black community CNN commentator Van Jones warned on Tuesday that antisemitism threatens the historic alliance between Black Americans and Jews, cautioning that young people are being targeted by online messaging aimed at turning them against Israel, as he was honored at the American Friends of Magen David Adom’s annual New York City gala, Jewish Insiders Haley Cohen reports. “Jew hatred is poison that is being put into my community, and I’m trying to fight for my community to not get tricked into turning against the only friend we’ve ever had,” Jones said. Giving thanks: “If you like American democracy, thank a Black, thank a Jew,” Jones told the crowd at Cipriani Wall Street, while wearing a blue square pin on his lapel — a symbol of Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, at whose inaugural gala Jones spoke last week. Read the full report here. Share Opinion METRICS ON MY MIND The most important Jewish learning isnt always on the schedule In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Ruben Arquilevich, vice president of URJ Camps and Immersives at the Union for Reform Judaism, explores what it would look like to design immersive programs with relational outcomes in mind alongside operational ones. “Too often in Jewish communal life, we measure success by what we can count: attendance, registrations, programs offered or sessions delivered. Those metrics tell us something about our reach, but they don’t tell us whether someone found a mentor, discovered a sense of belonging, built meaningful friendships or felt empowered to take ownership of their Jewish life. Relationships shouldn’t be viewed as a happy byproduct of great programming, but as one of their primary goals.” Read the full piece here. Share LEARNING OPPORTUNITY What Israel’s community centers taught me about ours In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Todd Polikoff, CEO of the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center in Dallas, highlights similarities and differences he observed between North American JCCs and Israeli community centers, or matnasim, during his time at Kivunim, a leadership seminar in Israel for JCC and matnas executives held earlier this month. “[The matnas] treats the neighborhood itself as the work: Who in the neighborhood is missing from the room and what it would take for them to come in? That is a harder standard than the one most of us use, and I think it is the right one. A JCC that measures itself by membership numbers alone will drift toward becoming a very good gym with a Jewish name. A JCC that measures itself by whether different kinds of people in its community actually meet one another is doing something no one else in town can do.” Read the full piece here. Share Worthy Reads Main Street for Sale: In The New York Times, Western Michigan University professor Doug Lepisto warns that boomers selling their businesses to private equity will pull local ownership into a few wealthy cities. “For a long time, America has treated local business ownership as a private matter. But when millions of owners reach the exit at the same time, private decisions become a national reckoning. The question is whether America will renew a culture of local empowerment or let economic control keep concentrating in the places that already have it.” Major Gifts Marketing exeThe MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation, Press Forward and Social Finance are backing a $21 million fund that invests in local news outlets… Judy Karofsky, the former mayor of Middleton, Wis., gaveher alma materBryn Mawr’s social work school $1 million for eldercare education… Transitions J. David Heller was officially elected the next chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s board of governors at its meeting this week… Word on the Street The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports from Squirrel Hill where community members gathered Tuesday to remember the 11 people killed at Tree of Life eight years ago. At the gathering, the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg asked the crowd whether the city’s unity against hate has endured… Inside Philanthropy examines how New Pluralists, a cross-ideological funder collaborative, is using a $5 million round from its Breakthrough Fund to back seven projects that bridge class divides on issues such as housing and AI data centers… The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation confirmed that Iranian operatives tied to the Revolutionary Guard spent two months targeting Jewish Australian journalist Sharri Markson… PBS covers how American clergy from different faiths are training to calm tensions at polling places on Election Day… Community Credit Union of Florida has sued to foreclose on L’Chaim Farm, the Dania Beach property that houses Lasso Kosher Grill, for defaulting on a $3.9 million loan… Jewish actor and star of “The Pitt,” Noah Wyle, was named People magazine’s 2026 Sexiest Man Alive; philanthropist and activist Sheryl Sandberg applauded Wyle for saying that he does the dishes at home, calling it “choreplay”… A Torah ark curtain and sash said to have been looted on Kristallnacht and later bought by a Holocaust survivor has been returned from Phoenix’s Temple Chai to Berlin’s Jewish community… Israel canceled the electronic entry permits of New York congressional candidate Brad Lander and other progressive Jewish activists and rabbis detained last week at a West Bank olive harvest… Pic of the Day Courtesy/American Zionist Movement Jewish communal professionals watch Israeli Election Day coverage yesterday at the Jewish Federations of North America offices in Washington at a watch-party event organized by the American Zionist Movement. Among those in attendance were: William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Sheila Katz, JFNA’s chief Jewish life officer; Scott Lasensky, an author, diplomat and Jewish educator; Joel Rubin, a progressive strategist and former State Department official; Howard Mortman C-SPAN’s communications director; and Matt Dorf, the founder and president of West End Strategy Team. “As American Zionists, we care deeply about what goes on in Israel,” Herbert Block, AZM executive director, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs for eJewishPhilanthropy at the event. “How governments are put together is sometimes messy behind the scenes, but its important that we show our support for Israel, that we show the people of Israel that we care. It’s important that they know were following whats happening there because it impacts us, like what happens here impacts them.” Birthdays Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass/Facebook Mindy Haas, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Ky., and a member of Kentucky’s Antisemitism Task Force Rabbi Adolf Shayevich, rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, turns 89 Rabbi David Twersky, spiritual leader of the village of New Square (in Rockland County, N.Y.) and Hasidic rebbe of Skverer Hasidism worldwide, turns 86 Dennis Franz, retired actor best known for his role as NYPD Det. Andy Sipowicz in “NYPD Blue,” turns 82 Sofa Landver, former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, she also served as minister of aliyah and integration, turns 77 Faye Ginsburg, anthropology professor at NYU, she won a 1994 MacArthur genius fellowship, turns 74 Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic, rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden, Conn., turns 73 Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, turns 71 David Louis Finkel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, he is a 2012 MacArthur genius fellow, turns 71 Rachel Levine, four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and assistant secretary for health, both throughout the Biden administration, turns 69 Jackie Levy, former member of the Knesset for Likud, he then served as mayor of Beit She’an, Israel, turns 66 Bob Melvin, manager of MLB’s San Francisco Giants until the end of the 2025 season, he has been named Manager of the Year three times, turns 65 Maurizio Molinari, Italian journalist, he served as editor-in-chief of the daily la Repubblica from 2020 until 2024, turns 62 Jami Gertz, actor and investor, she is a part-owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, turns 61 Tony Levine, owner of a Chick-fil-A franchise in the Houston area, he was a collegiate and an NFL football coach, turns 54 Jacob “Jake” Kasdan, film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor, turns 52 Joaquin Rafael Phoenix, Academy and Grammy Award-winning actor, turns 52 Yaakov “Kobi” Peretz, Israeli singer in the Mizrahi style, turns 51 Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, member of the California State Assembly (D-16), turns 48 Oren Hazan, member of the Knesset for the Likud party from 2015 to 2019, turns 45 Adam Kwasman, member of the city council of Scottsdale, Ariz., turns 44 Elliot Schwab, president at Apex Healthcare Properties Avital “Tali” Warburg Goldstein, director of member experience strategy at Oscar Health

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With election results unclear, most U.S. Jewish groups stay mum, hail Israeli democracy

Judah Ari Gross — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:41:12 +0000

