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Good Thursday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we consider the significance of the upcoming Tisha B’Av holiday in a time of increasing internal division. We report on a virtual lobbying day organized by the Jewish Earth Alliance, a record-breaking gift from the estate of Geri Brawerman to the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, and Harvard University’s agreement to cover the security costs for the campus’ Hillel for the upcoming school year. We feature an opinion piece by Hillel David Rapp proposing a solution to what he identifies as an expensive redundancy in the Jewish education ecosystem. Also in this issue: Rabbi Na’ama Levitz Applbaum, Audrey Azoulay and Jeffrey J. Wild.

Ed. note: The next edition of Your Daily Phil will arrive in your inbox on Monday, Aug. 4, as eJewishPhilanthropy shifts to a four-day schedule for the month of August. Shabbat shalom!

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On Saturday night, the joys and pleasures of Shabbat will give way to the mourning and melancholy of Tisha B’Av, when Jews recall the myriad tragedies that have befallen us over the millennia. 

Last year, the Oct. 7 massacres joined that litany, alongside the destruction of the two Temples, the faithlessness of 10 of the 12 spies, expulsions from Europe, the Holocaust and more.

This year, the Jewish People are increasingly contending with the antecedent of the destruction of the Second Temple: sinat hinam, baseless hatred.

The initial communal solidarity that emerged from the shock and horror of the Oct. 7 attacks and the ease with which people in the West hailed and justified them has given way to growing division, mistrust and ire. Not incidentally, this disunity comes as world Jewry faces its greatest challenges in a generation: rising global antisemitism; growing disaffiliation and disconnection from Judaism and the Jewish People; Israeli political turmoil over the war in Gaza, general governance and sectarian issues; and mounting international efforts to impose a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among others. 

Today, these divisions can be seen in the debate over the issue of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the role that Israel has played in its creation and what it should do to address it, with more and more Jewish communities around the world calling for Israel to flood the beleaguered enclave with aid amid escalating reports of starvation and disease.

All too often, as we discuss these truly critical issues, we do so with an appalling lack of basic understanding, appreciation and generosity for those with opposing or differing views. Within our echo chambers, we end up debating straw men rather than the flesh-and-blood people who make up the other side. 

In May, following the deadly shooting attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington — and just before the deadly firebombing at a march for hostages in Boulder, Colo. — the heads of some of the Jewish community’s most influential organizations issued a call in these pages to end infighting.

“The destruction of the Second Temple was not only the result of Roman power, but also of sinat chinam — baseless hatred and infighting among Jews. We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes. Our disagreements, however deeply felt, must not overshadow our shared obligation to protect and uplift the Jewish people. We are all in this together and we must stop fighting each other,” they wrote.

This has proven easier said than done. 

There are, of course, bright spots. “The Surge” in Jewish engagement remains high, offering communities a chance to grow stronger with new and newly involved members. The needs of the moment have forced groups and communities that previously operated on their own to cooperate with one another. 

But as we head into Tisha B’Av, we would do well to consider the consequences of our ruptures and strive to find ways to bridge the divides.

COURTESY

Jews have survived many tragedies. Temples destroyed; revolts quelled; expulsion, expulsion, Holocaust. This Saturday night, on Tisha B’Av, the ninth of Av, Jews around the world fast in recognition of these horrors. Now, environmental activists want to add global warming to the list, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. Last Wednesday, in a pre-Tisha B’Av virtual lobbying day, the volunteer-run Jewish Earth Alliance partnered with 57 Jewish synagogues and nonprofits to commend lawmakers for positive moves for the environment while calling on them to do more. Across 26 states, 395 volunteers met with 51 lawmakers or their representatives, turning the holiday of mourning into a day of action.

Record turnout: Since 2023, the Jewish Earth Alliance has held two annual virtual lobby days, on Tu BiShvat, which fell this year in early February, and on Tisha B’Av. After the current Trump administration slashed funding and programs protecting the environment, volunteers attended this year’s events in droves, leading to a record turnout for the Tisha B’Av lobbying. “Right now, we’re asking people to protect the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], which has suffered tremendous cutbacks; FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], which is being disabled from being able to help people; and NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] on which we depend to understand [and predict climate, weather and ocean changes],” Rabbi Melanie Aron, co-chair of the alliance, told eJP.

