eJewishPhilanthropy

Your Daily Phil: Simon Wiesenthal Center is full of surprises at Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago

EJP — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:08:10 +0000

Good Friday morning! In today’s edition ofYour Daily Phil, we cover theSimon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago on Wednesday, which included the debut of its newestMobile Museum of Tolerance, and report on a new study by theIsrael Educational Travel Alliancebreaking down the financial impact of six-plus years of challenges on the sector. We feature an abridged version ofSara Crown Star’s speech from the SWC gala, where she was honored as this year’s Humanitarian Award recipient, and an opinion piece byHadas NavehandLane Millerabout their experience participating in theAmerican Zionist Youth Council. Also in this issue:Erica Wertheim Zohar,Steve BallmerandJeffrey Stern. Shabbat shalom! Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching Chabad of San Antoniois hosting a Shabbat dinnertonight for basketball fans in town for the weekend as the New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. TheJewish Council for Public Affairs’two-day National Summitkicks off on Sunday in New York City. What You Should Know A violent summer storm typical of the Windy Citygave way to clear skies on Wednesday evening just in time for the start of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner, held at Theater on the Lake overlooking Lake Michigan. This year’s honorees were Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, who was awarded the Simon Wiesenthal Center Medal of Valor for her lifetime commitment to combating antisemitism, and Chicago philanthropist, civic leader and venture partner Sara Crown Star, who received the event’s eponymous Humanitarian Award. The other star of the evening was not a person but a vehicle,parked on the venue’s terrace and visited over the course of the evening by many of the 350 attendees who gathered to celebrate the honorees and support the organization’s educational and advocacy work. While the debut of the organization’s newestMobile Museum of Tolerance was not a surprise, the evening included multiple unanticipated reveals as well: the announcement of a new summit on combating antisemitism, planned for November; the first Chicago cohort of the organization’s NextGen Leaders Program; and a first look at “Lost Paradise,” a TV series being produced by Morah Media, SWC’s storytelling arm. Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here. News CUMULATIVE IMPACT Conflict flare-ups, shifting shekel are putting Israel education travel programs at risk Illustrative. Teens visit Masada in an undated photo. Courtesy/RootOne Organizations running educational trips to Israelhave been hammered in recent years — first from the COVID-19 pandemic, then from the wars with Hamas and Iran (and Iran again), and recently from the sudden strengthening of the shekel against the dollar. Now, a new study by the Israel Educational Travel Alliance brings the financial strain on the educational travel sector into sharper view, revealing that organizations running educational trips to Israel have absorbed cumulative cost increases averaging around 75% since 2019,reportseJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet. Out of pocket:When the regional conflict escalates, providers absorb costs related to evacuation logistics, rerouted programming, additional security and staff pulled into military reserve duty — expenses insurance rarely covers. During a recent flare-up in the war with Iran, Young Judaea had to relocate gap-year participants and create unplanned programming on the fly, CEO Adina Frydman, who is also an IETA advisory committee member, told eJP. “Our head of operations was in [the] reserves for hundreds of days,” she said. “It all adds up.” Read the full report here. Share Opinion ICYMI Don’t be neutral. Not even once. “Years ago, I visited Auschwitz with about 20 Jewish lay leaders, Jewish professionals and Israeli government officials,” writes investor and philanthropist Sara Crown Star in an abridged version of her acceptance speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner on Wednesday, shared exclusively with eJewishPhilanthropy. “What I remember most were the Auschwitz blueprints. The Nazis had multiple engineering drawings prepared: How thick should the pipes be to gas the Jews? Should the dead bodies drop to a basement level? What was the most efficient way to maximize the killings? They industrialized death. They turned hate into a system.” Fast forward to today:“Everyone can see what algorithms can do when they are weaponized to spread misinformation. A lie about Jews travels faster than the truth because the platforms have learned that outrage is profitable — and outrage about Jews has become one of the most profitable products on earth. The blueprints may look different, but the purpose is the same. … So, here is the one thing I am asking you. I’m framing it as a dare, and the dare changes by age.” Read the full piece here. Share NEXT-GEN VOICES American Zionism’s future depends on bringing diverse young voices together “As Jewish teenagers growing up in different parts of the United States, we might never have crossed paths,” write high school seniors Hadas Naveh and Lane Millerin an opinion piece foreJewishPhilanthropy. Tent of meeting:“One of us comes from New Jersey and represents Hashomer Hatzair, a movement rooted in progressive Zionism and social justice. The other comes from Texas and represents NCSY, where a commitment to religious Zionism is central to Jewish identity. We come from different communities, different educational environments and different Jewish experiences. Yet through the American Zionist Youth Council of the American Zionist Movement, we discovered that our differences are the foundation of Jewish unity, not barriers to it.” Read the full piece here. Share Worthy Reads Selective Memory: In the Los Angeles Times, Erica Wertheim Zohar argues that philanthropy systematically sidelines women by deferring to their male partners or ex-husbands, and that institutions must treat women as equal, independent donors in their own right. “My mother spent more than 50 years building a philanthropic legacy. On the occasion of her death, the institutions that benefited were not asked to take sides in a private family dispute; they were asked simply to honor what was already written on their own walls. Instead, they defaulted to a version of power that should be a relic of the past. That is the quiet architecture of institutional infidelity: keeping the woman’s name on the plaques while stripping away her humanity. Legacy is not discretionary, and a woman who spent her life building it should never need permission to be remembered.” [LosAngelesTimes] Resilience Deficit:InSapir, Bret Stephenscontendsthat Israels collective resilience and willingness to sacrifice for a greater purpose offers a model for an America that has grown soft and lost its sense of national purpose. “Most important, how do we fail to see in Israel a model of what a democratic people, which for 78 years has been battling for survival while still managing to thrive, can be capable of achieving through self-belief and the ability to recover its strength after taking blow after blow? Americans cannot hope to regain our old resilience unless we know what resilient looks like. The sooner we learn from the Israelis, the faster we might save ourselves from what, increasingly, we risk becoming.”[Sapir] A Mixed Bag:In the report “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology,” the Pew Research Center uses 2025 survey data toidentifynine distinct groups of Americans based on political and cultural values rather than party affiliation. “Four groups are highly ideological, politically engaged and overwhelmingly back one party over the other — two on the right and two on the left. … Americans in the other five groups are more mixed in their political values — and in some cases, much less attentive to politics. Together, these five groups make up a majority of the public.”[PewResearchCenter] Major Gifts Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is committing up to $1.5 billion in forgivable loans to fund 10,000 affordable rental units in Washington state… Transitions Calle Schuelerwas announced as the new executive director ofIthaca College Hillel, beginning July 1… Jacob Reses, Vice PresidentJD Vanceschief of staff and a strong pro-Israel Jewish voice in the Trump administration, will besteppingdown from his role… Correction:Sammy Kanteris leavingtheMayerson JCCin Cincinnati, not theMarlene Meyerson JCCin Manhattan as was reported yesterday. Word on the Street TheIDF Widows and Orphans Organizationdistributeda record NIS 2 million ($685,000) in scholarships and grants to 478 bereaved families at its annual ceremony… The Forwardreports thatJewish Women Internationalhas laid offstaff and taken on debt after the Trump administration stalled over $200 million in congressionally approved domestic violence prevention grants… Ynetreportsthat unless the U.S. military moves its cargo planes fromBen Gurion Airportwithin days, approximately 2.4 million summer and holiday flight tickets could be canceled… TheJewish Federation of British Columbia, in partnership withJewBelong,launcheda soccer-themed billboard campaign urging bystanders to call out antisemitism as Vancouver prepares to host games for theFIFA World Cuplater this summer… A study in the peer-reviewed journalAmerican PsychologistfindsAI systems are replicating age-old antisemitic tropes absorbed from the human texts they were trained on… Efforts to makedaylight saving timepermanent — a proposal long opposed by Orthodox Jewish groups —are picking upmomentum in Congress, with strong backing from President Donald Trump… Israeli National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvirwithdrewa request to take a family vacation to the U.S. funded by a Miami businessmanYaakov Elhararafter the state comptrollers permits committee raised concerns… A federal judgeacquittedNew York congressional candidateBrad Landerof misdemeanor obstruction charges stemming from a 2025 immigration court protest… Pic of the Day Flash90 Participants in the Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2026 celebrate its return today after the last official parade took place in June 2023. This year’s parade is especially joyful following uncertainty at the beginning of the week over whether a restart of the war with Iran would cancel the celebration, a longtime staple of the Tel Aviv social calendar. Birthdays Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing/Getty Images One of the wealthiest people in the U.K., he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for services to philanthropy, SirLeonard Len Blavatnikturns 69 on Sunday FRIDAY: Senior of counsel at Paul Hastings LLP,Martin Edelmanturns 85 Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals,Marv Albert(born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 85 Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn,William J. Kilbergturns 80 Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University,Leonard Saxeturns 79 Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset,Yosef Yossi Beilinturns 78 Rabbi emeritus at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif.,Richard Litvak British Conservative Party member of Parliament until 2024, his father was a rabbi, SirMichael Fabricantturns 76 Professor at the University of Floridas Hamilton Center, his 2022 book isThe Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People,Walter Russell Meadturns 74 Dental consultant and recruiter,Kenneth Nussen Peruvian banker and politician,José Chlimper Ackermanturns 71 Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and instructor at Georgetowns Center for Jewish Civilization,Danielle Pletkaturns 63 Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022,David Nevinsturns 60 EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), from his base in Washington he serves as the worldwide governmental and diplomatic point person for the entire Chabad-Lubavitch movement, RabbiLevi Shemtov Film and television actor, best known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series Suits,Rick Hoffmanturns 56 EVP atPolitico Europe,Carrie Budoff Brown Founder of Singularity Communications,Eliezer O. Eli Zupnick Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health,Joshua Kushnerturns 41 Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist,Michele Romanowturns 41 Partner at Enso Collaborative,Hanna Siegel Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber,Blake Aaron Rossturns 41 Counsel of government relations at Kaiser Permanente,Zachary Louis Baron VP at MediaLink,Alexis Rose Levinson Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County, Md.,Eli Glazier Photographer and Instagram influencer,Tessa Nesis Associate in the financial institutions group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton LLP,Jay Rappaport Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics,Tom Reuvenyturns 26 Lead consultant at AutoNate,Joel Bond SATURDAY:Existential psychiatrist, he is a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University,Irvin David Yalomturns 95 Professor emeritus at UCLA, he played an influential role in the development of the ARPANET, the precursor to the internet,Leonard Kleinrockturns 92 London-born, now living in Gstaad, Switzerland, billionaire founder of Graff Diamonds,Laurence Graffturns 88 Former official in the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Obama administrations, winner of a 1985 MacArthur genius fellowship,Morton Halperinturns 88 Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer Co., then chancellor of Brown University and founder of Source of Hope Foundation,Stephen Robertturns 86 Member of Congress (D-NY) since 1992,Jerrold Lewis Jerry Nadlerturns 79 Retired justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, he was previously attorney general of Israel,Elyakim Rubinsteinturns 79 Assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of retina surgery at Franklin Square Hospital,Michael J. Elman, MD Chief Jewish education officer of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., RabbiArnie Samlanturns 71 Senior national political correspondent for NPR and a contributor at the Fox News Channel,Mara Liassonturns 71 Tech entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner along with Marc Andreessen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz,Benjamin Abraham Ben Horowitzturns 60 Internet entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Overtime, a digital sports platform,Daniel Porterturns 60 Yoga instructor,Jenny Eisen Verdery Founder of Peninsula Group, a publicly traded Israeli commercial finance institution,Micah Lakin Avniturns 57 Family court judge in New York City, serving in Brooklyn, JudgeErik S. Pitchalturns 54 Principal of Invariant,Eli Stokols Founder and CEO of NYC-based JDS Development Group, a high-rise residential development firm active in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami,Michael Sternturns 47 Chief external affairs officer at BSE Global,Marissa Shorenstein Policy advocate at Protect Democracy,Ariela Rosenberg Actor, the son of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving,Max Samuel Spielbergturns 41 Actor, known professionally as Kat Dennings, she starred in the CBS sitcom Two Broke Girls,Katherine Litwackturns 40 Fashion blogger and creator of Something Navy apparel stores,Arielle Noa Nachmani Charnasturns 39 Contributor at Real Clear Investigations,Benjamin H. Weingarten Retired NFL football player after four seasons, he is the CEO at Mary Jones Cannabis,Gabe Carimiturns 38 Speed skater who represented the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026,Emery Lehmanturns 30 SUNDAY: Retired Soviet nuclear scientist, now writing from Skokie, Ill., on Jewish intellectual spirituality,Vladimir Minkov, Ph.D. turns 93 Retired U.S. district judge for the District of Maryland,Marvin Joseph Garbisturns 90 Former vice chair of the board of the Jewish Federation-Council of Greater Los Angeles, Dr.Beryl A. Geber 45th and 47th president of the United States,Donald J. Trumpturns 80 Former French diplomat and advisor to former French Presidents Chirac and Sarkozy,Jean-David Levitteturns 80 Television sportscaster and journalist,Len Bermanturns 79 Writer, critic, philosopher and magazine editor,Leon Wieseltierturns 74 Chairman and chief investment officer of Duquesne Family Office,Stanley Druckenmillerturns 73 Co-founder of Virunga Mountain Spirits, a distillery in Rwanda,William Benjamin Bill Wasserman President of Blue Diamond HR LLC,Michelle Shel Grossman President of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.,Maud S. Mandelturns 59 Former head of global media partnerships at Facebook / Meta, now a senior advisor to Tollbit,Campbell Brown Singer-songwriter with ten studio albums,Joshua Radinturns 52 Co-founder of Kelp, now executive fellow at Harvard Business School,Daniel M. Gaynor Australian fashion model, author, philanthropist and businesswoman,Kathryn Eismanturns 45 NYC-based businessman, living in the U.S. since 2003, he is the son of Russian businessman and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky,Pavel Khodorkovskyturns 41 Deputy assistant secretary at HUD and then senior advisor at OMB (both during the Trump 45 administration),Paige Esterkin Bronitsky Director of public affairs at San Franciscos District Attorney’s office,Lilly Rapson Actor, with a variety of television and film appearances,Daryl Sabara Communications and membership manager at Society for the Rule of Law,Julia Cohen Associate attorney at Manning Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester,Jacob Ellenhorn Vienna-based Europe correspondent forHaaretz,Liam Hoare

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A new mobile museum, a new summit and other reveals from Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Chicago gala

Rachel Kohn — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:54:20 +0000

CHICAGO — A violent summer storm typical of the Windy City gave way to clear skies Wednesday evening just in time for the start of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner, held at Theater on the Lake overlooking Lake Michigan. This year’s honorees were Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, awarded the Simon Wiesenthal Center Medal of Valor for her lifetime commitment to combating antisemitism and defending Holocaust history, and Chicago philanthropist, civic leader and venture partner Sara Crown Star, who received the event’s eponymous Humanitarian Award. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt addresses the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago on June 10, 2026 in a recorded acceptance speech upon receiving the organizations Medal of Valor award for a career built on the twin pillars of truth and courage, in the words of Chicago businessman David Rudin. Courtesy/Simon Wiesenthal Center Investor and philanthropist Sara Crown Star, 2026 recipient of the Simon Weisenthal Center Humanitarian Award, with 2025 recipient Todd Stern at the organizations gala dinner in Chicago on June 10, 2026. Courtesy/Simon Wiesenthal Center “This award is not about a single accomplishment or single initiative, or even a year or two of service. Its about a pattern of leadership over a lifetime,” SWC CEO Jim Berk told the gathering before introducing Emmy Award-winning journalist Jim Rosenfield, a longtime friend of Crown Star, to present her with the award. Rosenfield spoke of Crown Stars decades of civic and philanthropic leadership, spanning education, disability rights, womens healthcare innovation and the Jewish community of Chicago and beyond. (Read Crown Star’s acceptance speech here.) But the other star of the evening was not a person but a vehicle, parked on the venue’s terrace and visited over the course of the evening by many of the 350 attendees who gathered to celebrate the honorees and support the organization’s educational and advocacy work. With the dimensions of a large RV, navy blue and emblazoned with the word “Tolerance” in white along the length of the driver’s side, Illinois second Mobile Museum of Tolerance, or MMOT, is the newest to join the organization’s national fleet, bringing the total number of vehicles to 12 and raising their anticipated national reach to 250,000 students over the next year. The evening included multiple unanticipated reveals as well: the announcement of a new summit for combating antisemitism; the first Chicago cohort of the organization’s NextGen Leaders Program; and a first look at “Lost Paradise,” a miniseries being produced by Morah Media, SWC’s storytelling arm. SWC’s inaugural MMOT, a refurbished mobile home, was launched in Illinois in February 2021. That original unit is still in use but keeps closer to home in the Chicago area these days due to its age, Jessica Gall-Adediran, the organization’s head of education for the Midwest and Florida regions, told eJewishPhilanthropy. With two MMOTs now serving Illinois, SWC will be able to bring its immersive educational programming — focused on antisemitism, discrimination, media literacy and civic responsibility — to more than 30,000 middle and high school students annually, she said. Growing up in a farming community in Omaha, Neb., Gall-Adediran learned that “life in rural America can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be isolating,” she told the audience at the gala. “Many young people in those areas grow up with little exposure to Jewish history, culture or community.” The purpose of the MMOTs is to bring these educational materials and experiences to students and communities that would not otherwise readily access a comparable brick-and-mortar museum. The newest Simon Wiesenthal Center Mobile Museum of Tolerance, which features a wheelchair lift and cutting edge ed tech, parked outside Theater on the Lake in Chicago on June 10, 2026. Courtesy/Simon Wiesenthal Center
Each MMOT travels with a dedicated educator and each educational session is designed to fit within a 45- to 60-minute window to accommodate standard classroom schedules. Schools choose from a selection of educational modules, and classes rotate in and out of the MMOT throughout the day (the newest vehicle has a 30-person capacity). While the MMOTs primarily focus on visits with middle and high school students throughout the state in which they serve, during non-school hours and when school is not in session, they are used for the organization’s Tools for Tolerance professional educator and law enforcement training programs, as well as community events and deployment to communities dealing with acts of antisemitism and hate. The new vehicle was fully funded by the state and its Department of Human Rights; the state’s “only mandate” is that the MMOTs are committed to reaching communities throughout Illinois, Gall-Adediran told eJP. While the first unit “started out very humbly” with footage from the Holocaust and civil rights movement, the new one’s programming is more “visceral” and interactive to better engage today’s audiences, she said.