For the first time since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Israelis headed to the polls in droves yesterday, with the highest turnout rate so far this century. While these elections are perceived by many to be of enormous consequence not only to the country but to Jewry writ large, the initial indications —showing no bloc with a clear path to a majority without breaking a campaign promise or two —have left much of the Jewish world, well, speechless, or at least reduced to banal statements. Even as workers continue to hand-count the millions of paper ballots cast yesterday — 4,875,751, as of the most recent count at 2:32 p.m. local time, with 84% of the votes counted — two results are already clear: barring truly unforeseen developments, the next Israeli government will not look like its current one; and Arab Israelis, who turned out in unprecedented numbers, have become a more potent political force in the country than ever. The final results are expected to be announced tomorrow, following a full tally of the normal ballot boxes, as well as the votes of soldiers and diplomats stationed abroad, and after any recounts or appeal proceedings. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on track to have the largest party in the Knesset, but would not reach the necessary 61 seats with only his current coalition partners —the Haredi parties and far-right Religious Zionist and Otzma Yehudit parties. This marks a significant defeat for the current government, which at its peak controlled a solid 68-seat majority, and is on track to see a roughly 25% loss. Yet, Maj. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the second-largest Yashar party, can also not put together a majority coalition, without breaking his campaign promise to not include the country’s Arab-majority parties — due to their ambivalence or opposition to Zionism in general and particular concerns about the longevity of such a coalition. Eisenkot has also vowed to not enter into a government with Netanyahu, saying on record that he would resign before doing so. The exclusion of Arab parties makes the formation of a government far more difficult in this election, in light of Arab Israeli citizens’ historic turnout, garnering the two main parties — the Joint List and Ra’am — 19 seats, according to the latest tally. (This may change slightly as additional ballots are counted.) Describing the complexity of Israel’s coalition-building, Rabbi David Wolpe quipped: “You have two IKEA furniture kits, no instructions, and you can swap parts between them to try to build one complete dresser. You dont know what it looks like until you’re done. I.e. Israeli elections.” Next week, President Isaac Herzog will meet with the parties and hear their recommendations for prime minister before determining who has the best chance of forming a government. If no one is able to do so, the country would go back for another round of elections —and potentially another and another, if no stable coalition emerges, as was the case from 2018 to 2022. Without a clear vision for what the next government will look like, most Diaspora Jewish groups are primarily hailing the country for its impassioned electorate. “Israel’s vibrant democracy is on full display in today’s election. Israeli elections are always consequential, but this one carries particular significance for the country and its relationships with the United States, American Jewry, and the broader Middle East,” Betsy Berns Korn and William Daroff, the chair and CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, respectively, said in a statement. “We wish Israel well as its leaders work to form a new government and unite the country around a shared path forward.” In its statement, Jewish Federations of North America also remained neutral on the outcome of the election, saying that it looks “forward to continuing our work with leaders across the political spectrum to strengthen the bonds between Israel and Jewish communities in North America and advance our shared future.” Some more ideological, progressive organizations are hailing the defeat of the current coalition and calling for the opposition bloc to form a government. “The message is unmistakable: Israelis want a change in direction. The leaders of the opposition must now move quickly to form a government that breaks with the failed policies of the past and works to ensure equality, security and democracy for all of Israel’s citizens, and everyone living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, said in a statement. “The voters have spoken. They have rejected the politicians who have ruled Israel so disastrously over the past four years,” the progressive New Jewish Narrative said. “We call on Israels political leaders to respect that outcome and put together a new government as soon as possible. Israel cannot afford a long stretch of caretaker rule or another round of deadlock.” Nira Dayanim and Jay Deitcher contributed to this report.

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Pushing back on quiet boycotts, delegation highlights Jewish, Israeli aid workers at global confab

Jay Deitcher — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:44:35 +0000

In the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, many Israeli and Jewish humanitarian-aid professionals have felt isolated. Their peers have often adopted strong anti-Israel views, with many calling the war a genocide and some even celebrating the Hamas-led massacres. Due to boycotts, Israeli aid initiatives have struggled to attain funding from foreign sources, and aid workers have reported being exposed to discrimination and hostility at work and international conferences. So it was perhaps no surprise that the State of Israel had no official representation at last week’s AidEx conference, one of the largest gatherings of humanitarian-aid professionals in the world, despite the country regularly taking part in international relief operations following natural and man-made disasters. At the same time, other countries — including South Korea, China, the U.K., Ireland, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as countries Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations with such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia — had a large presence. To ensure a Jewish and Israeli presence and to have a seat at the table at AidEx, despite the lack of an official welcome, Olam, Society of International Development Israel and Nura Global Innovation Lab partnered to bring a 22-person delegation representing eight countries to Geneva for the conference, which was held on Oct. 21-22. The event was attended by 3,500 workers representing U.N. agencies, NGOs and governments and is actually two conferences under one banner — the core AidEx conference, which is focused on humanitarian aid, and Development2030, which focuses on sustainable development goals — with programming overlapping. This year’s theme was “Beyond Delivering ‘More with Less.’” It was important for aid workers, Jewish and non-Jewish, to attend this year because the field is struggling after the closure by the Trump administration of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and global budget cuts, Yael Shapira, Olams director of network engagement and programs, who led the delegation, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “The whole sector has changed immensely,” she said. “So its a good place to hear about that and learn about some best practices and what people are shifting towards.” Attending with a delegation offered Jewish aid workers a built-in support system. More than ever, delegates said, their presence was essential to show the world that Jews and Israel were making a difference in the humanitarian aid sector. While there were several fraught interactions on the floor, the conference overall was positive, delegates said, and attendees made relationships that crossed borders and ideologies. The Olam group represented workers in global health, refugee support, climate resilience, disaster response and social impact. They were chosen from Olam’s global network of humanitarian aid workers, SID Israel’s network of Israeli aid workers and Nura Global’s community of tech innovators who support the Global South. The three umbrella organizations’ networks overlap, so the partnership was natural, Shapira said. Delegates came from Mexico, the U.S., the U.K., South Africa, Canada, Germany and Spain, but the delegation was heavily Israeli. The goal was to bring leaders from organizations who can pass on what they’ve learned. When Shapira last attended AidEx in 2022 in Belgium, she didn’t worry about other attendees’ reactions to her Israeli background. “It was just like, ‘I come from the field of international development. This is a great place to learn,’ and people didnt think twice about who I was, and [I didn’t worry about] how I would introduce myself,’” she said. Arriving at this year’s AidEx “was almost like landing in a parallel universe where Israel almost doesnt exist,” Nicole Kuttler, one of the delegates and the general manager of the Nitsan Lab for Sustainable Development at Tel Aviv University, told eJP. The conference avoided the topic of Israel and Gaza completely, Shapira said. She only heard Gaza mentioned once at the event, and it was in relation to other crises, such as in South Sudan. Even at a session on humanitarian crises in the Middle East, which featured experts from Lebanon, Syria and other countries, the topic of Israel and the Palestinian territories was avoided. “Its almost refreshing because we dont want to be bad news all the time,” Kuttler said. “But then Im thinking, theres so many incredible things that the people in this [Olam] delegation do and these [Israeli] organizations do, and in that way were also not represented.” It was important for Olam delegates to simply raise their hands and ask questions, saying their organization’s names with pride, Kuttler said, especially organizations with Israel or Israeli cities in their name, including IsraAid and Engineers Without Borders, Israel. “I dont think theres any dispute that these organizations that we were representing in the delegation are important and are very much doing good,” Kuttler said. “Very much helping people in emergencies. Very much helping people in vulnerability. Very much doing research. Its undeniable, and the world needs to know that.” The three years following the Oct. 7 terror attacks have seen Israelis being passed over as speakers at conferences and their academic papers rejected by journals due to explicit and quiet boycotts. According to 2025 Olam research, the majority of Jews working in secular aid and development organizations reported anti-Jewish bias at work, and 85% expressed a strong desire to join a dedicated network for professional connections and mutual support. A recent SID Israel study showed that 60% of Israeli NGO respondents had greater difficulty raising donations or attracting investors after Oct. 7, and 40% reported a decline in international partnerships. Even as it becomes increasingly difficult for Jewish aid workers and organizations to maintain partnerships outside the Jewish world, the conference offers Jewish aid workers “a blessing in disguise,” Kuttler said. “Were looking at our colleagues and were learning about our own ecosystem and were finding things in common and were supporting each other.” At AidEx, one Olam delegate told another aid worker that they were from Israel — the other aid worker responded by saying that the Hamas massacres were justified. Another delegate watched as other attendees left a conversation mid-sentence because they realized the delegate was Israeli. When Shapira and another delegate greeted workers at the Turkish booth, representatives refused to talk to them because they were “Zionists.” Kuttler, who was shaken by one of the incidents, said that the antisemitism the delegates had experienced “is insignificant compared to the whole experience, and also we thought that it could happen.” She came back home to Israel with a stack of business cards from delegates from Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Italy and France. “You bond with people even when youre taking a bathroom break or a coffee break,” Kuttler said. “For the most part, not everyone hates us. A lot of people will hear Israel and be like, ‘OK,’ and continue talking, and that happens way more often [than the antisemitic or anti-Israel incidents], but its not sexy to talk about it.” The day before the conference began, delegates spent time with Geneva-based aid organizations and Israel’s U.N. delegate in Geneva, Ambassador Daniel Meron, who shared his experiences in the U.N., an organization that has historically been harshly critical of Israel. At night, the delegation met with the local Jewish community, including local aid workers who don’t often get to overlap their Jewish and humanitarian identities, Shapira said. Post-conference delegates will stay connected through briefings, curated side events and networking opportunities. Although none of the Israeli delegates spoke on panels at the conference, a couple of Olam members did, though none were from Israel. The delegates connected with other Israelis and Jews at AidEx, many of whom did not know about Olam, SID Israel or Nura Global, offering the potential for the community to grow. “Its absolutely critical to be able to be in the spaces where you are meeting people from other communities, other governments that you wouldnt necessarily come across on a micro-project level or behind a Zoom screen and be able to understand what theyre looking for,” Shawna Novak, one of the delegates and executive director of the Canada International Scientific Exchange Program, told eJP. Novak came home with a spreadsheet of new partners, from the non-Jewish world and the Olam delegation. “Its the small exchanges that were so valuable,” she said. “What really matters is what happens from this point moving forward. Do those conversations turn into more practical cooperation, and did we make the impact with the people that we met with at the conference that we hope to have, and are we able to transition that into the types of outcomes that were hoping to have?” Olam, SID Israel and Nura Global are looking to future conferences to which they can bring a delegation. Their eyes are trained on COP32, the 32nd United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to take place in November 2027 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference is where aid workers from across the world gather to discuss environment and climate interventions, and Olam, SID Israel and Nura Global want to ensure Israeli and Jewish voices are in the room.