Read the full report here.

DAVID CROTTY/PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles received its largest-ever single donation on Wednesday, a $20 million endowment gift from the estate of Geri Brawerman that will expand the organization’s Geri & Richard Brawerman Leadership Institute, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. 

What’s next?: The leadership institute provides selected students with an academic scholarship, mentorship opportunities, annual retreats and a Birthright trip. The $20 million gift will expand the fellowship, though an advisory committee is still assessing the exact direction, the statement said. “JFEDLA is in the process of convening an advisory committee and engaging expert consultants to explore how best to grow and sustain the Brawerman Fellowship. This includes possibly expanding access to more students, increasing scholarship amounts, increasing programmatic offerings and deepening long-term engagement with Brawerman alumni,” the federation said. 

Read the full report here.

ZHU ZIYU/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Harvard University, in a move long sought-after by advocates for Jewish college students, agreed on Thursday to cover all security costs for the university’s Hillel ahead of the upcoming academic year, Haley Cohen of eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider has learned. “By taking on responsibility for security at Hillel, Harvard University is making a powerful statement: Harvard is committed to the safety of Jewish students,” Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, told JI. 

Community needs: Security costs “represent a significant part of our annual budget,” Rubenstein said, declining to provide figures. The agreement is slated to run through the rest of Harvard President Alan Garber’s tenure, which is set to conclude at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. “Harvard University’s commitment to the safety and well-being of members of our Jewish community is paramount,” a Harvard spokesperson told JI. “Recent tragic events in communities across the country are evidence of the growth in antisemitism and further Harvard’s resolve in our efforts to combat antisemitism on our campus.”

Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.

Protection strategy: Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network, sat down last week with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem amid a push from Jewish community groups for additional security resources to address rising levels of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The meeting was among the most high-level sit-downs between Noem and Jewish communal leaders since she took office.

ALEXEY YAREMENKO/GETTY IMAGES

“Is it possible to lower the costs of Jewish day school education? Over the last two decades, many suggestions have been put forward,” Hillel David Rapp, principal of Bnei Akiva Schools of Toronto, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “While these options merit serious consideration, they largely assume that the operational costs of running a school cannot be changed while still providing the same service. They certainly assume there are no existing redundancies in spending.”

Consider this: “But what if we have overlooked a significant redundancy because it is not accounted for in any single school budget? Instead, it is a broad philanthropic redundancy, one where our communities are paying for the same service twice. I am suggesting this is what we do when we fund expansive informal Jewish learning programs like NCSY and Bnei Akiva and also devote a good amount of individual school funding to provide largely the same services at school... Jewish schools would benefit from scaling back their traditional Judaic studies programs, ending the day of formal learning at school earlier and inviting existing third-party providers to run informal Jewish learning programs each afternoon.”

Read the full piece here.

A Wall Breached: In The Times of Israel, Daniel Gordis finds new relevance in the rituals of the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av (the latter of which falls on Sunday) in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. “Ironically, the fact that Jerusalem has been built, that it is so teeming with energy and Jewish rebirth, has long made Tisha B’Av challenging for me. For years, whenever we’d get to Minchah in the afternoon and recite the Nachem [“Console”] passage which is added on that day, I couldn’t help but wonder if saying it made sense anymore… The liturgy and other customs do help Tisha B’Av feel significant. But the 17th of Tammuz? We simply don’t eat or drink. That’s it. We just slog our way through a long, hot summer day when it feels like the sun will never set… When I sat down in shul on the morning 17th of Tammuz a few weeks ago, though, I apparently forgot to steel myself for a liturgy that was certain to be a slog. I forgot to remind myself to feel what I always feel… I forgot to be bored, even a bit annoyed. Without noticing, I started to think about what I was reading. And then I noticed that I was wiping my eyes.” [TOI]