Emotion and personal stories are what draws us to history more than the numbers. Thats what makes it interesting, she said. Thats what were trying to do — find the personal that draws people in and develops empathy. The evenings program opened with a video about Simon Wiesenthals personal story and the mission that turned into a legacy, which segued into discussion of the resurgence of antisemitism post-Oct. 7 and the changes it fueled for the organization, a reengineering of global operations, advocacy and education. SWC trustee Sandy Teplitzky announced an inaugural regional summit that will bring together leaders from government, business, education, media, philanthropy, faith communities and advocacy organizations. The Chicago Convening on Antisemitism, scheduled for November, will not be just another meeting or statement, said Teplitzky — who, along with his wife Karen, provided the seed funding for the gathering — but a real convening of leaders all focused on one urgent question: How can we join together to dismantle antisemitism in our community? SWC also took the opportunity to announce the expansion of its NextGen Leaders Program to Chicago. The first cohort of 18 college students, who were present at the event and greeted with enthusiastic applause, will serve in government internships throughout the city while receiving weekly leadership training focused on confronting hate and advancing civic engagement. SWCs education and advocacy work is well known, but Berk spotlighted the organizations storytelling arm, Moriah Media, as well. Moriah Media is designed to produce mission-aligned feature films and television series that entertain, inform, inspire and humanize the Jewish experience: If other people are telling our story, we’ve already lost control of our own narrative, he told the gathering. Moriah Media was behind One Day in October, the acclaimed series available on Max that spotlights both the horrors of the Oct. 7 attacks and the stories of bravery and resilience. Berk proudly introduced a first-look clip from one of the new shows in production, a miniseries called Lost Paradise that traces the story of Jewish life from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the birth of Hollywood and the establishment of the modern Jewish state. The funds raised at the dinner will go toward supporting SWCs expanding Midwest initiatives. (A representative for SWC said the event raised a record amount but declined to disclose a dollar figure.)

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American Zionism’s future depends on bringing diverse young voices together

Contributing Author — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:30:00 +0000

As Jewish teenagers growing up in different parts of the United States, we might never have crossed paths. One of us comes from New Jersey and represents Hashomer Hatzair, a movement rooted in progressive Zionism and social justice. The other comes from Texas and represents NCSY, where a commitment to religious Zionism is central to Jewish identity. We come from different communities, different educational environments and different Jewish experiences. Yet through the American Zionist Youth Council of the American Zionist Movement, we discovered that our differences are the foundation of Jewish unity, not barriers to it. During this past year, 28 teen leaders from 10 Zionist youth movements around the country have come together through AZYC. We represent organizations across the religious and ideological diversity of the American Jewish community. Some of us come from large Jewish communities; others are among only a handful of Jewish students in our schools. Despite our differences, we are united by our determination and commitment to Israel and to the Jewish people. During this time when polarization is so dominant in discussions, it is easy to assume that people with different perspectives have little in common. Through our experience, we learned just the opposite. We listened to one another and slowly realized that while our approaches to Zionism may be different, our commitment to it is remarkably strong. For many of us, AZYC provided a rare opportunity to engage with others our age whose Jewish experiences look very different from our own. Very often, young Jews stay within their local communities, schools, synagogues, or youth movements. As we prepare to enter adulthood, this limited view can leave us with an incomplete understanding of the larger Jewish narrative. AZYC challenged us to move beyond those boundaries. We learned from formal discussions and leadership programs, but unexpectedly, we learned more through conversations with one another. We spoke about our beliefs, communities, hopes and challenges. We discovered what it means to belong to a larger community with a shared history and a shared future. That lesson became even more apparent during last month’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in New York City. We marched together as part of AZM’s delegation, and we witnessed the extraordinary sight of being surrounded by tens of thousands of Jews from every background imaginable. We saw a living example of what Jewish unity can look like. There were different denominations, traditions, political perspectives and personal stories — everyone came together, united by a connection to Israel. The experience was extremely moving and filled us with awe and amazement. It reminded us that the Jewish community is far larger and more diverse than the circles we encounter in our daily lives. It also demonstrated that unity does not require uniformity. People do not have to agree on everything to stand together for something larger than themselves. This message feels particularly important in the years following the October 7 attacks. Many young Jews today find themselves exploring difficult conversations about Israel and Jewish identity. Some of us attend schools where few people have ever met a Jew. Others are part of communities where Jewish life is highly visible. Regardless of where we come from, we have all experienced the growing importance of explaining who we are, what we believe and why Israel matters to us. In that environment, youth leadership is about more than representing our own organizations and becomes about connecting generations and visions of Jewish life. One of the most meaningful aspects of AZYC has been the opportunity to engage with leaders from across the Zionist movement. Through conversations with experienced activists and community leaders, we have begun to learn how previous generations built the institutions and movements that mold Jewish life today. At the same time, they were eager to hear from us about the realities facing young Jews in 2026, because such engagement is a two-way street. Through our participation in the program, we met with leaders of the Jewish people, such as Israeli President Isaac Herzog, World Zionist Organization President Rabbi Doron Perez and representatives of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL). We also met with Jewish American elected officials and major organizational leaders, and had the opportunity to express ourselves and share our unique stories from across the Zionist spectrum at AZM’s National Board meeting. When these leaders speak about what it is like to be a Jewish teenager today, they are bringing our voices into the room because they have heard from us directly. For young adults who do not live in major Jewish population centers, this opportunity to engage directly with established leaders from across the Zionist movement is particularly valuable. Through conversations with activists, educators, and leaders whose work impacts Jewish communities nationwide, we have learned what meaningful leadership looks like. Being in the meeting room with people who have dedicated decades to strengthening Jewish life and supporting Israel has been inspiring and motivating, showing us that each one of us has the ability (and responsibility) to contribute to our community and strive for a lifelong impact of our own. A vibrant Zionist movement requires both experience and renewal. It requires leaders who have dedicated decades to the cause and young people who will carry that work forward. In AZYC, we got to be part of a unique space where all of these voices can meet. At a time when Jewish unity is often discussed as an aspiration, AZYC turns it into a reality. It brings together young leaders who might otherwise never meet and gives them the opportunity to learn from each other, challenge one another and eventually become friends. The future of American Zionism will not be built by a single movement, denomination or ideology. It will be built by young Jews who understand that diversity of thought is a strength and that our shared commitment to the Jewish people is greater than any differences between us. We’ve had the privilege of seeing a glimpse of that future, and we believe it is worth investing in. And if the next generation is given more opportunities to come together as we have, the Zionist movement will be stronger for it. Hadas Naveh is a senior at Tenafly High School in New Jersey and represents Hashomer Hatzair in the American Zionist Youth Council. She plans to attend a dual degree program of Columbia University and Tel Aviv University. Lane Miller is a senior at Lamar High School in Houston and represents NCSY in the American Zionist Movement’s American Zionist Youth Council. He plans to attend the Aish gap year program in Jerusalem.

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Conflict flare-ups, shifting shekel are putting Israel education travel programs at risk

Justin Hayet — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:46:39 +0000

Organizations running educational trips to Israel have faced a number of setbacks in recent years — first from the COVID-19 pandemic, then from the wars with Hamas and Iran (and Iran again) and now from the strengthening of the shekel against the dollar. A new study by the Israel Educational Travel Alliance is bringing the financial strain on the educational travel sector into sharper view, revealing that organizations running educational trips to Israel have absorbed cumulative cost increases averaging around 75% since 2019. That figure combines a roughly 55% rise in program operating costs since the pre-war, pre-COVID period, with an additional 20% or more in recent months as the U.S. dollar has weakened against the shekel. The study, compiled from annual provider surveys and additional reporting since January, notes that approximately half of all hotels in Israel remain closed, limiting inventory and driving up hospitality costs even as tourism has declined. Airfare remains expensive and difficult to secure, especially for groups. For trip providers, the numbers translate into immediate and significant losses. Adina Frydman, CEO of Young Judaea Global and an IETA advisory committee member, said her organization set prices for its gap-year program last year when the shekel was trading at 3.6 to the dollar. It has since dropped to 2.96 at the time she spoke with eJP. Nobody could have predicted it would go down to 2.9, she said. “That exchange rate “represents hundreds of thousands of dollars of loss.” Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement founded in 1909 that has operated trips for 75 years, expects to bring 300-350 participants to Israel this summer, down from a typical 500-700. We are still holding our breath, Frydman said. This is the nature of what has happened over the past couple of years. Emergency costs have compounded the financial challenge. When the regional conflict escalates, providers absorb costs related to evacuation logistics, rerouted programming, additional security and staff pulled into military reserve duty — expenses insurance rarely covers. During a recent flare-up in the war with Iran, Young Judaea had to relocate gap-year participants and create unplanned programming on the fly. Our head of operations was in [the] reserves for hundreds of days, Frydman said. It all adds up. Its a cumulative impact on the sector. During recent escalations, IETA provided 24/7 support to programs on the ground, coordinated with the Jewish Agency for Israel and Israels Ministry for Diaspora Affairs on participant safety and ran weekly field-wide calls so providers could share information and make decisions in real time. It also worked with Arkia, an Israeli carrier, to secure flights during evacuations in February and has been advocating to government partners and the philanthropic community on behalf of the field. IETA’s operational role has been meaningful — particularly for smaller organizations without the infrastructure or financial cushion to navigate crises alone — even as the broader structural challenge remains unresolved. On the longer-term question of how to close the financial gap that is shrinking the field, the studys prescriptions are less defined. In a statement to eJP, IETA’s executive director, Anna Langer, who is also vice president at Jewish Federations of North America, said no single intervention will reverse the cost increases, and described a range of ongoing efforts: conversations with government partners about El Al pricing, exploration of fixed-price arrangements with ground operators and outreach to funders. We are raising broader cost pressures — including hotels, ground operators, tour educators and especially the dollar-shekel challenge — and exploring tools such as supplements or fixed-price arrangements,” she said. No specific funding commitments or policy timelines were announced alongside the study. The economic losses that Israel travel providers face will only be closed by the combination of philanthropy and government support, Frydman said. We will not be able to solve this by raising costs and putting them on participants — no one will be able to travel to Israel. A three-and-a-half-week summer program now runs around $7,000, including flights, and up to $31,000 to $32,000 for a gap year, airfare not included. Both figures are expected to rise. RootOne, which partners with major youth groups to provide subsidies that make immersive experiences more affordable, offers grants for short-term Israel programs but does not currently provide them for gap-year programs. If this sector collapses and fewer providers are available, and fewer people travel, that will have a multiyear impact on Israel travel, Israel education, and Jewish identity, Frydman said. This could be catastrophic. On the ground in Israel, meanwhile, program partners are doing their best to think on their feet and adapt as the situation demands. Trips that have stayed the course are thankfully still arriving this summer, and we are working together with them to try to mitigate any cost-related challenges that have come up,” Lorne Klemensberg, vice president of Routes Travel, told eJP. “We see some future trips that are currently in the planning stages perhaps looking to slightly shorten the total number of days due to potential all-around cost increases. We are working with these organizations on looking at various ways to possibly modify the programs without impacting the educational goals and participant experience. For us, that’s non-negotiable. IETA says it will continue working with providers, funders, federations and government partners. And while the study makes a strong case for urgency, it remains unclear whether IETA — or any Jewish organization — can move the needle on the biggest drivers of these costs. The dollar-shekel exchange rate, inflation inside Israel, the expense and availability of air travel to Israel, and the chronic unpredictability of regional conflict are forces that operate well beyond the strategy, resources and advocacy of the Jewish world.

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Don’t be neutral. Not even once.

Contributing Author — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The following is an abridged version of the author’s acceptance speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner in Chicago on June 10, 2026, where she was honored alongside Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. Years ago, I visited Auschwitz with about 20 Jewish lay leaders, Jewish professionals and Israeli government officials. What I remember most were the Auschwitz blueprints. The Nazis had multiple engineering drawings prepared: How thick should the pipes be to gas the Jews? Should the dead bodies drop to a basement level? What was the most efficient way to maximize the killings? They industrialized death. They turned hate into a system. That system did not end with the camps. Fast forward to August 9, 2001. It’s the Second Intifada, and I’m at a graduation in Jerusalem. A bomb goes off nearby, and I watch back-to-back ambulances race to the nearby Sbarros pizzeria, where a Hamas bomber murdered 16 people — seven of them children, one a pregnant woman — and injured 130 others. That was the day I decided to dedicate time to this fight. By 2026, the system has changed again. Hate has been re-industrialized. Not in gas chambers. Not in nail bombs. In code. In my work, I see what algorithms can do when they are directed toward saving lives. Everyone can see what algorithms can do when they are weaponized to spread misinformation. A lie about Jews travels faster than the truth because the platforms have learned that outrage is profitable — and outrage about Jews has become one of the most profitable products on earth. The blueprints may look different, but the purpose is the same. It is emblematic of what so many members of our community are now experiencing every day. The high school student. The middle school student. Even the elementary school student who is verbally harassed, or worse. The university student who worries about walking from their dorm to class. These evils are no longer isolated. They are affecting all of us. So, here is the one thing I am asking you. I’m framing it as a dare, and the dare changes by age. If you’re under 18, I dare you: The next time you see an antisemitic post on your feed, don’t scroll past it. Reply with the truth. Report it. Or send a friend the real story. Just commit to doing it once. And if you like how it feels, do it again — and then get your friends to do the same. If you’re between 18 and 65, I challenge you: At your next dinner, at your next meeting, on the next group text where someone says something untrue about Jews or Israel — speak up. You don’t have to be eloquent; you just can’t be neutral. If you’re over 65, I respectfully ask this: Tell one young person one true story this week. About Oct. 7. About what “from the river to the sea” really means. About why Jews say, “Never Again.” You are the storytellers of our community. And if you happen to be over 100… honestly, just keep showing up. We all stop and listen when you walk into the room. You are the tip of the sword of our community. You are the true humanitarians. Each of these dares comes down to you not being neutral. Last year, I rode home from a Brothers for Life event in Miami with a captain in the IDF bomb squad. At 35, this captain found himself deaf in one ear after his team had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. I asked him, “Why in the world would you volunteer for the bomb squad?” He answered: “I’m not strong, I’m not fast, and I’m not an athlete. But I wanted to be of value to the IDF, and I could do that by using my mind to disarm bombs.” The bombs we face today don’t just tick. They trend. They’re amplified by social media platforms and detonated by silence. Like that soldier, we have minds. I’m asking you to use yours. There are millions of us — and our voices, refusing silence, are louder than any algorithm. Together, let’s set the sun on hate and let’s help it rise on truth. Don’t be neutral. Not even once. Sara Crown Star is the 2026 recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Centers Humanitarian Award. Crown Star is a venture partner with FemHealth Ventures and the president of SCS Innovations. She co-chairs the Jewish Committee of Crown Family Philanthropies and serves on the boards of the Crown Family Foundation, the Jewish United Fund and 1871 (Chicago’s entrepreneurial hub). She is also a life trustee of the Erikson Institute, president of the Colonel Henry Crown Scholarship Fund and a director of Musicians on Call and the Ortus Foundation.

