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Good Tuesday morning! 

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on Daniel Septimus stepping down as CEO of Sefaria on June 30 after 13 years at the helm and Israeli business leaders’ reflections at last week’s Milken Institute Global Conference. We feature an opinion piece by Sabrina Braham with insights for private donors, parents and alumni interested in answering Rebecca Dinar’s recent call to “invest upstream” at universities, and one by Beth Cooper Benjamin and Laura Hemlock-Schaeffer focused on teen mental health under the weight of “achievement culture.” Also in this issue: Levi Leviev, Gerald Steinberg and Asaf Yasur. 

Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.

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In a show of solidarity, 32 government officials tasked with combating antisemitism and other forms of bigotry around the world released a joint statement today in Geneva, decrying the rise in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions around the world in recent years and highlighting three core areas for governments to take action: increased security, prosecution of perpetrators and curbing hate speech on social media. 

The document, which was shared first with eJewishPhilanthropy, was finalized and released at a convening of the World Jewish Congress’ Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA) Network, a group of dozens of officials tasked with fighting Jew hatred in their respective countries. The SECCA meeting was held alongside the World Jewish Congress Governing Board meeting, which kicked off on Sunday. 

The document paralleled remarks made yesterday by Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the international publishing firm Axel Springer, who stressed the broader threats to Western societies posed by antisemitism and called on non-Jews like himself to do more to address it, if only for self-preservation purposes. 

But alongside this concerted push to coordinate and support these special envoys and coordinators, there was a tension at play in Geneva this week around their work and the broader effort to address rising antisemitism. 

In an address yesterday, WJC President Ronald Lauder stressed the failures of the Jewish communal world to combat antisemitism.

"Since Oct. 7, [2023,] all Jewish organizations in the United States together have spent upwards of $600 million fighting this avalanche of antisemitism. I have one question. Has it helped? Has all this money stopped? Even slowed down the hatred against us? The answer is no. All the efforts of TV commercials, the full-page ads in newspapers and conferences — all the attempts to tell the world the facts have accomplished very little," he said. 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

When Daniel Septimus took over as CEO of the fledgling digital Torah library Sefaria in 2013, the nonprofit had a library of 8.5 million words. Thirteen years later, as Septimus is set to step down, Sefaria has a library of 383 million words and more than 1 million monthly users. “Sefaria began with a dream and developed into a cornerstone of Jewish life,” Septimus told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. He announced last night that he will be leaving the organization on June 30.

From small to big: The organization received early funding from the Natan Fund, Jonathan and Tamar Koschitzky and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Sefaria has since secured funding from a large swath of the philanthropic world, including many of the largest Jewish family foundations, and is at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution in the Jewish world. “Millions of people, of every age and background, have used Sefaria to explore corners of our library and tradition that were previously inaccessible to them,” Septimus said.

Read the full report here.

The Israeli financiers, investors and entrepreneurs who attended last week’s Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills brought an upbeat attitude about Israel’s economy, even two-and-a-half years into near-constant war that began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy's sister publication Jewish Insider.

Exceeded expectations: “When the war began, I think none of us — none of the regulators in Israel, and almost none of the players or the investors in Israel — thought or believed that after two-and-a-half years of war, Israel would show such growth, such resilience,” Seffy Zinger, chair of the Israel Securities Authority, told JI in an interview. “I'm not an investment advisor, but you can see that if you were not in Israel in the past two years, you probably missed out, if Israel was not part of your portfolio.”

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

“The most expensive protest in American Jewish history may turn out to be our own,” writes Sabrina Braham, founder of Georgetown University's first Jewish alumni affinity group, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish donors have pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from elite universities. The impulse is completely understandable; it's also, I'd argue, exactly wrong.” 

Forfeiting our role: “As Rebecca Dinar, executive director of the Samson Charitable Fund, recently argued in eJewishPhilanthropy (“Whoever shapes the frameworks shapes the future of Jewish life,” May 10), academic frameworks don't stay in classrooms or on campuses. They move into courtrooms where they become law and policy that influence every part of society. Knowledge legitimized within academic systems also becomes congressional resolutions, media bias, K-12 curricula and the content feeding large language models (LLMs) that will mediate and amplify how future generations understand the world. … We stop treating our philanthropy as an emotional response to institutional failure and start treating it as the most powerful tool we have to fix it. … We are not supplicants. We are stakeholders. And stakeholders don't walk out of the boardroom. They use their seat at the table. I want to use my own university as an example — not to single it out, but because I know it well enough to be specific, and because I believe in it enough to say this publicly.”