Rising Together: In Sources, Rabbi Na’ama Levitz Applbaum reflects on the loss and grief that Israeli and Diaspora Jewry have experienced since Oct. 7, 2023, and where we go from here. “When it comes to our personal mourning rituals, the halakhah is clear, and we know when shiva ends. The mourner rises after seven days, whether or not they are emotionally prepared, because the structure insists, and the structure carries us. But without a formal structure for communal mourning, we Jews today don’t know when the mourning will end… Moreover, what does it look like when an entire society gets up from shiva?... One thing is clear to me: The act of rising must begin with mutual care. It requires that we talk to each other, not past one another. It demands that we care about each other — not only in crisis, but during the fragile process of rebuilding. In a real relationship, one has no choice but to play two roles: sometimes as mourner and at other times as comforter. If we are to remain in meaningful community across the Israel–Diaspora divide, we all must step up for one another — whether or not it’s comfortable, whether or not we feel ready.” [Sources]

View From the Pulpit: In Time, Rabbi Brian Strauss describes how antisemitism is affecting synagogues, including his congregation in Houston. “This wave of antisemitism is creating palpable anxiety within Jewish communities. Increasingly, Jewish families find themselves making difficult choices: some have purchased firearms for protection; others are enrolling in self-defense classes, determined not to become victims. No community should feel compelled to arm itself just to survive. Yet across the country, securing Jewish institutions is no longer precautionary—it is essential. ... Federal nonprofit security grants help, but proposed funding levels remain dangerously inadequate. Still, we are not retreating. Synagogues are full. Jewish families are standing taller, not shrinking away. We teach our children to be proud, to be resilient, and to live with hope even amid rising fear.” [Time]

The Case for Ending the War: The Times of Israel’s founding editor, David Horovitz, lays out why Israel must now take the “least bad of the lousy options” to end the war in Gaza: “an international governance mechanism, with an American role in oversight and participation by regional players. … Israel’s leveraging of aid to try to pressure Hamas, and the pictures and clips coming out of Gaza that have convinced even Trump that starvation is real, have in the past few days helped bring Israel’s international standing to a new low — truly a pariah state at this point, with its government simply not trusted by even close allies to maintain humane policies in its conduct of the war, and Israelis and the Jewish world anguished, torn and increasingly critical. Hamas started the war almost 22 months ago with an unprovoked invasion in which it massacred primarily civilians with monstrous brutality, abducted 251 hostages and still holds 50, turned Gaza into a terror state, cynically abuses its populace as human shields and propaganda pawns — but Israel is now regarded as the prime villain. The damage is generational.” [TOI]

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Israel has reportedly issued Hamas with an ultimatum that if it doesn’t accept the existing ceasefire and hostage release proposal in the coming days, Jerusalem will annex parts of Gaza…

Twenty-seven Senate Democrats, a majority of the caucus, voted last night to block the sale of automatic weapons to Israel that supporters said were destined for police units controlled by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Twenty-four Democrats also voted for a second resolution that would have blocked sales of bombs and bomb guidance kits…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also announced Wednesday that Ottawa will recognize a Palestinian state ahead of the U.N. General Assembly in September. Carney said he spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the pronouncement and emphasized to him that Canada’s recognition would be premised on the PA committing to governance reforms and to hold general elections in 2026…

The Zionist Federation of Australia — a staunchly pro-Israel organization — said it was "deeply troubled" by reports of hunger in Gaza and called upon “Israel, the United Nations and their counterparts” to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians immediately, describing it as a “collective moral obligation”...