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What Israel’s community centers taught me about ours

Contributing Author — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:37:51 +0000

On a Monday afternoon in October, I sat in a room at the Baka Community Center, a matnas (an acronym for merkaz tarbut noar sport, or youth, culture and sports center) in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem. With me were the top executives from JCCs across North America; we were in Israel for Kivunim, a leadership seminar run by the JCC Association. Across the table sat Elad Goldenberg, who directs the matnas, and Adi Schmidt, who leads partnerships and development for the Jerusalem region. We were speaking as colleagues, one community center professional to another, about how to build community and build bridges between communities. The Baka Community Center was reminiscent of the Aaron Family JCC in Dallas, where I serve as CEO. When we arrived, I felt as if I could have been walking into our own lobby on a weekday afternoon. There were children out front and people of all ages and from all walks of life inside and around the building. That familiarity was the first lesson of the day: Halfway around the world, in a city that lives with pressures we rarely face in Dallas, a community center still looks like a community center — a place where people arrive for different reasons and end up sharing the same doorway. That afternoon in Baka raised the first question I carried home as a JCC CEO, because I face it every week in Dallas: What is a community center for? Much of what Eldad and Adi face would sound familiar to anyone who runs a JCC. What differs is the setting. Jerusalem is a city where the population changes block by block and war is never far away. A matnas in that city cannot choose one community to serve and leave the others to find their own place. The whole neighborhood is the constituency. In North America, we often describe the J by what we offer: we have fitness centers, preschools, camps and programs for older adults, and those programs are the reason many families walk through our doors. I am proud of every one of them at the Aaron Family JCC, but a list of programs describes services, and families can buy services elsewhere. The Baka matnas starts from a different place. It treats the neighborhood itself as the work: Who in the neighborhood is missing from the room and what it would take for them to come in? That is a harder standard than the one most of us use, and I think it is the right one. A JCC that measures itself by membership numbers alone will drift toward becoming a very good gym with a Jewish name. A JCC that measures itself by whether different kinds of people in its community actually meet one another is doing something no one else in town can do. The Dallas Jewish community, like many others in North America, is more varied than many people outside it assume. Our members include families across the spectrum of observance; Israelis who have made a life in Texas; interfaith households; Jews with no synagogue at all; and neighbors who are not Jewish and come to the J because it is a good place for their kids. They do not always agree, especially about Israel. The second question I brought home from Baka was whether we invite those groups to shape the J together, or only to use it. Avraham Infeld, an educational pioneer and president emeritus of Hillel International, also addressed our group that day. He spoke about what holds Jews together across geography and practice. Many in our field know his image of Jewish identity as a table with five legs: it stands on three or four of them, falls over on two, and on one isn’t a table at all. Israel is one of those legs — and for a growing number of American Jews, it is the leg that wobbles. Back on our first full day in Tel Aviv, we ended the day in the home of chef and two-time New York Times best-selling cookbook author Adeena Sussman. The conversation turned to how food carries Jewish memory from one generation to the next. Infeld’s table was a metaphor, while the table we spoke of at Sussman’s was a more corporeal symbol, but there was a connection to be found there about the role of linking Jews and strengthening today’s wobbling table leg. A family in Dallas whose teenager knows a teenager in the Western Galilee relates to Israel differently than a family that only reads about it. A JCC program director who has a counterpart at a matnas, someone she can call when a program fails or a crisis hits, understands Israel as a place where colleagues live and work. That is peoplehood as a practice, and community centers are built for it. We already know how to put people in a room and keep them coming back. So here is my ask of the field: JCCs and matnasim should build standing partnerships, one center to another, organized around the operating questions we share. We know some already exist between JCCs and matnasim and JCC Global, but we need to learn from them, strengthen them and create many new ones. That means counterpart staff who talk regularly, a shared problem each side is working on and visits in both directions when there is something to learn. A certificate on the wall and a delegation every few years will not build that. The professionals carry the relationship, and the members and teens follow. These partnerships cost little to maintain, and the JCC Association and our federation partners are well placed to match centers, set light expectations and fund the first year of travel and staff time. The return is a generation of JCC professionals who know Israel through people they work with, and Israeli colleagues who know us the same way. At the Aaron Family JCC of Dallas, I am bringing a proposal to our board to explore this kind of relationship with an Israeli matnas. At a minimum, I want to start a dialogue between our J team and their counterparts in Israel. Instead of describing what I learned, I would much rather my colleagues discover it for themselves. Kivunim means directions or pathways, and the seminar sent us home with several. The one I intend to follow is the simplest: to find our counterparts and keep the door open between us. Todd Polikoff is the CEO of the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center in Dallas.

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The most important Jewish learning isn’t always on the schedule

Contributing Author — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:42:56 +0000

Every summer, I watch thousands of young people experience Jewish life at camp. They come for swimming, sports, music and friendships, but the moments that stay with them aren’t usually the ones on the daily calendar. They are conversation after the lights are out; the counselor who notices a camper who needs a high five; the older camper who helps someone feel like they belong; the spontaneous singing around a campfire after the program has ended. Those are the moments people remember — and those are the moments that shape Jewish identity. Of course, the formally scheduled experiences matter as well. We put tremendous thought into Shabbat, learning and every activity we offer. Strong programming is essential, but programming alone doesnt changes lives. Relationships do. That should change how Jewish organizations design programs, define success and follow up after an experience ends. Too often in Jewish communal life, we measure success by what we can count: attendance, registrations, programs offered or sessions delivered. Those metrics tell us something about our reach, but they don’t tell us whether someone found a mentor, discovered a sense of belonging, built meaningful friendships or felt empowered to take ownership of their Jewish life. Relationships shouldn’t be viewed as a happy byproduct of great programming, but as one of their primary goals. What would it look like to design programs with relational outcomes in mind alongside operational ones? It might mean creating intentional opportunities for participants to build connections with peers and trusted adults. It might mean leaving room for conversations that don’t have an agenda or giving young people real responsibility rather than planning every detail for them. It might mean designing experiences that encourage people to contribute, lead and create alongside us rather than simply attend. Camp makes visible something that is true across Jewish life: Relationships are often the vehicle through which Jewish identity takes root. Living together means sharing meals, solving problems, celebrating Shabbat, navigating disagreements and laughing together. Jewish life isn’t confined to a classroom or a program block; it’s woven into everyday moments. This lesson extends far beyond camp. Congregations, youth groups, retreats, Israel trips, service-learning programs and adult communities can all cultivate this same kind of connection. The question shouldnt just be What program should we offer next? but also “How are we creating the conditions for relationships to grow?” And that workshouldn’tend when the program does. A closing ritual or thank-you can mark the end of an experience, but it should not necessarily mark the end of the relationship. Participants should leave knowing what comes next: another gathering, a mentor, a leadership role, a congregation, a fellowship or a way to return and help lead. When those pathways are visible, we send an important message: We do not just want you to participate. We want you to help build what comes next. If relationships are truly a goal, we also need to get better at measuring them. We already ask how many people attended and whether they enjoyed the experience. We should also ask whether participants formed meaningful peer relationships, identified trusted adults, felt a stronger sense of belonging, developed a sense of ownership, expressed interest in leadership, returned for another experience, brought someone else with them or took a next step in Jewish life. These outcomes are harder to measure than attendance, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it. We count who shows up; we should also do our best to count what happens because they showed up. This matters especially as we think about engaging the next generation. Young Jews today are navigating complicated questions about identity, belonging, Israel, antisemitism and what it means to build a meaningful Jewish life. They need more than good programs. They need environments where they are known, trusted, connected and invited to take responsibility. I’veseen what happens when we get this right. Campers return year after year and grow into counselors. Teens become leaders in their congregations and on college campuses. Young adults who once wondered whether they belonged in Jewish life come back years later with children of their own because they want them to experience the same sense of community they found. No one remembers every activity from those summers. I certainly don’t. What people remember is who welcomed them, listened to them, encouraged them to step outside their comfort zone,and made them feel seen. That’s the kind of Jewish learning that lasts. The future of Jewish life will not be shaped only by the programs we create. It will be shaped by the relationships those programs make possible. As Jewish organizations think about engaging the next generation, we should continue investing in strong ideas and meaningful experiences, but we should be just as intentional about creating environments where relationships can take root and building pathways that help those relationships continue after the program ends. When people feel that they truly belong, they do more thanparticipatein Jewish life. They help build it. Ruben Arquilevich is the vice president of URJ Camps and Immersives at the Union for Reform Judaism, where he oversees one of North Americas largest networks of Jewish camps and immersive experiences. A lifelong Jewish camp educator, Ruben previously served as director of URJ Camp Newman for 24 years and has dedicated his career to creating immersive Jewish experiences that foster belonging, leadership and lasting connections to Jewish community.

