Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the growing crisis in Israel education travel in the wake of the Israel-Iran war, and on a new lawsuit alleging antisemitism against a Virginia private school. We feature two opinion pieces related to education: one by Orna Siegel with a model for addressing the teacher shortage at Jewish early education centers; and one by Lisa Houben about the value of “presentations of learning” by educators, for educators. Also in this issue: Ben Vorspan, Alfred Moses and David and Judy Lobel.
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The Christians United For Israel summit continues today in Washington.
- The Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado wraps up today.
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A QUICK WORD WITH EJP'S JUDAH ARI GROSS |
Struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic and further depressed following the Oct. 7 attacks and resulting wars, Israel travel programs are facing unprecedented obstacles this summer in the wake of last month’s Israel-Iran war. Read more about those obstacles below.
Elan Ezrachi, a longtime Israel education travel professional, told eJewishPhilanthropy that this summer is seeing the convergence of three factors limiting Israel travel: fear of being in Israel, limited accessibility to Israel and low motivation to come to Israel.
Over the years, he said, each of these factors has limited participation in Israel programs, but never before have they all been in play simultaneously. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, there were accessibility issues with the closure of Israel’s skies to foreigners, but no fear and no low motivation. And during the Second Intifada, there was fear of being in Israel, but no limited access.
According to Ezrachi, who previously led Masa and has also held roles with the Jewish Agency and Birthright, Israeli travel programs play an integral part in developing a connection to not only Israel but to the Jewish People writ large. “And that branch has been cut off the tree now, and it's a real strategic threat to the unity of the Jewish People,” he said.
Though he acknowledged that the Israel trip providers — whom he noted were his longtime colleagues and whom he holds in high esteem — were working to find alternatives for this summer, Ezrachi was skeptical about the ability to truly replace an immersive Israel experience for this year. “I assume this summer is just a bust,” he said.
The focus for the Jewish community should instead be on the “reinvention of the narrative” of Israel travel, according to Ezrachi. “It's in the hands of educators and community leaders and like-minded Israelis who can work on the question of 'What is the narrative of visiting Israel that is appropriate for this time,'” he said. “I would say that it should be taking part in the rebuilding process after everything that we went through.”
Ezrachi noted that after the outbreak of the Second Intifada, when there was also a marked decline in Israel travel, the Jewish Agency and other organizations launched a concerted effort to convince parents and their communities that these trips were critical.
“We were very proactive in trying to keep the industry alive,” he said. “I would ask now, ‘Who can do this? Who can be proactive and try to go against the trend and restore it?’ I’m not sure there’s an answer.” |
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Mifgash programs struggle as trips canceled, Israeli teens barred from traveling overseas |
For decades, the “mifgash,” or personal “encounter,” between Diaspora Jews and their Israeli peers has been considered the most significant, fundamental aspect of an Israel education experience. See: the Israeli soldiers who join college students on a Birthright trip, the meetup between a youth group trip and members of an affiliated Israeli youth movement or the Israeli counselor at an American Jewish summer camp. Those encounters will be far more rare this summer, in the wake of the Israel-Iran war, amid diminishing participation in Israel travel programs and restrictions on Israeli youth, preventing them from attending programs abroad, report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Judah Ari Gross.
Emergency cancellation: “Pretty immediately after the attacks on Iran happened… around 1,000 kids who were registered on programs canceled because of the attacks,” Simon Amiel, CEO of the Israel trip funder RootOne, told eJP yesterday. “We're hopeful that somewhere between 2,500 to 3,000 teens will still be traveling to Israel, and that's a sort of best guess at this point, but we just don't know yet,” he said. (This represents less than half of the number who would participate in an Israel trip in an average year.)
