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Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine a new survey by the Voice of People initiative about world Jewry’s top concerns and cover an event in Chicago honoring the legacy of Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. We report on OpenDor Media’s acquisition of the Israel21c nonprofit news outlet and on the reopening tomorrow of the Capital Jewish Museum after last week’s deadly terror attack. We feature an opinion piece by Elie Klein encouraging adults to shift from mourning what Israeli young adults have lost to seeing how they have stepped up and grown. Also in this issue: Rabbi Doug Alpert, Meredith Englander Polsky and Lisa Eisen.

Rising antisemitism is the No. 1 issue facing the Jewish People today, more than Israel-Diaspora relations, interfaith ties, polarization and the preservation of Jewish heritage — the next four most common responses — according to a new study released today by Voice of the People, the Jewish dialogue initiative spearheaded by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“This is not just a data set – it’s a global Jewish reality check,” Shirel Dagan-Levy, CEO of Voice of the People, said in a statement. “The findings reflect a community that is hurting, but also more united than ever in its desire to stand tall, protect its heritage, and shape a stronger, safer future.”

Over several months, the initiative interviewed more than 10,000 Jews from around the world about the issues they care about, finding that 76% said that they were most concerned about anti-Jewish hatred, with the findings remaining consistent across “age, geography and denomination,” Voice of the People said. 

The study was conducted in partnership with the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel and several philanthropies. To reach a representative audience, the pollsters who conducted the survey used “extensive digital campaigns and targeted social media outreach,” the group said. 

“To truly hear the voices of our global Jewish community, we had to meet them where they are — online, across continents, and across generations,” said Neta Danciger, chief marketing and product officer of Voice of the People. “By combining the reach of digital and social media with a rigorous, community-driven survey model, we were able to capture authentic, real-time insights that reflect not only the challenges Jews face today, but also the resilience and unity that define our future.”

In addition to taking the pulse of world Jewry for its own sake, the survey is meant to provide the basis for Voice of the People’s “Global Jewish Council,” a group of 150 Jews from Israel, the U.S. and the rest of the world, who are selected for a two-year term during which they are tasked with coming up with ideas to address the five main issues identified by the survey as the most important to the Jewish People. The 150 representatives, who first met in person in March, have been divided into 10 groups, with two groups dedicated to each topic.

While the survey found that rising antisemitism is the top-rated issue across the board, there were differences between age groups. In general, younger respondents were more likely than older ones to select antisemitism as their top concern; more than 80% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said so, compared to 68% of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. The younger generations also primarily expressed that in terms of “acute distress over hostility in social and digital spaces,” according to the survey. Members of Generation X were more likely to say that they suppressed public expressions of their Jewishness or otherwise altered their behavior because of antisemitism. 

Voice of the People said it also found geographic differences, with North American and Western European respondents describing a sense of “isolation and fear,” with British Jews saying that they felt a “growing need to conceal their identities in public.” Respondents from Latin America, South Africa and Australia stressed a “strong sense of community resilience,” alongside their antisemitism concerns. “[Israelis] expressed deep concern for the safety and stability of Diaspora communities, viewing the global rise in antisemitism as a threat not just to individuals but to the collective Jewish future,” the study said.

LARRY ENGELHART/DEJA VIEWS

Of the 423 park sites within the U.S. National Park System, which includes national parks, monuments, historical sites and other features, not one is named after a Jewish person. But if Dorothy Canter of Bethesda, Md., has it her way, the first one ever will celebrate the legacy of Julius Rosenwald, the early 20th-century Jewish American philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, whose generosity and progressive vision influenced the Jewish and Black communities in the Chicago area and Black communities across the American South. It was this mission that brought Canter to Skokie, Ill., last night, where she addressed an audience of more than 150 people filling nearly every seat in the Petty Auditorium at the Skokie Public Library, reports eJewishPhilanthropy opinion editor Rachel Kohn from the event. 

A different approach: The event in Skokie was hosted by two local organizations: the Jewish Neighborhood Development Council and the Chicago Jewish Historical Society. Some of Rosenwald’s descendants and relatives were in the audience. The event also drew some Rosenwald superfans, such as Rabbi Steven Lowenstein of Am Shalom, a Reform congregation in Glencoe, Ill., who described Rosenwald as the “the greatest Jewish role model no one ever heard of.” He explained: “We’re talking about the same kind of wealth as Rockefeller and Carnegie at that time, and he chose a very different approach. He chose to sunset his foundation — he chose to spend all his money within 20 years after he died. So we’ll never hear of Rosenwald, but he’s every bit as important as Rockefeller and Carnegie, not just in the Jewish world but in America.”

