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Good Thursday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a $5 million donation to establish a new Arab-Jewish shared society center at the University of Haifa. We examine Israel’s mental health needs in the wake of 20 months of war, and interview the heads of the Brooklyn-based La’Aretz Foundation, which is giving money directly to victims of last month’s Iranian missile attack in Bat Yam. We feature an opinion piece by Eileen Filler-Corn warning of a fresh wave of antisemitism in the U.S., and one by Matthew Krieger calling on international tech companies to speak up for their Israeli employees. Also in this issue: Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Gidon Melmed and Russell Wolkind.

Ed. note: In celebration of the Fourth of July, the next edition of Your Daily Phil will arrive on Monday, July 7. Shabbat shalom!

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The Boston-based Frieze Family Foundation has committed $5 million to the University of Haifa to establish a “Center for Shared Society” — a space at the university dedicated to strengthening bonds between Jewish and Arab Israelis, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim has learned. 

The center will be focused on “learning, research and advocacy, and engagement initiatives that bring Jewish and Arab residents together,” according to the university. 

The Frieze family, which has regularly donated to education, regional development and coexistence initiatives in Israel over the years, has donated to several nonprofits focused on Israel since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, including the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network, Impact Israel and American Friends of Leket Israel. 

The $5 million commitment is the leading donation in the university’s “Home Again” initiative — a two-year $60 million fundraising campaign launched by the University of Haifa earlier this week. The campaign aims to restore Israel’s north in the wake of the damage to the area’s infrastructure and the collective trauma from more than a year of over a year of rocket fire from Hezbollah and recent long-range missile strikes from Iran in the city and across the country, Gideon Herscher, vice president for transformational philanthropy and global resource development at the school, told eJP. 

“The Iran war, for certain communities across the north, created a relapse sensation as it relates to uncertainty and fear. We’re here now to combat that and reinforce that they’re not alone, and the university is going to play a role in making sure that the return home is safe,” Herscher told eJP. 

The campaign has three main focus areas: emotional and physical rehabilitation, restoring economic stability and regional capacity as well as investing in communities’ futures — which the Center for Shared Society falls under. According to Herscher, these focuses were selected based on research conducted by the university’s faculty. 

“What was already a crucial mission of recovery after Oct. 7 has become an existential imperative following the devastation of recent weeks. We are not just restoring what was lost, we are building the foundation for Israel’s long-term future — something stronger, more resilient, and more just,” University of Haifa’s president, Gur Alroey, said in a statement. 

Read the full report here.

ALEXI J. ROSENFELD/GETTY IMAGES

“Resilience” has long been the goal of Israeli mental health practitioners, an emotional ruggedness allowing Israeli society to bounce back quickly after tragedy. This has been particularly the case since the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the resulting wars that continue to claim the lives of soldiers and civilians, including the recent 12-day conflict with Iran, which killed 28 Israeli civilians and displaced thousands. However, Israeli mental health professionals warn that beneath this celebrated toughness lie deeper, troubling emotions — fear, guilt, shame, vulnerability, anger and anxiety — affecting all layers of society, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky. 

Community first: Dr. Eyal Fruchter, a leading figure in the Israeli psychotrauma field, told eJP that after a 2 ½-month stint of reserve duty with the Israeli military’s mental health department, he came away with a deep sense of concern for the mental health of both soldiers and the nation. “I understood that it [would be] such a vast trauma that we would suffer, that we needed to make sure that they’re getting the right things, and it’s not just treatment,” said Fruchter, who last year co-founded Israel’s Collective Action for Resilience (ICAR) with Gila Tolub, Lisa Silverman and Roy Peled with the aim of creating greater societal awareness and community support for understanding trauma and its effects. ICAR will soon launch a public campaign to raise awareness about the psychological impact of conflict and encourage communal support for those affected, he said. Labeling someone as “ill” with trauma is a straight route to medication, Fruchter said, and ICAR proposes community-action options first, such as neighborhood events and in-person visits to foster a sense of togetherness.

Read the full report here.

YAIR PALTI/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

When an Iranian missile containing several hundred pounds of explosive slammed into a residential building in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam, it destroyed not only that building but its shockwaves also sheared off the walls and windows of surrounding apartments and storefronts, rendering many of them unlivable, forcing more than 2,000 people to move into hotels, temporary apartments or with family while their homes are repaired. Nine people were killed in the blast, and dozens more were injured. 