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Your Daily Phil: Funders brace for Israeli election results

EJP — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:40:40 +0000

Good Tuesday morning! In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Sigal Yaniv Feller, executive director of Jewish Funders Network-Israel, about what Israel’s election means for philanthropy in the country, and spotlight Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary as he travels the country giving grants to young entrepreneurs. We feature an opinion piece by Laura Merage reflecting on the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism’s inaugural conference last week in Denver focused on allyship, and a piece by Jason Plotkin and David Contorer recounting how Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which was seriously damaged in a terror attack in March, managed to reopen in time for the High Holy Days. Also in this issue: Tovah Feldshuh, Michelle Rojas-Tal and Gal Gadot. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Israel Editor Justin Hayet and Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching It’s Election Day in Israel, with early figures indicating high turnout. Israelis have until 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) to cast their ballots, after which polling stations close and Israel’s major broadcasters will carry unofficial exit poll results. American Friends of Magen David Adom is hosting its annual New York City gala tonight. This year’s gala, which is hosted by actor Tovah Feldshuh, will honor political commentator Van Jones and Aaron Dahan, whose Caffè Aronne on the Upper East Side faced threats and vandalism over Dahan’s support for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. What You Should Know A QUICK WORD FROM eJPS JUSTIN HAYET As Israelis cast their ballots today in the long-awaited election, the first since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, much of the Jewish philanthropic world is also anxiously awaiting results, refreshing the news and messaging Israeli colleagues and family. For many, the outcome of the election will not only be a matter of political or ideological concern but also a matter of significant professional consideration, shaping funders’ priorities and opportunities for years to come. Some major foundations have been holding off on large strategic commitments until a new government takes shape and opportunities for government matching and collaboration grow clearer. Meanwhile, in recent years, some funders have moved into political philanthropy and are waiting to see whether their efforts paid off. Ahead of today’s election, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet spoke with Sigal Yaniv Feller, the executive director of Jewish Funders Network-Israel, on the trends reshaping Israeli giving ahead of the vote and the issues likely to stay on funders’ agendas once a new government forms, as well as her reasons for optimism. Justin Hayet: How are philanthropic foundations preparing for the next government? Sigal Yaniv Feller: There are quite a few foundations that have been investing over the past year and a half in in-depth policy papers, white papers, research, mapping, to be able to be ready to whichever government is elected and offer them well-thought-through and strategic plans around different fields in Israel, ranging from education to welfare to domestic violence to gender equality to climate to employment to mental health. These funders want to ensure that the new government has reliable data and policy proposals so the government can move quickly and hopefully promote some of these. Read the full interview here. News TIES THAT BIND Jewish Federations survey finds deepening ties between U.S., Israeli Jewish communities The bond between American and Israeli Jews has strengthened significantly over the past five years, with a growing number of Americans now viewing Israelis as an extension of their own family, according to a recently commissioned survey by the Jewish Federations of North America, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy. Family affair: The survey found that 62% of American Jews now view Israeli Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 46% in an American Jewish Committee survey in 2021. Among Israeli Jews, 53% now view American Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 45% in 2021. While American and Israeli Jews share a strong sense of identity, they differ on how much obligation comes with it. While 78% of Israeli Jews agreed that Jews around the world share a common fate and must act accordingly, 56% of American Jews said the same. Read the full report here, Share FUNDING FOUNDERS ‘No experience necessary’: Spin Master’s Harary wants to fund the next generation of founders Parked outside Barnard College in Upper Manhattan earlier this month, amid a thicket of food trucks and students’ e-bikes, sat a 30-foot 1976 Airstream Sovereign. Somewhat out of place on Broadway and 117th, the travel trailer belonged to Ronnen Harary, the Jewish philanthropist best known as a co-founder of Spin Master, the Canadian toy and entertainment company behind “Paw Patrol” and “Bakugan,” reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Through November, that airstream will be Harary’s home base as he embarks on an unorthodox cross-continent tour for his book, No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make. Pre-seed donating: Stopping at campuses across the U.S. and Canada, Harary is inviting students and passersby to deliver minute-long business pitches — and handing $500 on the spot to the ones he deems “winners.” By the end of his tour, Harary is aiming to cast a cadre of eager young people who will then participate in a competition to become one of 10 winners of $25,000 grants that will allow them to further develop their idea; it’s a model borrowed from pre-seed investing, where backers bet on a founder long before there is a business to evaluate. The key difference is that Harary is donating, not investing, as he will not be taking any equity. Read the full report here. Share Opinion MOVED TO ACT I was a little girl hiding from a mob. Now Im standing up for my grandchildren. In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, artist and philanthropist Laura Merage, co-founder of the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism, highlights the diversity and hope-inspiring attitudes she encountered among the 450 participants at Together at the Crossroads: A Congress for Allyship Unity, the foundation’s convening last week in Denver. “But a feeling is not a result. We built this congress around action, and action is what people carried home. … I don’t expect to eliminate antisemitism in my lifetime. But I believe more firmly than ever that we can push it back to the margins, out of respectable conversation — the way it was, imperfectly, when I first came to this country.” Read the full piece here. Share FRIENDS IN DEED True community partners In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Jason Plotkin, executive director of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., and David Contorer, executive director of Hebrew Free Loan Detroit, describe how two institutions with a long-standing partnership serving community members in need navigated securing an interest-free loan of historic proportions to help the synagogue rebuild after the March 12 terror attack. “It is one thing to say ‘we’re here for you’ after a tragedy, and it is another to say that same sentence while handing someone a $1 million check to help them rebuild. This is how you partner from friendship, community and belonging. Hebrew Free Loan and Temple Israel have become indelible parts of each other’s stories.” Read the fullpiece? Share Worthy Reads Poison Pills: In Haaretz, journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that today’s Israeli election is less fateful than the 2022 vote that put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition in power, since an opposition win would bring only a slow, compromise-driven correction. “A bottle full of poison pills