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Your Daily Phil: FJC charts new path to a camp-for-all future

EJP — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:15:00 +0000

Good Thursday morning! In today’s edition ofYour Daily Phil, we report on theFoundation for Jewish Camp’s new strategic plan released today and feature an interview with Rep.Dan Goldman(D-NY), chair of the House antisemitism task force. An opinion piece byLena Perezlays out a growth-oriented donor pipeline framework, andJay Solomonhighlightsa shift in approach for campus engagement post-Oct. 7. Also in this issue:Joel Engel,MaureenandDoug CohnandScott Braswell. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching Sasha Volodarsky of the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education and eJP’s Judah Ari Grosswill moderate a Zoom panel this afternoon on engagement with interfaith couples and mixed-heritage families, following the publication of CASJE’s “Research Digest” on children of intermarriage. The event will feature panelists Keren McGinity (Hadassah-Brandeis Institute), Ted Sasson (Middlebury College), Bruce Philips (Hebrew Union College), Avi Rubel (Honeymoon Israel) and Sophie Mortman (18Doors), with additional remarks by Edmund Case (Center for Radically Inclusive Judaism). Author Hussain Abdul-Hussain is celebrating the release of his new book,The Arab Case for Israel, at a launch party in Washington this evening. The Jewish Federation of Dutchess County (N.Y.) will host its ninth annual galathis evening, with remarks by Rabbi Maj. Heather Borshof of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. What You Should Know A QUICK WORD WITH EJPS JAY DEITCHER Building on the success of last year’s record-setting summer camp attendance, the Foundation for Jewish Camp has a road map for the years ahead. Today the organization released its 2026-2030 strategic plan, which includes increased emphasis on research, leadership initiatives and scholarships, with newly created roles at the agency to meet the needs of today’s campers. The plan stems from a listening tour held last year, conducted by the strategic planning company ABW Partners, that involved conversations with over 100 stakeholders — funders, camp directors, partner organizations, parents and young adults. The strategic plan aims to ensure camp is available to everyone who wants to attend and to accommodate them by making “bold moves,” FJC CEO Jamie Simon toldeJewishPhilanthropy, including “breakthrough investments designed to dramatically expand access to Jewish camp.” Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here. News ALLY APPEAL Goldman: Jewish community needs non-Jewish allies to effectively fight antisemitism Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) speaks at a press conference announcing the Jewish American Security Act being introduced in the House on June 10, 2026. Marc Rod/Jewish Insider The Jewish community needs non-Jewish allies to help fight antisemitism: that was the message Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), chair of the House antisemitism task force, emphasized inan interview with Marc RodforeJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publicationJewish Insideron Wednesday. They spoke following a press conference introducing the Jewish American Security Act, a bipartisan and bicameral package aimed at addressing attacks on Jewish institutions, campus antisemitism and online antisemitism. A broader tent:“It’s really important that we gain and bolster allies from outside the Jewish community, because ultimately antisemitism is hate, and hate is easily transferable, and history has taught us that,” Goldman told JI. Though some in the Jewish community feel that they’ve been abandoned by longtime allies since the Oct. 7 attacks, Goldman argued that it’s important to continue to reach out to and cultivate allies in the fight against antisemitism, in part because the “Jewish community is too small to do it ourselves.” Read the full report hereandsign up forJewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here. Share Opinion THE FUNNEL Why most Jewish nonprofits aren’t growing their donor base “Jewish nonprofits rarely struggle because they lack passion, meaningful programs or dedicated staff,” writes marketing strategist and consultant Lena Perezin an opinion piece foreJewishPhilanthropy.“The challenge is that marketing, fundraising, programming, events and community engagement often operate as separate activities rather than as part of one intentional growth system.” A deeper look:“Most nonprofits are operating without a clear system designed to move someone from first interaction to long-term supporter. There is no intentional pathway guiding people from awareness, to engagement, to trust, to giving, to deeper involvement over time. In the for-profit world, this would be unthinkable. Businesses understand that sustainable growth depends on a carefully designed funnel. … The same principles apply in the nonprofit sector because the same rules of human behavior still exist: People do not become deeply invested in an organization overnight. Trust is built gradually. Emotional connection compounds through repeated, intentional interaction.” Read the full piece here. Share OPEN DOORS Before the coffee date “The future of Jewish campus life will belong to organizations that understand this simple truth: that engagement no longer begins by asking students to go deeper. It begins by helping them want to come closer,” writes Jay Solomon, chief advancement officer of Hillel Ontario,in an opinion piece foreJewishPhilanthropy. From participation to connection:“Social programming is sometimes treated as secondary to ‘real’ engagement. Metrics like attendance and reach are occasionally viewed with suspicion, as though breadth somehow comes at the expense of meaning. But this misunderstands the moment we are in. … For years, many engagement models assumed intimacy created participation. Increasingly, participation is what creates openness to deeper connection. That does not make the work shallower. It makes the front door wider.” Read the full piece here. Share Worthy Reads No Backsies:InThe Wall Street Journal, Joel Engelidentifiesa through line in the perennial problem of antisemitism after reflecting on the bullying he witnessed as a child. “Is there a more fitting metaphor — or more incisive explanation — for antisemitism than ‘Jews have the cooties’? None of the grandiloquent exegeses on antisemitism ever cuts to the heart of the matter the way ‘Jews have the cooties’ does. Some people in the ancient world decided Jews were infected, and their decree reached critical mass, then rolled over through the ages the way Charles’s cooties followed him to a new school.”[WSJ] Don’t Wait for Perfect Data:InThe Pulse, Brooks Wallacearguesthat data optimization is a continuous journey. “The organizations that get the most out of their data … have a strategy around data, and just like a strategic plan, it is not static. It evolves as new technology, new processes, and better ways of working emerge Too many organizations are falling behind because they are waiting for perfect data. Unfortunately, the market, our competitors, and decisions that need to be made, aren’t standing still while we wait.”[ThePulse] The Ledger and the Legacy:InCleveland[dot]com, Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv J. Shahtracesthe organization’s big bets philosophy back to its roots in John D. Rockefeller’s early Cleveland philanthropy. “John D. Rockefeller built his fortune in Cleveland during one of the most disruptive periods in American history, a moment defined by rapid industrialization, widening inequality, and profound uncertainty about what the changing economy would mean for ordinary people… he chose to bet big that those challenges were solvable. We are still working to solve them today, but the billions of lives The Rockefeller Foundation and our partners have saved and improved since 1913 are proof that the old minister’s advice still holds. When you give wisely, the results will speak for themselves.”[Cleveland[dot]com] The Illusion of a Deal:In theFree Press, Haviv Rettig Gurarguesthat Israel-Iran clashes are chapters of a single, 20-year war that ceasefires cannot resolve, as Irans resistance ideology rejects conventional diplomacy. “What changes the equation, if anything does, is not a deal, not a ceasefire, not an American administration cycling through. It will be the regime’s internal exhaustion and the Iranian people’s eventual ability to force a reckoning with what has been done to their country. That’s a long game, measured in decades, not news cycles.”[FreePress] Major Gifts MaureenandDoug Cohnhavedonated$1 million to theTampa Museum of Artto establish a new contemporary art gallery… Transitions Dana Sender Mullawasnamedexecutive director of theDupree Conference and Education Center… Scott Braswellis joiningtheMichael Susan Dell Foundationas a program manager for the foundation’s U.S. Jewish community portfolio; he will assume the role next month… Sammy Kanter is stepping down from this role as director of Jewish life at the Mayerson JCC in Cincinnati TheJewish Agency for IsraelhiredRoyi Bercovicias its director of global impact… Ilana KaufmanisjoiningtheZelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Managementas its scholar-in-residence for its summer session… Word on the Street The board ofKeren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fundapproveda 100 million NIS ($34 million) allocation to develop theLower Kishon River Parkas a step toward phasing out polluting industries and transitioning the region toward a green economy. The board also greenlit a 4 million NIS ($1.3 million) budget allocation to enhance theNova Memorial Siteand theIron Swords Forest… Camp Ramahannounced that theRamah Day Camp in Elkins Park(Pa.) will permanently close after the 2026 season due to a decade of declining enrollment and rising deficits. This decision does not impactCamp Ramah in the Poconos, and leadership plans to use the final summer to celebrate the camp’s 30-year legacy… Argentine PresidentJavier Mileiaddresseda crowd of 1,800 people gathered in Buenos Aires to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,Menachem Mendel Schneerson… Israeli actorBen Perryand his family havegoneviral for Instagram videos that show them humorously choreographing their dashes into their home bomb shelter during missile alerts… TheTel Aviv Municipalityhasunveileda multimillion-shekel initiative to combat severe teacher shortages by offering educators unprecedented local perks, including fully funded masters degrees and access to all 550 city-owned apartments for deeply subsidized rent… CBS NewsspotlightsKvishtish, a newly opened burger restaurant in northern Israel that continues to operate and serve the local community despite facing constant cross-border rocket fire… Tevaislayingoff 250 employees in Israel as part of a broader corporate restructuring after failing to sell its $1.5 billion global operations division… The family ofKamran Hekmati, a Jewish New Yorker with bladder cancer imprisoned in Iran, is urgentlycallingon PresidentDonaldTrumpto negotiate his release as part of any upcoming peace agreement… ATexas philanthropistissuinga Kentucky park for $800,000 after it allegedly violated a contract by failing to name a new water attraction after her deceased son… An immigration judgeorderedthe deportation of Columbia University anti-Israel activistMohsen Mahdawito Jordan earlier this month… Pic of the Day Courtesy/Eran Beeri New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin accepts the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s Fighting Hatred Award at its annual gala last night. She was honored for her role in expanding Holocaust education, digital literacy and antisemitism prevention programs that reached more than 25,000 New York City public school students during the 2025-2026 school year. Birthdays Ziv Koren/Azrieli Group Founder of Shabbat[dot]com, he also serves as the national educational director for Olami Worldwide, Rabbi Benzion Zvi Klatzko… Heir to the British supermarket chain Sainsburys, minister in two British governments under Prime Ministers Major and Thatcher,Sir Timothy Alan Davan Sainsburyturns 94 Former executive director of NYC-based government watchdog Citizens Union and former NYC public advocate,Elisabeth A. Betsy Gotbaumturns 88 Chief spokesperson for AIPAC from 2012 to 2025,Marshall Wittmannturns 73 Columbus, Ohio-based retail mogul, CEO of American Eagle Outfitters, Value City Department Stores, DSW and others, sponsor of ArtScrolls translation of the Babylonian Talmud,Jay Schottensteinturns 72 Member of Knesset for the Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party,Meir Porushturns 71 Past president and national board member of AIPAC, he is a senior advisor to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker,Lee Rosy Rosenberg Hedge fund manager, he is the owner of MLBs New York Mets,Steven A. Cohenturns 70… Former director of the Shin Bet,Yuval Diskinturns 70 Member of Knesset for the Shas party,Yoav Ben-Tzur turns 68 New Windsor, N.Y., attorney,Barry Wolf Friedman Political and social justice activist, she served as Illinois state representative and as human rights commissioner,Lauren Beth Gashturns 66 Opinion columnist forThe Washington Postuntil 2025, now writing on Substack,Jennifer Rubinturns 64 Partner in the D.C. office of worldwide consulting firm, Brunswick Group,Michael J. Schoenfeld President of J Street,Jeremy Ben-Amiturns 64 Deputy director of the CIA in the Biden administration, he held the same role in the last two years of the Obama administration,David S. Cohenturns 63 U.S. attorney for Minnesota since October 2025,Daniel Noah Rosenturns 61 Associate dean and lecturer at George Washington University Law School, he previously served in the Biden administration,Matt Nosanchuk Professor of Jewish thought at the University of Haifa, Josef Hillel J.H. Chajes turns 61 Dean of TheYeshiva[dot]net, he succeeded his father as editor-in-chief of the Yiddish weeklyThe Algemeiner, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak “YY” Jacobson turns 54 Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Scott Gottlieb turns 54 Budget director at the City Council of the District of Columbia, Jennifer Budoff Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist, she participated in two seasons of the Israeli reality show “Meusharot,” Nicol Raidman turns 40 Director of communications and programming at Academic Engagement Network, Raeefa Shams Actor, performance artist and filmmaker, Shia LaBeouf turns 40 Retired figure skater who competed for Israel in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Aimee Buchanan turns 33 Olympic medalist in canoe slalom in London (2012), Rio (2016), Tokyo (2020) and Paris (2024), Jessica Esther Jess Fox turns 32 Israeli attorney and CEO of Dualis Social Venture Fund, Dana Naor

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Why most Jewish nonprofits aren’t growing their donor base

Contributing Author — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:51:16 +0000

Jewish nonprofits rarely struggle because they lack passion, meaningful programs or dedicated staff. In fact, most organizations are filled with deeply committed people working incredibly hard to serve their communities well. The challenge is that marketing, fundraising, programming, events and community engagement often operate as separate activities rather than as part of one intentional growth system. One department is trying to fill an event next Thursday. Another is racing to finish a grant report. A lay leader suddenly has a “new idea” that must be implemented right away. Social media needs fresh content. The annual campaign is behind pace. A public crisis appears out of nowhere. And in the middle of all of this operational chaos, donor bases remain stagnant. Why? The issue is not effort. The issues are consistency and strategic commitment. So let’s break it down. Most nonprofits are operating without a clear system designed to move someone from first interaction to long-term supporter. There is no intentional pathway guiding people from awareness, to engagement, to trust, to giving, to deeper involvement over time. In the for-profit world, this would be unthinkable. Businesses understand that sustainable growth depends on a carefully designed funnel. Every customer journey is mapped and analyzed. Every interaction is carefully crafted. Companies track behavior obsessively because they understand that growth is rarely accidental. The same principles apply in the nonprofit sector because the same rules of human behavior still exist: People do not become deeply invested in an organization overnight. Trust is built gradually. Emotional connection compounds through repeated, intentional interaction. Let’s break down the step-by-step funnel every Jewish organization should be implementing to sustainably grow their donor pipeline. Stage 1: Discovery Most nonprofits dramatically overestimate how clear their messaging is. Internally, the mission feels obvious. Externally, many organizations sound vague, overly institutional, or interchangeable from the next. A potential supporter lands on the website and immediately asks: Why should I care? Why does this matter? What makes this organization different? If this isn’t clear in a matter of moments, they leave the page and will likely never return. Strong marketing teams obsess over clarity at this stage. That means tightening positioning, simplifying messaging, improving digital visibility, making it donor-centered and creating content designed for people who are not already insiders. But discovery is not just about clarity. It is also about intentional visibility. Many nonprofits operate as if the right people will simply discover them organically or appear because someone brought a friend to an event. That is not a scalable growth strategy. Sophisticated organizations build intentional audience acquisition systems. That may include highly targeted Meta and Google campaigns, strategic partnerships, podcast appearances, newsletter collaborations, influencer relationships and retargeting campaigns designed to maintain visibility year-round. Strong nonprofits do not rely exclusively on their own audience ecosystem to grow. They intentionally place themselves inside adjacent ecosystems where aligned audiences already exist. And importantly, they create systems to capture attention once it arrives. Someone visits the website, attends a program or watches a compelling video — and then disappears because there was no intentional next step. Growth-oriented organizations create conversion points everywhere: newsletter sign-ups, volunteer opportunities, downloadable resources, onboarding email sequences and retargeting systems designed to continue the relationship after the first interaction. Because awareness alone does not build donor pipelines. Audience capture does. Stage 2: Engagement This is where many organizations become reactive. An event performs well. Everyone celebrates. Then the organization immediately moves on to the next thing without building on the momentum that was just created. Good marketing teams understand that the event itself is not the strategy. The event is one touchpoint inside a larger relationship journey. That means the marketing surrounding the event matters just as much as the event itself. Was the registration page compelling? Were attendees segmented properly afterward? Did first-time attendees receive different follow-up communication? Did attendees enter a post-event email journey? These are funnel questions. Most nonprofits never ask them. And this is where data becomes critical. Strong marketing teams track behavior relentlessly — not because they are obsessed with spreadsheets, but because data reveals what is actually working. Which event attendees later became donors? Which webpage drove the highest conversion rate? Which version of the appeal letter generated more pledges? Which audiences engage most consistently over time? Without that visibility, organizations often make major strategic decisions based on anecdotes, internal politics or whoever happens to be the loudest voice in the room. That is not sustainable growth strategy. Over time, that can lead organizations to make important strategic decisions without having a clear picture of what is truly driving growth. Stage 3: Trust and relationship building Many nonprofits move directly from awareness to solicitation because they are under constant fundraising pressure. But trust is not built through urgent fundraising emails. It is built through consistency. This is where real marketing infrastructure matters. Strategic organizations build onboarding email sequences for new subscribers and event attendees. They segment audiences based on interests, engagement patterns and giving history. They create automated nurture campaigns that continue reinforcing the mission over time. This is also where content strategy becomes critical. Most nonprofit content focuses heavily on announcements: register now, campaign launches, event reminders. Very little content is designed to build trust long-term. Strong marketing teams consistently share impact stories, leadership perspectives, donor gratitude and examples of real community transformation. And, importantly, they personalize communication. According to nonprofit marketing research, personalized emails generate open rates more than 80% higher than generic mass messaging. At the same time, email continues to drive roughly 28% of all online nonprofit fundraising revenue. The problem is not the channel. The problem is the lack of strategy behind it. Stage 4: Conversion When the first three stages are functioning properly, fundraising becomes dramatically more effective. By the time someone receives a solicitation, they already trust the organization, understand the mission and feel emotionally connected. The donation becomes the natural next step. But many nonprofits unintentionally sabotage this process. They spend months barely communicating with audiences and then suddenly appear with an urgent fundraising campaign written like the building is actively on fire. That is not strategy. Supporters can feel the difference between relationship-driven communication and communication that only appears when funding is urgently needed. Strong fundraising marketing begins long before the ask itself. It begins with strategic storytelling, audience segmentation, leadership visibility, personalized messaging and consistent communication over time. It also requires better fundraising experiences. Too many nonprofit donation pages are overloaded, emotionally flat, confusing and filled with unnecessary friction. Strong fundraising funnels simplify decision-making, reinforce impact clearly and make supporters feel like participants in something meaningful rather than targets inside a campaign. And importantly, strong organizations test relentlessly. They test subject lines, donation page layouts, appeal language, timing and calls-to-action because small improvements in conversion rates compound dramatically over time. Stage 5: Retention and expansion Most nonprofits spend enormous energy trying to acquire donors and surprisingly little energy thinking about what happens afterward. That is one of the biggest growth leaks in the sector. According to Fundraising Effectiveness Project benchmarks, first-time donor retention rates in the nonprofit sector hover around just 20%. In other words, most organizations lose roughly four out of every five new donors after the first gift. That is not simply a fundraising problem. It is a relationship and marketing infrastructure problem. Strong organizations treat stewardship as a strategic function, not an afterthought. They build post-donation journeys, create personalized thank-you experiences, segment recurring donors differently from first-time donors and continue reinforcing impact long after the campaign ends. And the organizations that do this well dramatically outperform those that don’t. Average nonprofit donor retention rates hover around 40–45%, while top-performing organizations regularly exceed 60%. Recurring donors perform even better, with some studies showing retention rates approaching 80–90%. That is what happens when organizations stop thinking transactionally and start building long-term relationship systems. Data also creates organizational discipline. Without clear performance visibility, nonprofits constantly chase new ideas, react emotionally to isolated feedback and shift priorities based on short-term pressure. But data creates clarity. It allows leadership to separate what feels important from what is actually driving growth. The good news Most nonprofits do not need to reinvent themselves to grow sustainably. The raw ingredients are usually already there: a meaningful mission, strong programs, dedicated staff, compelling stories and communities looking for connection and purpose. What is missing is the system (and sticking to it). Sustainable growth does not happen through random campaigns, last-minute urgency or constantly chasing the next idea. It happens when organizations intentionally guide people through a long-term relationship journey: from awareness, to engagement, to trust, to giving, to deeper involvement over time. The nonprofits that grow sustainably are not necessarily the ones working the hardest; more often, they are the ones disciplined enough to stay focused on the funnel long enough for it to work. Lena Perez is a marketing strategist and consultant who has worked with more than 50 Jewish nonprofits across the United States and Israel to strengthen fundraising, grow audiences and build lasting community relationships. Drawing on years of in-house leadership experience, including serving as vice president of marketing and communications for a large Jewish federation, she brings a practical, collaborative and results-driven approach focused on helping organizations grow with clarity, strategy and measurable impact.