One of the initiatives that sprang up to assist the evacuees came from the Brooklyn-based La’Aretz Foundation, which is run by husband-and-wife team Mike and Shelly Pitman, who serve as president and executive director, respectively. La’Aretz (literally “to the land”) set out to provide $2,500 directly to 500 Bat Yam families affected by the attack. So far, the organization has raised more than $1 million for the effort and has distributed the direct funds to some 250 households. Earlier this week, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spoke with the Pitmans about their unorthodox direct cash payment model and their struggles to get other aid organizations on board. 

Judah Ari Gross: Why did you decide to undertake this specific project of direct donations to those affected by the Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam? Why not partner with existing organizations who are operating on the ground? 

Shelly Pitman: After the Iran attack, we found that Bat Yam was hit the hardest. Almost 2,000 people were evacuated, and the neighborhood that was hit is a very low-income neighborhood from the start. There is a big population of new immigrants, of Russian speakers, of elderly people. It is a very poor area. So we decided to adopt it. … 

I believe in cash donation. I believe in dignity to those families who have lost everything to decide on their own what they need to buy. And it’s a very unique approach. And we’re very happy that many philanthropists that used to support all the big organizations believe in our mission, believe in what we’re doing and are joining this effort.

JAG: Have you tried to reach out to some of the larger organizations to collaborate?

SP: We reached out to all the big federations, you can imagine, and we received a negative response because they don’t believe in cash donations. Their projects have to be tracked, which I respect, so they need a specific thing — a building or specific project or things like this — and a cash donation, it’s very hard to track. 

Read the full interview here.

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“I know what it feels like to be targeted for who you are,” writes Eileen Filler-Corn, former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “In January 2020, shortly after I became the first woman and the first Jewish speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, the FBI uncovered a plot to assassinate me. Two members of a neo-Nazi domestic terrorist group had targeted me. It was the most serious of many threats I received during my time as Speaker. Thankfully, law enforcement intervened in time. But the threat was real, and it reminded me that hatred knows no single party or ideology.”

‘A moment of moral testing’: “In the nearly two years since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, American Jews have watched a disturbing rise in antisemitism take place across America — and crucially, among some of our longtime allies… Now, with the recent war between Israel and Iran, we’re likely to see a fresh wave of anti-Zionism and antisemitism. It is already giving rise to a new round of dangerous conspiracy theories laced with antisemitic tropes… We cannot afford to treat this moment as normal. It is time for our allies to rejoin us. To speak up when we are threatened. To see antisemitism for what it is: a growing, dangerous force that must be confronted head-on. Because if we wait until it affects everyone, it will already be too late.”

Read the full piece here.

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“On Friday, June 20, a ballistic missile fired from Iran deliberately targeted Microsoft’s offices in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva, causing widespread damage,” writes Matthew Krieger, founder and CEO of strategic communications company Gova10, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The response from Microsoft was public silence… The absence of even the most basic public message of solidarity was jarring. For many in Israel’s technology community, in a week when coding was interrupted by air-raid sirens, corporate silence spoke louder than the explosion itself.”

Stand with us: “Israel’s tech sector is resilient by necessity. Its engineers code during air-raid sirens, manage global products while family members are on the front lines and continue to deliver innovation under enormous pressure. Multinational corporations have long reaped the benefits of this grit. But resilience has its limits. If global corporations wish to keep tapping Israel’s unmatched technological edge, they must be willing to stand visibly with the people behind it. Not only in the boardrooms and during boom cycles, but in moments of crisis — when solidarity is no longer symbolic, but foundational.”

Read the full piece here.

Why the Denial?: In The Times of Israel, Catherine Perez-Shakdam reflects on the double insult experienced by Jewish survivors, from the Oct. 7 attacks to the Holocaust and back into Jewish history: attempts to deny or revise events to erase or excuse their suffering. “This is not mere ignorance. This is a metaphysical crime. A desecration of memory. Why does this happen to the Jews — again and again? Because Jewish suffering remains intolerable to the civilised conscience. It disturbs the moral order. It does not fit the template of fashionable ideologies. The Jew, once cast as subhuman, is now cast as too powerful to be a victim, too Western to be oppressed. … We must name this. This is not criticism. This is not dissent. This is not even antizionism, which is itself often a fig leaf for darker passions. This is the denial of Jewish humanity. And it is as old as Pharaoh, as vicious as Torquemada, as sophisticated as Heidegger. … But the Jewish people have learnt a bitter wisdom. They know that silence is complicity. They know that memory must be fought for. They know that the second death — the death of truth — is more dangerous than the first.” [TOI]