Read the full report here.

COURTESY

OpenDor Media is acquiring Israel21c, the nonprofit website focused on positive stories about Israel, as part of an effort to expand its footprint in terms of audience and media, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky reports.

‘Strategic leap forward’: The acquisition, along with funding from the Friedkin Foundation and other supporters, will allow OpenDor Media to broaden its production of videos, podcasts, social media content and educational materials, while also growing its “Amplified Creator Community” — an initiative using social media influencers to spotlight Israeli culture, society and innovation. OpenDor Media will also take over and expand Israel21c’s Digital Ambassadors program, an eight-month training program for pro-Israel digital storytellers. “Adding Israel21c to the OpenDor Media family is a strategic leap forward,” Andrew Savage, OpenDor Media's CEO, said in a statement. “Their proven, upbeat storytelling and audience give us an immediate platform to further scale across video, audio, social and classrooms — multiplying our reach and accelerating our mission to shape the global conversation about Israel.”

Read the full report here.

ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington will reopen on Thursday, eight days after the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members outside of the museum. The building’s reopening will feature a program to honor the memories of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were killed on May 21 while leaving an event at the museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee, reports Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

On the agenda: Speakers at the reopening program will include the museum’s leadership, Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz and Board Chair Chris Wolf, local elected officials and local clergy, according to the museum, which declined to disclose a full list of speakers. “We will gather as a community to remember Yaron and Sarah as our thoughts remain with their loved ones,” Gurwitz said in a statement. “This tragedy will not keep us from telling the story of the greater Washington region’s Jewish history for visitors from around the world.” 

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

BOONYACHOAT/GETTY IMAGES   

“Growing up in the suburban United States during simpler times, I was largely sheltered from the storms of life,” writes Elie Klein, American director of advancement for ADI, Israel’s network of specialized rehabilitative care for those touched by and living with disability, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “I knew that pain, suffering and truly destructive hatred existed, but I could hardly imagine them as anything more than historical lessons to be learned from Depression-era heroes and Holocaust survivors. In stark, heartbreaking contrast, today’s Israeli children have not been blessed with such a blissfully ignorant upbringing.”

Challenging our assumptions: “As a parent, I am deeply saddened that global viruses and violence are the norm for our children, and I have often lamented just how much this generation has lost. At least that was how I felt until recently — when it finally dawned on me that this generation has not allowed their tumultuous adolescence to define them. Instead, this caring cohort has adopted compassion as their currency, swapping innocence and indifference for an inner strength and penchant for empowerment the likes of which we have never seen before… If we are to find our way through this waking nightmare, we must stop subconsciously mourning the cloistered childhoods we had envisioned for our kids and begin preparing them for leadership roles. Against all odds, they have channeled their fear, pain and dread into fortitude, positivity and a desire to heal, and we must afford them every opportunity and every office to do just that.”

Read the full piece here.

Join the next generation of leaders in the fight against antisemitism.

As antisemitism surges globally, Jewish leaders, educators, and advocates are seeking rigorous training to effectively confront today’s most complex challenges. Gratz College now offers the world’s first Ph.D. program dedicated specifically to Antisemitism Studies—along with an M.A. and Graduate Certificate option, providing unparalleled academic preparation and professional development in this critical field. 

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May Her Memory Be a Blessing: In his eulogy for Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who was killed with her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, in last week’s terror attack in Washington, at her funeral service at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kan., yesterday, Rabbi Doug Alpert remembers her as a true, dedicated humanitarian. “If you really wanted to know how to give Palestinians a better life, a life of humanity and dignity, you could have asked Sarah. …  And if you’re really interested in doing something for Gaza to end the blockade and get needed aid into Gaza, you could have asked Sarah. After all, it was the reason Sarah and Yaron were attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum last Wednesday night to end the blockade and to get needed aid into Gaza. And if you were really interested in creating solutions to the seemingly endless conflict that separates Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, you could have asked Sarah. ... And if you really cared, if you’re about more than canceling voices that made you uncomfortable, about more than shouting slogans and waving a gun, then damn it, why didn’t you ask Sarah? I’d like nothing more — we would like nothing more right now than to ask Sarah, to talk to Sarah, to learn from such a beacon of light amidst a world of darkness. We’ve been cheated out of that opportunity and, for the Milgrim family, cheated out of so much more. And yet, I believe Sarah’s voice is not lost. It is our opportunity, our blessing, and our obligation to keep her voice alive, to place her voice in our hearts, to follow her courageous path toward building a better world.” [CongregationBethTorah]