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Foundation for Jewish Camp’s new strategic plan emphasizes affordability, leadership development and research

Jay Deitcher — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:09:40 +0000

After the most successful summer in Jewish camping history, the Foundation for Jewish Camp has a roadmap for the years ahead. Today the organization released its 2026-2030 strategic plan, which includes increased emphasis on research, leadership initiatives and scholarships, with newly created roles at the agency to meet the needs of today’s campers. The plan stems from a listening tour held last year, conducted by the strategic planning company ABW Partners, that involved conversations with over 100 stakeholders — funders, camp directors, partner organizations, parents and young adults. Across the board, everyone agreed that there is a vast need for investment in Jewish camping due to rising costs for both camps and families, as well as the increase in antisemitism and mental illness facing today’s Jewish youth. “Were in a really pivotal moment for Jewish life, where there is a rise of antisemitism, young people are disconnected and less affiliated with normal Jewish organizations,” Jamie Simon, CEO of Foundation of Jewish Camp, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “The youth mental health crisis is on the rise. Camps are facing challenges, so theres just this really pivotal moment for young people, and Jewish camp offers an antidote.” Last summer, 160,000 campers attended an FJC-affiliated camp, which Simon estimates to be 16% of Jewish children between the ages of 7 and 17. Families also requested more than $58 million in financial aid, with camps distributing $47.2 million — $33.5 million for overnight camps and $13.7 million for day camps — a more than $7 million increase from the year prior. According to an FJC census, without that assistance, 37% of families said they could not have afforded camp. The strategic plan aims to ensure camp is available to everyone who wants to attend and to accommodate them by making “bold moves,” Simon said, including “breakthrough investments designed to dramatically expand access to Jewish camp.” The increased access will be aimed directly at lower- and middle-income families. “Funders have been stepping up and investing in Jewish camp,” Simon said. “They see what we see, which is that Jewish camp is building young people to feel connected to their Jewish identity, connected to community, inspired to participate, and [donors are] stepping up in big ways to support camps’ ability to thrive and create these incredible spaces of learning and growth for young people.” Over the past two years, FJC has raised over $55 million for Jewish camping. These commitments build other major investments in the field, including the largest grant in FJCs history, the $15 million Gottesman Capital Expansion; and the $12.35 million Yashar Initiative, funded by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, to improve accessibility for campers with disabilities. FJC has identified three priorities for the years to come: advancing the business of camp, building Jewish learners and leaders and advocating for Jewish camp through research and partnerships. “Let’s say were really successful in advancing the business of camp, and we come up with really creative new affordability initiatives, and we invest in facilities and increase capital at camps to do all these amazing things, and then we drive enrollment,” Simon said. “We have to also ensure camps are excellent, and thats where building Jewish learners and leaders comes in. We want to make sure that camps have the tools and resources they need to strengthen Jewish identity, to foster connections to Israel, develop leadership skills, and so these [strategic priorities] really do build on each other. “Advancing the business of camp is the most expensive of the three, because facilities and affordability have high costs,” Simon continued. “They also have high rewards.” To support campers, infrastructure needs to be up to date, but many camp facilities haven’t been renovated in over 50 years, she said. “Behind every transformative experience in camp there is infrastructure, there is facilities, affordability, careers, and we want to help camps reach more families, adapt with purpose and operate with confidence.” A 2025 study performed by Stanford University and the Jewish Federation of North America’s BeWell initiative found that camp is the No. 1 place where Jewish teens feel that they can be themselves. Still, “the outside world comes into camp,” Simon said. “We also know that mental [health needs are] on the rise. We also know that screen addiction is a real problem and [campers are] more used to scrolling than having a conversation in the woods.” To aid campers and staff, FJC is helping camps add resources to support mental health. Another focus of the plan is to assist camps with attracting, retaining and supporting a strong pipeline of year-round professionals with competitive compensation and clear career pathways. This is especially important, Simon said, because according to Leading Edge’s “State of Jewish Nonprofit Talent 2025” report, over 50% of current Jewish professionals worked at a Jewish camp. “Camp directors are the heartbeat of camp, and we want to ensure that camps can attract the best talent and retain the best talent,” Simon, who was a camp director for 18 years. “Camp directors used to [have] a 30-year career… and now camp directors are leaving after five to seven years.” This fall, FJC is relaunching its two-year Executive Leadership Institute in partnership with the Marcus Foundation, which has been paused since 2019. In 2008, Simon was part of the initiatives second cohort, and she credits the program with being “one of the reasons Im still in this field.” FJC is also shifting current talent into new roles, with four new vice-president positions overseeing strategic grantmaking and funding, leadership development and training, learning and research and network and convening departments. The grantmaking and research teams are growing, and the organization recently hired a director of grantmaking and will soon begin a search for a director of affordability. FJC Board Chair Jeffrey Solomon, who is also the vice chair of TD Bank U.S., said he thought of the strategic plan in business terms. “When I make investments, Im looking at not just the concept of whether or not I think something will be successful — I want to understand how and why, and if I make an investment in something, why my money is going to actually help the company achieve its goals,” he said. “Were applying that same discipline here to Jewish camping.” FJC is going to “use research internally and externally to better tell the story, to better advocate for Jewish camp and to help the community see the impact as an essential investment, both in peoples time and resources,” Simon said. “My goal would be, in 10 years, when youre sitting around your Shabbat dinner table, youre not asking yourself, ‘Should my kid go to Jewish camp?’ but rather when and which one.”

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Before the coffee date: New pathways for Jewish engagement

Contributing Author — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:07:00 +0000

I recently found myself at breakfast with a longtime friend and supporter of Hillel Ontario — someone deeply invested in Jewish campus life and the next generation, and thoughtful enough to ask hard questions about our work and where it’s headed. At one point in the conversation, she asked me how our work has changed over the last few years. I started giving what I assumed would be a straightforward answer. I spoke about the changing campus climate, the impact of the Oct. 7, attacks, rampant Jew-hatred and the mental health epidemic affecting young people. I spoke about the importance of social media, our efforts to make our programs more compelling and engaging and about our organizational growth. But as I was explaining these strategic shifts out loud, I realized something important: the fundamental model of Jewish engagement on campus has changed. For years, Jewish campus life operated under the premise that engagement begins with a coffee date. For decades, that one-on-one conversation was the foundation of the work. Relationships were built student by student, interaction by interaction. The assumption was that personal connection came first, and broader participation followed. And for a long time, that model worked well. But today, engagement doesn’t always begin with a coffee date; and as organization that has doubled its student engagement in four short years, we have come to understand that relying primarily on one-on-one engagement is not a scalable model for long-term growth. Today, engagement begins long before that. It begins on social media. At a party. At a sports tournament. At a large Shabbat dinner where a student sees Jewish life that feels vibrant and alive. It begins through low-barrier experiences that simply invite Jewish students to show up, meet each other and feel part of something larger than themselves. These moments may appear casual on the surface. But they are not superficial. They are strategic. Increasingly, broad engagement is not the outcome of relationship-building — it is the starting point of an intentional journey. Social programming is sometimes treated as secondary to real engagement. Metrics like attendance and reach are occasionally viewed with suspicion, as though breadth somehow comes at the expense of meaning. But this misunderstands the moment we are in. Breadth does not compete with depth; if done well, breadth creates the conditions for depth. In other words, engagement is not simply a moment in time; it is the entry point to a journey. A student may first come to Hillel because their friends invited them to a party or a basketball game. That same student may later attend a Shabbat dinner, join a leadership program, volunteer for a tikkun olam initiative, travel to Israel, advocate publicly for the Jewish community or become a campus leader during moments of crisis. The social event was never the destination; it was the doorway. That journey — from participation to belonging, from belonging to leadership, from leadership to lifelong Jewish connection — is the real work. And in today’s environment, that journey matters more than ever. Jewish students are navigating an increasingly complicated campus environment. Many are searching not only for meaningful experiences, but for confidence, pride, friendship, resilience and community. Large-scale engagement helps students see that Jewish life on campus is not small, isolated or defensive. It is joyful, visible and alive. There is enormous power in a student walking into a crowded room and realizing they are not alone. There is power in seeing Jewish joy expressed publicly and confidently at a time when many students feel pressure to shrink themselves. There is power in creating spaces where students can first connect socially before they are ever asked to engage more deeply intellectually, spiritually or politically. For years, many engagement models assumed intimacy created participation. Increasingly, participation is what creates openness to deeper connection. That does not make the work shallower. It makes the front door wider. The future of Jewish campus life will belong to organizations that understand this simple truth: that engagement no longer begins by asking students to go deeper. It begins by helping them want to come closer. Jay Solomon is the chief advancement officer of Hillel Ontario.

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Your Daily Phil: Jewish camp world rocked as major for-profit owner declares bankruptcy

EJP — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:33:33 +0000

Good Wednesday morning! In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the fallout after the owners of dozens of for-profit Jewish camps declared bankruptcy last week. We cover the Youth Renewal Fund’s New York City gala to raise money for Israel’s Darca schools, and report on a push to add another $40 million to the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. For the first time since 2021, eight executives from across the field of Jewish education team up for an opinion piece on the state of their sectors, and an opinion piece by Stan Shaw, Bernard Pinsky and Ezra Shanken highlights a model and resources for addressing communal cybersecurity concerns. Also in this issue: Ghila Amati, Shahar Gamla and Galia Messika Greenberg. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching A bipartisan group of lawmakers will introduce the Jewish American Security Act this morning in the House of Representatives — a bill to improve security for Jewish institutions and crack down on online antisemitism that is backed by many national Jewish groups. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is holding a daylong convening on antisemitism today in New York City. Also in New York, the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation will present New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin with its Fighting Hatred Award tonight. Chabad Loft will host its Summer Cocktail Benefit this evening at Chelsea Hall in New York City. Sheina Gutnick, who was the first witness to testify before Australias Royal Commission into Antisemitism and was the daughter of Bondi Beach hero Reuven Morrison, will be the guest of honor. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is hosting a gala this evening in Chicago, where it will present its 2026 Humanitarian Award and Medal of Valor and debut Illinois’ newest Mobile Museum of Tolerance. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Rachel Kohn! What You Should Know A major player in Jewish American camping — brothers Michael and David Shabsels, who own more than two dozen overnight and day camps across the East Coast — declared bankruptcy last week, a move that could affect thousands of Jewish campers just as the summer season is getting underway. While representatives of some of the for-profit camps involvedhavetoldeJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcherthat they will run this summer, camp insiders say their long-term futures could be vulnerable if the brothers are forced to sell off the camp properties. “I really don’t know anything,”a representative from Camp Achim, a Jewish camp in Catskill, N.Y., told eJP yesterday. “I just know camp is moving forward as planned.” Read the full report here. News ON THE SCENE Youth Renewal Fund raises nearly $1M for Israels Darca school network at NYC gala Hundreds of people attend the Youth Renewal Fund annual gala at the New York Historical Society on June 8, 2026. Michael Priest Photography The Maxim Levy Darca High School, located in one of Israel’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the central Israeli city of Lod, once sent just 23% of its students to graduation. Today, it’s 94%. That’s one of the statistics Gil Pereg, CEO of The Youth Renewal Fund, offered Monday night at the organization’s annual gala at The New York Historical, which raised nearly $1 million for the group, the U.S. nonprofit behind Israel’s Darca school network,reportsJewish Insider’s Haley Cohen foreJewishPhilanthropy. Honorable mention:Monday’s gala honored siblings Jacquie Greyserman Ptalis and professional golfer Max Greyserman for their philanthropic contributions to YRF, with Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan — vice chair of Darca schools and a founding member of YRF — among those in attendance. Read the full report here. Share BUDGET BOOST House Appropriations Committee recommends additional $40M for NSGP A law enforcement vehicle sits near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on January 16, 2022 in Colleyville, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images The House Appropriations Committee approved a $40 million increase in its funding proposal for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program for 2027, boosting its recommendation to $355 million, in a Tuesday night session that stretched into this morning,reports Marc RodforeJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publicationJewish Insider. Modern-day necessity:A source familiar with the situation credited Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Celeste Maloy (R-UT), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Lois Frankel (D-FL) with securing the increase. “Nonprofit security grants are absolutely critical to combat surging antisemitism and hate crimes,” Wasserman Schultz told JI. “I proudly fought for an increase in NSGP funding and I’m grateful it was included, but we must do more on the floor and in conference to make sure everybody in America can worship safely.” Read the full report hereandsign up forJewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here. Share Opinion STATUS UPDATE The state of Jewish education: Insights from leaders across the field “It’s been a few years since leaders in different sectors of Jewish education shared a state of the field. Much has changed since many of us first participated in these updates during the pandemic,” write executives Orna Siegel of ElevatEd; Rabbi Rachel Bovitz of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning; Rabbi Dena Klein of The Jewish Education Project; Jaime Simon of the Foundation for Jewish Camp; Paul Bernstein of Prizmah; Rabbi Ben Berger and Adam Lehman of Hillel International; and Miriam Heller Stern of Builders of Jewish Education in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. Triumphs, challenges and opportunities:“As the school and programmatic year concludes, we wanted to share updates and our perspectives on Jewish education at this moment, with a focus on important advancements in our sectors since 2021 and the most significant challenges and opportunities each sector faces.” Read the full piece here. Share READERS RESPOND Cybersecurity is community security “The recent eJewishPhilanthropy article exploring cybersecurity and the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence on online crime is both timely and unsettling (“Security experts warn philanthropic, Jewish worlds at risk as AI supercharges cyber attacks,” April 27). It highlights a reality many Jewish organizations are only beginning to fully absorb,” write Stan Shaw, chair of the cybersecurity committee at the Jewish Federation of British Columbia; Bernard Pinsky, chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation; and Ezra Shanken, CEO of JFBC, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. Follow our lead:“Synagogues, schools, social service agencies and federations are being targeted not because they are large or wealthy, but because they are mission-critical, data-rich and often under-resourced when it comes to technology protection. In British Columbia, Jewish communal leadership recognized this risk years ago.” Read the full piece here. Share Major Gifts Following the death of 23-year-old IDF Capt.Shahar Gamlafrom combat injuries, his familys decision todonatehis organs led to successful life-saving transplant operations for six patients across several Israeli hospitals… Jewish Caresannual London galaraiseda record £5.6 million ($4.2 million) to fund its care services and the newSugar Ronson Campus… London’s learning disability charity,Kisharon Langdon,securedover £1.09 million ($814,000) during a 36-hour matched-funding drive to support its independent living and educational programs… Transitions Leora GoldfarbjoinedtheJewish Community Foundation San Diegoas its new senior communications specialist… Rabbi A.D. MotzenwasnamedasAgudath Israel of America’snew Washington director; he succeeds longtime Washington director Rabbi Abba Cohen… Adir Yolkuthas been hiredas the next vice president of Jewish Learning atLeading Edge… Worthy Reads The Battle Within:InTablet, Yair Golan, leader of the Israeli Democrats party,arguesthat Israels true existential threat is internal. “Zionism was never merely a project of survival. Israel’s founders sought to create something far more ambitious: a Jewish national home grounded in justice, mutual responsibility, and freedom. A Jewish and democratic state — not Jewish instead of democratic. That, in my view, is the heart of Israel’s debate today. There are those who believe that the trauma of Oct. 7 requires Israel to retreat inward, abandon the possibility of political agreements, and live forever by the sword. I reject that vision completely. We must not confuse sobriety with despair.[Tablet] The AI Commandments:In theJewish Journal, Ghila Amatiarguesthat Jewish institutions must proactively shape AI to deepen text study and bridge Israel-Diaspora communication. “The Jewish conversation about AI cannot remain abstract. Jewish communal institutions, universities, rabbinical schools, educational networks, philanthropies and research centers should begin convening this conversation now. We need working groups that bring together rabbis, educators, technologists, ethicists, scholars of Jewish thought and communal leaders to ask how AI should be used in schools, synagogues, yeshivot, Hillels, JCCs and Jewish learning platforms.”[JewishJournal] Word on the Street A newIsrael Democracy Institutesurvey found thatIsraeli public confidencein PresidentDonald Trumpscommitment to Israels security has dropped to a record low of 44%,Jewish InsidersMatthew Shea reports… Israeli Heritage MinisterAmichai Eliyahumadea covert trip to Moscow last week — the first by an Israeli official in three years as Russia’s diplomatic standing has fallen in the wake of itsinvasion of Ukraine— to drum up support and partnerships for a plannedSoviet Jewry heritage centerset to be built in Rishon LeZion… Ynetspotlightsa project by theShenkar College of Engineering, Design and Artin which fashion students created personalized clothing forwounded IDF soldiers, highlighting —not hiding —their injuries… PresidentDonald Trumpmetwith former Israeli hostageRom Braslavskiin the Oval Office yesterday; Braslavski, who was released fromPalestinian Islamic Jihadcaptivity in Gaza last October, had been unable to join a group of hostages who met with the president late last year, soon after the release of the remaining living hostages… Varietypublishedthe guest list forAllen Co.’sannual Sun Valley retreat, includingSam Altman,David Ellison,Bari Weiss,Thomas Friedman,Bill Gates,JaredandJosh Kushnerand many others TheWashington Jewish WeekinterviewsGalia Messika Greenberg, who will become the first Israeli-born president of theJCRC of Greater Washington… Natalie Portman,Justine TrietandJacques Audinerjoinedover 350 French cinema figures in an open letter to condemn the cultural boycott of Israeli directorNadav Lapidas an intellectual failure after pressure forced him off a festival jury… Academy Award-winnerGwyneth Paltrowhas beennamedthe face of a new marketing campaign for a new luxury Herzliya residential building by Israeli real estate firmAviv Melisron… In an opinion piece inThe Forward, psychologistJoshua Simmonshighlightshow the aftermath of Oct. 7 has fractured LGBtQ+ spaces for queer Jews… Jewish Californiapraised the introduction of California Assembly Bill 1853, authored by Democratic AssemblymembersGail PellerinandMarc Berman,to prevent state-issued publications from distributing hate speech or targeting minority groups, after a candidate used election pamphlets to spread antisemitic conspiracy theories this year… Chabad of Wellington Westin Ottawa, Canada, hasrelocatedinto a historic, 111-year-old heritage property in Ottawa following a $1.7 million capital campaign, effectively restoring and housing the 15,000-volume Jewish Youth Library collection after nearly a decade in storage… Pic of the Day Courtesy/Association of European Jewish Museums Dozens of representatives from Jewish museums across Europe gather yesterday at the Muzeum Historii ?ydów Polskich POLIN (Museum of the History of Polish Jews) in Warsaw for the Association of European Jewish Museums’ annual conference. The three-day gathering, which concluded yesterday, focused on persistent questions, such as how to secure funding or organize exhibitions, as well as contemporary issues, such as navigating the role of Jewish museums in the face of “terror, war and growing hostilities,” as was discussed in a plenary session yesterday. Birthdays John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images Film, television and stage actor,Gina Gershonturns 64 Author of award-winning books about her experiences before, during and after the Holocaust,Aranka Davidowitz Siegalturns 96 Emmy Award-winning TV journalist who has worked for CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN and PBS, he is the author of 14 books,Jeff Greenfieldturns 83 Musician, producer, composer and conductor for film and television,Randy Edelmanturns 79 Physical therapist at the University of Pennsylvania Health System,Andrea Sachs Cathy Farbstein Miller Senior director of communications for CoGenerate,Stefanie Weiss Former attorney general and then governor of New York,Eliot Spitzerturns 67 Director of strategic accounts at Pharmacy Management Solutions,Avi H. Goldfeder Blogger and columnist for theChicago Sun-Times,Neil Steinbergturns 66 President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA),Michael Makovsky Actor and the older sister of comedian Sarah Silverman,Laura Silvermanturns 60… Israeli film and TV Actor,Avital Abergelturns 49 Veteran of nine NFL seasons as an offensive tackle, he is now the athletic director of Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif.,Mike Rosenthalturns 49 VP of strategic partnerships at the Birthright Israel Foundation and director of community education at NYCs Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, RabbiDaniel Kraus Professor at the Johns Hopkins Universitys School of Advanced International Studies in Washington,Yascha Mounkturns 44 Economic commentator on Israel’s Channel 13,Matan Hodorovturns 41 Publisher ofThe New York Sun, he is also honorary chairman ofThe Algemeiner,Dovid Efune Actor, producer, writer and director,Joseph Paul Joey Zimmermanturns 40 CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area,Tyler Gregory Singer, composer and entertainer in the contemporary Jewish religious music industry,Simcha Leinerturns 37 CEO of NYC-based Encounter Programs, designed to transform communal engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,Yona Shem-Tov Belgian singer and songwriter, known as Blanche,Ellie Noa Blanche Delvauxturns 27 Artist and piano player, S.E. Taylor…