awaits the next prime minister on his night table, because the outgoing government inflamed each and every one of Israels crises and resolved none. The legacy of the last four years wont be wiped out by an election.” The Oldest Scapegoat: In The Atlantic, staff writer David Frum argues that a super PAC ad blaming U.S. aid to Israel for Michigan grocery prices revives an old antisemitic tactic of scapegoating Jews for economic pain. “In the case of the ad supporting El-Sayed, the sonofabitch targeted by the false accusation is not El-Sayed’s theoretical opponent, the Republican Mike Rogers—not really. The ad concludes, “Mike Rogers is for”—ironic chuckle—“they/them.” We all know who they are, and they are the real target of the ad.” Wheels Up, Ballots In: In J. The Jewish News of Northern California, editor emerita Sue Fishkoff joins Bay Area Israelis flying home to vote in today’s election, many for the first time in decades. “‘If some of those ignorant folks ask what Zionism is, I invite them to look around at all the people here who have packed their bags and emptied their savings accounts because they want to save their country,’ [Hadar Aviram] said, waving at the crowded boarding area. ‘When you love something very, very, very much, you are willing to go to great lengths to save it.’” Major Gifts The Davis Family Charitable Foundation committed $2 million to Holocaust Museum Boston, which is preparing to open as New England’s first museum devoted entirely to Holocaust education… Former Toronto Argonauts owner David Cynamon, who played receiver for York University’s football team in the early 1980s, donated $1.25 million to the school’s football program, the biggest donation York’s athletics department has ever received… Donors from the Jewish Communal Fund gave more than $1.3 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a record and more than triple the total a decade earlier… Transitions The London School of Jewish Studies appointed Elaine Robinson as its new CEO… American Friends of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel hired Michelle Rojas-Tal as its new executive director effective Nov. 1… Allyson Berman Greenbaum joined American Technion Society as its managing director of central and western regions… Word on the Street Anthropic warned that its founders plans to donate 80% of their equity in the firm may result in a lower stock price than originally expected… The Rockefeller Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the AARP Foundation are among more than 20 funders that launched All In For Jobs to mobilize $1 billion and match workers with open jobs as AI reshapes work… The Weizmann Institute of Science, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Max Planck Society launched the Advanced Research Consortium in Berlin to host visiting scholars and offer postdoctoral fellowships… Israeli high-tech company Similarweb launched another year of SimilarCare, a program that gives employee-nominated nonprofits full access to its platform and staff mentors… Maimonides Fund’s Jewish Writers Institute announced its 36 fellows, drawn from a pool of more than 550 applicants, who will develop Jewish-themed scripts, podcasts and digital projects through its yearlong screenwriting and digital storytelling fellowships… The National Jewish Advocacy Center is urging the Justice Department to open a civil rights inquiry into New York City’s school system, citing reports of antisemitism and Jewish families leaving public classrooms… The Chronicle of Philanthropy dives deep into Ford Foundation President Heather Gerken’s plan to narrow the grant maker’s 19 program areas to seven as the foundation centers its work on bolstering democracy… Intel is acquiring Israeli quantum-computing startup Classiq, founded by Nir Minerbi, Amir Naveh and Yehuda Naveh, for $2.3 billion in the first big exit for Israel’s quantum industry and the largest quantum acquisition in history… Actress Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Adam Brody’s TV mother in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This,” warns that casting Jews as perpetrators of genocide mirrors Hitler-era tactics, after Brody told GQ that he believes Israel committed genocide in Gaza … Religion News Service examines how Haredi draft exemptions have become a top issue in today’s Israeli election, as a new moderate party, The Haredi Public, vies for Knesset seats…. An American Jewish Committee delegation led by the organizations chief policy and political affairs officer, Jason Isaacson, met with Ahmed Touizi, speaker of Morocco’s House of Representatives… 18Doors, a Jewish nonprofit for interfaith families, is regrouping under its new executive director Adam Pollack after donor gifts that fell through forced it to shed most of its staff and cut its budget roughly in half… Bar-Ilan University awarded honorary doctorates to actor Gal Gadot, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Africa Innovation founder Sivan Yaari and the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Sandy Frankel at a gala last night marking its 70th anniversary…nched a Jewish man in Surfside, Fla., cursed the victim and his wife and threatened to kill them… Pic of the Day Liron Moldovan/Flash90 Israelis stand in line to vote today at a polling station in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv. This year’s election is on track to have one of the largest turnouts in decades, with 31.5% of voters having cast their ballots as of noon — the highest level in some 50 years by this time in the day. Birthdays Gerry Gershoff/Getty Images Fran Lebowitz, author, actor and comedian, turns 76 Gordon Gerson, treasurer of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association George Z. Singal, senior U.S. district judge in Maine, he was born in a refugee camp following WWII, turns 81 Rabbi Gary Glickstein, rabbi emeritus at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom, turns 79 Joel Schindler, SVP at MarketVision Research Robert Goldfarb, president emeritus of Jewish Creativity International Eric Steven Edelman, counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey, turns 75 Peter Marc Jacobson, television writer, director and producer, best known as the co-creator of “The Nanny,” turns 69 Kenneth Katzman, senior advisor and fellow at the Soufan Center following 31 years at the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the U.S. Congress) Robert J. Bond, real estate agent and co-founder and president of Bond Companies Bryan Glazer, co-owner of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, he is a son of the late Malcolm Glazer, turns 62 Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Manhattan borough president, he was previously a member of the New York State Senate, turns 61 Matt Drudge, creator and editor of the Drudge Report, turns 60 Shlomo Simcha Sufrin, Hasidic cantor and singer known by his first and middle names, turns 59 Andrea Schlesinger, partner at HRA Advisors, turns 50 Adam Zucker, sportscaster for CBS Sports, turns 50 Yotam Haber, music composer, associate professor of music composition at Boston University and director of the BU Center for New Music, turns 50 Gideon “Gidi” Markuszower, member of the Netherlands House of Representatives, turns 49 Stephanie Abrams, television meteorologist, currently working for The Weather Channel, turns 48 Elizabeth L. Silver, writer, attorney and creative writing teacher, she has published two novels and a medical memoir, turns 48 Idit Silman, Israel’s minister of environmental protection, turns 46 Alexander Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father George Soros, turns 41 Inbar Lavi, Israeli actor best known for playing Eve in the Netflix series “Lucifer,” turns 40 Elizabeth “Liz” Leibowitz, senior foreign policy and national security advisor for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) Theresa Collington, executive producer of online content at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Fla. Stephanie Arbetter, content strategy lead at Amazon Andrew J. Taub, account manager at Amazon Web Services Ryan Eisenman, co-founder and CEO of NYC-based Arch

