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Good Friday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the preliminary results of the World Zionist Congress elections and interview Julie Platt as she ends her term as chair of the Jewish Federations of North America. We look at the state of Israel travel programs ahead of the summer season and report on the American Jewish Committee’s response to the Trump administration’s proposed travel ban. We feature an opinion piece by Alex Zablotsky and Alex Pomson about responding to the aspirations and parenting challenges of today’s Jewish families. Also in this issue: Nik Jakobs, Inbal Magen and Shira Banki.

Shabbat shalom!

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The American Zionist Movement released the preliminary results of the World Zionist Congress elections late last night, and the big winner is… well, it depends. 

These early results are already being challenged by some of the slates because of the mass voter fraud that marred the elections and will likely change in the coming weeks, potentially significantly. But even with these caveats, there are still some clear winners and losers in this election. 

The Reform movement received the largest number of votes — 47,887 out of the 230,257 ballots cast, or roughly 20% of the vote. But even as the movement quickly declared this a “historic victory,” this represents a significant loss compared to the previous election in 2020 when the movement received more than a quarter of the total votes cast (some 31,000 out of nearly 124,000). Though it will take time before the vote is finalized and the roughly 150 American seats in the World Zionist Congress are allocated, if this were done today, the Reform movement would lose seven of its seats (from 39 to 32). 

Overall, Orthodox Jewry is the biggest winner of this election, with slates affiliated with the denomination garnering more than 40% of the vote — roughly four times higher than Orthodox Jews’ share of the American Jewish population.

In particular a major winner is the Am Yisrael Chai slate, a predominantly Haredi party mainly made up of young people, which received 31,765 votes, likely giving it the second largest number of seats — an impressive feat for its first election. Together with the Eretz HaKodesh party, with which it is aligned and which received 12.7% of the vote, this potentially gives 40 seats in the World Zionist Congress to Haredi factions — an unprecedented situation (given the Haredi community’s traditional opposition to Zionism), which would give its representatives far greater influence in the Zionist movement. 

The Vision slate — another one made up mainly of young people — was also a clear winner in the election. In 2020, the slate received roughly 1,000 votes, representing 0.84% of the vote; this time it received over 6,000, representing 2.7%. The centrist Kol Israel slate, which leaned heavily on social media influencers for its campaign, also saw significant growth, garnering 5,314 votes (2.3% of the votes) compared to 1,749 (1.4%) in the past election. 

All of the existing right-wing and religious slates saw a marked drop in this election. The ZOA Coalition, for instance, received 8.3% of the total vote in the 2020 election, while getting 3.7% this time, a 55.7% decrease. The Orthodox Israel Coalition – Mizrachi received 17.6% of the vote in 2020 and 11.7% in this election, a 33% reduction. Eretz HaKodesh slate also lost nearly 22% of its share of the vote, getting 16.2% in 2020 and 12.7% now. These losses are likely the result of the new conservative and religious slates entering the fray and wooing away those who would have otherwise voted for them, though it is still too early to tell.

As a bloc, left-wing and centrist slates may have lost ground in this election, but not much, having represented roughly 46% of the vote in 2020 to 44.5% now. The right-wing and religious bloc, in turn, appears to have grown modestly. However, this may change as the voter fraud investigation continues, as most of the suspect votes appear to have been cast for right-wing and religious slates. 

And indeed, one loser in this election is faith in the voting system, as 18,948 votes were tossed out after they were deemed fraudulent, representing 7.6% of the total votes cast. The investigation into the fraudulent votes, which were cast for six parties, is ongoing and may result in further votes being thrown out and penalties against the slates that received them. “While irregularities arise in many elections, the online nature of this election may have invited one or more bad actors to attempt to take advantage of modern technology to sway the outcome,” AZM said in a statement last night. 

This mass, orchestrated fraud — first reported by eJewishPhilanthropy — has given rise to frustration and disillusionment with the official Zionist movement and the parties that make it up. Many figures who spoke with eJP throughout the election expressed anger over the handling of the matter and deep distrust of their fellow candidates and of officials in the World Zionist Organization, with reference to untoward collusion and backroom deals between slates.

But even with the pall of voter fraud, a winner in the election appears to be the Zionist movement itself. This election saw the largest number of votes cast in this year’s election by a wide margin, an 86% increase from 2020. 