No exceptions: Even before the Iranian strikes, Jewish organizations have sought to find a next-best option for a mifgash between Israeli and Diaspora teens. This included getting hundreds of Israelis to participate in Jewish travel programs abroad. But during the fighting, the Israeli Education Ministry’s security department issued a directive barring “independent delegations traveling abroad to all destinations,” which remains in effect through July 30. “The Israeli Ministry of Education has said that no delegations are able to join [trips abroad],” Ariel Rosen, BBYO’s partnership outreach director, told eJP on Monday. “So unfortunately, we haven't been able to make that happen, which is disappointing for everyone. Those are a lot of the emails in my inbox from Israeli families asking for exceptions, and that's just not something we've been able to do.”
Read the full report here. |
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Brandeis Center files complaint alleging antisemitism at Virginia private school |
The parents of an 11-year-old Jewish student at a private school in Northern Virginia say their daughter faced months of antisemitic harassment that went unaddressed by school officials, who also cancelled an annual event featuring a Holocaust survivor due to concerns that the event might exacerbate tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war. Days after the parents addressed the campus environment with school leadership, all three of their children were expelled from The Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, Va., according to a complaint filed on Tuesday with the Office for Civil Rights in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, Jewish Insider’s Haley
Cohen has learned.
‘A growing trend’: “The allegations in this complaint reflect what appear to be a growing trend of the normalization of antisemitism to the extent where a school feels compelled to censor a Holocaust survivor,” Jeffrey Lang, senior litigation counsel at the Brandeis Center, told JI. “But the antisemitic harassment of a young Jewish student because of what’s happening in Israel is acceptable. It’s that trend that I find very worrisome.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here. |
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Elevating early childhood education means elevating how we recruit, retain educators |
COURTESY/EMMA LAZARTIGUES |
“Across the U.S., early childhood education is facing a staffing emergency, leading to classroom closures, long wait-lists and increased family stress. For Jewish early childhood centers, these challenges are compounded by the dual need for educators skilled in child development and knowledgeable about Jewish traditions. This narrows an already limited candidate pool, making recruitment and retention even more difficult,” writes Orna Siegel, executive director of ElevatEd, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Learning from the corporate world: “ElevatEd invests in digital marketing, using data analytics to build detailed profiles of ideal educators, and employs automated applicant tracking systems to reach both active and passive candidates — expanding the talent pool beyond traditional methods. Alongside technology-driven outreach, ElevatEd strengthens community-based recruitment by empowering local coordinators as recruiters and offering referral bonuses that encourage current staff to act as talent ambassadors. Early childhood directors receive targeted professional development to enhance recruitment and talent management skills, strengthening their ability to attract and retain qualified educators. This blend of digital innovation and relationship-driven strategies leverages trusted community connections to build a robust and sustainable recruitment pipeline.”
Read the full piece here. |
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When teachers learn: Making professional growth visible in Jewish education |
KRACKENIMAGES[DOT]COM/ADOBE STOCK |
“What did you learn this year? It’s a question we often ask students as the school year comes to a close at Sulam, a K-12 special education inclusion program at both Berman Hebrew Academy and Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md.,” writes Lisa Houben, Sulam’s upper school director, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “But on May 14, it was our faculty who answered — not with exit tickets or surveys, but by standing in front of their peers and colleagues and presenting what they had learned, why it mattered and how it had changed them.”
A rare opportunity for teachers: “This wasn’t just professional development; it was a presentation of learning (POL), a practice more often associated with students than teachers. At Sulam, we believe deeply in the idea that learning is best solidified and celebrated when it’s shared, so we gave our faculty the same opportunity we give our students: to reflect, articulate and present their growth to a community that values it. More than just a report or showcase, a POL is a structured opportunity for learners to reflect on their experiences, synthesize key takeaways and publicly share how they’ve grown. It asks for metacognition, ownership and the ability to make learning visible to others. In student-centered settings, POLs are powerful tools for deep learning and accountability, but we rarely extend that same model to adults. What if we did? At Sulam, we did it, and the results were transformative.”