Read the full piece here.

“It’s a scene youth educators and engagement professionals have all experienced: you’ve created content that rivals a Super Bowl halftime show, planned every detail down to the color of napkins to serve with snacks and confirmed with the teens that they’ll attend. But when it’s time for the program itself, the teens just don’t show,” write Beth Cooper Benjamin, director of programs and peer networks at Jewish Funders Network, and Laura Hemlock-Schaeffer, program and education director of JFN’s Honeycomb project, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Sweet relief: “At the most recent Honeycomb Facilitator Training, we explored a key factor in program retention that often goes unrecognized: the pressures of achievement culture. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to raise awareness about how achievement culture can undermine Jewish teens’ well-being (and that of the adults who care for them), share some insights gleaned from the Honeycomb training and recommend some strategies to challenge and mitigate the pressures many teens are experiencing.”

Read the full piece here.

Look Again: In his Substack “The Long Brief,” Uriel Zahavi addresses what he sees as a mischaracterization of Israel’s current government, the result of “right-wing” meaning something specific and different to an American listener. “‘Right-wing’ in Israel is not a single dial. It barely exists in the way an American can understand it. The coalition has four parties that disagree with each other on three different axes, and the only thing the parties agree on is the coalition arithmetic that put them together. … So what is it then? That is the right question. This brief is the answer.” [TheLongBrief]

Conscience-in-Chief: In an appreciation piece for Religion News Service, Jeffrey Salkin honors his former boss Abe Foxman. “Right about now, the angels in the world to come are tearing their hair out. That is because Abraham Foxman has arrived. They will never know what hit them. … In the end, what made Abe Foxman so consequential was not just what he fought against. It was what he fought for — the stubborn, battle-tested conviction that hatred is not inevitable, that the better angels of human nature are real and that they are worth defending. What are you going to do, dear reader — Jew or gentile — to honor his memory?” [RNS]

Sanctuary for the Soul: In The Wall Street Journal, Shira Kaplan advocates for the spiritual necessity of the Sabbath by describing it as a vital sanctuary that protects the soul from the exhaustion of modern materialism and serves as the essential anchor for Jewish continuity. “‘More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews,’ wrote the Zionist writer Asher Ginsberg, known as ‘Ahad Ha’am,’ in 1898. Without the day of rest, ‘the tribulations of the workweek would pull’ the Jewish people ‘ever lower, until they would reach the lowest stratum of materialism, and moral and intellectual degradation.’ A focus on only work, money and ambition degrades the soul. But we can’t return our souls to ourselves. Only Shabbat can do that.” [WSJ]

Studying Jewish thought and history is critical to developing informed perspectives on Judaism’s past, present, and future. If you’re passionate about exploring the religious and intellectual history of Jews and Judaism and addressing critical issues of Jewish life today, earn a Jewish Studies degree at the Spertus Institute. Apply by May 18! 

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Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children released its comprehensive, 300-page report on sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and during hostages’ time in captivity…

A bill that would effectively criminalize non-Rabbinate-approved prayer at the Western Wall, including at the current egalitarian section, will be brought before the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for initial discussion in the coming days… 

Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority chief warned that the massive presence of U.S. military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport is “crippling” civilian travel and causing increased summer flight fares…

Kyle McDonald’s new Apocalypse Early Warning System tracks private jet flights, on the principle that a sudden exodus of the ultra-wealthy from cities could signal an impending global catastrophe…

E.U. member states unanimously voted to sanction Hamas leaders as well as Israeli settlers in a bid to target extremism…

In light of the three-day truce between Russia and Ukraine, the Kyiv Jewish community hosted a mass wedding at the Beit Menachem JCC for couples who had postponed their religious ceremonies due to the war…

President Donald Trump nominated Cameron Hamilton to head Federal Emergency Management Agency, a year after Hamilton, who mounted a failed 2024 bid for Congress, was fired as the interim head of the agency…

AstraZeneca is investing up to $37.5 million to expand its work with the Israeli biotech firm Immunai…

CNN looks at efforts by Iran to recruit operatives in Europe to carry out attacks on Jewish targets…

Diamond mogul Levi Leviev visited Crown Heights this week, announcing a wave of donations for local Chabad institutions…

Jerusalem’s Independence Park will begin an NIS 80 million ($27.5 million) overhaul to add interactive fountains, playgrounds and event spaces…

Puck News does a deep dive into the recent layoffs at Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire…