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Youth Renewal Fund raises nearly $1M for Israel’s Darca school network at NYC gala

Judah Ari Gross — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:43:35 +0000

The Maxim Levy Darca High School in the central Israeli city of Lod, located in one of Israel’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods in a mid-to-low socioeconomic city, once sent just 23% of its students to graduation. Today, that number stands at 94%. That’s one of the statistics Gil Pereg, CEO of The Youth Renewal Fund, offered Monday night at the organizations annual gala at the New York Historical Society, which raised nearly $1 million for the group, the U.S. nonprofit behind Israels Darca school network. The higher graduation rate “is not because the students changed,” said Pereg. “It’s because someone believed in them. That is at the heart of Darca.” Many of the students at Darca schools are the first in their families to pursue higher education and are “learning where they come from does not determine where they can go,” said Pereg. Darca schools, founded in 2010 with support from Israels Education Ministry, focus on providing academic opportunities for more than 30,000 students in 57 schools across Israels geographic and socio-economic periphery. Mondays gala honored siblings Jacquie Greyserman Ptalis and Max Greyserman for their philanthropic contributions to YRF, with Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan — vice chair of Darca schools and a founding member of YRF — among those in attendance. The event highlighted not only the academics supported by YRF, but also the extracurricular programs it provides — opportunities that are typically the first to be cut in underprivileged areas. The evening featured a dance performance by two Maxim Levy Darca students who credited the program’s dance group for cultivating their talents. The high school students, Amy and Yali, spoke of poverty and violence in their hometown of Lod — a mixed city with both Jewish and Arab populations and a high violent crime rate. “But every morning when we’re walking to our school, it’s different,” said Yali. “For us, Darca Maxim Levy is more than just a school. It’s a place where people learn to respect, support and understand each other.” “Not every child grows up with people who believe in them,” he continued. “That’s why our teachers mean so much to us. They show us that our futures depend on our choices and how hard we work.”

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Jewish camp world rocked as major player in for-profit Jewish camping declares bankruptcy

Jay Deitcher — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:30:33 +0000

A major player in Jewish American camping declared bankruptcy last week, a move that could affect thousands of Jewish campers just as the summer season is getting underway. New York-based real estate owners Michael and David Shabsels declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey last Thursday, both personally and under their umbrella group, Simad Holdings. Since declaring bankruptcy, the brothers and their firm have refused to speak to the press. The brothers, who entered the for-profit camp business in 2006, own 22 overnight camps and eight day camps across the Northeast, predominantly in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maine. Many of their camps have Jewish programming or are primarily attended by Jews. The average cost to attend one of the Shabsels brothers’ camps is $8,000-$10,000 per season, with some topping $17,000. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, businesses can remain open, and the collection of debt is paused, but the bankrupt company must develop a reorganization plan that includes how it will restructure debt and pay creditors. The brothers have until Oct. 2 to do so. While representatives of the for-profit camps involved have assured eJewishPhilanthropy that they will run this summer, camp insiders say their long-term futures could be vulnerable if the brothers are forced to sell off the camp properties. “I really don’t know anything,” a representative from Camp Achim, a Jewish camp in Catskill, N.Y., told eJP yesterday. “I just know camp is moving forward as planned.” Jewish camps that could be affected by the bankruptcy include Blue Star Camps in Western North Carolina, Camp Lavi in Pennsylvania and the SHMA Camps in New York. Unlike the majority of Jewish camps in America, the Simad Holdings camps are not directly affiliated with any Jewish denomination or the Jewish Community Center movement. As for-profit enterprises, they also don’t fall under the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s umbrella, which includes over 345 nonprofit Jewish camps across North America, but this could change if the Shabsels’ camps become nonprofits, an option that could be attractive if the land that the camps sit on is put up for sale as part of the debt restructuring. Jamie Simon, CEO of Foundation of Jewish Camp, told eJP that she was not able to speak about the Shabsels-owned camps or their future due to their privately owned status. “There is a lot we dont know about the camps affected, but what we do hope for is a positive resolution so campers and families arent impacted, since we know camp is so influential,” she said. “Our hearts are with everyone affected — and what were focused on this summer is making sure campers can experience the joy, friendship, belonging and Jewish community that camp provides.” Demand for camp is higher than ever, with last year’s FJC census showing that nearly 200,000 young people attended Jewish camp at an FJC-affiliated camp last summer, a record. Court documents show that the Shabsels brothers listed over $500 million in liabilities. Last December, their camp properties were appraised to be worth $466 million with a projected annual return of 10.5% for 2025. That same month, the brothers, through Simad Holdings, which is based in the British Virgin Islands, completed a $195 million bond offering in Israel, with the bonds backed by 13 camp properties. But late last month, Simad informed the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it had defaulted on a payment to bondholders. Also, the company reviewed its first-quarter financial statements and found that $34 million was missing. The funds had been transferred to the brothers’ other companies. Originally, Simad claimed the transfer was an error, but after the company’s audit committee asked the brothers to return the funds — plus the 7% interest rate of the bonds — the brothers said they were unable to do so. Quickly, after news of the missing funds broke last week, several Simad board members resigned, later deciding to stay on temporarily to attempt to recover the money. Bondholders had first lien on the camps, but according to the Israeli financial newspaper Globes, which broke the news of the bankruptcy, many insiders accused the brothers of double pledging assets, with one insider telling the newspaper: It seems that this is a case of a company owner who came here to raise debt by lying.” The brothers, who are now facing a criminal probe, have found themselves facing multiple lawsuits over the past decade, including a 2025 case alleging breach of contract and two lawsuits — one by the co-owners of Kiwi Country Day Camp in Carmel, N.Y., and another by a co-owner of Camp Lavco in Lakewood, Pa. — that accuse the brothers of refinancing co-owned property and taking proceeds only for themselves, then refusing to share financial documents with their co-owners. According to Globes, many involved in the situation in Israel blame the underwriter who brought Simad to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the Israel Securities Authority and the ratings agency Midroog, which assessed the bonds with an investment-grade rating. After news of the missing funds broke, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange suspended trading of the company’s bonds as the price fell to junk level. In addition, Israeli securities investigators launched an investigation into Simad over possible securities legal violations. Despite the developments with the holding company, the camps themselves stress that all is well going into this summer. “Everything is good,” a Blue Star Camps employee assured eJP, saying the camp is running as normal this summer and is “absolutely financially healthy.” In addition to their camp holdings, the brothers own office buildings and retail properties. They are connected to numerous Jewish nonprofits, with David Shabsels listed on Orthodox Union’s Benefactor Circle, and Michael Shabsels and his wife listed as members of United Hatzalah’s U.S. National Board. In July 2023, Michael Shabsels and his wife hosted an event for United Hatzalah, and in July 2024, the brothers hosted an event for Nevut Lone Soldier Veteran, an organization that supports IDF lone soldiers. “I think to be successful in any business, anyone who is a business owner must always have the mindset that they are never going to fail and that theyre never going to give up, no matter how bad business gets,” Michael Shabsels said in a 2020 YouTube presentation for Olami Professional Circles, which connects young Jews with “the best business minds in the industry.” “The only thing worse than the business being bad is if you throw in the towel.”

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Cybersecurity is community security

Contributing Author — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 04:04:00 +0000

The recent eJewishPhilanthropy article exploring cybersecurity and the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence on online crime is both timely and unsettling (“Security experts warn philanthropic, Jewish worlds at risk as AI supercharges cyber attacks,” April 27). It highlights a reality many Jewish organizations are only beginning to fully absorb. While our community has invested heavily and appropriately in physical security, our institutions remain increasingly vulnerable in the digital realm. Cybersecurity is no longer a future or theoretical concern. It is a present and growing threat to Jewish organizations of every size. Synagogues, schools, social service agencies and federations are being targeted not because they are large or wealthy, but because they are mission-critical, data-rich and often under-resourced when it comes to technology protection. In British Columbia, Jewish communal leadership recognized this risk years ago. Understanding that cyber threats posed a systemic and potentially existential challenge, the Jewish Federation of British Columbia (formerly the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver) established a standing Cybersecurity Committee focused on prevention, preparedness and coordinated response. That early recognition proved critical. Over the past several years, Jewish organizations across the province have experienced cyber incidents that disrupted operations, strained staff capacity and exposed just how fragile digital systems can be. These moments were sobering — not because they were surprising, but because they showed how quickly an organization can be destabilized. A single successful cyberattack can interrupt payroll, expose sensitive client or donor information, halt essential services and, in the worst cases, threaten organizational viability. For nonprofits operating with lean staffing and limited reserves, the consequences can be profound. One of the earliest conclusions reached through this communal work was that the greatest vulnerability was not technology, but people. Phishing emails, weak passwords and social engineering remain the most common entry points for attackers. In response, JFBC worked with cybersecurity partners to secure deeply discounted access to ongoing cybersecurity awareness training for staff and volunteers at Jewish nonprofit organizations. A donor stepped forward to ensure that cost would not be a barrier for Canadian Jewish nonprofits that enrolled, and the deeply discounted price for Wizer Staff Training is now available to any Jewish non-profit in North America by contacting Cyber Unit, the company our Jewish Federation in British Columbia has contracted to deliver the program. Canadian Jewish non-profit organizations qualify to join the program at no cost. Intentionally practical and accessible, the training features short videos, quizzes and simulated phishing exercises that help participants learn to recognize threats in real time and adopt safer digital habits. The core message is simple and essential: anyone with access to an organization’s systems or data is part of the security perimeter. We also recommend that organizations assess their own cyber vulnerabilities with a free test available here. This confidential self-assessment tool was developed by Cyber Unit and designed especially for Canadian organizations, but it would be helpful for any organization regardless of location. Borders matter less in the cyber world. As threats have grown more sophisticated, training and leadership have been paired with practical readiness. Cybersecurity self-assessment tools and best practice guidance were developed to help organizations understand their vulnerabilities and prioritize action. Assessment and preparedness support through partners such as Cyber Unit has helped organizations move beyond awareness toward concrete improvement, regardless of size or technical background. These efforts have not eliminated cyber incidents; no community can claim that. What they have done is significantly reduce the impact when incidents occur. A coordinated approach provides a clear place to turn, access to expertise and a faster response. In every case to date, early intervention helped limit damage, reduce data loss and restore operations more quickly than would otherwise have been possible. At its core, cybersecurity is about safeguarding mission. There are concrete steps every Jewish organization can take now: Ensure that staff, volunteers and board members with system access receive regular cybersecurity training. Require strong, unique passwords and enable two factor authentication wherever possible. Be cautious with unexpected emails or requests that create urgency or seek personal or financial information. Keep systems updated, back up critical data, and know who to contact if something feels wrong. Early reporting can prevent a localized incident from becoming a broader communal problem. For those who wish to learn more about cybersecurity resources and ongoing efforts within the Jewish community in British Columbia, additional information is available at https://www.jewishvancouver.com/cybersecurity. Stan Shaw is the chair of the cybersecurity committee at the Jewish Federation of British Columbia (formerly the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver). Bernard Pinsky is the chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation. Ezra Shanken is the CEO of the Jewish Federation of British Columbia.