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Philanthropy closely monitoring Israeli election, waiting to see next coalition and its priorities

Judah Ari Gross — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:29:31 +0000

As Israelis cast their ballots today in the long-awaited election, the first since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, much of the Jewish philanthropic world is also anxiously awaiting results, refreshing the news and messaging Israeli colleagues and family. For many, the outcome of the election will not only be a matter of political or ideological concern but also a matter of significant professional consideration, shaping funders’ priorities and opportunities for years to come. Some major foundations have been holding off on large strategic commitments until a new government takes shape and opportunities for government matching and collaboration grow clearer. Meanwhile, in recent years, some funders have moved into political philanthropy and are waiting to see whether their efforts paid off. Sigal Yaniv Feller, the executive director of Jewish Funders Network-Israel, has watched those shifts from the epicenter of the Jewish philanthropic world and its giving in Israel. Yaniv Feller joined the Israel arm of JFN in 2015, serving as deputy director and senior director of advisory services before becoming executive director in November 2021. The Jewish Funders Network is nonpartisan, and its members hold a wide range of political views. In an interview with eJewishPhilanthropy, Yaniv Feller outlined the trends reshaping Israeli giving ahead of the vote, the issues likely to stay on funders’ agendas once a new government forms as well as her reasons for optimism. Justin Hayet: Israelis head to the polls today. How has the lead-up to the election shaped funders’ decisions over the past year? Sigal Yaniv Feller: The moment before the elections is generating a lot of sitting on the fence, in terms of philanthropic decisions on the longer term and strategic, larger-scale investments. Funds and foundations are waiting to see what the elections will bring. Meanwhile, we are also seeing rapid decisions that the government is taking, such as pulling money out of the commitments to the five-year plan for Arab society and shared society and putting that funding into the security and defense needs of the country. A lot is on hold until after the elections, when there will be more clarity about the direction of the country. We are seeing some philanthropic trends related to the election. The first is that quite a few funders and foundations are actively involved in political philanthropy. They have come out of the closet, so to speak. In previous years, they did it more discreetly. Now they’re out in the open. That does not necessarily mean funding a specific party or candidate. They’re involved in organizations and initiatives related to maintaining the integrity of elections, creating a good pipeline of leadership in the political arena and helping create professional political agendas for the various parties, right and left, on topics like education, employment and gender. JH: What else are you seeing on the ground? SYF: The second trend is that we see some foundations put a lot of money into political philanthropy at the expense of other fields that they might’ve funded previously. So temporarily, just like we’ve seen after Oct. 7 — that funders doubled down on emergency [grants] and maybe paused the regular funding — now we’ve been seeing a pause in regular funding in order to support doubling down on elections. The third trend we are seeing is foundations that have deep collaborations with the government that are afraid to be associated with political involvement and are very, very vigilant and careful not to be seen as politically [against or in favor of the current government] so that it doesn’t damage or impact their collaborations and [potential] match funding with the next government. The fourth trend is that the high-tech sector is involved in funding political philanthropy at the moment. A lot of the high-tech community is invested in liberal democracy causes and organizations. This is the same high-tech community that was heavily invested in the demonstrations against the judicial reform and also stepped up immediately post-Oct. 7. JH: How are philanthropic foundations preparing for the next government? SYF: There are quite a few foundations that have been investing over the past year and a half in in-depth policy papers, white papers, research, mapping, to be able to be ready to whichever government is elected and offer them well-thought-through and strategic plans around different fields in Israel, ranging from education to welfare to domestic violence to gender equality to climate to employment to mental health. These funders want to ensure that the new government has reliable data and policy proposals so the government can move quickly and hopefully promote some of these. JH: How does this moment fit into the history of Israeli philanthropy? SYF: If we look at the history of philanthropy [in Israel], the first 50 years of the State of Israel, philanthropy largely invested in nation-building: investing in the infrastructure of Israel, our academic institutions, our health institutions, our infrastructure and the army. In the past 20-25 years, philanthropy has evolved into investing much more into human capital and society-building. I like to differentiate between the era of nation-building and the society-building that we are currently in. And they are not mutually exclusive. There are still a lot of capital grants and investment in nation-building, but alongside that, there’s been a lot of investment in leadership development, civil society and society-building. And after Oct. 7, the philanthropic community had to backtrack and go back into investing in nation-building, in the South and in the North, but philanthropy also continued to invest in society. And I think, to the same tone of that, we will see a lot of that after the election: a continuation to invest in the nation’s infrastructure, but also in our society, and our polarization and our leadership and creating trust again and creating optimism and hope. JH: You mentioned investing in leadership. How could the election affect the people who lead Israel’s nonprofits? SYF: Throughout the campaign of the last few months, we see human capital moving from the philanthropic and nonprofit sector into political parties, which is natural. That happens every year, every time there are elections, but we’re seeing more of that now. And after the elections, we’ll see movement again of human capital. So if some parties lose, we might see some of their manpower moving into the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, and if some parties win, we might see more movement of good people from the nonprofit sector into the government, both into the professional roles and the political roles. I think there’s another wave coming, depending on the election results. JH: What do Israel’s nonprofits need most from funders right now? SYF: The sector that held the country together after Oct. 7 was Israel’s social sector. We need to invest in it to make sure we have a strong backbone to be able to face our future challenges. So I think that’s a critical, critical element to invest in. Take an additional $10,000 or $20,000 and take your staff on a retreat or maybe finance mental health support for your staff if they need it. It’s not a lot, but it would go a long way, and the fact that these organizations feel that they’re seen by their funders goes a long way. And I’ve seen quite a few funders do this in the past two years, and it’s been amazing. JH: As emergency giving winds down, which focus areas will stay on funders’ agendas? SYF: Mental health is a huge focus for funders and it’s going to continue to be very big. Just a few weeks ago, in one week, there were six suicide events of IDF soldiers who had been released from the army and then committed suicide while they were still in service. Regional recovery, especially economic regional recovery, in the South and the North — but necessarily a larger emphasis on the North. That’s a big priority [for many funders]. The erosion of democracy is huge, and I think it needs to be something philanthropy invests in, especially because philanthropy has a critical role in a democracy. And if we are no longer a liberal democracy, it will be much harder for philanthropy to operate, and the nonprofits are gonna be limited in their scope of operation. And so I think having a strong, democratic, Jewish country will continue to be a priority for funders. And of course, the last two topics that are ongoing but in a very bad situation are our education system and the violence in Arab society. JH: What gives you hope right now? SYF: We’ve seen new foundations to Israel. They aren’t necessarily new, but they’re new in their larger-scale investments in Israel. Second is that existing foundations are expanding their infrastructure on the ground by hiring more professional staff, looking for office space, and that means the growth of the professional community, professional philanthropic community, that sustained all this work. Also, we haven’t seen funders leaving Israel. We haven’t seen Israelis — you know, maybe there are Israelis that are leaving Israel, at least temporarily — but we haven’t seen any of the JFN-Israel philanthropic community funders leave Israel. And we know that they can live anywhere in the world that they want to, but they’re here to stay, and they’re investing and doubling down in Israel. We’ve seen them over the past 3½ years very committed, very deeply involved with giving and with hope and involvement to make Israel a better place. JH: Wait, there’s more optimism? SYF: Fourth optimistic note: the scope and level of philanthropic collaboration. In my 25 years of working in the philanthropic sector in Israel, I’ve never seen such a scope. It’s the largest and widest that it’s ever been. It’s the era of philanthropic collaborations, so we are seeing so much collaboration.

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True community partners

Contributing Author — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:16:00 +0000

In the Jewish community, we often talk about the value of relationships in terms of friendship, community and belonging. These traits are essential to who we truly are as Jewish communal professionals, and what we desire our institutions to reflect. They are often revealed in the moments we never expected, and never wanted to face, but it’s true that when a crisis comes, you discover who your partners truly are. Here in Michigan, we experienced one of those moments of crisis on March 12, when Temple Israel in West Bloomfield was attacked by a terrorist trying to cause harm to our community. In the wake of that horrific event, not only was Temple Israel’s physical structure damaged, but our community’s emotional well-being was damaged as well – especially for our clergy, staff, faculty and family members. At Temple Israel, we continue to multitask in order to maintain the continuity of services our members have come to expect – from childcare to religious programming and learning opportunities – all while our leaders work on security initiatives, navigate logistics with off-site locations, coordinate the rebuilding of our campus, raise funds for the long-term health of this community and work with our insurers. While the added attention and responsibilities have been a heavy load for the synagogue leadership to carry, we truly experienced a miracle: just six months after the attack, Temple Israel was able to open its sanctuary to celebrate joyous and gratitude-filled Rosh Hashanah services in our newly revitalized space, even as construction continues across our campus. But there is no way Temple Israel could have done this alone: $1 million of the Temple’s rebuilding assets have come as a no-interest loan from Hebrew Free Loan Detroit (HFL), which exists so that Jewish individuals, families and businesses can tap interest-free funding for a wide variety of needs. Prior to the March 12 attacks, HFL and Temple Israel were already partners in a program created to benefit Temple staff members who wished to access interest-free loans. Temple Israel would act as co-signers, and employees would repay their loans through payroll deduction. On the surface, this quiet program was a practical benefit for Temple’s employees, but as we would soon learn, it was also the building block for something much bigger. After the March attack, the critical need for cash on hand to immediately pay vendors sent Temple to approach HFL for financial assistance. HFL’s response was rapid, and the subsequent $1 million loan is 10 times larger than any other loan the agency had ever disbursed in its 131-year history in Michigan. Hebrew Free Loan’s Michigan Jewish Organization Loan Program, created with a generous matching grant from The Ravitz Foundation, disburses 0% loans that typically max out at $100,000 each, and are generally used for Jewish institutions to expand their buildings, increase security or make critical repairs. In some cases, these loans replace cash in hand when the insurance or grant money have not paid out, or capital campaigns are underway, yet the construction is in progress. HFL’s board president, Jonathan Sterling, and board secretary, Jonathan Fellows, connected with Rabbi Josh Bennett of Temple Israel and got right down to “talking tachles.” It was obvious that HFL’s standard $100,000 loan limit was not going to do much to cover the immediate need of the rebuilding efforts at one of the largest synagogues in North America, which serves more than 3,200 households. Temple Israel’s situation was extraordinary, and in extraordinary circumstances, HFL guidelines allow for its board to make extraordinary exceptions — and in this case, HFL’s board members proudly and unanimously approved the massive no-interest loan. Symbolically, the loan agreement, utilizing a repayment plan over three years that works within Temple Israel’s cashflow needs, was finalized a week before Tisha B’Av, an observance of the destruction of the First and Second Temples thousands of years ago in Jerusalem. That morning, the leaders of our two organizations met for breakfast, and HFL presented TI with the $1 million check. This was a warm and celebratory gathering where the leaders of our two organizations connected and shared all that had gone on since that horrible March day. It is one thing to say “we’re here for you” after a tragedy, and it is another to say that same sentence while handing someone a $1 million check to help them rebuild. This is how you partner from friendship, community and belonging: Hebrew Free Loan and Temple Israel have become indelible parts of each others’ stories. This synagogue/agency partnership has come from decades of close friendship and collaboration between our institutions, but also with support from the Jewish Federation of Detroit, which promotes and enhances each one’s work to benefit our entire community. Michigan Jewish life thrives because we all take “community partnership” seriously. The March 12 attack changed the way many Jews — in West Bloomfield and across America — think about security, vulnerability and resilience. It also reminded us of something equally important: resilience is not simply about preparing to withstand a crisis, it is about having a community around you who will act when crisis arrives. This is what mishpacha (family) does. Extraordinary times arrived, and our community relationships became an extraordinary source of strength. For Temple Israel and Hebrew Free Loan, that may be one of the most important investments any of us can make. Jason Plotkin is the executive director of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich. David Contorer is the executive director of Hebrew Free Loan Detroit.