Don’t Give Up: In the Jewish Telegraph Agency, Claire Sufrin juxtaposes the tragedy of the Capital Jewish Museum terror attack with her own relationship with her husband, whose previous girlfriend had been killed in the 2002 Hebrew University bombing. “My story — my family’s story — is a very small piece of a much larger whole, the whole of the Jewish people, and the whole of all humanity, not just existing but persevering. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone as something to replicate, were such a thing possible. And yet, at a time like this, I am standing up to say: let’s not give up, not now or not ever. We must still believe, always believe, that there is potential for something better, even in the wake of the most difficult, most painful loss and even in the hardest moments when all we want is to crawl into a tiny hole and pretend that none of this exists, not evil, not despair, not any of it. We must continue taking chances, risking our hearts and our lives, and we must nurture whatever little glimmer of potential growth we may spot, not because we know what will be — we can’t — but because we need, in a way we can’t explain, to see how it might flower.” [JTA]

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The Jewish disability inclusion nonprofit Matan has named co-founder Meredith Englander Polsky as its new executive director…

Israeli nonprofits that support Holocaust survivors are expressing fears that they would be severely affected by a bill proposed by the Israeli coalition that would levy an 80% tax on donations from foreign governments; the sponsor of the bill has denied that they would be affected, though the groups’ concerns were not assuaged by his response…

The Times of Israel profiles the eight-member Israeli Climate Action Fund, which has been funding initiatives to cut Israel’s greenhouse gas emissions…

Testimony 360: People and Places, an AI Holocaust education tool that lets students interact with Holocaust survivors through virtual reality, has been shortlisted for the education and training category in the 2025 Charity Awards in the U.K. The tool was created by the Holocaust Educational Trust in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation and is sponsored by The Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation…

Aviva Zippin, a 10th-grade student at the Jewish Leadership Academy in Miami, has become the first Orthodox Jewish female Eagle Scout in the Southeastern United States. She is a member and current senior patrol leader of Scout Troop 18, based at the Young Israel of Hollywood…

Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat gives the Israeli financial newspaper Globes a behind-the-scenes look at the $125 million donation that the university recently received from Jonathan and Mindy Gray…

Reuters spotlights the potential effects of the Trump administration’s tariffs on a Spanish hatmaker that sells approximately 30,000 hats each year to Orthodox customers in the United States…

A new House bill aims to significantly reduce a major tax break for owners of professional sports…

David Levin has been appointed president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a gift of over 500 guitars from multiple donors, primarily from investor Dirk Ziff, of a collection dating from 1920 to 1970. Most of the instruments are in excellent playing condition and will be used in performances, recordings, educational programs, and by contemporary guitar makers for study…

The Shem Tov Bible, completed in Spain by Rabbi Shem Tov ben Abraham Ibn Gaon in 1312, has been put on display at the National Library of Israel, made available on long-term loan by Terri and Andrew Herenstein who purchased it in 2024…

COURTESY/THE JEWISH EDUCATION PROJECT

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove (left) of Park Avenue Synagogue; Lisa Eisen, co-president of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; and Erica Cohen, a 2025 Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneers Award recipient, participate in a panel moderated by David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, at the organization’s annual Spring Event last Wednesday at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan. 

Some 400 people attended the event, which focused on Jewish and Israel education in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and resulting rise in global antisemitism. “It’s time to think differently to ensure that our offerings reflect — and help learners navigate — the complexities of the day,” Eisen said at the event. “When it comes to Israel education, especially, we need to internalize that what got us here will not get us there. We need new paradigms. We have an important opportunity to reclaim Zionism if we approach it wisely. We need to articulate why we think Israel is important and relevant for contemporary Jewish identity. It’s no longer a given.”

During the event, Lois Kohn-Claar, the outgoing board president of TJEP, announced that she would be making a “major multiyear gift” — for an undisclosed sum — to the organization to support its part-time Jewish education programs.

TIM P. WHITBY/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY LIMITED

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