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The state of Jewish education: Insights from leaders across the field

Contributing Author — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:56:37 +0000

It’s been a few years since leaders in different sectors of Jewish education shared a state of the field. Much has changed since many of us first participated in these updates during the pandemic: the Oct. 7 attacks and the experience of rising antisemitism; back-to-back wars in Israel; and the overall polarized nature of politics and society today. As the school and programmatic year concludes, we wanted to share updates and our perspectives on Jewish education at this moment, with a focus on important advancements in our sectors since 2021 and the most significant challenges and opportunities each sector faces. You’ll see themes around artificial intelligence, Israel education, high-quality professional development and the financial burdens of education. We’re pleased to share the insights below from the following sectors within our field: early childhood education; adult learning; part-time Jewish education; Jewish camp; Jewish day schools; Israel education and college engagement; and Jewish community education. The youngest classrooms, the biggest questions: Update on Jewish early childhood education Orna Siegel, executive director, ElevatEd For countless families, Jewish early childhood centers, which serve children from birth through age five, represent the first and most formative encounter with Jewish life. The past five years have revealed a field that is simultaneously more vital and more strained than at any point in recent memory. The pandemic proved to be an unexpected catalyst for professional growth across the field. The disruption sparked grassroots organizing and the launch and evolution of organizations working across the full spectrum of field needs: educator recruitment and retention, professional development, curriculum, pedagogy, credentialing, capital investment and advocacy. Efforts to address compensation and professionalize the field through data collection and policy work have gained meaningful momentum. Research and practitioner experience confirm that these interventions improve educational quality and teacher retention, a genuine shift in a field where turnover is endemic and retraining cycles are costly. That investment is arriving in a remarkably diverse sector. Families are Jewish, interfaith and non-Jewish; a majority of newer educators do not identify as Jewish, either. Yet these centers are, without apology, Jewish-normative environments: places that celebrate Shabbat each week, run on the Jewish calendar and orient their work around Jewish values. Non-Jewish families and educators who engage meaningfully in these spaces become genuine allies, connected through shared experience in ways that matter deeply in a climate of rising antisemitism. The challenges are substantial and interconnected. Chronically low compensation drives high turnover and makes it increasingly difficult to attract formally trained educators. Meanwhile, classrooms have grown more complex, with children presenting a wider range of developmental and behavioral differences than ever before. When undertrained teachers face classrooms with diverse and demanding needs, burnout accelerates, children are not always effectively served — and families notice. Financial instability compounds the problem. Universal Pre-K, declining birthrates and shifting Jewish population geography have reduced enrollment among 3- and 4-year-olds, eroding tuition revenue while centers expand more costly infant and toddler classrooms to compensate. Security costs have nearly doubled in recent years, adding further pressure to already strained budgets. The stakes extend well beyond the classroom. Research suggests that when families encounter Jewish life as welcoming and meaningful in these earliest years, they are more likely to deepen their Jewish engagement over time. That engagement may later show up in forms such as enrolling children in Jewish day schools, sending them to Jewish camp, seeking out religious school, joining synagogues and JCCs, volunteering, serving on boards and becoming donors. Jewish early childhood education is not simply one entry point among many; it is an important foundation on which the rest of Jewish communal life can be built. Communities and funders that invest seriously in this sector are not just supporting young children; they are investing in the long-term health and vitality of the Jewish community. Opportunity for exponential impact: Update on adult Jewish learning Rabbi Rachel Bovitz, executive director, Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning For adult Jewish educators inclined to see hope and opportunity in the wake of horror and heartbreak, “the Surge” identified by the 2024 Jewish Federation of North America study and explored by historian Jonathan Sarna points to a moment of real possibility. There are Jews who have been newly awakened to seek deeper connections to their heritage and the Jewish community. At the same time, more adults are turning to Jewish learning to gain the knowledge and confidence to engage in conversations with family, friends, colleagues and others about Jewish life and current events. Many are specifically seeking learning around antisemitism, Zionism and other urgent contemporary issues. At a moment when so many Jews are grappling with anxiety, confusion and questions of identity, one might expect far more people to be engaging in Jewish learning. Yet adult Jewish learning often remains a “best-kept secret,” suggesting untapped potential to engage a wider and more diverse range of Jewish adults. Although some funders and community leaders increasingly recognize the value of adult Jewish learning in this moment, the field has not yet seen large-scale investment. Significant resources in two areas could have an exponential impact. First, larger-scale marketing and engagement efforts are needed to reach and inspire far more potential learners through social media campaigns, grassroots outreach, subsidized offerings and other creative strategies. Second, many talented adult Jewish educators are stretched thin. Some balance teaching alongside other significant professional responsibilities, while others piece together multiple part-time roles to make a living. Greater investment could allow expert educators to devote more time to teaching while also cultivating a larger pipeline of skilled, passionate teachers. Finally, we cannot speak about this moment without acknowledging the emerging role of AI. Most of us in the field are only beginning to explore its possibilities. While some may see AI as a threat, making information more accessible than ever, we know that meaningful learning depends not only on finding answers, but on asking the right questions. Just as generations of Jewish educators taught students to ask, “What difficulty is Rashi coming to answer?” we now need to help adults learn how to thoughtfully prompt and evaluate large language models, so they find answers that are accurate, relevant and meaningful. While AI is an incredible resource, we know that successful adult Jewish learning goes far beyond the acquisition of knowledge. Practitioners in the field continue to witness how high-quality learning experiences create opportunities for personal meaning-making, spiritual growth, and deeper connections with other learners and the larger Jewish community. At a moment when so many Jews are searching for knowledge, belonging and purpose, focusing on adult Jewish learning is not simply an educational priority, but a communal imperative. New world, new responsibilities: Update on part-time Jewish education Rabbi Dena Klein, chief Jewish education officer, The Jewish Education Project For decades, Hebrew schools, also known as supplementary, congregational or religious schools, have occupied an uneasy place in North American Jewish life. Too often caricatured as the school children tolerated rather than embraced, they were seen as secondary to public school and to the immersive experiences of camp or day school. Yet in 2026, in a post-pandemic and post-Oct. 7 world, Hebrew schools sit at the center of a vital communal question: How do we raise proud, resilient, joyful Jewish children in an age of uncertainty? The scale alone matters. The majority of Jewish children in North America still encounter organized Jewish learning primarily through part-time settings. The Jewish Education Project’s 2023 Census of Supplementary Schools reports that approximately 135,000 children were receiving Jewish education in a part-time setting, accounting for nearly half of all non-Orthodox, non-day school students. Even amid demographic shifts, declining affiliation and changing family patterns, these schools remain the broadest gateway into Jewish life for children and their families. But running these schools today is extraordinarily difficult. The first challenge is emotional and ideological. Since Oct. 7, educators have been asked to teach Hebrew and holidays while also helping children and parents process fear, grief, antisemitism and hostile rhetoric about Israel and Jewish identity. Parents tell us they want their children to feel that they belong. In The Jewish Education Project’s soon to be released study of parents of Gen Alpha children, about three-quarters said feeling part of the Jewish community is a top goal. More than half also name antisemitism as a major worry. Teachers now hold the responsibility to educate around questions that many adults struggle to answer: Is it safe to be openly Jewish? How do we cultivate pride without defensiveness? How do we speak about Israel with honesty and care? The second challenge is structural, and it is as much about identity as it is about institutions. American religious life continues to decline, and synagogue participation has not been immune. Even as Jewish engagement has surged since Oct. 7, schools still require sustainable enrollment and critical mass to survive. Congregations, however, are serving families whose Jewish identities are increasingly diverse and self-described in different languages. Our data suggests that families who identify primarily as culturally Jewish enroll at lower rates than those who think of themselves as raising children religiously Jewish. This is not a deficit in those families; it is a signal that our inherited models often presume a religious orientation and insider fluency that fewer households bring to the table. The structural challenge, then, is to evolve part-time Jewish education to reflect today’s complex constellation of Jewish identity by making multiple on-ramps, clarifying purpose, and building communities of belonging where more Jewish families can find themselves inside a shared Jewish story. The third challenge is human capital. Jewish education faces a shortage of excellent educators at precisely the moment when excellence matters most. Teachers are expected to be mentors, counselors, content experts, experiential educators, and culture builders, often in part-time roles with modest compensation. And yet there is reason for optimism. Across North America, Hebrew schools are reinventing themselves with creativity and courage. Programs are centered on belonging, meaning, relationships, music, storytelling, social action, Hebrew through culture and immersive experiences. Holidays remain tentpole moments, but they are not the only topics of learning. Teachers lean into values, traditions and texts that help children live Jewish lives every day. Learning extends beyond classrooms into camps, family education, retreats, cooking, art, technology, and partnerships. Many schools are recognizing that their greatest product is not simply literacy, but identity. The future of Jewish life will not be secured only in elite institutions or exceptional moments. It will also be shaped every weekday afternoon and Sunday morning when educators help children discover that being Jewish is not merely something to defend. It is something deeply worth learning, living, and celebrating together, with courage, compassion and enduring hope. Cultivating pride and belonging: Update on Jewish camp Jamie Simon, CEO, Foundation for Jewish Camp A pandemic that nearly closed many camps, the long aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023 — these past five years have tested camp communities again and again. They have also sparked an opportunity to reflect and rethink how we approach Jewish education at camp. Out of that rethinking, real advancements have emerged. Camps have grown clearer about their core values, especially around Israel education and community expectations. We’ve seen increased demand for and investment in staff training, curriculum development, and Israel-focused educational programming. Last summer, Foundation for Jewish Camp provided grants to 70 camps to hire dedicated Israel educators as part of our Teaching Israel at Camp initiative, building on the connections that Israeli shlichim (emissaries) already create. The field as a whole has embraced peer learning, networking and shared resources as key parts of professional development. Camps are also increasingly seen as places that can provide refuge and resilience-building for young people. Our Yedid Nefesh initiative has funded and placed mental health professionals at 102 camps over the last six years. And campers and staff alike benefit from being in a rare screen-free environment where they can disconnect from technology and social media and engage more deeply in community, connection and reflection. Even amid these advancements, challenges remain. Camps face uncertainty around Israeli staffing, rising security and operational costs that pull dollars away from programming and growing polarization among families, funders, staff and boards over Israel and Jewish identity. Seasonal staff arrive bearing the weight of campus antisemitism and need more preparation to lead as educators. And camps are less insulated than in the past, as programming decisions quickly become visible and contested online. The opportunities ahead are larger still. Camp’s immersive environment can deliver meaningful, values-based Jewish education and help a generation shaped by algorithms build healthier relationships with technology and information — in part by deepening partnerships with guest educators, Israeli artists and collaborative learning networks that bring fresh curriculum and perspectives. Jewish camp cultivates pride and belonging as a Jewish individual and educates young people to navigate disagreement, lead with kindness and carry Jewish values into every room they enter. Ninety-five percent of parents say camp fosters their child’s Jewish pride, and 93% (from FJC Camper Satisfaction Insights Survey) say camp helped their child grow and try new things. It’s why I believe that the future of Jewish education runs through the amphitheaters, bunks, dining halls and lakefronts where young people find their place in Jewish life. Investing in excellence: Update on Jewish day schools Paul Bernstein, CEO, Prizmah Over the last six years, Jewish day school enrollment has grown consistently year after year (as Prizmah’s forthcoming report will show). The question is no longer whether our schools are good enough; increasingly, Jewish day schools are competing with the best independent and public schools in their communities. Alumni are visible as leaders in government, business, and across Jewish communal life. Dan Senor recently observed that when he meets the “remarkable” Jewish student leaders shaping campus Jewish life, they almost always share one formative experience: they attended Jewish day school. The data bear this out: Among Jewish college students, Jewish day school alumni are four times more likely to feel a strong connection to Israel than their non-day school peers and twice as likely to say Jewish identity is central to their lives. Investing in Jewish education is the most meaningful response to antisemitism, and visionary philanthropists are increasingly acting on that conviction. The Samis Foundation’s Day School Affordability Program in Seattle has driven a 25% increase in enrollment, while affordability initiatives continue to expand in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and elsewhere. In Cleveland, local philanthropists and schools mobilized around the Mandel Foundation’s $90 million challenge grant. Chicago is investing in an innovative educator pipeline initiative. And in communities such as Miami, Tampa and Toronto, where demand exceeds supply, new schools are emerging. The challenge to building a thriving Jewish community in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, is not a lack of resources, but whether we direct those resources toward deep and transformative Jewish education. As Bret Stephens argued, the goal should be “to make high-quality Jewish day school education available and affordable to every Jewish family that wants one.” Affordability remains a significant barrier. Many schools still struggle to meet the needs of current and prospective families. Yet for U.S. schools, the upcoming Federal Tax Credit for education presents an unprecedented opportunity for schools, and mass participation in the tax credit by the entire Jewish community will dramatically expand access to Jewish education. At the same time, sustaining growth depends on educational excellence. Too many schools still lack the resources to invest sufficiently in outstanding teaching and leadership. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks reminded us that “teachers are the unacknowledged builders of the future,” and lasting change depends on attracting, training and mentoring, as well as retaining exceptional educators. A Jewish day school education delivers strong academic outcomes but is ultimately about far more than academic achievement. Our schools build the Jewish and general foundations for a lifetime’s success, based on this promise: “If you know who you are, you can be anything.” Beyond content expertise: An update on Israel education and student engagement Rabbi Ben Berger, senior vice president for education, community and culture, and Adam Lehman, president and CEO, Hillel International At Hillel, some of the most meaningful educational experiences emerge not from one-time events or high-profile speakers, but from sustained relationships between students and trusted professionals. Seven years ago, Hillel launched two signature Israel education initiatives: one focused on students, the other on professionals, and both grounded in the belief that if we wanted students to engage with Israel in meaningful and enduring ways, we needed to invest deeply in the educators and professionals who guide them. We understood then, as we do now, that effective Israel education requires more than content expertise alone. It requires professionals with the pedagogical skill, relational engagement and intellectual confidence to foster curiosity, hold complexity and create opportunities where students could ask questions without fear. In other words, we need to invest both in the “what” of Israel education and in the “how.” That commitment has shaped our work through initiatives like Masterclass: Israel, which focuses on developing Hillel professionals as informed Israel educators positioned to build long-term educational relationships with students. Too often, Israel engagement in the Jewish communal sector depends on individual initiatives or advocacy-oriented programming that can feel performative, ideological or disconnected from students’ lived realities. We believed that students were far more likely to engage meaningfully through trusted educators who knew them well and could accompany them through complexity over time. We doubled down on that approach after the Oct. 7 attack, when the strength of the educational relationship between campus professionals and students became even more critical. Those relationships create the possibility for shared learning that is both deeply connected to the Jewish People while also committed to honest inquiry and authentic engagement with Israel. Beginning in January 2024, we launched Sipuurim to bring cohorts of Hillel professionals to Israel with the understanding that educators themselves needed to see how Israeli society had changed after Oct. 7. As one participant reflected afterward, “Sipurim did something no article, no book, no research ever could. It brought me to the places where these stories belong. To the homes. To the streets. To the silence. It took the stories off the page and made them real, human and impossible to forget.” The past several years have reinforced for us that sustainable Israel education is fundamentally relational and developmental. Today’s Jewish college students are not looking for simple answers; rather, they are looking for trusted relationships, authentic conversation and educational communities strong enough to sustain both honesty and belonging. The soul of the Jewish People is at stake: Update on Jewish community education Miriam Heller Stern, CEO, Builders of Jewish Education in Los Angeles During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were numerous calls to set aside covering content in Jewish schools and focus more on connection and belonging. Now, six years into a decade that is proving to be a watershed in Jewish history, we grasp for the knowledge that could have prepared us for this moment. Jewish education should not be reduced to rote knowledge or performative belonging, nor should we focus solely on rehearsing the lines to defend our people and combat antisemitism. Jewish education must produce an informed stance of self-love, self-awareness and a commitment to learning, because learning is the foundation for Jewish community and creativity. To achieve this aim: Jewish education needs to illuminate Jewish subject matter that helps us navigate wisely and soulfully through a volatile time in history. The stories of the Torah, Talmud and history provide mirrors into our own experiences, leading us to be deeply reflective about who we are and how we live. Jews need to be learning — wherever they can, whenever they can. Jewish day schools and camps can provide the most immersive laboratories for developing the habits of being self-nourishing, learning Jews, but Jewish learning can thrive beyond those spaces. We need to create robust opportunities for family and multigenerational learning where stories are shared, perspectives are developed and memories are made year-round. Make the kitchen, dining room and family trips immersive spaces for experiential Jewish learning and give parents and grandparents the facilitators’ guides. Invite parents and grandparents to join the journeys of sense-making with their children and grandchildren. Transformative Jewish education begins with transformative educators. We need a historic shift in investment in our educators’ professional learning, salaries and status if we hope to meet the demands of our day. We must develop and implement multi-pronged strategies to achieve extraordinary education and sustain it. Beyond “affordability,” we need to manage the cost of quality with a combination of philanthropic investment, government funding and commitment to cost-saving collaboration and systems-building. As a collective, what should we be aiming for in the years ahead, across every sector of Jewish education? Not “educated” Jews, not “learned” Jews, but learning Jews, constantly adapting in a fraught world. We have the spiritual tools and texts to navigate the 21st century wilderness — from Torah, to middot, to poetry and recipes, to rituals from every moment from birth to death, and so much more. Great educators know how to make big, deep ideas accessible to any Jew at any age. BJE: Builders of Jewish Education is building the infrastructure to power this vision across the ecosystem, with Los Angeles as our laboratory. The neshama of the Jewish people, its collective soul, is grieving, exhausted, traumatized and craving the time to heal. At the same time, it is also alive and seeking, learning to live with conviction and courage in the face of uncertainty and threat and to approach the world with ingenuity, nuance and fortitude. The neshama of the Jewish people needs oxygen, and that oxygen is Jewish education. It is time to start investing in the wisdom that generations need to breathe together as a people, the teachers to teach it and the systems to deliver it.