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Jewish Federations survey finds deepening ties between U.S., Israeli Jewish communities

Haley Cohen — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 09:28:27 +0000

The bond between American and Israeli Jews has strengthened significantly over the past five years, with a growing number of Americans now viewing Israelis as an extension of their own family, according to a recently commissioned survey by the Jewish Federations of North America. The survey, conducted alongside a parallel poll of Israeli Jews, found that 62% of American Jews now view Israeli Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 46% in an American Jewish Committee survey in 2021. Among Israeli Jews, 53% now view American Jews as extended family or part of their community, up from 45% in 2021. The U.S. survey was conducted in May and June 2026, and included 2,836 Jewish respondents. The Israeli survey included 1,323 Jewish adults and was conducted in May of this year. The findings capture how American and Israeli Jews view their connection during a turbulent period marked by the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, the war in Gaza and rising global antisemitism. The new JFNA survey also found that the share who feel they have a lot in common with Israelis has risen to 29% — up from 19% in a 2020 Pew Research Center survey asking the same question. Among Israeli Jews, 43% say they have a lot in common with American Jews, and 44% say they have some things in common. While American and Israeli Jews share a strong sense of identity, they differ on how much obligation comes with it. While 78% of Israeli Jews agreed that Jews around the world share a common fate and must act accordingly, 56% of American Jews said the same. Both communities also expressed support for Jewish life in the Diaspora. Nearly three-fourths of both American and Israeli Jews (72% of both populations) agreed that the Diaspora is a legitimate form of Jewish life, rather than a problem to be solved. American Jewish philanthropy remains an important symbol of solidarity with Israel, according to the surveys, with 79% of Israeli Jews saying that American Jewish philanthropy in Israel is still important to Israeli society. Among American Jews, 67% agreed with that statement. The surveys also examined whether giving after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks made Israelis feel that Diaspora Jews genuinely cared about Israel. Sixty-eight percent of Israeli respondents agreed that it did, compared with 50% of American Jewish respondents. Views were more divided on whether American Jewish financial support was critical to Israeli rebuilding, with 40% of Israelis and 49% of American Jews agreeing with that assessment. Travel to Israel was strongly associated with American Jews’ sense of shared identity with Israelis, with those who had visited the country once being 1.7 times as likely to feel they had things in common with Israeli Jews as those who had never visited. Respondents who had traveled to Israel more than once were 3.8 times as likely to report that connection, while those who had lived there were 11.2 times as likely. The findings also suggest that direct experiences with Israelis may shape how American Jews understand their relationship with the Jewish state and its people. Among American Jews, 91% of those with more engaged contact with Israeli Jews reported feeling they had things in common, compared with 70% of those with more distant contact and 42% of those with no contact.

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‘No experience necessary’: Spin Master’s Ronnen Harary wants to fund the next generation of founders

Nira Dayanim — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 09:27:11 +0000

It was a sunny autumn day in Morningside Heights, in Upper Manhattan, and parked outside Barnard College, amid a thicket of food trucks and students’ e-bikes and scooters, sat a 30-foot 1976 Airstream Sovereign. Somewhat out of place on Broadway and 117th, the travel trailer, plastered with vinyl decals bearing slogans like “No experience necessary” and “Doubt is the enemy of luck,” belonged to Ronnen Harary, the Jewish philanthropist best known as a co-founder of Spin Master, the Canadian toy and entertainment company behind “Paw Patrol” and “Bakugan,” and one of the largest toymakers in the world. Through November, that airstream will be Harary’s home base as he embarks on an unorthodox cross-continent tour for his book, No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision Youll Ever Make. Specifically, Harary is taking to the road to enact what could be described as pre-seed philanthropy, stopping at campuses across the U.S. and Canada, inviting students and passersby to deliver minute-long business pitches — and handing $500 on the spot to the ones he deems “winners.” In the 20 minutes that eJewishPhilanthropy observed the competition while waiting to speak with Harary, there were three winning pitches: one for an app for families to preserve their cultural heritage, one for a business combining a fashion marketplace with an art gallery, and a third from a student who hurried back to campus before eJP could inquire about the idea. By the end of his tour, Harary is aiming to cast a cadre of eager young people who will then participate in a competition to become one of 10 winners of $25,000 grants that will allow them to further develop their idea; it’s a model borrowed from pre-seed investing, where backers bet on a founder long before there is a business to evaluate. The key difference is that Harary is donating, not investing, as he will not be taking any equity. The idea for the book and the challenge came from his own life story, he told eJP. He founded his first venture at 23, building the company around Earth Buddies, a grass-growing novelty toy that took off in the mid-1990s. Now, traveling the country in his personal Airstream, he’s looking for bright-eyed, ambitious entrepreneurs like he once was, hoping to give them their first big yes and set them in motion. Last week, at the fifth stop of 24 on his campus tour, Harary spoke with eJP about his new book, taking his Airstream to Burning Man and what he looks for in a pitch. Nira Dayanim: So whats happening to the Airstream after this? Ronnen Harary: Whats happening to the Airstream? Its a good question. Its my personal Airstream from my house, and we drove it from Toronto. If we ever do another NEN pitch competition, we will use it again. Or I will probably take it on a nice road trip. ND: A multipurpose piece of equipment. RH: Yeah, no, I built it myself. I took it to Burning Man in 2018. ND: And it has a history! So for the actual meat of what I want to ask you about, I know that in past interviews youve described this book as a form of giving back. Im wondering why you chose this exact format — the book and the tour — as your way of giving back to people in their 20s. RH: Well, the book was me, sharing my insights about why your 20s are such a magical decade and all the things that occur to you in your 20s, and I wanted to share that and highlight that everybody’s rooting for it: Everybody wants you to win when youre in your 20s. No one sees you as competition. People want to help you out, and when youre starting a business or anything in your career, everybody needs breaks, right? I also talk about the power of not knowing. Theres something very magical about being inspired by something and wanting to bring something to life, and not knowing everything thats needed to actually manifest it, other than your passion, and passion de-levers risk. Sometimes when you know too much, you overthink things, right? And then you get stuck. And doubt is the anti-life. I wrote the book for people to give themselves permission to do what they want to do in their lives. I was very lucky that I did what I wanted to do in my 20s, and I had a lot of support and encouragement to go and do what I was doing. For the contest itself, after the book came out, people said to me, ‘Ronnen, you need to try to put the book into action and put it into practice. Its one thing for you to write something, but how can people experience what you wrote?’ And so the pitch competition is an opportunity for people to pitch an idea. Im a big believer in that, when you verbalize things, youre able to make them happen, especially in this type of environment. You synthesize your thoughts, especially in like a one-minute pitch. I think the biggest thing is actually starting. And when youre in motion, you create your own luck. Its teaching kids how to get into motion and also how to take a risk. Because the biggest thing that holds people back is actually just starting and taking the risk. ND: I suppose youre also giving people permission to ask, right? Asking their network and also asking you for your insight? RH: A lot of its in the feedback too. If you saw me, I was workshopping a few peoples businesses. ND: Right. So I was told there was also a philanthropic element, where youve given to some nonprofits tied to this campaign as well. Is that the case? RH: Yeah, there were a few in Syracuse where people pitched, but it was actually a nonprofit. Actually, through my foundation, we donated support to their causes, but it was outside the contest. ND: I know you wear a couple of hats. Youre a business founder and a mentor and also a philanthropist. Are there ways that you think the philanthropic ecosystem specifically could leverage this mindset? RH: The book is all about making things happen. Its about birthing ideas, and you can apply that to any aspect of your life. I wrote a whole chapter on luck, how you can generate luck. If youre running a nonprofit and you want to be successful, you can learn stuff from my luck chapter. A nonprofit is very similar to starting a business, so a lot of the lessons are transferable. Finding partners, who youre going to build your nonprofit with, zeitgeists. A lot of things are applicable. I would say they can leverage the mindset if people actually want to get into philanthropy and they want to give back, and that is something that they are passionate about, and they feel that that is how they want to contribute, then they can start, right? They can start nonprofits and spaces that theyre super curious about, theyre passionate about, where theyre driven. A nonprofit is exactly the same as a business, but it doesnt have a revenue-generating model attached to it. But it’s a nice thing if nonprofits actually can become self-sustaining, then that would be an instant combination to put together, right? Where you can be a nonprofit, but there is some sort of revenue-generating mechanism to support the nonprofit. ND: So your stated hope and goal in this project is that young people bet on themselves. Coming at it from the other side, what can people who are more established in their careers take from the book in how they approach younger colleagues and mentees and people at that stage? RH: First of all, its the ideas. I think young people have so many amazing ideas, and so drawing out what they have in their heads and what theyre seeing in terms of trends and whats happening in the zeitgeist, and letting them take on more tasks than you normally would. Im a big believer that everybody has something to contribute. So if you ever sat in a meeting with me in my office, Id start with two people, and I end up with 10. And I bring people in that dont necessarily have the domain or subject matter expertise, but they can contribute something. In our business, were all about diversity of thought and having the ideas, having multiple ideas, generating new ideas, and that only comes through diversity of thought. So I would include lots of young people in conversation and discussion that you may not think that they should be included in. When people come to Spin Master, I’m like, “Dont let HR map your career for you. You need to advocate for yourself.” But creating that environment where its more of a meritocracy. Thats really worked well for us in our business. ND: So I know that youre early into the campus tour. Can you tell me about some of the most compelling pitches that youve heard so far? RH: I just had a woman. Shes from India, just rocked up. She saw the airstream, and her idea was so wonderful. Shes all about preserving families recipes and voice notes of grandparents, and its all about family history. Shes from India, and they speak like 100 languages there. And shes like, “Even people in my own family dont even speak the same languages.” So its all about preservation of history and families. I loved her idea. I thought it was really cool. There was a guy who pitched the other day in Boston. I think he was from MIT. He had this cool camera, OK, in this Lego box, and he wants to film people who are doing science experiments and collect the data, and thats going to output something that will reduce the error rate because its actually filming what theyre doing live in the lab. I was like, “Wow, what an ingenious idea!” I think this guys a pure genius. He was just waiting for somebody to tell his idea. And you should have seen how excited he got when he won. He was shocked. You know, it could work, or it could not work. My team gets upset with me because Ive given out a lot of $500 checks. But you know what? Its so wonderful because its getting people in motion. And it dawned on me today that this other woman that we just funded, you see her crying. Its actually someone believing in them. That they can do it. She was in the class where I spoke before, and she had so much doubt. It clicked for me when I said yes to her, and we workshopped her idea because her pitch wasnt perfect, that maybe no ones ever believed in her. I was like, okay, theres something here. And so you dont know, and so you give people this magical start, and off they go, and theyve got to get done in seven days, and lets see what happens, and and start to they start to create magic in their own life, and someone believed in them, ND: What are you looking for in a pitch? What is it that sticks out to you? RH: Im looking for originality. OK, Im looking for execution, and Im looking for the person at the end of the day. Is this person switched on? Are they doing it for the right reasons? Are they going to? Do they really want to put their time into this idea and do they want to be in business for themselves? And then I really adjudicate based on how theyre going to spend the $500. If they actually have a great use for it, then Im much more likely to actually give it to them. If it goes towards certain things where it doesnt have a really applicable grassroots in the moment of use. Then Im less inclined. ND: Its like pre-seed funding. RH: Yeah, but it’s like, dont overthink it. Like, tachlis, its got to be tachlis for 500 bucks. Only your readers will understand that.