“American Jews have spoken — through their record-breaking turnout in the 2025 World Zionist Congress election, they have powerfully demonstrated that Zionism in the United States is not only alive and well but stronger than ever,” Herbert Block, executive director of AZM, said in a statement. “Thanks to this historic participation in the election, U.S. Jewry is poised to make an indelible mark when the World Zionist Congress gathers in October.”

OURTESY/BO HARRIS

When Julie Platt was tapped to serve as board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America in mid-February 2022, the Jewish community and the world were in a different place. The three years since have seen the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel and resulting wars in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as a major rise in antisemitism around the world, which in recent weeks has turned more violent and deadly. 

Last week, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spoke with Platt about her tenure, about the current rifts and tensions within the American Jewish community and about her experiences as a Jewish communal leader who is also on the board of an Ivy League school that has been plagued by instances of antisemitism.

JAG: How do you look back on the past three years? 

JP: So I came in at the end of COVID, got to go into Ukraine and right after that, Oct. 7. So I can't say that I ever imagined in a billion years that this would be the landscape for the Jewish People. On the other hand, the inspiration of the response will carry me forward forever, [especially] with the gathering at the National Mall [in November 2023].

JAG: You bring up the march, which was this moment where you really saw all parts of the Jewish community coming together. Now, we're more than 600 days since Oct. 7 — which is a difficult milestone to think about, considering Israel is still at war and there are still hostages — and that communal unity is fracturing. How do we navigate this moment? 

JP: I'll say a couple of things. The first thing is, we don't have the luxury in this moment to be divided. We have to all be fighting the rise in antisemitism and responding to “the Surge” in Jewish engagement. We can have disagreements, and that's always been the case. … This call for unity was a unity of purpose, not that we expect everybody to think the same all the time. We don't. I imagine that within my own family, people feel differently about what's happening in Israel, about the government. I don't actually care. What I care about is that we all recognize and understand that we are in an incredibly challenging moment, and we have to be unified in the fight against antisemitism.

JAG: You are also deeply involved in the University of Pennsylvania at a time when most of the conversations about combating antisemitism focus on campus life, particularly in the Ivy League. How do you see things happening or changing on that front, as someone involved in both of those areas? 

JP: … I have followed the adage of [former Texas Gov.] Ann Richards, who said, “If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu for lunch.” And that's how I have lived my life at Penn. I am the vice chair of the board and have always believed that I could be the most helpful from the inside. 

Read the full interview here.

GETTY IMAGES

With Israel’s travel season now in full swing, Israel educational programs are adjusting to ongoing flight cancellations, which have become the new normal in Israel travel. Israel’s tourism ecosystem has been struggling since 2020, when Israel closed its borders to non-citizens and pandemic-related regulations limited flights globally. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, the situation has worsened, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.

Getting creative: Throughout March and April, many airlines started to resume flights. But after a Houthi missile landed within the grounds of Ben Gurion Airport, the resumption dates for many major airlines were rolled back or cancelled. “As soon as we understood that there was going to be a problem here, we set up a mechanism to help the field immediately,” said Anna Langer, vice president for North American Israel strategy at Jewish Federation of North America and acting executive director of the Israel Educational Travel Alliance (IETA). The alliance has had to be creative, she said, incorporating longer layovers, exploring the possibility of chartering flights and — though it ultimately didn’t come to fruition — looking into bringing participants to Israel on boats from Greece. “We are very much at the start of the summer trip season, and because of that, what we're really trying to do is to build the models and mechanisms so that trips know that they are going to go,” she said.

Read the full report here.

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

The American Jewish Committee criticized President Donald Trump for his executive order barring travel into the United States for citizens of 12 countries as lacking “a clear connection to the underlying problem” of domestic antisemitism and potentially having “an adverse impact on other longstanding immigration and refugee policies,” reports Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Zoom out: The administration framed the announcement as a response to the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., carried out by an immigrant from Egypt who overstayed a work permit. The AJC’s response echoes the cautious, skeptical approach it and other major nonpartisan Jewish organizations have taken to other actions by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, including revoking visas from international students and cutting funding from universities.