Brown University reached a deal with the Trump administration to restore its federal funding, the university announced on Wednesday, after the government said in April it would cut $510 million in Brown’s research funding. The Rhode Island school agreed to pay $50 million to state workforce development programs over the next 10 years, coming on the heels of Columbia University’s agreement to pay $200 million to the federal government…

The Anti-Defamation League has filed a civil rights complaint against Baltimore City Public Schools, alleging that it failed to protect students from antisemitism, including one incident in which a teacher performed a Nazi salute repeatedly at a Jewish student…

In The Jewish Chronicle, comedians Philip Simon and Rachel Creeger respond to the recent decision by multiple venues at the Edinburgh Fringe festival to cancel their acts; they write that one venue cited Simon’s social media posts in support of victims of the Oct. 7 attacks and poking fun at the recent Gaza flotilla as contradicting “their ethos”… 

The widow of Yahya Ben Youssef, one of the last Jews in Yemen who died in June 2024, has left Yemen for Israel; only four Jews are believed to still be living in the country…

The Lithuanian government has reversed a decision by its predecessor to create a Jewish heritage site at the Soviet-era Vilnius Sports Palace, which was built atop the Snipiskes Jewish Cemetery, following years of negotiations by Jewish groups; instead, the complex will be turned into a convention center…

Jewish Insider profiles Audrey Azoulay, the former French culture minister from an illustrious Moroccan Jewish family, who heads the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization…

Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea was spotted at the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel in Queens, N.Y., yesterday…

Rabbi Adam Gindea, previously vice president of OneTable, was hired by Mem Global to serve as its vice president of base and rabbinic innovation, connecting young adults with rabbinic leadership… 

Jeffrey J. Wild, formerly vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s board of trustees, has been elected board chair… 

IDF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS ORGANIZATION

Thirty-three children who have lost a parent serving in the Israeli armed forces pose on the Brooklyn Bridge last Tuesday during a three-week bnei mitzvah trip to the United States organized by the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization. The trip included a Mets game at Citi Field, seeing “The Lion King” on Broadway and time at the JCC Camp Chi in Wisconsin. 

"The past two years have been gut-wrenching for all of us, but for those families left behind by a parent who paid the ultimate price, the pain is a daily reality. This trip allowed them to be children," said Shlomi Nachumson, CEO of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization.

ANDREW TOTH/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

Founder of Apollo Global Management, in 2015 he bought a 16th-century copy of the Babylonian Talmud for $9.3 million, Leon David Black (seen here with his wife, Debra)... 

British judge and barrister, he served as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, John Anthony Dyson... Actress, who went on to become CEO of Paramount Pictures and president of production at 20th Century Fox, Sherry Lansing... Nobel laureate in economics in 1997, known for his quantitative analysis of options pricing, long-time professor at both Harvard and MIT, Robert C. Merton... Scholar, professor, rabbi, writer and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust, Michael Berenbaum … Software entrepreneur, he is president of Ameinu and serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Kenneth Bob... Author of 36 best-selling mystery novels, many with Jewish themes, Faye Kellerman... Manhattan-based criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, radio talk show host and television commentator, Ronald L. Kuby... Chairman at Haifa-based Twin Digital Healthcare, Guido Benjamin Pardo-Roques... Principal owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks until its sale to Miriam Adelson in 2023, he was a "shark" investor on the ABC reality program “Shark Tank” from 2011 until earlier this year, Mark Cuban... Israeli attorney, real estate developer and entrepreneur, Ilan Shavit... CEO at Leenie Productions, she serves on the advisory board of the Northbrook, Ill.-based Haym Salomon Center, Helene Miller-Walsh... Technology investor and social entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Tmura, Yadin B. Kaufmann... Israeli libertarian politician and activist, he was previously a member of the Knesset, Moshe Zalman Feiglin... Adjunct professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine, Dan Schnur... Born into a practicing Catholic family in Nazareth, Israel, investor and owner of the Detroit Pistons, Tom Gores... Assistant general manager of MLB's Miami Marlins, he was an MLB outfielder for 13 seasons, the first player known as the "Hebrew Hammer," Gabe Kapler... Author, actor and comedian, Benjamin Joseph (BJ) Novak... Founder and creative director at Wide Eye Creative, Ben Ostrower... Political activist and the founder and president of Stand Up America, Sean Simcha Eldridge... Head of global communications, social and film at Zipline, Danielle Meister... Program director of the Ohio-Israel Ag and CleanTech Initiative, Aryeh Samet Canter... Adam Rosenberg... David Goldenberg... Richard Rosenstein...