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I was a little girl hiding from a mob. Now I’m standing up for my grandchildren.

Contributing Author — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 07:33:26 +0000

I was 7 years old, hiding under a bed at my cousin’s compound in Tehran, while a mob outside screamed “Kill the Jews!” and banged on the gates; that was during a 1965 assassination attempt on the shah. Someone poisoned our family’s two dogs, I remember lying awake wondering whether the people who worked in our house, people we trusted, might turn on us too. I didn’t read about antisemitism in a book or watch it in a movie. I lived it as a child. That’s why I smell antisemitism before other people can name it. It has a scent I learned before I knew how to read. As a teenager in Iran, I wore a Star of David necklace openly, against my mother’s warnings. When I left for America at 15, I found a sanctuary I never had before. I have spent much of my adult life trying to describe that scent from my childhood to people who have never had to learn it. For years, I warned that antisemitism was rising in America. I was told repeatedly that it couldn’t happen here. Then came Boulder. When I heard last year that people had been set on fire for the “crime” of walking for Israeli hostages, I got in my car and drove straight from Denver to a synagogue in downtown Boulder to sit with my community. The symbolism — Jewish Americans burning in the streets because of who they were — broke something open in me that I had kept sealed for decades. Here is what history has taught me, at great cost: When people tell you what they intend to do, believe them. Iran’s ayatollahs have spent 45 years explicitly promising the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, and much of the West treated it as rhetoric. Now I catch myself watching my grandchildren head to the mall in Denver wearing their Star of David necklaces, wanting to tell them to tuck them under their shirts — the exact words my mother once said to me. I bite my tongue, but it breaks my heart. That is the arc of my life. I was a girl hiding under a bed in Tehran, and now I’m a grandmother hiding her fear from children who deserve to walk freely. I refuse to pass down the feeling of fear to my grandchildren. So on Oct. 19 and 20, my family’s foundation brought 450 people to downtown Denver for the inaugural Together at the Crossroads: A Congress for Allyship Unity. The diversity in that ballroom was something I have never seen before in support of this issue. Roughly three in four people were not Jewish. Christians, Muslims and Jews sat beside elected officials, religious leaders, educators, students and business owners. A pastor from Tulsa came with the head of his city’s Jewish federation, saying he feels “inextricably linked to the Jewish fight.” We launched the Boulder Firebombing Collection, so that the attack on Pearl Street and the life of Karen Diamond, who died three weeks later from injuries sustained during the attack, are never reduced to a passing headline. Asked onstage how we move beyond hate, Mohammed Al Samawi, a Yemeni-American Muslim and the founder of Abrahamic House, said: “You need to actually create a connection, a bridge, so when a conflict happens, this bridge stands. Don’t build it based on the conflict, he said. Build it based on relationships.” The energy in that room was something I will carry with me for a long time: people who had never met, sitting at the same tables with a shared sense of purpose. One attendee told me, “For the first time since October 2023, I feel hopeful.” I felt it too. But a feeling is not a result. We built this congress around action, and action is what people carried home. Leaders from 55 communities arrived as local action cohorts committed to working together before the next crisis rather than meeting for the first time after it. New cohorts even formed on the spot: Two different cohorts from the same state organized a new group and set a date for their next meeting before they left. Everyone went home with data-based tools, grounded in new research on what drives antisemitism and what actually works against it, and with public commitments to specific next steps. In Denver, I asked everyone in the room for three commitments, but the same should be asked of everyone: First, awareness. Most antisemitic incidents never make the news: a defaced synagogue in a town you’ve never heard of, a threat scrawled in a school bathroom. Awareness is the discipline of actually looking, and trusting the pattern when you see it forming. Second, allyship. This is not a problem for Jews to solve alone. A society that tolerates hatred against one group has already signaled to every other group how it will eventually be treated. Real allyship means non-Jews speaking up in the rooms where Jews are not present — the boardroom, the dinner table, the group chat — not just at the vigil after something terrible has happened. Third, ambassadorship. One person willing to stand up changes what is deemed “normal” or “acceptable.” Ambassadors are ordinary people who refuse to let antisemitic moments pass in silence, and who carry that refusal into the next room, and the next. More than 400 of them just went home from Denver. Each of us can be one more. I don’t expect to eliminate antisemitism in my lifetime. But I believe more firmly than ever that we can push it back to the margins, out of respectable conversation — the way it was, imperfectly, when I first came to this country. This is the same fight I’ve been having since I was a little girl under a bed, except now I’m not hiding. I’m standing up so that my grandchildren never have to hide. And after our congress in Denver, I know I am not standing alone. Laura Merage was born in Tehran and moved to Los Angeles at 15. An artist, photographer and philanthropist, she lives in Denver and co-founded the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism with her family in 2024.

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