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Your Daily Phil: Israel’s long-suffering tour guides reach their breaking point

Rachel Kohn — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:31:03 +0000

Good Tuesday morning! In today’s edition ofYour Daily Phil, we examine the toll that yesterday’s battle between Israel and Iran —and the past six years of war and pandemic —has taken onIsraeli tour guides. We report on a new report advocating for an alliance-focused strategy to combat global antisemitism, and speak with friends and colleagues of the philanthropistBillie Tisch, who died on Sunday. We feature an opinion piece byPia Eisenbergchallenging assumptions about donor fatigue and shareDavid Bryfman’s address toThe Jewish Education Project’s Spring Benefit, which took place last night in Manhattan. Also in this issue:Ezra Shanken,Barry S. FriedbergandAngelica Berrie. Today’sYour Daily Philwas curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip?Email us here. Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on Telegram What Were Watching The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center. The hearing comes two months after the Department of Justice charged the group with fraud for paying informants in extremist groups, which the government alleges goes against donor intent. Also in Washington, Chabad-Lubavitch’s Living Legacy International Conference, which kicked off last night, resumes this morning with a congressional leadership breakfast followed by events at the Library of Congress, a luncheon at the State Department, a roundtable with Jewish leaders from around the world this afternoon and a gala dinner in the evening. Agudath Israel of America is holding a dinner tonight to dedicate its new Washington office and pay tribute to Rabbi Abba Cohen, the longtime head of the group’s D.C. operations. What You Should Know A QUICK WORD FROM EJPS JUSTIN HAYET One Israeli tour operator doesnt go out for coffee anymore.Another has an application for nursing school sitting on her desk, waiting to be submitted. Still another pivoted to virtual tours.With the Israel travel field decimated over the last six years by a crippling pandemic followed by the Oct. 7 terror attacks and nearly three years of constant war, tour operators — the unsung and often unsupported heroes of the field — are hurting. This week’s one-day battle between Israel and Iran,coming just as tour guides are beginning to gear up for the prime summer season, has further flung the already battered field into a state of deep uncertainty. Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here. News BUILDING BRIDGES Jewish Interfaith Center calls to rethink efforts to fight antisemitism, build an ‘alliance machine’ A woman wears a hat that reads Curb Your Antisemitism during a rally against campus antisemitism at George Washington University on May 2, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
For Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi, who lives on the Gaza border with his wife and five children, the events of Oct. 7, 2023, are deeply personal. But, professionally, Lavi, CEO of the Jerusalem Interfaith Center, is particularly concerned by how the Jewish community responded after the Oct. 7 attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza—spending hundreds of millions of dollars to combat antisemitism, with precious little to show for it. After eight months of research, he has a blueprint for fixing it,reportseJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet. Strategic planning:“Antisemitism is the result of a machine, warned Lavi at a webinar yesterday that was co-hosted by Lavi’s Jerusalem Interfaith Center, the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue, Anu – Museum of the Jewish People and the Jewish Peoplehood Coalition. “A combination of political Islam and radical Marxism whose purpose is to take down the West. This machine cannot be fought with videos on TikTok. Its not in the same field. We need to build a machine of allies in a strategic manner. Read the full report here. Share BARUCH DAYAN EMET ‘Smartest, nicest person in the room’: Colleagues mourn philanthropist Billie Tisch Wilma Billie Tisch at a benefit event in 2006. Courtesy/Skidmore When Louise Greilsheimer thinks about Billie Tisch, she thinks about the way a room felt after she left it. “When you walked in a room, she didn’t strike you,” Greilsheimer, the former president of UJA-Federation of New York,toldeJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayaim, “but when you left, you knew that she was probably the smartest and nicest person in the room.” Tisch — matriarch of one of New York’s most prominent Jewish families and the first woman ever elected president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York — died on Sunday at her Manhattan home. She was 98. Dignity and respect:Billie Tisch was unique in bringing cognitive and emotional intelligence as a leader and a fierce commitment to caring for all in Jewish life, John Ruskay, the former longtime CEO of the New York federation, who regularly crossed paths with Tisch, told eJP. She always related to everyone — whether it was a senior volunteer, a professional or a client at a human service agency — with respect, with dignity, interested to understand how they viewed the world.” Read the full report here. Share Opinion REALITY CHECK Donor fatigue isnt about generosity. Its about us. “As development professionals, weve all encountered it: the exhausted donor, the increasingly crowded event calendar, the same faces showing up year after year, looking a little more tired while being asked to do more — all against a backdrop of crisis after crisis, with no playbook in sight,” writes Pia Eisenberg, chief business and resource development officer at Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. What we discovered:“Fatigue isnt about generosity running out. Its about a lack of true engagement, and organizations treating donors like ATMs with a loyalty program. And the worst offender? Event-driven fundraising.” Read the full piece here. Share ICYMI How to build a future that is wiser than our present “One of the things that worries me most right now is not what is happening outside the Jewish community, but what is happening inside it: The name-calling. The purity tests. The obsession with deciding who is in and who should be out,” said David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, in his address at TJEP’s 2026 Spring Benefit last night in New York City, shared exclusively in eJewishPhilanthropy. How we educate is key:“Education is not about creating replicas of ourselves. … None of us became who we are simply because someone instructed us what to believe. So, our task is not to control the next generation. Our task is to create the kinds of experiences that allow them to become the people they are meant to become.” Read the full piece here. Share Worthy Reads The Name and Shame Game: In Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ben Gose details why colleges and universities are slow to remove the names of wealthy donors from campus buildings, despite escalating pressure from students and alumni over the donors past ties to Jeffrey Epstein. “The risk of removing a name, [Jeffrey Tenenbaum, a lawyer who counsels nonprofits,] says, is not only a potential lawsuit from an aggrieved donor — and the possible reclaiming of the donation — but also the message that the removal sends to future donors… who might say, ‘Well, I’m not going to give to this institution because they have a history of taking people’s names down from buildings.’” [ChroniclesofPhilanthropy] Backseat Builder:In theTimes of Israel, Jewish Vancouvers Ezra Shankenapplaudshow a decade-in-the-making land transfer in Vancouver, British Columbia, serves as a blueprint for humility and collaboration. “Trust is easy to speak about in communal life, but much harder to practice. In this case, it meant creating space for one another to lead, challenging each other honestly, and believing that together we could aim higher than either of us could alone, and that trust shaped not only the project, but how we led it. Leading a Federation carries a particular responsibility. We convene, support, and catalyze collective action. But often, our most important role is less visible. It is to walk beside our partners… This project required exactly that.”[TOI] The Silicon Gilded Age:In theStanford Social Innovation Review, Priya Shankerarguesthat incoming tech billionaires must eschew top-down philanthropy for legacy-foundation strategies that prioritize community trust and democratic infrastructure. “The defining challenge for this new generation of billionaire philanthropists is therefore not simply determining what to fund but how to exercise influence in a society where trust is fragile and legitimacy cannot be bought. They will need to envision a broader role for themselves, one that casts them not merely as investors and orchestrators of social outcomes but as stewards of the civic conditions that build trust, participation, and shared purpose.”[SSIR] Major Gifts The Stacy and Keith Palagye Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to the American Friends of the Hebrew University to launch a specialized academic and skill-building facility at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem… TheZimmer Family Foundationhassecuredthe naming rights forHarvard Universitysprimary undergraduate science facility — now called Zimmer Hall — through a $100 million contribution that also expands campus kosher dining… Longtime board memberBarry S. Friedberghascommitteda $1 million gift to theGlaucoma Foundationto help advance scientific initiatives aimed at eradicating blindness… Transitions Margarita Korol joined Nechama Jewish Response to Disaster as its new director of communications… Word on the Street InTheWall Street Journal,MetaPresidentDina Powell McCormickand “Dirty Jobs” hostMike RoweunveilAmericas Workforce Academy, a multimillion-dollar initiative pairing tech capital with blue-collar advocacy to pay trade trainees and guarantee them jobs building AI infrastructure… ABritish Museumlecture on the archaeology of ancient Israel and Judah has beenrescheduledfor Thursday alongside a new livestream option following an initial postponement due to the threat of anti-Israel protest… The Wall Street Journalfollowshow American university endowments — particularly theUniversity of North CarolinaandWashington University in St. Louis— anticipate billions in gains fromSpaceXs upcoming IPO… The sale of the late philanthropistHarold Matzners historicSpencer’s Restaurantin Palm Springs, Calif., to business magnateNachhattar Singh Chandihassparkeda local backlash and boycott threats over Chandis Republican affiliations… 404 Mediaexamineshow aTexas farmer’s land donation for a public park is instead being used to build a massivedata centernext to the families he tried to help… TheJ7 Task ForceurgedCanadian Prime MinisterMark Carneyto launch a comprehensive federal strategy to combat antisemitism through strict legal enforcement and equal protections for Jewish citizens. TheWall Street JournalprofilesOpenAIPresidentGreg Brockmanand his transformation from a heads-down programmer to a prominent executive guiding product strategy and political philanthropy ahead of the companys IPO… Pamela Platt, a healthcare professional, Baltimore Jewish community leader and sister-in-law of Julie Platt,diedon Monday at 68… Rabbi Gustav Buchdahl, emeritus rabbi ofBaltimore Hebrew Congregationand social justice activist,diedon Sunday at 91… Pic of the Day Courtesy/Russel Berrie Foundation Angelica Berrie, president of the Russell Berrie Foundation, presents a copy ofStudying Judaism, Strengthening Dialogue, a book examining the two decades of work by the foundation’s John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue Fellowship Program to Pope Leo XIV during a private meeting with the Holy See last Wednesday. The two met on the sidelines of the annual conference of the interfaith program, which was held at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, featuring leading Jewish and Christian scholars, which was led by Tel Aviv University professor Adam Afterman. Birthdays Ziv Koren/Azrieli Group Former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas,Walter Julius Levyturns 104 Journalist for 30 years at CBS and NBC who then became the founding director of Harvards Shorenstein Center, then a fellow at GWU,Marvin Kalbturns 96 Retired Israeli diplomat who served as ambassador to Italy and France and world chairman of Keren Hayesod United Israel Appeal,Aviezer Avi Paznerturns 89 Author of 12 books, journalist, lecturer and social activist, founding editor ofMs. Magazine,Letty Cottin Pogrebinturns 87 British businessman, co-founder with his brother Maurice of advertising agency Saatchi Saatchi which became the largest in the world, noted for his art collection and for founding Saatchi Gallery,Charles Saatchiturns 83 Diplomat and Shakespeare historian, he was the longtime national editor ofWashingtonianmagazine,Kenneth Adelmanturns 80 Founder of Commonwealth Financial Network (a broker/dealer network) and former chairman of Southworth Development (a golf and leisure business),Joseph Deitchturns 76 Professional mediator, for years she was a syndicated advice columnist in Jewish newspapers,Wendy J. Belzberg Israels former minister of defense and deputy prime minister,Benny Gantzturns 67 Canadian journalist, author, documentary film producer and television personality,Steven Hillel Paikinturns 66 Producer, director, playwright and screenwriter, he has won an Academy Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes,Aaron Benjamin Sorkinturns 65… Former lead singer of the Israeli pop rock band Mashina,Yuval Banayturns 64 CEO of Jewish Women’s International,Meredith Jacobs Managing director at Major, Lindsey Africa,Craig Appelbaum Executive vice president of Jewish Funders Network, RabbiRebecca Sirbu Screenwriter, director and producer,Hayden Schlossbergturns 48 Founder and CEO of Delve, an AI platform for public affairs, he was previously a Bush 43 White House Jewish liaison,Jeff Berkowitz NYC-based writer, actor and entrepreneur, he is a co-founder of Swish Beverages,David Oliver Cohenturns 46 Jerusalem-born Academy Award-winning actor, producer and director,Natalie Portmanturns 45 Online producer, writer and director, who together with his brother Benny founded the React video series,Rafi Fineturns 43 Multimedia artist known for her work in photography, makeup, hairstyling and textile crafts,Anna Marie Tendlerturns 41 Composer and lyricist, in 2024 he became the 20th person to complete the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards,Benj Pasekturns 41 Israeli tech entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of A.Team,Raphael Ouzanturns 39 Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, her book,A Flower Traveled In My Blood, was published last year,Haley Cohen Gilliland Deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications at the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration,Jeff Solnet Ice hockey player for the NHLs Edmonton Oilers and bestselling author of childrens books,Zachary Martin Hymanturns 34 Serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Setscale,Daniel Fine

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How to build a future that is wiser than our present

Contributing Author — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:59:02 +0000

This is an abridged version of the author’s speech delivered at The Jewish Education Project’s annual spring benefit on June 8, 2026. A few weeks ago, I interviewed professor Jonathan Krasner from Brandeis University on our podcast, ”Adapting,” about the capacity for Hebrew schools to innovate in today’s world. During the conversation, Jonathan reminded all of us about the importance of history — not simply to understand the past, but to help us navigate the present and avoid repeating the mistakes of those who came before us. As it happens, Jonathan also wrote a book about Samson Benderly, the visionary founding leader of the Bureau of Jewish Education on the Lower East Side more than 115 years ago. Today, that organization is known as The Jewish Education Project. One hundred and fifteen years later, the questions are different. But in many ways, the stakes are the same. Nine months into my tenure as CEO, we sent an email to our staff that essentially said: “Pack up your things. Go home. Well see you back here in a couple of weeks.” Of course, it wasnt a couple of weeks. For three years during COVID, Jewish educators kept waving our hands trying to tell the world: Jewish education still matters. Jewish community still matters. Human connection still matters. And now, in a post-Oct. 7 world, no one is asking anymore whether Jewish education is relevant. No one is asking whether it is worth investing in Jewish identity, Jewish belonging, Jewish literacy or Jewish community. Now the real questions are what kind of Jewish education is needed most right now and what kind of Jewish educators do we need to become? One of the challenges of education is that everyone thinks they understand it because everyone has experienced it. But those of us who have devoted our lives to this work know something different. Helping another human being grow, discover meaning, wrestle with complexity and find belonging is sacred work. This moment demands that we reclaim and recharge Jewish education. Yes, antisemitism is rising. Yes, Israel is under scrutiny and attack. Yes, our young people are navigating a world that is more polarized, more complicated and more emotionally exhausting than many of us have ever known. But I told my staff something very important in the weeks and months after Oct. 7, 2023: For some people, motivation will come from fighting antisemitism; for others, motivation will come from defending Israel; but we, as educators, must always lead with joy and pride. External forces can mobilize people. Only internal forces can sustain them. Fear may gather a crowd. But joy builds a life. And when I think about the kind of Jewish educators we need right now, I dont think in abstractions. I think about a public high school teacher who participated in one of our programs. She told me that for months she had been terrified of teaching about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She worried that whatever she said would be viewed as biased. She worried about students. She worried about parents. She worried about getting it wrong. After working with our educators, she said, For the first time, I feel like I have the tools to teach this responsibly — not because we told her what to think, but because we helped her learn how to teach. I think about an early childhood educator who approached me after a professional development workshop and said, This is the most useful day of professional development I have attended in my entire career — not only because it was inspirational, and not because it was theoretical, but because it actually addressed the challenges she would face the very next morning when she walked into her classroom. And I think about a religious school teacher who joined one of our educator missions to Israel after Oct. 7. At the end of the trip, she stood in tears, and she said, Thank you for taking me seriously enough to bring me here. She needed to see, bear witness and understand what had happened so she could return home and help her students make sense of a world that no longer made sense. Those are the educators I think about. Those are the educators who inspire me. And those are the educators who remind me every day why this work matters. Because education is not simply about transmitting information: it is about shaping ethical human beings. I believe deeply in Jewish Peoplehood. Others might call it pluralism. For some of you, that may come from the language of btzelem Elohim — the belief that every human being is created in the Divine image. For others, it may come from a universal belief in human dignity. However we frame it, the message is the same: the human being is sacred. One of the things that worries me most right now is not what is happening outside the Jewish community. It is what is happening inside it. The name-calling. The purity tests. The obsession with deciding who is in and who should be out. The inability to disagree without dehumanizing. With all the external pressures facing the Jewish people, what I fear most is that we may tear each other apart from within. That is why education matters more than ever. Because I do not believe dogma will save the Jewish people. I do not believe certainty will save the Jewish people. What will save us is belonging, dignity and our ability to remain in relationship with one another even when we profoundly disagree. That is educational courage. Our children need that from us right now. Education is not about creating replicas of ourselves. It is not about manufacturing children who think exactly like us, vote exactly like us or repeat our worldview back to us. Every single one of us was shaped by transformative experiences. By mentors, communities, questions and struggles. None of us became who we are simply because someone instructed us what to believe. So, our task is not to control the next generation. Our task is to create the kinds of experiences that allow them to become the people they are meant to become. Every one of us can point to a teacher. A camp counselor. A youth leader. Someone who saw something in us before we could see it ourselves. Someone who helped shape the trajectory of our lives. That is what Jewish educators do: They help young people discover joy. They help them discover meaning. They help them discover community. And perhaps most importantly, they help them discover one another. In a moment when the Jewish world feels fractured, education remains our greatest act of hope. Education is how we build a future that is wiser than our present. A future that is more compassionate than our discourse. A future that is more united than our politics. A future worthy of our children. That is the work. That has always been the work. And 115 years after Samson Benderly first imagined what Jewish education could become in America, it remains the work before us still. I cannot imagine more important work than that — and we simply cannot do all of this work without all of you. David Bryfman is the CEO of The Jewish Education Project.