Read the full piece here. |
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The Jewish Quarterly North America Launch The Jewish Quarterly is expanding its distribution to North America and Canada, introducing readers to the 72-year-old publication founded by Jacob Sonntag in 1953.
Headquartered in Australia by publisher Morry Schwartz, with a devoted readership worldwide, the publication is virtually unknown in North America. With the release of the June issue, Schwartz hopes to change that.
“JQ has cultivated literary journalism of the highest standard for over seven decades. Our contributors are at the top of their fields, addressing matters of urgent importance. We have long aspired to expand to the North American market and now is the time,” he said.
Cary Nelson’s March 2025 issue explored American college campuses following Oct. 7, 2023. Future issues of JQ feature Tom Segev on Gaza and the Jews and Tanya Gold on the exploitation of the Holocaust in popular culture. JQ260: The Z Word
In this groundbreaking essay, Adam Kirsch reckons with the current trajectory of a people: As Jewish existence is under threat, the promise of Zionism is essential. It is a complex and comprehensive exploration of the current trend toward demonizing Zionism.
Howard Jacobson: “It isn’t easy to find a path of reason through the mendacities that engulf Zionism right now, or through the fear and heartbreak of its defenders. But Adam Kirsch, historian, Talmudic scholar and poet, keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs.” SUBSCRIBE
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What Was Lost at Weizmann: In The Free Press, Matti Friedman considers the impact of Iran’s ballistic missile attack on the Weizmann Institute of Science. “When [neurobiologist Oren Schuldiner] heard that his lab was hit, he said, he had trouble grasping what this meant, and kept texting colleagues to ask what could be salvaged — there were two microscopes in the lab, for example, each worth nearly $1 million, and thousands of fruit fly specimens that he uses to map neural changes that may one day help us better understand diseases like schizophrenia and autism. Finally, a colleague who’d lost her own lab sent him a link to the Wikipedia page detailing the five stages of grief. ‘I understood that I was in denial,’ he
said. Only when he made it back did he understand that the lab wasn’t damaged — it was gone, along with most of his work of the past 17 years.” [FreePress]
Crucial Actors: In The Times of Israel, Noga Levtzion Nadan reflects on the fact that when Iran struck an oil refinery in Haifa, an ecological catastrophe was avoided because an Israeli environmental group’s lawsuit succeeded in getting an ammonia tank on the site drained in 2017. “It is easy to dismiss environmental organizations — portraying them as only concerned with rock hyraxes and polar bears. But environmental battles are, first and foremost, fights for human lives, public health, economic stability, and civilian security. The ammonia tank case isn’t a doomsday scenario; it is a real disaster that was narrowly avoided. These battles are ongoing… At the very moment when reality proves how
real these threats are, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is promoting budget cuts to environmental organizations. We are talking about NIS 11 million — a minuscule amount on a governmental scale, but one that enables these organizations to operate, research, warn, and prevent the next disaster.” [TOI]
From Transactional to Transformational: In a blog post for NonProfit Pro, Ben Vorspan writes about how building community drives long-term giving. “Traditional fundraising models focus on what we need from people: a gift to meet this year's budget, a pledge to support a new program, a sponsorship to underwrite an event. The challenge with this model is that it puts pressure on the nonprofit to constantly chase the next ask, treating supporters as checkbooks instead of partners in purpose. It also creates a fragile connection: If someone skips a gift one year, the relationship may fade. Transactional
fundraising can work, but it’s exhausting. And it’s shallow. Transformational fundraising starts with a different question: ‘How do we make people feel like they belong here?’ People give more — and give longer — when they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves: a vision they believe in, a community they care about and a mission they feel responsible for.” [NonProfitPro]
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Be featured: Email us to sponsor content with the eJP readership of your upcoming event, job opening or other communication. |
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The Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Jewish Federations of North America and the Tepper Foundation awarded $500,000 worth of security grants to 52 Los Angeles-area Jewish nonprofits…