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

OVEREARTH/GETTY IMAGES

“When the Harold Grinspoon Foundation partnered with Crown Family Philanthropies and the Jim Joseph Foundation to commission a study of non-Orthodox Jewish families today, we set out to better understand how parents create Jewish experiences for their young children,” write Alex Zablotsky, executive director of PJ Library, and Alex Pomson, principal and managing director at Rosov Consulting, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and our PJ Library team wanted to know what kinds of inspirations animated parenting choices and by what means parents introduced Jewish content into their children's lives.”

‘More guidance, less Google’: “The findings, a study of Jewish families today, vividly illustrated just how diverse Jewish families have become — ethnically, economically, structurally and geographically. Yet across all this diversity, one theme rang out: parents of young children crave community. They want their children to feel connected to something larger than their nuclear family. The study showed, however, that because of the relative thinness of their own Jewish education and upbringing, many parents lack the know-how and cultural resources to bring Jewish content into their children’s lives. They turn to online resources to fill these gaps — even when, as one interviewee put it, they'd prefer ‘more guidance and less Google.’ Luckily, building trusted resources, taking creative steps to reach families and identifying avenues for positive representation have long been the name of the game at PJ Library. And as a result of these findings, we’re committing to three extensions of our ongoing work, with the knowledge that by doing so, we’re adding even more value into our programs and offerings.”

Read the full piece here.

Beyond Words: In The Wall Street Journal, Nathan Diament, executive director of the OU Advocacy Center, responds in a letter to the editor to an editorial on the recent terror attack in Boulder, Colo. “Your editorial ‘The Intifada Comes to Boulder’ (June 3) rightly states that the recent violent attacks against American Jews, in Colorado and Washington, ‘are intended to terrorize the Jewish diaspora.’ You advise that this will get worse ‘if it isn’t denounced by all political sides.’ That’s true, but it mustn’t be the end of the discussion. Republican and Democratic politicians have condemned these heinous attacks. What the American Jewish community needs now are concrete steps to keep us more safe and secure. Congress has underfunded the Nonprofit Security Grant Program — the largest federal program to support security at synagogues and other Jewish sites — administered by the Department of Homeland Security… The sight of a police car outside a synagogue is sadly common. What is less known, however, is that much of the time those policemen aren’t posted there while on duty. They’re there off-duty and paid out of the pockets of synagogues at considerable expense. Denunciations of antisemitism are important. Taking steps to keep American Jews actually safe from violence, all the more so.” [WSJ]

Choose Collaboration, Not Competition: In Inside Philanthropy, Courtney Harrness encourages funders to avoid wasting resources and maximize impact by merging efforts with other funders. “Across the country, four different nonprofits might serve the same group of kids in the same neighborhood on the same afternoon. Each brings its own staff, branding, volunteer base and — most critically — funding strategy. These organizations offer powerful programs. They are mission driven. But when you zoom out, you see something else: costly duplication, fragmented infrastructure and competition driven not by ego, but by the way philanthropy rewards isolation… According to a 2009 analysis by the Bridgespan Group, nonprofit mergers and strategic alliances can reduce administrative costs by 15 to 25%. In organizations with $10 million to $20 million local budgets, that amounts to $1.5 million to $5 million in savings per city. These are funds that could be redirected into direct youth services. Yet funders rarely reward operational integration. In fact, most grant structures disincentivize it. Foundation reporting is often organization specific. Donor cultivation is proprietary. Even collaborative proposals still require each organization to ‘hold their piece’ of the funding separately. What if that changed?” [InsidePhilanthropy]

From Cornfield to Congregation: In the Forward, Benyamin Cohen profiles Nik Jacobs, who is building a synagogue and museum in his rural Illinois hometown assembled from the physical remnants of fading or disappeared congregations. “A small-town synagogue in the hills of western Pennsylvania, closing its doors after 113 years, is the kind of unnoticed final chapter that happens often in places like McKeesport and White Oak — towns where the steel mills are silent, the storefronts are shuttered, and the synagogue is often the last to leave. But this was different. When the folks at Temple B’nai Israel first heard that Jakobs wanted to take pieces of their synagogue, they weren’t sure what to make of him. A Jewish cattleman from rural Illinois? A guy with a couple thousand beef cattle asking for their ark? It sounded like a scam, or a Coen Brothers film… This fall, [Jakobs] plans to break ground on a 3,000-square-foot building with a synagogue and a museum: of his family, of the Holocaust, of the shuttered synagogues of small-town America. The fragments Jakobs managed to save. And there were many.” [Forward]

Looking for tools to address antisemitism? Join the next cohort of Spertus Institute’s Leadership Certificate in Combating Antisemitism for Professionals. This program empowers senior Jewish communal professionals to navigate growing challenges with confidence and clarity. Separate track available for board members and trustees. Learn more and apply today! 