Israel denied entry to YouTuber Tyler Oliveira, who in recent months has posted videos suggesting that Jews were “invading” communities in New York and New Jersey…

A £7 million ($9.5 million) renovation was announced to restore London’s 130-year-old Lauderdale Road Synagogue…

Ukrainian artist Anna Kamyshan, in partnership with the Museum of Jewish Montreal, is launching Nabatele, a 25-meter-high floating synagogue installation at the 2026 Venice Biennale that explores themes of Jewish diaspora, identity, and belonging through a literal and metaphorical "groundless" sanctuary…

Israeli taekwondo fighter Asaf Yasur won a gold medal at the European Championships in Munich…

In celebration of America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, philanthropist David Rubenstein has endowed the David M. Rubenstein Prize for the Advancement of American History, a new $250,000 prize recognizing individuals who make American history more accessible and engaging to the public…

Lisie Gottdenker was appointed the next board chair of the JCC Association of North America…

NGO Monitor's president, Gerald Steinberg is set to step down from his leadership position in January, 25 years after founding the Jerusalem-based watchdog group, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports. Olga Deutsch, currently the organization's vice president, will succeed Steinberg following a months-long transition process...

Lt. Col. Ariella Mazor was named the IDF international spokesperson…

Historian Joanna Beata Michlic was named associate director for the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights at Gratz College…

SHLOMI YOSEF

Top officials and supporters of the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in the northern Israeli coastal town of Hadera inaugurate the Helmsley PET-CT Institute at the hospital on Sunday, opening the only PET-CT scanner between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The new institute serves as a major boon to cancer patients in the area, who previously had to travel far for scans. The NIS 28 million ($9.6 million) needed for the institute was donated primarily by the Helmsley Charitable Trust and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, along with a number of individual donors and family foundations.

“Each year, we treat approximately 11,000 oncology patients, with around 450 new cases diagnosed annually. For patients and their families, this is not a matter of convenience; it is a critical factor in timely diagnosis, effective treatment and improved chances of recovery,” Dr. Mickey Dudkiewicz, director of the hospital, said in a statement. “I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the generous donors who turned this vision into reality.”

Pictured from left: Dr. Ilya Reisenberg, director of Hillel Yaffe’s Nuclear Medicine Department; Dr. Katerina Tiktinsky, director of the new institute;  Rebecca Boochris, trustee of the Adelis Foundation; Joseph Gitler; Safwan Marrih, of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews; Sidney Boochris; Henry Koschitzky; and Dudkiewicz.

COURTESY/EMORY UNIVERSITY

Professor at Emory University School of Law, he has published over 200 articles on law, religion and Jewish law, Rabbi Michael Jay Broyde turns 62... 

Israeli agribusiness entrepreneur and real estate investor, he was chairman and owner of Carmel Agrexco, Gideon Bickel turns 82... Former member of the California state Senate for eight years, following six years as a member of the state Assembly, Lois Wolk turns 80... Acclaimed architect and master planner for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, he also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind turns 80… Chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee, he served for four years as a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Moshe "Mutz" Matalon turns 73... Former Washington correspondent for McClatchy and then the Miami Herald covering the Pentagon, James Martin Rosen turns 71... Senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Delta Air Lines until 2024, now chief legal officer at private aviation firm Wheels Up, Matthew Knopf turns 70... Actress known for her role as Lexi Sterling on "Melrose Place," she also had the lead role in many Lifetime movies, Jamie Michelle Luner turns 55... Founder of strategic communications and consulting firm Hiltzik Strategies, Matthew Hiltzik turns 54... Communications officer in the D.C. office of George Soros' Open Society Foundations until last year, Jonathan E. Kaplan... First-ever Jewish governor of Colorado, he was a successful serial entrepreneur before entering politics, Jared Polis turns 51... Professor of mathematics at Bar-Ilan University and a scientific advisor at the Y-Data school of data science in Israel, Elena Bunina turns 50... Italian politician, she is the first-ever Jewish mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro turns 50... Israeli pastry chef and parenting counselor, she is married to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Gilat Ethel Bennett turns 49... Author, blogger and public speaker, Michael Ellsberg turns 49... Senior advisor at Accelerator for America Action, Joshua Cohen... Technology and social media reporter at Bloomberg, Alexandra Sophie Levine... Executive director of government affairs at BridgeBio, Amanda Schechter Malakoff... A government affairs and public policy manager for YouTube, Erica Arbetter... Haifa-born actress and model, she is known for her lead roles in seven films since 2014, Odeya Rush turns 29...