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Jewish Interfaith Center calls to rethink efforts to fight antisemitism, build an ‘alliance machine’

Justin Hayet — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:23:56 +0000

For Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi, who lives on the Gaza border with his wife and five children, the events of Oct. 7, 2023, are deeply personal. But, professionally, Lavi is particularly concerned by how the Jewish community responded after the Oct. 7 attacks —spending hundreds of millions of dollars to combat antisemitism, with precious little to show for it. After eight months of research, he has a blueprint for fixing it. At a webinar co-hosted by Lavi’s Jerusalem Interfaith Center, the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue, Anu – Museum of the Jewish People and the Jewish Peoplehood Coalition, a pointed question was posed to those involved in combating antisemitism: Does exposing the atrocities of Oct. 7 actually reduce antisemitism? Lavi, CEO of JIC, presented new research suggesting the answer is more complicated — and more uncomfortable — than most in the Jewish philanthropic and organizational world would want to acknowledge. Antisemitism is the result of a machine, Lavi warned. A combination of political Islam and radical Marxism whose purpose is to take down the West. This machine cannot be fought with videos on TikTok. Its not in the same field. We need to build a machine of allies in a strategic manner. The core findings of JIC’s report, “Allies of the Jewish People and the State of Israel: Global Strategic Mapping and Policy Recommendations,” assert that the Jewish community does not have a hasbara problem, and antisemitism cannot be explained away. Based on Lavi’s research, exposing audiences to factual documentation of atrocities or leaning on narratives of Jewish victimhood are frequently ineffective and often counterproductive — particularly in progressive circles dominated by neo-Marxist theories of power, where there are oppressors and the oppressed. What we are facing today is not a hasbara or a PR problem that more facts and information can solve. It is one of narrative. The best response to this period of Jewish vulnerability is to go deeper into our own story — who we are, where we come from and what we stand for — and use that story to build bridges with others who share our values and our commitment to a better world, said Tracy Frydberg, director of the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue at Anu, who introduced the session. If we had no potential friends, we should just focus on building higher walls, Lavi said. But that is not the case. For the study, JIC, which is spinning off from the Ohr Torah Stone network this month to become an independent organization, mapped out roughly 2.5 billion untapped allies worldwide, including Hindus, moderate Muslims, evangelical Christians outside of the United States, progressive communities in South America and religious minorities across the Middle East. Lavi asserts that the American evangelical community remains virtually the only group that receives sustained engagement from Jewish organizations — through Passages, Christians United for Israel, BZ Media and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. There are a billion Hindus worldwide — forming highly influential, wealthy minorities in the United States, Australia and the Emirates, Lavi noted. Yet how many full-time Jewish professional staff members are dedicated to building relationships with them? The same under-investment applies to moderate Muslims and evangelicals outside the U.S. Lavi’s study is the result of eight months of work by a team of seven international researchers. The 350-page report is built on more than 100 in-depth interviews with global community leaders. Lavi says these individuals are not merely data points, but instead they represent an active network ready to be deployed for educational content, public statements and community mobilization. The goal is allies who speak in their own voice to their own communities. Lavis study and the criticisms embedded within it of the Jewish organizational world land in the middle of a broader philanthropic reckoning on the subject, with growing recognition in the field that there is waste, redundancies and a lack of clear metrics for success. This was highlighted last year in an opinion piece in eJP by Jewish Funders Network President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny, based on a study commissioned by JFN and conducted by Dr. Eitan Hersh of Tufts University. Spokoiny warned donors against doubling down on failed campaigns and challenged the field to prioritize results over rhetoric. It is a diagnosis that resonates with Soraya M. Deen, a Muslim feminist lawyer and senior member of the Muslim Reform Movement of North America. Deen — who has spent years working alongside the Jewish community to fight antisemitism both from within her own community — has worked alongside Lavi for years in this work. On the webinar during the discussion portion of the event, Deen asserted: Our work lies in problems we have created and solutions we have not explored.” The research also exposed the pitfalls of lazy coalition-building. Just spending money on allies does not mean you build alliances; you need to know who and where to invest it, Lavi argued. The mistake many Jewish organizations and funders made before Oct. 7 was to invest in the wrong partners,” he said. A lot of organizations think if Hindus and evangelicals support Israel, lets put them in the same conference — and they fail to understand that Hindus and evangelicals have a 200-year conflict between them, Lavi explained. They dont mix together. Lavi called for Jewish organizations to “grow up” and begin planning for the long term. “Lets stop thinking about how many likes well get on our videos, but lets build a strategy for the next 30 years and not the next three months,” he said. “This disease in the philanthropic world, where people invest for three years and then move on, is detrimental for this ecosystem, because the Muslim Brotherhood has a strategy for 100 years — and you cannot fight it with a three-year grant cycle.”

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After latest flare-up, Israel’s tour guides are still hanging on — barely

Judah Ari Gross — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:15:07 +0000

One Israeli tour operator doesnt go out for coffee anymore. Another has an application for nursing school sitting on her desk, waiting to be submitted. Still another pivoted to virtual tours. With the Israel travel field decimated over the last six years by a crippling pandemic followed by the Oct. 7 terror attacks and nearly three years of constant war, tour operators — the unsung and often unsupported heroes of the field — are hurting. This week’s one-day battle between Israel and Iran, coming just as tour guides are beginning to gear up for the prime summer season, has further flung the already battered field into a state of deep uncertainty. As missile barrages from Iran and its proxies in the region sent Israelis scrambling back to bomb shelters, for Israeli tour guides, those sirens represented more than just an attack on their lives but on their livelihoods as well. And they come ahead of a summer period that, for many guides, represents the bulk of their annual income. Every missile and siren is another cancellation email waiting to be sent. There is no stability, Pauline Kelif Scheiner, 46, a tour guide since 2008, told eJewishPhilanthropy today. Another guide, who lives in the Golan Heights and has been guiding for the past five years, told eJP that the downturn in the industry affects not only their bottom line but their mental health. I am counting shekels because of how much income Ive lost in the past four months. I am not going out for coffee. I dont feel like I have a reason to get up in the morning,” the guide said. Most tour guides (some prefer to be called tour educators)are not employed by the tour operators who use them, and instead are atzmai, or independent — the Israeli classification for a freelancer or someone who is self-employed. Even when their income drops due to war, this status makes it more challenging for them to claim unemployment benefits,which are normally calculated based on monthly paychecks — a problematic measurement for a field that is seasonal in nature. Tour educators are also only compensated once a group lands in Israel, assuming it does. If a group cancels, they do not get paid. Having already blocked off those dates, they scramble to fill them, unlikely to find a weeklong group and instead are forced to settle for day or half-day guiding gigs that usually pay less. For tour guides, it didnt start on Oct. 7[, 2023,], said Kelif Scheiner, who lives with her husband and three daughters on Kibbutz Almog, north of the Dead Sea. “It started with COVID… and when we finally, finally started working again — then Oct. 7 happened. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she didnt wait at home. Like many of her colleagues, she reinvented herself entirely. Tour guides with cars just became taxi drivers. I worked in so many different jobs that have nothing to do with tourism,” she said. But even as she adapted, she never lost sight of what the profession demands. You cannot be a tour guide if you do not love people. You cannot be a tour guide if you do not love this profession — it demands so much of you. You spend long days away from home, sometimes a week in a row, three weeks in a row,” she said. “When you are with a group, you are so devoted to it. You cannot do it halfway. This is what makes a good tour guide. They are not just a tour guide, they are an educator. The essence of the work, she said, goes beyond reciting facts and dates. You need to open up and invite them into your home and your heart and your thoughts. Thats what makes the difference between someone who repeats facts and dates and a true tour guide. The financial toll has been severe. Several guides told eJP that since COVID, there has not been a serious minister who truly understands the field of tourism at the Tourism Ministry. The current minister, Haim Katz, was a trade unionist before entering politics and also heads the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Health Ministry. While airlines and hotels, which tend to invest heavily in lobbying, have received financial assistance from the government through the crises, tour guides have largely been left with nothing. What we received was so small and so little that people lost everything they had, Kelif Scheiner said. Some of my tour guide friends sold their houses, sold their cars, and lost everything. On her desk sit the forms to enroll in nursing school — filled out twice. I would stop doing the thing I love doing the most, that defines who I am, because I miss stability for my family. I always had this hope that tourism would come back, Kelif Scheiner said. Amy Ben Dov has spent the last 30 years guiding visitors through the country she has called home for the past 34 years. For Ben Dov, who attended Jewish summer camps throughout her life, this work is deeply personal — so much so that she and her husband have built their lives and their livelihoods around guiding. She focuses primarily on the Reform movement’s NFTY youth group, as well as private family tours and individuals, while her husband guides Birthright trips — a strategic division of labor that has allowed them to balance home life and guiding life. Since COVID, this has been the biggest challenge of our careers, Ben Dov said. Most tour guides love being outside, and to replace our jobs with retraining as a teacher inside — what we do is much more all-encompassing. We are able to use the land as our classroom. Like Kelif Scheiner, Ben Dov and her colleagues pivoted during COVID, stepped into virtual tours for communities outside of Israel. Then we went back to work. We were so happy and building towards our future — and then everything came crashing down, for us but also for all of Israel. Our challenge was personal and professional: how to continue forward, having enough work to support our family. And to reimagine Israel — to learn how to talk about Israel in a post-Oct. 7 world. That reimagining is not just emotional — it is existential for the industry. An Israeli travel industry veteran, who has 25 years of experience in the field, told eJP: “In our business, the human component is the key to our success. Israel has amazing tour operators and travel professionals working with the American market — and how do we manage to keep them? The answer, warned the industry veteran, who asked not to be named, is not guaranteed: Our treasure and our secret sauce is our tour educators and staff. If you put them on furlough or unemployment every time theres an escalation or a major crisis in our region, who is going to do this important work? A second industry professional was even more direct: If we dont compensate our tour educators, we are going to lose them in the future. Ben Dov understands what would be lost. People who come for the first time think theyre getting a tour guide like they would get in Paris or London, she said. But the guides role in Israel is to be a facilitator of experience, a connector to our shared history and a window into a lifelong relationship with Israel and Israelis. Kelif Scheiner has not yet sent in the nursing school forms. Her hope, though fragile, is not entirely gone. And the guide in the Golan is holding on to something too. We do our best, she said, and there is some greater plan we cannot see right now. Leaving it up to faith. Or using faith as comfort.

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Donor fatigue isn’t about generosity. It’s about us.

Contributing Author — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:30:00 +0000

As development professionals, weve all felt it: the exhausted donor, the increasingly crowded event calendar, the same faces showing up year after year, looking a little more tired while being asked to do more — all against a backdrop of crisis after crisis, with no playbook in sight. This is the all-too-familiar moment when donor fatigue stops being a concept and starts being your plateau. At Jewish Family and Childrens Service of Greater Philadelphia, our leadership team and board recognized it too. So, we did something about it, forming a small task force comprised of our most engaged fundraising partners (and deliberately including a donor who was not on our board). We kept the work focused: three meetings across one summer, with a clear beginning, middle, and end to the process. The first meeting surfaced what most already felt instinctively — that events were central to our fundraising identity — but by the second meeting, that assumption began to crack. A cost analysis that factored in not only direct expenses but also the full weight of staff time made plain that our events were producing a low return on both the financial and human resources required to run them. By the third meeting, the data had done what instinct alone couldnt: It made the case for change undeniable. Heres what we learned. Fatigue isnt about generosity running out. Its about a lack of true engagement, and organizations treating donors like ATMs with a loyalty program. And the worst offender? Event-driven fundraising. We found it to be enormously resource-intensive, particularly for staff, leaving development teams stretched too thin to do the work that actually matters: follow-up, relationship-building and real conversation. And yet events persist because they give board leadership an easier alternative to the uncomfortable act of asking for a monetary gift. What made our summer task force process so powerful is that instead of the professional team pushing for change, board leadership became the catalyst, advocating for clearing the calendar to shift our focus to cultivation and stewardship. The result? Five events became two: a thank-you event for our $2,500-and-above donors in the fall, and one premier annual fundraising event in the spring. But we didnt just subtract — we built as well. We created Partners for Good, a giving society offering our most committed donors a real identity within the organization and a more meaningful path. For us, it offers a new entry point for donor cultivation. The task force recommendations also led our philanthropy committee, and ultimately the full board, to take an even bolder step: a multi-year fundraising campaign and the missing ingredient that broke through our plateau. We called it A Moment In Time, built around a confluence of events that made the timing genuinely meaningful: a post-Oct. 7 reaffirmation of our mission; the retirement of our beloved longtime CEO; and our 170th anniversary. Donors didnt just respond; they leaned in. We stopped asking them for a gift each year and instead began to share their impact, thank them and give the relationship room to breathe. This ultimately led to more substantive conversations and real cultivation of new donors. The response exceeded anything we anticipated — and we raised $8.7 million. Were now moving into the next phase, The Moment Continues, this time focusing on our mid-level donors: supporters who have given consistently for years, often without the same cultivation and attention that major donors receive. This campaign has given us a new way to bring them into a deeper conversation about their giving and their connection to our mission. None of this is revelatory. Its what we already know from training and lived experience. When the constant asks stop, donors have the space to remember why they give. The relationship deepens. The gift grows. So heres my challenge to fellow development professionals: if your fundraising feels stagnant, pause and ask why. It might be donor fatigue. It might be a transactional calendar masquerading as a strategy. It might be something else entirely, or a combination. But asking the question creates a path forward. Pia Eisenberg is the chief business and resource development officer at Jewish Family and Childrens Service of Greater Philadelphia. She is a contributing presenter at the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies PowerNet Conference and co-chairs the NJHSA Development NetGroup.

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‘Smartest, nicest person in the room’: Colleagues mourn philanthropist Wilma ‘Billie’ Tisch

Nira Dayanim — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:54:54 +0000

When Louise Greilsheimer thinks about Wilma Billie Tisch, she thinks about the way a room felt after she left it. When you walked in a room, she didn’t strike you, Greilsheimer told eJewishPhilanthropy, but when you left, you knew that she was probably the smartest and nicest person in the room. Tisch — a billionaire philanthropist, matriarch of one of New Yorks most prominent Jewish families and the first woman ever elected president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York — died on Sunday at 98. Greilsheimer recalled encountering Tisch in the early 1970s, when Greilsheimer was a newcomer to New York City. After joining a young leadership division at the New York federation, Tisch personally invited her onto the federations board, a gesture characteristic of the woman Greilsheimer would come to know over the following decades: someone who not only broke barriers herself, but made a point of bringing others through the door behind her, she said. “Many women in business and other places in the early years have been accused of not looking behind them and pulling women along,” said Greilsheimer. “Billie was very unique in the way she looked, not just to men, but to younger people and women, and mentored them, and brought them along.” Born Wilma Stein on June 25, 1927, in Long Branch, N.J., grew up in nearby Asbury Park, the daughter of Joseph Stein, a journalist who founded New Jerseys first Cadillac dealership, and Rose Liebesman Stein. Tisch graduated from Skidmore College in 1948 with a degree in economics and a minor in accounting. After a brief stint as a secretary at Time, Inc., she married Laurence Tisch in October of that year. Tisch was the final surviving member of her family’s original quartet of philanthropists, whose combined legacy is reflected in a wide range of educational, cultural and medical institutions carrying the Tisch name, and in decades of sustained support for Jewish organizations throughout New York City. Her foray into organized philanthropy came through Blythedale Childrens Hospital, where she joined the board in 1962. Her work there brought her into contact with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, which she joined in 1969 as a member of its distribution committee. By 1975, she was the committees chair. Greilsheimer, who served on the committee under Tisch, remembered what it meant to sit in one of those meetings. When you were on a committee that Billie chaired, you did your homework, she said. Her years at the federations helm also coincided with a consequential period in modern Jewish philanthropy. Prior to 1973, the organization —now known as the UJA-Federation of New York —was two separate organizations: The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York. The federation, founded in 1917, supported the local Jewish community, while the UJA, founded in 1941, supported Jews overseas, primarily in Israel. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York launched a joint emergency campaign that raised unprecedented support for Israel and set the organizations on a path that culminated in their 1986 merger. When Tisch became federation president in 1980, she led the organization through a critical phase of that merger. Her son, James S. Tisch, later served as president of the merged UJA-Federation from 1998 to 2001. Throughout it all, Greilsheimer said, Tischs manner never varied depending on the size or importance of the room. Whether it was a full board meeting of 70 people, or whether it was a small executive committee meeting, she had the same manner in dealing with everybody. She listened, she absorbed every viewpoint, and she guided the institution toward where she believed it needed to go, without ever making anyone feel unheard. She never argued, Greilsheimer said. She was extraordinarily respectful. John Ruskay, who crossed paths with Tisch over decades of work at major Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Theological Seminary, 92NY and UJA-Federation, described her as operating at a different level than even the many extraordinary leaders he had encountered over a long career. Billie Tisch was unique in bringing cognitive and emotional intelligence as a leader and a fierce commitment to caring for all in Jewish life, he told eJP. She always related to everyone — whether it was a senior volunteer, a professional or a client at a human service agency — with respect, with dignity, interested to understand how they viewed the world. He recalled accompanying her on a visit to the Sephardic Community Center, a project she had helped bring into existence long before his time at the organization. Watching her move through the room — engaging easily with young and old in a community far removed from her own daily world — clarified something for him. To see her interact with young and old in the Syrian Jewish community, he said, it just opened my eyes. Tisch was also a trustee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, focused on global Jewish relief, and received the Louis Marshall Medal from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1976. Her familys foundations provided sustained support to the Jewish Museum, the American Friends of the Israel Museum and the PEF Israel Endowment Fund, which supports a wide range of charitable activities in Israel. Her influence extended well beyond Jewish institutional life. A longtime trustee and chairwoman of the WNYC Board of Trustees, she was involved in the stations transition from city ownership to an independent nonprofit, and she remained an honorary board member until her death. The Tisch familys support for New York University also resulted in the naming of the Tisch School of the Arts and Tisch Hospital. At Skidmore College, she served on the board of trustees for a decade, and in 2022, the college named its largest-ever academic building project — the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences — in her honor. Following Laurence Tischs death in 2003, Billie became a major shareholder in the Loews Corporation, with her net worth estimated in the billions by the time of her death. The Wilma S. and Laurence A. Tisch Foundation, established in 2011, continued her priorities: Jewish causes, higher education, the arts and health, with consistent support for UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Communal Fund, Lincoln Center, WNYC and New York City service organizations, including City Harvest and Citymeals On Wheels. What she built, Ruskay said, was more than institutional. She and her late husband, Larry Tisch, transmitted that commitment to service and communal leadership to their children and grandchildren,” he said. Greilsheimer described her more simply. I remember her as a wonderful, warm, smart, very smart woman who cared a great deal about her family and the community, she said. Its a model for many of us that wanted to do what she did, and may not have had the same means, but had the same interest. Tisch is survived by her four sons — Andrew, Daniel, James, and Thomas — and 23 grandchildren, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

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