Be featured: Email us to sponsor content with the eJP readership of your upcoming event, job opening or other communication.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will announce on Monday that he is launching “an all-out push to shore up” $500 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in response to a spate of recent antisemitic terrorist attacks, he told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod…

Birthright Israel has launched a new social media platform for alumni, dubbed Beyond, which is meant to provide them with a network and access to Jewish resources…

Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone confirmed that she is being treated for thyroid cancer; a spokesperson for Redstone said her prognosis is “excellent” as she receives radiation treatment for the cancer, which was discovered two months ago…

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced it was shutting its aid distribution sites until further notice…

Lufthansa plans to resume flights to Israel later this month…

Economist Marina von Neumann Whitman, the first woman appointed to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, died at 90…

TRANSITIONS

Shaul Magid was appointed Harvard Divinity School’s first professor of modern Jewish studies in residence, a renewable five-year appointment; Rabbi David Wolpe, a former visiting scholar at the school, called Magid, who has argued in favor of “counter-Zionism,” a “gracious human being & an estimable scholar of Jewish texts,” but added that he profoundly disagree[s] with [Magid’s] stance on Israel and wish[ed] HDS would appoint someone whose views reflect the mainstream of the Jewish community”...

Randi Sonenshein was hired as director of the Southwest region of the Anti-Defamation League…

Rabbi Ahud Sela was installed as the next president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, succeeding its outgoing president, Rabbi Sarah Hronsky…

Daniella Farah has been named the new assistant director of Jewish studies of the Spertus Institute…

The Russell Berrie Foundation hired Inbal Magen as its first associate program officer in Israel…

Rian Ehrlich was appointed the next city director of Repair the World Miami…

MAAYAN TOAF / GPO

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog visit a memorial yesterday at the Jerusalem Pride Parade for Shira Banki, a 15-year-old girl who was stabbed to death at the event in 2015. In doing so, Herzog became the first Israeli president to attend a Pride parade.

“We came here to remember and to remind others of a beautiful Israeli girl who came to do good — Shira Banki, of blessed memory — who was murdered here 10 years ago,” Herzog said at the event. “We must establish a golden rule: There is absolutely no place for violence. … We demand love, respect, and equality — also for the LGBTQ+ community, which is an inseparable part of Israeli society, and for all groups in Israeli society, who must learn to exchange words and spread great love.”

COURTESY/ELIE WIESEL FOUNDATION

Chairman of Israeli fintech entrio (formerly The Floor), he is the only child of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Elisha Wiesel... 

FRIDAY: U.S. District Court judge since 1994, on senior status since 2005, serving in the Eastern District of New York, Frederic Block... Real estate entrepreneur and executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Thomas Pritzker... Diplomat who has served as Israel's ambassador to South Sudan and then Egypt, Haim Koren... Four-time Tony Award winner, he is an actor, playwright and screenwriter, Harvey Fierstein... Comedian, political critic, musician and author, Sandra Bernhard... Radio news personality, known as "Lisa G," Lisa Glasberg... Past chair of the board of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools and President at Micah Philanthropies, Ann Baidack Pava... CEO of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Steve Koonin... Israeli conductor and musician, Nir Brand... Former majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and now vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company, Eric Cantor... Partner in the strategic communications division of Finsbury Glover Hering (FGS Global), Jonathan Kopp... Israeli-American behavioral economics professor at UCSD, Uri Hezkia Gneezy... Best-selling author, journalist and television personality, Anna Benjamin David... Hedge fund manager and founder of Saba Capital Management, he is also a skilled poker and blackjack player, Boaz Weinstein... Producer of 11 network television programs, Jennie Snyder Urman... 2019 Trump impeachment witness, he was director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Semyon Vindman... and his twin brother, Col. (ret.) Yevgeny Vindman, a member of Congress from Virginia's 7th District... Founder and chairman of the Washington Free Beacon, Michael L. Goldfarb... Senior reporter at ABC News, Katherine B. Faulders... Director at Finsbury Glover Hering (FGS Global), Anna Epstein... Member of the New York State Assembly until 2023 when he resigned to become vice president of government relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Daniel Rosenthal... White House staffer during the Biden administration, Jordan G. Finkelstein... Communications manager at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Allie Freedman... 