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights issued a 57-page report accusing Harvard of having acted with “deliberate indifference” toward antisemitism and anti-Israel discrimination on the Cambridge campus…
The Washington Post examines the recent pivot of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — the philanthropic foundation established by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan — cutting off its education, community and social programs, including its support for The Primary School, for which it was the sole donor…
Unilever cut off financial support for the charitable arm of its Ben & Jerry’s subsidiary, alleging that the ice cream company foundation’s trustees “have continued to resist basic oversight” and refused to provide audit documents…
British musical group Bob Vylan is facing a criminal investigation over chants the duo led at the weekend Glastonbury music festival calling for “death to the IDF”; U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also denounced the chants, which resulted in the State Department’s canceling of group
members’ visas ahead of a planned U.S. tour…
An Australian court ordered a Sydney imam to remove from the internet past speeches that the court said were “fundamentally racist and antisemitic”; the cleric was also instructed to refrain from making similar speeches in the future…
Karen Diamond, one of the more than two dozen people injured in last month’s antisemitic firebombing attack targeting a Boulder, Colo., march in support of the remaining Israeli hostages, died from her injuries, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… |
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David and Judy Lobel donated $10 million to Jerusalem’s Shalem College, doubling the school’s endowment…
Alfred Moses awarded a $10 million gift to Georgetown Law for scholarships and other support for students committed to pursuing careers in public service… |
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Robbie Totten, chief academic officer and vice president of academic affairs at the American Jewish University, has been promoted to provost…
Melinda Goldrich was named chair of the USC Shoah Foundation’s board of councilors, effective today; she succeeds Joel Citron, who has held the role since 2022… |
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CRAIG T FRUCHTMAN/GETTY IMAGES |
People hold Israel- and Jewish-themed flags on Sunday at the New York City Pride Parade, the largest such event in the United States. |
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LEON BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES |
Hall of Fame player and coach in the Women's National Basketball Association and now an NBA broadcaster, Nancy Lieberman...
Applied mathematician, statistician and physicist, professor emeritus at both MIT and Harvard, Herman Chernoff... Former U.S. assistant secretary of education and research professor at NYU, Diane Silvers Ravitch... Nobel laureate in economics for 1997 and co-creator of the Black-Scholes model for valuing options and other derivatives, Myron Scholes... Noted British art dealer and founder of an eponymous
London art gallery, Victoria Marion Miro... Television, film and theater actor, including early career roles in Yiddish theater, Michael Burstein... Born in a DP camp to her Holocaust survivor parents, she was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Canadian Supreme Court, Rosalie Silberman Abella... Israeli-Russian businessman, with holdings in energy and international real estate development, Shalva Chigirinsky... Partner in the Encino, Calif.-based law firm of Nolan Heimann, Douglas E. Mirell... Attorney and longtime Democratic activist in Pittsburgh, he is a regional chair of the ADL, Steven D. Irwin... Contributing editor at The Forward and CEO of the A-Mark
Foundation, Rob Eshman... President emeritus of the Orthodox Union and a retired partner at Ropes & Gray, Mark (Moishe) Bane... Undersecretary of state for political affairs during most of the Biden administration, Victoria Jane Nuland (family name was Nudelman)... Journalist, filmmaker and educator, he is the co-founder of Aish[dot]com, Shraga Simmons... Professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, Benjamin Brown... Member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2014, Marcus Bertram Simon… Screenwriter, producer and film director known for romantic comedy films, Marc Silverstein... Los Angeles resident, Adam B. Siegel... NASA astronaut, on her 2019 trip to the International Space Station she took novelty socks with Stars of David and menorahs, Jessica Meir... Co-founder of Edgeline Films, Elyse Steinberg... Hasidic musician mixing elements of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop and R&B, known by his stage name DeScribe, Shneur Hasofer… Rising senior and president of the school of business and finance at Ocean Township High School in Oakhurst, N.J., Samuel Peretz Fields…
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