DAF Doubts: In Inside Philanthropy, Mike Scutari raises the question of how much of the charitable giving reported by Giving USA for 2024 will actually be put to work. “Giving USA’s study captures gifts to donor-advised funds since, under current law, when a donor, foundation, or corporation puts money into a DAF, the IRS considers it a charitable contribution. ... As a result, it’s worth remembering that we have no way of knowing how much of the $592.5 billion cited in Giving USA’s study made its way to working charities in 2024. Some readers may view this as a familiar quibble deployed by DAF critics, while others may note that Giving USA also includes giving to foundations, most of which isn’t immediately granted out either. That said, I think the DAF piece, in particular, is worth reiterating… In the absence of reform, we’d be wise to occasionally re-evaluate the full breadth of Americans’ generosity when billions in tax-free contributions sit idle in DAF holders’ accounts while generating management fees for the sponsoring organization.” [InsidePhilanthropy]

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Claire Shipman, acting president of Columbia University, issued an apology to several members of the campus community for leaked text messages where she suggested that a Jewish trustee should be removed from the university’s board over her pro-Israel advocacy. “The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong. They do not reflect how I feel,” Shipman wrote on Wednesday in a private email obtained by Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen…

Hebrew University and Georgetown University have launched a new partnership focused on cancer research…

For the first time, Australian Jews will vote directly in the World Zionist Congress elections (until now the country’s seats have been allocated to organizations by their membership size); the voting started on July 1 and continues through July 27…

The Associated Press looks at how GoFundMe is using donor-advised funds to make everyday giving easier…

New statistics released by the New Jersey Department of Health found that the town of Lakewood, home to a large and prominent Haredi population, had the most births in the state last year, representing 5.3% of all the babies born in New Jersey in 2024…

Smithsonian Magazine looks at the resurgence in popularity of Jewish food in Poland…

Punk-rap duo Bob Vylan was removed from the lineups of upcoming music festivals in France and the U.K. following an uproar over an incident at the Glastonbury music festival last month in which the group led attendees in a chant calling for “death to the IDF”...

The Jewish Federations of North America trained 165 people last week on caring for older adults with a history of trauma, primarily Holocaust survivors and their families, through its Center on Aging, Trauma, and Holocaust Survivor Care. Read eJP’s coverage about the center here…

Lynda and Stewart Resnick donated $10 million to the endowment of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, an Aspen, Colo., exhibition space and center for the study of art and culture…

Gidon Melmed was named the next executive director of the Israel offices of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, succeeding Suzanne Patt Benvenisti…

Israel Nitzan, the former acting consul general of Israel in New York, was hired as the next executive director of the Iranian American Jewish Federation of NY…

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation hired Russell Wolkind to serve as PJ Library’s director of international fundraising and partnerships…

MICHAEL CANON FOR HOLOCAUST MUSEUM LA

Max Heeres (left) of the Lost Tribe of Arizona Motorcycle Club and the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance and Edan Eshed of the Los Angeles-based Awesome Bikers Club present Holocaust Museum LA CEO Beth Kean with a replica of the “Circle of Chai” statuette on Tuesday outside the institution. 

Members of the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance have been traveling to each of the 21 North American Holocaust museums in a “relay race,” in which representatives from each city ride to the next city’s museum and present a copy of the statuette. After visiting the Holocaust Museum LA, local riders then traveled to the Holocaust Center of Northern California in San Francisco.

GILBERT FLORES/VARIETY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Civil rights attorney known for many high-profile cases, born Gloria Rachel Bloom, Gloria Allred... 

Winner of the Israel Prize in 1998, professor emeritus of mathematics at both Hebrew University and Rutgers, Saharon Shelah... Founder of an eponymous charitable foundation and a political office, Barbara Fish Lee... Retired director of the March of the Living in Miami-Dade and in Boca Raton, Leon Weissberg... Psychologist and board member of many non-profit organizations, Dr. Gail (Giti) Bendheim... Israeli celebrity chef, author of 32 cookbooks and culinary columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, Yisrael Aharoni... Head of pediatric oncology and associate professor of pediatrics at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York, Dr. Carolyn Fein Levy... Musician, best known as a harmonicist, Annie Raines... Actor who has appeared in film and television in the U.S., U.K. and Israel, Yair "Jonah" Lotan... Movie, television and stage actress, director and writer, Shoshannah Stern … Development professional Suzanne Greene... Pini Herman...