SATURDAY: Chicago and Aspen based businessman, he owns large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, the New York Yankees and the Chicago Bulls, Lester Crown turns 100… Rehoboth Beach, Del., resident, Dennis B. Berlin... Former five-term Democratic congressman from California, he now serves as counsel in the Century City office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Mel Levine... Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, and author of 13 books, Deborah Tannen... Epidemiologist, toxicologist and author of three books about environmental hazards, Devra Davis... Deputy secretary of state of the U.S. during the first half of the Biden administration, Wendy Ruth Sherman... Retired staff director at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Hillel Weinberg... President of Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Israel, he is a grandson of former Israeli PM Levi Eshkol, Sheizaf Rafaeli... Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-PA-7) until earlier this year, Susan Ellis Wild... Former vice president of the United States, Mike Pence... Jerusalem resident, Deborah Lee Renert... Founder chairman and CEO of the Naftali Group, Miki Naftali... U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, Jesse Matthew Furman... Brooklyn rapper better known by his stage name Necro, Ron Raphael Braunstein... One-half of the Arab-Jewish electronic music duo Chromeo, David "Dave 1" Macklovitch... Israeli actress, singer and pianist, she performs in Hebrew, Russian, French and English, Ania Bukstein... Senior director of place-based initiatives at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Isaac Luria... Editor of The New York Review of Books, Emily S. Greenhouse... Actress and model, Emily Ratajkowski... Canadian ice hockey forward, he played for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics, now a businessman in Ontario, Ethan Werek... Andrea Gonzales... 

SUNDAY: Hebrew University mathematics professor and 2005 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Robert Aumann... Guru of alternative, holistic and integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil... Hedge fund founder and manager, founder of the Paloma Funds, Selwyn Donald Sussman... Detective novelist, best known for creating the character of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky... Founder and CEO of Sitrick and Company, Michael Sitrick... Classical pianist, teacher and performer at the Juilliard School and winner of a Grammy Award, he is the child of Holocaust survivors, Emanuel Ax... Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union party, now a professor at Ben-Gurion University, Yosef "Yossi" Yona... Barbara Jaffe Panken... Senior advisor at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based O2 Investment Partners, Robert Harris (Rob) Orley... Journalist, stand-up comedian, author, cartoonist and blogger, Aaron Freeman... CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Stacy Ritter... AVP for campaign at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Patti Frazin... Co-founder and CEO of the Genesis Prize Foundation, Stan Polovets... Winner of many Emmy and SAG awards, star of the long-running TV series "The Good Wife," Julianna Margulies... Israel's state comptroller and ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman... Actor, screenwriter and producer, Dan Futterman... Former congresswoman (D-AZ-8), she is a survivor of an assassination attempt near Tucson in 2011, Gabrielle Giffords... Actor who starred in USA Network's "Royal Pains," he also wrote and created the CBS series "9JKL," Mark Feuerstein... Executive director at Consulate Health Care in New Port Richey, Fla., Daniel Frenden... Head of North America for the Jewish Agency and President and CEO of Jewish Agency International Development, Daniel Elbaum... Former deputy chief of staff for Charlie Baker when he was governor of Massachusetts, Michael Emanuel Vallarelli... Lead community organizer at LA Voice, Suzy Stone... Businesswoman, art collector and editor, founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Dasha Zhukova... Fourth-generation supermarket executive at Klein's ShopRite of Maryland, Marshall Klein... Corporate litigation partner in the Wilmington office of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, Daniel Kirshenbaum... Three-time Tony Award-winning theatrical producer, he is the co-founder at Folk Media Group, Eric J. Kuhn... CEO of BZ Media and the Bnai Zion Foundation, Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm... Offensive tackle in the NFL for nine seasons until he retired in 2022, he started in 121 straight games in which he played every offensive snap, his Hebrew name is "Mendel," Mitchell Schwartz...